Amanda Sefton

"Daytripper (comics)" redirects here. For the Vertigo limited series, see Daytripper (DC Comics).

Magik
Amanda Sefton by Darick Robertson
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Uncanny X-Men #98 (Apr 1976)
Created by	Chris Claremont Dave Cockrum
In-story information
Alter ego	Jimaine Szardos
Team affiliations	Muir Island X-Men Excalibur
Notable aliases	Amanda Sefton, Daytripper, Magik
Abilities	Magic, Teleportation, Illusion generation, Shapeshifting, Force bolts, Hypnotism, Formerly wielded the Soulsword

Amanda Sefton (real name Jimaine Szardos) (also known as Daytripper and the second Magik) is a fictional character, a witch in the Marvel Universe. She is the foster sister and former lover of Kurt Wagner, Nightcrawler of the X-Men.

Publication history

Amanda Sefton first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #98 (April 1976), created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum. She has appeared occasionally in X-Men titles, probably most often in Uncanny X-Men and Excalibur.

As Magik, Amanda had her own eponymous, four-issue mini-series in 2000–2001 from writers Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, with artist Liam Sharp. The series focused on her taking over Limbo (also known as Otherplace). The series also featured her foster brother/lover, Nightcrawler.

Fictional character biography

Jimaine and her mother Margali are witches. When Nightcrawler joined the X-Men, Jimaine followed him, assumed the identity of Amanda Sefton, took a job as a flight attendant, and became Nightcrawler's girlfriend. When Margali attacked the X-Men, believing Nightcrawler to have been responsible for the death of Stefan Szardos, her son and Jimaine's brother, "Amanda" revealed herself as Jimaine, convinced her mother to let Kurt live and resumed her on-and-off relationship with him. Their relationship broke apart when Kurt suffered a severe case of self-doubt following an encounter with the Beyonder upon the latter's arrival on Earth.^[1]

Daytripper

Years later, Jimaine having fully anglicized her name to Amanda joined an interim team of "X-Men" that was organized at Moira MacTaggert's Muir Island facility, and eventually came to join Excalibur under the codename Daytripper. She and Nightcrawler encountered and defeated the entity D'Spayre.^[2] Around this time she suffered a mystical/telepathic attack on a plane while taking a shift under her air hostess job. It involveed the fate of the Black Queen.^[3]

Amanda obtained the Soulsword from Shadowcat and gave the weapon to her mother, Margali Szardos. Only too late did Amanda realise that she was tricked by her own mother, who wanted the Soulsword to kill all those ahead of her on the Winding Path.

Shortly after helping to defeat her mother and the Hellfire Club, Amanda left Excalibur without even telling Nightcrawler why. Only later was it revealed that it was not Amanda who made that decision, but Margali who had taken over her body. Upon her defeat among the Hellfire Club, Margali had been captured by Belasco, and been tortured in his realm from where she secretly switched minds with her daughter 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 with Nightcrawler’s help. Margali apologized for exposing her daughter to such danger, but then quickly left. Only after she was gone, Amanda realized that with both her and Belasco gone, there was no one left besides her capable enough to take over as Limbo’s new ruler. To leave the dimension unguarded seemed too dangerous, given that several demons could have used its stepping disks to invade earth.

Magik

Amanda decided not to return to Earth with Kurt but instead agreed to rule Magik's Limbo (not to be confused with Immortus' Limbo) and took the title of Magik for herself.

It was during this time that Amanda was forced to thwart Belasco and the N'Garai’s takeover of Limbo, and Earth, where she was forced to conceal her identity from her closest friends, until the end of the battle where those who had not already worked out that she was not Illyana, learned of Amanda’s new role. Following that, Amanda rallied together the rulers of all other various dimensions of Hell to unite them in a common goal: The preservation of Hell.

