Origin
Jimaine is the daughter of Margali Szardos, the Gypsy sorceress who raised her own children, Jimaine and Stefan, alongside her adopted son Kurt Wagner (aka Nightcrawler of the X-Men). After Kurt left the circus where Margali worked as a fortune-teller, both Margali and Jimaine heard that a “demon” had killed Stefan. Margali was certain that the “demon” was Kurt and held him responsible for her son’s death. Jimaine, however, believed there was more to the story and went to America to find Kurt and determine the truth.
Creation
Amanda Sefton was created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum and first appeared (in a minor appearance) in The (Uncanny) X-Men Vol.1 issue 98 (1976).
Major Story Arcs
Heading to America
In America, Jimaine took on the identity of Amanda Sefton, became a flight attendant, and eventually began dating Kurt. She did not reveal her true identity to him, wanting to find out if he truly could have been responsible for her brother’s death. Eventually Margali and Amanda discovered that Kurt had killed Stefan in self-defense.
Later, Amanda Sefton heard a rumor that Dr. Strange needed a new apprentice, because Clea had left him. She went to Strange and asked to become his new apprentice, as did every crackpot in the world who heard about the rumor. Strange arranged for all the petitioners to meet at one spot, where he told them that he currently had no wish to take on an apprentice. Amanda’s mother, Margali Szardos, appeared and attacked Strange. Margali was angered that Strange had refused to take on her daughter as an apprentice.
Dr. Strange cast a spell to force himself and Margali into the astral plane. Margali warped the spell so that all the would-be apprentices were also forced into the astral plane with them. Strange and Margali battled with all their mystic forces. Strange soon realized that Margali’s powers came from her wand. Strange tricked Margali and took the wand from her. Margali immediately regained her true mortal form, that of an old woman. She explained to Strange that the wand was an evil entity that took over its owner’s mind. Margali revealed that the wand had hoped to gain control over Strange. Upon returning everyone to the physical plane, Strange destroyed the wand.
A Romance with Nightcrawler
Amanda and Kurt shared a romantic relationship for some time; and Amanda stopped her studies in the mystic ways, becoming a stewardess and seeing Kurt between flights and his missions. When the mystical Dire Wraiths invaded Forge‘s skyscraper headquarters in Dallas, Amanda helped drive the Wraiths off. Amanda and Kurt’s relationship however got under a lot of presure due to their conflicting life-styles. The breaking point and collapse of their relationship happened once the X-Men where in a dire fight against the mutant hunting Marauders. Kurt was gravely injured and Amanda could no longer live with the stress of superhero-boyfriend and so they finally parted as friends.
Amanda however remained to have close ties with the X-Men and other mutants. She eventually joined a group of mutants located on Muir Island and even became part of a rag-tag team of X-Men known as the Muir Island X-Men when it was believed the original X-Men had perished in battle. She donned an official X-Men costume and helped out mutants that had been hurt during the Marauders attack. Some weeks later, Amanda helped defend Muir Island from an attack by the cyborg mutant hunting Reavers. Although the team managed to defeat the cyborgs, it came at heavy loses in the Muir Island X-Men team. Amanda was still at Muir Island when the Shadow King took control of the facility and altered the minds of most. After the Shadow King was defeated, Amanda returned to normal life for a while.
Excalibur
Amanda spent a brief period of time as a costumed hero under the codename Daytripper as a member of Excalibur. When the sorcerer Gravemoss invaded the Muir Island Research Facility hoping to take possession of the Soulsword, from Shadowcat, it was Daytripper who was responsible for killing the dangerous villain. Amanda asked Shadowcat to let go of the past, and will the Soulsword over to her. After murdering Gravemoss, Amanda made the mistake of willing the Soulsword to Margali Szardos, who was corrupted by the weapon’s evil influences. She was banished to Limbo following a battle with Excalibur in the tunnels below London, England. Margali used her magic to switch bodies with her daughter, and was subsequently captured by the sorcerer Belasco. Belasco took possession of the Soulsword, and put Amanda in a metal cage. Margali, posing as Amanda, enlisted the aid of Nightcrawler in helping her defeat Belasco, and save their “mother’s” life. Upon successfully vanquishing Belasco from Limbo, and restoring Margali’s sanity, Amanda tells Nightcrawler that she cannot return to Earth with him. Without a ruler, Limbo was at risk of falling into chaos, with demons free to cross over to the physical plane of existence unchallenged. Nightcrawler hesitantly agreed to Amanda’s request, leaving his lover to watch over Limbo.
