- Written by: Ashley Allen
- Art by: German Peralta
- Colors by: Arthur Hesli
- Letters by: VC’s Ariana Maher
- Cover art by: David Nakayama (cover A)
- Cover price: $4.99
- Release date: February 4, 2026
Magik and Colossus #1, by Marvel on 2/4/26, kicks off with Piotr Rasputin trying to live a quiet farm life when bloody visions, forest monsters, and magical family drama catch up to him.
First Impressions
This issue feels like a solid mid-budget horror flick that someone retrofitted with X‑Men branding, and your enjoyment will live or die on how much patience you have for Piotr’s guilt and Illyana’s attitude. The story is clear and easy to follow, but it leans hard on familiar beats you have seen in a dozen “dark magic in the woods” stories. I walked away mildly engaged, not blown away, because the script is workmanlike and the big swings stay safely inside the lines.
Plot Analysis (SPOILERS)
The comic opens with Piotr Rasputin on a Russian farm, talking with his brother Mikhail, who is clearly manipulating him about his past choices and his bond with Illyana. Their argument turns violent in a nightmare where Piotr transforms, fights Mikhail, and falls into a grave filled with corpses before waking up screaming in a cabin near Lake Baikal. A woman and her child then run through the forest at night, chased by a huge horned monster that looks like a walking tangle of branches, skulls, and claws, and the creature kills the mother while the child survives.
Piotr hears the commotion and confronts the monster in the woods, fighting it in human form and metal form, and getting tossed around while he tries to protect the boy. Illyana arrives mid fight, teleports in with a glowing sword, and helps drive the creature back as a tag team. They then talk about Piotr being off the grid, her frustration with his avoidance of Krakoa and their shared responsibilities, and the growing threat that has taken root near this village.
The siblings visit the nearby farm collective, where the locals are scared and unwelcoming, and the kid from the forest recognizes Piotr as a protector. A mysterious woman with red hair shows up posing as a neighbor, then reveals she is Lady Azmodea, a magic user with a personal grudge and knowledge of the Rasputin line. She attacks with fiery magic, taunts them for abandoning their homeland, and forces Magik and Colossus into a battle in the middle of the settlement.
During the fight, Azmodea summons three elemental spirits, each tied to old local beliefs about the land, and they attack with earth, water, and fire. Magik and Colossus fight them off with brute force and teleportation tricks, but the clash creates a giant gravity well that rips the area apart. Piotr finally grabs Azmodea and kills her in a fit of rage to end the threat, saving the villagers but crossing a line. The issue closes on The Immortal (who may or may not be Mikhail) in a sleek office in Saint Petersburg, reviewing the chaos from afar and hinting that he engineered the entire mess as part of a larger plan.
Writing
The pacing is straightforward, with a clean sequence of nightmare, monster attack, investigation, and boss fight, which makes this an easy read for someone who just wants plot beats that line up in order. The script rarely wastes time, but it also rarely surprises, so the rhythm feels more like checking required boxes than building real tension. Dialogue is functional, Illyana’s snark and Piotr’s brooding come through clearly, yet there are few lines that stick in your head after you close the issue. Structurally, it does its job as a first issue by defining the threat, the emotional wound, and the bigger villain in the shadows, but it never digs deep into theme or nuance beyond “Piotr feels bad, magic is dangerous, family is messy.”
Art
The art is the main draw, with clear storytelling and panel layouts that make every action beat easy to track even when things get loud and chaotic. The monster design for the forest creature is genuinely creepy, tall and skeletal with antlers and hanging flesh, which instantly tells you this is a horror flavored X‑book rather than a superhero brawl in a city. Colors lean into cool blues and greens in the forest scenes and warm, hellish oranges during magic clashes, giving each location a strong mood without confusing the reader. Faces and body language sell Piotr’s shame and Illyana’s confidence, so even when the script feels thin, the visuals give the emotional beats more weight.
Character Development
Piotr’s motivation is clear, he wants a quiet life to escape his violent past, but his guilt and his family history drag him back into conflict, which tracks well with his long running arc as the sad strongman. Illyana is written as the capable fixer who has seen too much, which is consistent with her usual portrayal, though here she mostly reacts to the crisis and lectures Piotr rather than getting a fresh angle or new layer. The villain, Lady Azmodea, feels like a plot device more than a person, her motives boil down to “ancient magic and grudges,” and she exits as soon as she has pushed Piotr to a moral breaking point. Relatability is strongest in the scared villagers and the kid in the woods, they give the stakes a human face, but they get almost no time to grow beyond that function.
Originality & Concept Execution
At its core, this is a “return to the homeland, confront old sins in a cursed village” story, which is familiar territory for both horror and X‑Men. There is nothing wildly new in the premise, yet the book executes its chosen lane with decent clarity, hitting all the expected beats of visions, local legends, and a manipulative mastermind. Where the issue does stand out a bit is the tight focus on one family and one region, rather than a global mutant crisis, which gives the story a grounded feel even as magic explodes across the page. The concept delivers a functional setup for a mini or arc, but it stops short of feeling essential or brave, more like a solid side quest for fans of these two characters.
Positives
The best value here is in the visual storytelling, especially the monster design and the way the fight scenes stay readable even when you have three elementals, a demon sword, and a metal giant sharing the page. If you like Colossus and Magik specifically, this issue gives you a focused slice of their dynamic, with clear stakes, a shared mission, and enough emotional friction to justify the team up. The setting in rural Russia keeps things from feeling like yet another Manhattan disaster, and the colors reinforce that mix of cold isolation and fiery magic in a way that feels cohesive from page to page. For a reader who just wants a competent, spooky X‑family one two punch without doing homework across five other books, this delivers a clean start.
Negatives
The writing never swings hard enough to make this feel like a must read, which hurts its value if your pull list is already crowded and you need something that really stands out. The villain is thin, her backstory and motives feel generic, and her quick exit undercuts any sense that she matters beyond forcing Piotr to snap, so the emotional fallout feels more mechanical than haunting. Readers who know Colossus’s recent history might feel like the script is sanding down some of his more troubling edges, using guilt as shorthand instead of engaging with deeper issues. If you are looking for fresh ideas, big character revelations, or bold structural risks, this issue plays it very safe.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.Follow @ComicalOpinions on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter
The Scorecard
Writing Quality (Clarity & Pacing): [2/4]
Art Quality (Execution & Synergy): [3/4]
Value (Originality & Entertainment): [1/2]
Final Verdict
Magik and Colossus #1 is the kind of comic that will not insult your time, but it will not fight very hard to earn a permanent spot in your memory either. If you are a fan of Magik, Colossus, or moody forest horror with clean action and solid art, this is a fair pickup when you have a light week. If your budget is tight and you only want books that feel vital or daring, you can safely skip this and wait for something that pushes the line further. In short, this is a competent side story that will please character loyalists and leave everyone else shrugging.
6/10
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