First Appearance of Magik: Giant-Size X-Men #1 vs X-Men #160

There are three answers, and collectors argue about which one counts (Wikipedia):

• Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 1975): Illyana Rasputina first appears as a small child, Colossus's little sister, created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum. This is her true first appearance.
• The Uncanny X-Men #160 (August 1982): she is pulled into the dimension Limbo, ages seven years there, becomes a sorceress and gains her teleportation discs. This is the first adult Illyana.
• Magik (Storm and Illyana) #1 (December 1983): the limited series, running to March 1984, tells what happened in Limbo and is the first book to use the name Magik, by Chris Claremont and Sal Buscema.

If you want the first time she appears at all, it is Giant-Size X-Men #1. If you want the first time she is the character people know, it is X-Men #160.

PriceCharting values, retrieved September 25, 2026:

Giant-Size X-Men #1 (1975)

• Ungraded: $1,100.50
• 4.0: $1,336.94
• 6.0: $2,159.00
• 8.0: $3,333.96
• 9.2: $4,839.56
• 9.8: $21,244.29

The Uncanny X-Men #160 (1982)

• Ungraded: $18.24
• 8.0: $36.00
• 9.2: $41.59
• 9.8: $154.16

Magik #1 (1983)

• Ungraded: $10.06
• 9.2: $42.50
• 9.8: $110.16

Giant-Size X-Men #1 costs about 60 times as much as X-Men #160 ungraded, but almost none of that is Illyana: it is also the first appearance of Storm, Nightcrawler and Colossus in the new X-Men team (PriceCharting). For a Magik-specific key, X-Men #160 in 9.8 at about $154 is the practical target. PriceCharting notes that some Magik #1 grade values are estimates based on other grades, because few sales exist. More on Giant-Size X-Men #1 is on our Storm first appearance page.

Illyana entered Marvel comics in May 1975 in Giant-Size X-Men #1. She got her powers and adult form in August 1982 (X-Men #160) and the name Magik in December 1983. She later joined the New Mutants and then the X-Men. She died of the Legacy Virus in The Uncanny X-Men #303 (1993), and after being brought back by Belasco she returned to regular publication in 2007 (Wikipedia).

Wikipedia files Illyana under its category of fictional pansexual women. The article we checked does not name the specific issue behind that classification, so treat it as how the character is currently read rather than a single line of dialogue we can point you to.

Northstar is the usual answer. He debuted in The Uncanny X-Men #120 (April 1979), and in Alpha Flight #106 (1992) he said "I am gay", which made him the first openly gay character to come out in a Marvel book. The issue sold out in a week. In Astonishing X-Men #51 (June 2012) he married Kyle Jinadu, the first same-sex wedding shown in mainstream comics (Wikipedia, Northstar).

No. Illyana is the younger sister of Colossus and of the X-Men enemy Mikhail Rasputin. The 2006 mini-series Colossus: Bloodline traced the family back to Grigori Rasputin and a Romani woman named Elena (Wikipedia). She has no family link to Magneto.

Anya Taylor-Joy played Illyana Rasputina in the 2020 film The New Mutants (Wikipedia).

• Indicia: the small print on the first page or inside cover gives the title, issue number, date and publisher; reprints and facsimiles say so there.
• Cover price and barcode: a price or barcode that did not exist in the cover year means a later edition.
• Paper: decades-old newsprint tans at the edges; bright white pages on an old date are a warning sign.
• Restoration: color touch, trimmed edges and replaced covers are common on expensive keys; a grading service such as CGC can detect them. See spot a fake or restored comic.

Shoot the front cover flat and straight on in even light, then the indicia and the back cover. For X-Men #160, make sure the issue number is in frame: the X-Men run is long and neighboring issues look alike. ComicLens reads the title, issue number and cover art from the photo and shows a reference price range that moves with the grade you pick; there are free scans every day.

Research and drafting were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed on this page. Prices are the figures shown by the named source on the date given; they change with the market.