Black Sun
Shortly thereafter, Belasco made another attempt to claim the souls of the X-Men, to create the Bloodstones necessary to summon the Elder Gods. Belasco teleported the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters into Limbo, and tricked Shadowcat into performing a spell with demons possessing four other members of the X-Men in order to capture her soul. Amanda, know calling herself Magik, managed to rescue Shadowcat from Belasco’s clutches, but her soul had been torn from her body, and was at risk of being lost, forever. Amanda stored Shadowcat’s soul in the Soulsword, and proceeded to Earth, where she collected the souls of the four remaining X-Men in her weapon. Without their souls, Belasco would be unable to perform the incantation responsible for summoning the Elder Gods, and all of creation would be spared from certain doom. With the help of the X-Men, Amanda managed to defeat Belasco, and revealed to them that she was not in fact Illyana Rasputin. Once the world was safe, Amanda returned to Limbo, to fully accept her new destiny as the new mistress of Limbo.
Magik II
Some time later, Amanda hired a sorcerer by the name of Nugent to create a database for her to codify and catalogue the world’s knowledge of the arcane arts. Amanda needed a reliable database to help her in her role as the guardian of Limbo. Hundreds of years in the future, Amanda’s database became sentient in the form of the Archenemy, and traveled from the future to the Limbo of the past. This caused Lord Nightmare himself to have a nightmare in the first time since his creation. This terrified Nightmare’s minions, which sent them fleeing into Amanda’s realm. She fought of the demons with the help of her captain of the guards, Vitchen, and emerged victorious. Following the battle, Dormammu visited Magik from his Dark Dimension, and warned her and Nightcrawler that something more powerful than they had ever known threatened the Splinter Realms. Dormammu magically resurrected the decapitated head of Gleeg, once a captain in the Silurian Guard that watched over Nightmare’s fortress, who told Magik that the Archenemy had splintered the dark skies over Nightmare’s realm. It cut down his minions with the fragments, before overrunning the fortress. Not foolish enough take Dormammu’s word at face value, Magik organized a scouting party to substantiate his claims, despite her allies’ protestation. They traveled to Muspelheim, the Realm of Fire, and discovered that the land of fire had been reduced to burnt-out cinders. Surtur, the ruler of Muspelheim, had fled, leaving behind his blade, its eternal flame extinguished.
The Archenemy attacked the scouting party with it’s fragments of darkness, forcing Magik to join her power with Dormammu to create a stepping disk large enough to teleport the entire party back to Limbo. Magik then spoke with Nugent via an inter-dimensional magic sphere to determine the progress of her database. Nugent told her it had already compiled three-quarters of the world’s arcane data, and from the information it had provided, the Archenemy’s next target would be Hell itself. Magik invaded the fortress of Mephisto alone in order to warn him of the Archenemy, killing a number of his minions in the process. She teleported behind the Lord of Lies, and held the Soulsword at his throat. He demanded to know what was causing Hades to quake and tremble, and Magik explained that an unknown force was targeting the Splinter Realms, one by one. The Archenemy then invaded Mephisto’s citadel, and laid waste to his soldiers. Unable to combat it, Magik and Mephisto joined their powers to teleport back to Limbo, as Hades fell in ruin.
Magik called a convocation, a parliament of the myriad rulers of the Splinter Reams to Limbo to discuss the Archenemy. Begrudgingly, they made a magical pact to stop the menace threatening their plane of existence. It was then that Nightcrawler followed Duke Bleys, in actuality Sym in disguise, and forced the demon to reveal his true self. Magik confronted Sym, and demanded to know what he was up to. Sym told the pair that he was working for the Archenemy all along, and agreed to gather the Lords of the Splinter Realms in one location, in exchange for being made the ruler of Limbo. He teleported away, as the Archenemy appeared in the skies over Limbo. Magik sounded the Horn of Harrowing, which is only intended to be used as a last resort. The Lords of the Splinter Realms charge the Archenemy as a unified army, and a brutal battle ensues. Millions fall within minutes, and all hope seems lost. Magik comes up with a last, desperate plan, and orders the Lords of the Splinter Realms to funnel their power through her to determine the origin of the Archenemy. They do as they are instructed, and Magik learns that it is the result of her own quest for knowledge. She orders Nightcrawler to teleport to the Bradbury Americana Hotel, and destroy the database that she and Nugent have created. He does so, weakening the Archenemy just enough for Magik to destroy the entity with her Soulsword, saving the Splinter Realms.
Out of Limbo
Amanda later helps Nightcrawler combat a dangerous sect responsible for the murders of murder of numerous children. It is during this time that she wills the Soulsword over to Nightcrawler. Being that his soul is pure and incapable of corruption, he is the only one who can wield the weapon without succumbing to its evil forces. Without the Soulsword to protect her, however, Magik is at the mercy of Belasco when he returns in search of the Illyana Rasputin that he sensed during the House of M story arc. She is brutally defeated, and sent fleeing for her life from the Splinter Realm, abandoning her fortress, and the role of mistress of Limbo.
After Illyana steals a part of Pixie’s soul and teaches her some magic, Pixie receives training from Amanda and Dr. Strange.
