Cerebra's Files
Magik II
Real Name: Jimaine Szardos
Affiliation: None
Previous Affiliation: Excalibur
Aliases: Daytripper, Amanda Sefton
Relatives: Margali (mother), Stefan (brother, deceased), Kurt Wagner (Nightcrawler,
foster-brother)
Alternate-X Versions: None
Codename Etymology: Pronounced măj'ĭk [From Greek, magos:
"magician"]; The control of natural events by use of supernatural forces.
Powers & History: Magical abilities including spell-casting, shape-shifting and teleportation.
Jimaine grew up with Kurt Wagner in her mother's traveling carnival, and the two
fell in love, but Jimaine was persuaded to stay behind and learn magic when Kurt
left to find adventure. Kurt ended up becoming the X-Man Nightcrawler, and during
his time in New York he met Jimaine in the guise of Amanda Sefton, and the two
began/renewed their relationship. Amanda didn't reveal herself to Kurt until his
life was threatened by Margali, Jimaine's mother and Kurt's foster-mother, herself
a powerful sorceress. Margali blamed Krut for killing her son Stefan, but relented
when she discovered that Stefan had turned evil. Amanda and Kurt have been a fairly
steady couple over the years, though Amanda's job as a stewardess takes her away
for long stretches of time, as do Kurt's responsiblities. Amanda worked with Excalibur
for only a short time, but during her tenure, she got Shadowcat
to give her Magik's Soulsword.
Amanda gave the sword to her mother Margali. Margali, slightly insane at the time,
used the Soulsword to kill everyone ahead of her on the Winding
Way, a path of mystical power, and joined the London Hellfire
Club, who were planning to destroy London and take over Britain. After helping
to defeat her mother and the Hellfire Club, Amanda left, claiming she didn't feel
right. As it turned out, Margali had been captured by Belasco
upon her defeat, and switched bodies with Amanda so that she could recuperate
and win back her freedom and her position on the Winding Way. Eventually Margali,
using Amanda's body, made her way back to Limbo,
where mother and daughter switched back and defeated Belasco. Amanda became the
Mistress of Limbo, and in that capacity, took on the name of Magik to confuse
the spells of her foes. She was instrumental in foiling the plans of Belasco and
the N'Garai to open a N'Garai cairn in Limbo on thereby conquer the Universe,
though she did not reveal her true identity to the X-Men until the battle had
been won. Amanda now wields the Soulsword and has learned to control Limbo's stepping
disks, as her predecessor used to do.
Shortly after taking over Limbo, Amanda tried to augment her powers by constructing a super-computer for magical spells here on Earth. The machine had artificial intelligence, and it appears that in at least one future timeline it traveled back in time to attack Limbo and all the Splinter Realms. Magik, along with Nightcrawler, forged a tenuous alliance among the lords of chaos to defeat their attacker, before deducing its true identity and destroying its nascent form on Earth.
Some time afterwards, Amanda was ousted from her throne by Belasco, who returned seeking the Illyana he had seen in the House of M reality warp. Badly injured, Amanda fell to Earth in Germany near her mother's home, but was so hurt that she was taken to a hospital and could not warn anyone of Belasco's triumph.
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