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X-Men '97 season 2's tragic death repeats a disappointing trope for a character that deserved so much better

Her fate in the show echoes the troubling treatment she's received in decades past

A scene from Marvel's X-Men '97 Season 2

Marvel

Published: Wednesday, 29 July 2026 at 12:16 pm

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Warning: Major spoilers ahead for X-Men '97 season 2 episode 7.

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No one is safe from death in X-Men '97. That was true when Rogue lost Gambit to a giant sentinel, and that was also true earlier this season when Magneto was murdered by Apocalypse. But another death that suddenly occurs in this week's episode is far less earned and ends up being tragic for all the wrong reasons.

At the start of episode 7, X-Men '97 season 2 jumps back to the attack on Genosha where Gambit died in season 1. Except, this time we're up against the sentinels alongside Colossus and his sister Illyana Rasputin (aka Magik). It's thrilling to see these mutant siblings fight together at last, but the thrills are short-lived when Magik is suddenly killed in action.

Never mind that she could have easily used her teleporting ability to dodge that blast — what stings most is just how quickly the show discards a fan-favourite character who's historically suffered more than Iceman in a heatwave.

Despite her prominence in the comics, Magik has only appeared a handful of times in animated adaptations, notably as a child once or twice in the original series and briefly again in season one of X-Men '97 when Morph took on her form. Each time, she was reduced to a bit part with very little dialogue or agency to speak of.

As such, it came as little surprise when trailers for new episodes of X-Men '97 suggested that Illyana would be killed this season. Images of Colossus mourning someone with blonde hair were followed by images of a memorial to Magik, but fans held out hope anyway because she wasn't listed as dead on Forge's roundup of existing mutants at the end of season one. Plus, mutants die and come back every other day in the world of the X-Men.

That doesn't seem to be the case this time round though, not if the rest of the episode is anything to go by.

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Much of the narrative is driven by that initial loss, pushing Colossus to join Exodus and his questionable group of acolytes. Peter's grief is fundamental to the story that ensues, causing him to lose the essence of who he is and what he strives to be.

But what about Illyana herself? At one point, Beast tells Colossus that she would have never wanted her brother to join the acolytes. He's probably right, but still, we just have to take Beast's word for it because Illyana never got the chance to actually speak on the show, not in any kind of meaningful way that better shaped her as a character.

For a series that has mostly been quite progressive and very much in tune with what the viewers want, episode 7 really drops the ball with this confirmation that Illyana's dead and won't be coming back anytime soon.

Not only is she incredibly popular with longtime X-Men fans, Magik's fate in the show echoes the troubling treatment she's received in decades past, reduced to a mere prop that's designed to further her brother's story.

Kidnapped and raised by demons in a hell-like dimension named Limbo, Illyana never had an easy time of it in the comics. While that's par for the course if you're a mutant in Marvel, what's not so typical is the way she was written out for 14 years with a death that fed into a worrying trend for female characters in comics.

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After Magik was aged up and then de-aged back to childhood again, she ended up being the first mutant to fall victim to the Legacy Virus.

The issue in question, Uncanny X-Men #303 (1991), was incredibly moving, especially when you consider the AIDS allegory that so many readers associated this arc with. Yet the choice to kill Illyana in this fashion was ultimately concerned more with how it might impact Colossus, making this a prime example of what academics have long described as "fridging".

The term, first coined by comics writer Gail Simone in 1999, refers to the overwhelming number of female characters who are tortured or murdered in order to further the story of a male character on their journey. Named after what happened to Green Lantern's girlfriend Alexandra de Witt, who was murdered and stuffed into a fridge, the trope is motivated almost entirely by what this violence means to the men left behind.

Male superheroes also suffer, of course, but the very long list of examples that Simone drew up at the time speaks to how female characters often endure far more horrific violence, often of a sexual nature, in ways that rob them of their agency. Crucially, these women are usually given a limited viewpoint of their own prior to the violence, and they're often cast away quickly after, with the focus immediately pulled back to the men around them.

The comic book version of Illyana was included on Simone's initial list, but the character's fate in X-Men '97 is arguably far worse. At least the original death was emotionally resonant and came after years of storytelling that centred her to some degree. Here, Illyana has just become yet another victim of Genosha, and crucially, one that had no significant storylines or dialogue to speak of.

We hear characters talk about Illyana far more than she got the chance to talk herself and that doesn't sit right. When Colossus tells Nightcrawler that his plea for mercy would have convinced Illyana, you can't convince me that she wasn't killed off just to flesh out her brother's return to X-Men '97.

35 years have passed since Magik's initial death in the comics and things have only got worse for her if this turn of events is anything to go by. Illyana would have been better off not returning at all rather than having her death brushed over so readily, especially on a show that's carved out far more emotional space when it comes to the death of fellow mutants such as Gambit and Magneto who just so happen to be men.

X-Men '97 is available to stream on Disney+. Sign up to Disney+ from £5.99 a month.

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Authors

David OpieFreelance Writer

David Opie is a freelance entertainment journalist who writes about TV and film across a range of sites including Radio Times, Indiewire, Empire, Yahoo, Paste, and more. He's spoken on numerous LGBTQ+ panels to discuss queer representation and strives to champion LGBTQ+ storytelling as much as possible. Other passions include comics, animation, and horror, which is why David longs to see a Buffy-themed Rusical on RuPaul's Drag Race. He previously worked at Digital Spy as a Deputy TV Editor and has a degree in Psychology.

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