Recent stories show the return of Illyana Rasputin and Witchfire, both formerly rulers of Limbo, who have called into question Amanda’s control over Limbo. Witchfire has since ascended to ruler of Limbo after Illyana Rasputin left to regain her soul. Upon Witchfire assuming control, she mentioned no one was in her way, hinting that Amanda Sefton is not in Limbo.
After the end of Second Coming, Cyclops starts to write a letter of condolence to Amanda concerning Nightcrawler’s death.
Trapped in Heaven
When Kurt comes back to the land of living, he rushes back to Amanda’s arms, who had established herself again as a flight attendant. Her reunion is short lived as a technological creature calling itself Trimega, attacked them. Amanda and Kurt fight back, as she wore again her Daytripper costume, and defeated their enemy with the help of the bamfs. Kurt believes that the creature is after Amanda, and they transported to the old circus to check on Margali, where they engaged in a fight against trimega again.
When the danger is over, Amanda, Margali and Kurt travels to the Jean Grey School to seek for the X-men help. While being interrogated, Margali reveals herself as the mastermind behind the attack, willing to discover the way Kurt was brought back to life. As trimega attacks the School, Margali opens a portal to Heaven, a similar one Kurt used to came back, and Amanda rushed to close it. Realizing that it could only be closed from the inside, Amanda teleports herself into the portal, closing it and remaining trapped in heaveng, where Kurt was after her death.
In a mission where Kurt almost died, he and Amanda meet again. She is in the Borderland surrounding Heaven, where she’s been tasked with an unknown mission. She also tells Kurt that he has to return to Earth since his work is not over. Before they say goodbye, he promises her that they will be reunited again and they will have their happy ending.
Powers and Abilities
Supernatural Abilities
Amanda is a sorceress following the path of the Winding Way. Her power does change in its levels, it waxes and wanes over time, allowing her to summon such powers as teleportation, illusions casting, shape changing, mystical force bolts, hypnotism, and the manipulation of other complex mystical forces
There’s a range of spells Amanda is capable of casting; limited by the amount
of power available, and her own personal issues with magic and using it when it’s not needed. Amanda’s magical repository consists of largely defensive spells and illusion casting. The other thing is that the spells she casts reflect the power source, the urban environment; there are elements of the city in the manifestations or processes. The spell-craft she knew, everything taught to her by various people—none of that applies. Spells either fail entirely or have unexpected results, often inconsistently different. Many spells from before—the levitation, the aura stuff, the spirit summoning, the potions and sleep spells are gone irretrievably. Others such as summoning the elements, for example, have been twisted to the point they’ve actually become more harmful than good.
Amanda can still heal, that being her family’s supernatural legacy, but there are many more limits than she previously had. The first being that healing of any kind takes power directly from living things; the greater the injury the greater the power demand. So healing will require Amanda to have to decide and possibly consult with those around her as to whether they accept that cost. The second is that there are only so many times that Amanda can heal someone before it stops working. The more serious the injury healed, the shorter that time frame is.
As the Sorceress Supreme of Limbo, Magik wields much more vast magical power inside the pocket dimension she once ruled. However on Earth, Magik’s abilities are limited to a different capacity, detecting magical auras, entering the astral plane, and summoning the powerful Soulsword.
Paraphernalia
Magik wields the mystically powerful Soulsword, the physical manifestation of the magical might of Limbo that can disrupt any spell and cause intense damage to any magical creature it strikes. The Soulsword has no physical effect on a non-supernatural creature or object. The Soulsword can come and go as the wielder wishes; when it comes, the wielder is surrounded by parts of mystical armor, when not in use it reappears in Limbo.
Alternate Realities
Mangaverse Earth-811 – Days of Future Past Amanda and Nightcrawler had a daughter named Blue. They were among the first to die when the United States outlawed mutants.
Marvel Mangaverse
In the Marvel Mangaverse setting Amanda Sefton is a dark sorceress, who uses Rogue to battle the electromagnetic demon Magnus.
Appearances In Other Media
Television
X-Men: The aimated Series
Amanda, in her Jimaine Szardos persona, made a cameo appearence in the episode “Nightcrawler”, when Kurt is telling his origin, she is seen in the circus.
X-Men Evolution
In the animated television series, X-Men: Evolution, Amanda Sefton appears as Nightcrawler’s love interest, though she didn’t have the background of her comic counterpart. Although her mother’s name was is still Margali; the Seftons look like a normal black American family. She is portrayed as a normal human girl of African-American heritage, with knowledge and interest in Nightcrawler’s powers and looks. Amanda nevertheless accepts Kurt completely despite his mutancy and the two begin a relationship. In her first episode, “Shadow Dance”, Amanda asks Kurt to be her date for the 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 after she once accidentally saw him turn off his image inducer.
Games
X-men: Battle of The Atom
Amanda Sefton appears as a support card in the mobile game X-men: Battle of the Atom. Her cards are:
- Amanda Sefton