Origins #2: Inferno (Marvel Comics)
In order to do this essay correctly, I need to explain how teleportation works in the Marvel universe. When a character like Nightcrawler teleports, he doesn’t simply disappear from one place and appear in another, he actually travels through another universe.
Which leads me to the character Magik, younger sister of Peter Rasputin, also known as Colossus.
Her teleportation ability had her cross a dimension called Limbo, and soon she attracted the attention of the denizens of that dimension.
She was kidnapped and spent years in Limbo, finally learned enough magic to escape, and this is where we begin.
There were several encounters between the heroes of Earth and various inhabitants of Limbo, usually referred to as “demons”, but at some point, one of them came up with a new plan.
His name was N'astirh, and he made contact with a woman named Madelyn Pryor, whose life had been tainted with darkness from its very beginning.
She had been created as a clone of Jean Grey by a villain named Mr. Sinister, to breed her with Scot Summers, otherwise known as Cyclops.
He believed that a child from that union would be one of the most powerful mutants ever, and as he hoped, her resemblance to Jean made Scott fall in love with her after Jean’s apparent death.
When Jean Grey returned, Scott abandoned Madelyn, taking their son with him.
Many of Scott’s fellow X-men didn’t approve of this, and despite seemingly not having Jean’s powers she became an unofficial member of the team,
So when N'astirh contacted her and offered her power to take revenge, she agreed.
Their plan was first to merge New York city with the realm of Limbo for 24 hours, a “goblin night” as they called it.
But in order to make that merger permanent they needed Madelyn to sacrifice thirteen children - including her own.
This brought Scott and his new team, X-Factor, as well as his former team the X-Men, and Magik’s teammates the New Mutants in, and because Limbo had taken over New York, most of the non mutant superheroes were drawn in as well.
For the sake of giving you all a reason to check out the stories yourselves, I will only say that there would be many after effects of the Goblin night, not the least of which was a confrontation between Scott Summers and Mr. Sinister, a confrontation between the X-Men and N'astirh, and from the non-mutant side, the re-establishment of the Avengers, who had disbanded shortly before these events.
If this has gotten you interested in the event, a trade paperback is available on amazon.
