X-Men: Blood Hunt - Magik #1 // Review
Illyana spent a lot of time in some of the most totally inhospitable places imaginable. She kind of grew-up in hell...literally. (Limbo, actually, but it was its own kind of hell.) Now she’s in the cold farmland of her early childhood facing monsters which stalk the night in X-Men: Blood Hunt - Magik #1. Writer Ashley Allen tells a sparklingly concise little action horror story that is competently brought to the page by Madrid-based artist Jesús Hervás. It’s a primal, brutal story featuring a deliciously wicked hero hunting an ancient hero who turns out to be a monster.
Illyana Rasputin is spending time in her homeland when the vampires strike. They have blotted out the sun with dark magics to begin a grand hunt. Somewhere in the midst of it all, she runs into a couple of kids who were absolutely terrified of what had happened. She’s going to be there to defend them from danger. The vampires are fierce, but there are far greater monsters lurking in the wilderness. Illyana isn’t going to have any great issue dealing with the monsters, but she might get a bit more than she was expecting when she discovers who is leading the hunt.
Allen’s story moves quickly. A bit of background leads to a brief introduction in the present followed by a big showdown with evil. Kind of a simple fantasy premise, but the fun twist is the fact that the hero is merely working with powers that come from a greater evil. Given the kind of power that Illtana wields, the conclusion never comes close to being in question, which is a BIG part of what makes it all so fun. The vampires feel so totally dominant over feeble, little mortals. One of them happens to be considerably more than she appears. It’s a fun dynamic to watch.
Hervás’ dark fantasy art plays a bit with some garishness here and there around the edges of the action, but the central drama holds quite well from beginning to end with an immersive sense of atmosphere in the rural Russian snow and a powerful sense of menace from the vampires in question. Illyana’s power doesn’t quite hit the page with the kind of impact that might make it feel as overwhelming as it could, but it’s a lot of fun nonetheless. Illyana lacks some of the wicked beauty that might make the power of what’s going on that much more impressive, but it’s a fun visual package on the whole.
As fun as this might be for people familiar with the character, Allen actually ends up writing a story that feels very much like a very solid introduction to the character for anyone who might be unfamiliar with her. Illyana has always been a really interesting character who even managed to get her own series outside of the X-Men long before such a thing came into fashion. It’s always nice to see her showing-up under a cover bearing her name again.