Amanda has also mastered the ability to magically control the stepping disks of Limbo, just like Belasco did before her, and practiced to wield the Soulsword. During one of Nightcrawler's trips to Limbo, Amanda secretly hid the powerful Soulsword in Kurt’s body, thinking it was safe there since his soul was the purest that she could find. There was a shift in the cosmic balance, powerful forces at work, and one thing they were after was the Soulsword, and indeed not much later, Amanda was attacked and overpowered by Nightmare. She was rescued by the timely arrival of her mother Margali, and together, mother and daughter found out that Nightmare had been manipulated into attacking them by someone else. Amanda and Margali immediately sought out Nightcrawler to warn him, but upon their arrival the demon Hive revealed himself and took over the body of Nightcrawler’s teammate, Wolverine.

Gradually, the demon’s essence was disrupted by the Soulsword, though not before he revealed that there is a major war coming, one that has been brewing for a millennia, and that the entire Szardos family factor very importantly into it.

Driven out of Limbo

Amanda resurfaced in New X-Men when she plunged out of a dimensional portal in a blast of flaming energy and landed in a small German village. She pleaded, "Help me...someone please...He's back." Amanda was driven out of Limbo after being overwhelmed by an invasion led by Belasco and no longer possessed the Soulsword.^[4]

She assisted New X-Men Hellion and Surge as well as O*N*E Sentinel operative (and former mutant) Lex in finding students that were kidnapped by Belasco. The students were saved due to Illyana Rasputin usurping control of Limbo. Once the heroes were teleported back to Xavier's school though, Amanda found Limbo to be sealed off.^[5]

While Pixie has stated that she has been approached by both Amanda and Doctor Strange about furthering her magical tutelage when she comes of age, Amanda's current whereabouts remain unknown, but she was recently mentioned by Cyclops in the aftermath of Second Coming when he was writing her a letter of condolence over the death of Nightcrawler.^[6]

Other versions

Days of Future Past

• In the Days of Future Past timeline, Amanda and Nightcrawler have a daughter Blue who inherited her father's appearance and similar teleporting powers. Amanda and Nightcrawler, along with that timeline's version of Illyana Rasputin, were gunned down by a government strikeforce deployed to destroy the Xavier Institute after Senator Robert Kelly was assassinated.^[7]

Marvel Mangaverse

• In the Marvel Mangaverse setting Amanda Sefton is a dark sorceress, who uses Rogue to battle the electromagnetic demon Magnus.

In other media

Television

• Amanda Sefton appears in the 1995 X-Men episode "Nightcrawler" in her Jimaine Szardos guise. She appears in flashback as Nightcrawler describes his time as a circus performer and has no lines.

• In X-Men: Evolution, a character named Amanda Sefton appears as Nightcrawler's love interest, but she does not have most of the background of her comic counterpart. Her mother's name remains Margali, but the Seftons appear to be a normal family. She is portrayed as an American teenager of African/Romany decent who accepts Kurt completely despite his mutation. She was voiced by Moneca Stori.
  In her first episode, "Shadow Dance", Amanda asks Kurt to be her date for a school dance and tells him that she did have a crush on him for months but was too shy to tell him, and that her feelings remained even after she once accidentally saw him turning off his image inducer. They start dating seriously, and after a time ("The Toad, the Witch and the Wardrobe") Amanda attempts to introduce Kurt - as his true self - to her parents. The intention is ruined by Toad, who steals Kurt's image inducer, demolishing the Sefton home and blowing Kurt's cover before Amanda can properly prepare her parents. Even though Amanda's parents are understandably upset, Amanda shrugs off any discomforts which they might bring into her relationship with Kurt, and continues to date him.

References

1. ^ Uncanny X-Men #20
2. ^ Excalibur #77 (May 1994)
3. ^ Excalibur Annual #2 (1994)
4. ^ New X-Men vol. 2 #37
5. ^ New X-Men vol. 2 #41
6. ^ X-Men: Second Coming #2
7. ^ Uncanny X-Men #188

External links

• Amanda Sefton at the Comic Book DB
• Amanda Sefton at the Marvel Universe
• Amanda Sefton at UncannyXmen.net
• Amanda Sefton at the Marvel Database Project