Magnetos's Lovecraftian island in 1980s X-Men comics

Cafe Society
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So I was a comic book geek from the late 70s to the mid 80s. Naturally, I was an X-Men fan (because EVERYONE who read comic books then was an X-Men fan.) As anyone who was reading the X-Men at that period might recall, writer Chris Claremont was notorious for introducing sub-plots, plot twists, new elements, then letting them linger for years on end. Things like Nightcrawler’s connection to Mystique would be hinted at, dropped and forgotten for about 50 issues, then abruptly brought up again, only to be dropped for another 50 issues.

One particular thread that was in the background for a long while during this period was Magneto’s island. Cyclops had gone on a leave-of-absence after the (first) death of the Phoenix, hooked up with a sexy blonde fishing boat captain and they were lost in a storm, only to wash up on a mysterious island with ruins of a weird old city. They soon learn that the island was raised up from the bottom of the ocean by Magneto (Questions as to HOW the ‘master of magnetism’ managed it, or even WHY he did it never even came up.) Of course the rest of the X-Men show up, a big battle takes place, and Magneto runs away in defeat.

A few issues later, Prof. X moves the entire school and X-Men base of operations to the island! He mutters something in passing about how dangerous it is for mutants in the U.S. at the time, and how the school is probably a bad hideout. (Again, no one bothers to question that some remote island in the middle of nowhere with ruins of an alien civilization on it might NOT be the best place to hide out.) After being there for few more issues, Colossus’ 5 year old sister Illyana gets sucked through a gateway into another dimension, and SORAS-ed into a teenage mutant teleporter with half-demon blood, a soul-sword and magical powers.

Needless to say, the X-Men decide to return to the school (the very same place Xavier said was too dangerous a location for them to stay at…but never mind that.) Illyana becomes a major charater in the X-universe, and her backstory of her time in Belasco’s hell dimension gets explored in a mini-series.

But…whatever happened to that island??

To summarize, the X-Men’s arch-nemesis dredges up an island with ruins of an alien civilization (In fact, the island is very broadly hinted to be Cthulhu’s city R’yleh), they know it has inter-dimensional gateways to a nightmare Hell dimension ruled by a demonic wizard Belasco, and a possible gateway to ominously mentioned evil demons. This was all built up over a period of a couple of years in the X-Men series. Then the island was simply forgotten.

Perhaps Claremont simply got bored with the plot line and dropped it (as he was wont to do), but did any future X-writers return to it? Does the island still exist in the current Marvel universe? Has anyone else ever gone to it? Did the X-Men even leave a “CAUTION: UNSAFE” sign on the beach before they just left this potentially world-threatening dangerous island?

Be glad if someone could answer that. Thanks.

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Not sure “SORAS-ed” is the right verb, as that implies that the aging happens with no attempt to hand wave it away. This looks more like Alternate Dimension Time Flow Rapid Aging Syndrome, which I admit probably deserves a better acronym. I can think of a couple of other instances in the literature – Conner from BTVS/Angel and maybe a character or two from Zelazny’s Amber series.

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For those who don’t know, “SORAS” = Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome, named for the trope in which someone’s toddler on a soap opera goes away for a week and comes back as a teenager, because storylines for kids are boring.

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Good analysis. TV Tropes files it under Plot-Relevant Age-Up. Illyana Rasputin is the first example in the comic book category.

Which isn’t much of an improvement in the acronym department. PRAU? But anyway.

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Apparently Magneto has a thing for islands as this doesn’t appear to be the island under discussion here Island M | Marvel Database | Fandom
and he also later took over the island country of Genosha.

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Was the island in question the same one that is now living at the school in New York? Krakoa? Or was that a different island entirely?

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No, Krakoa was from Giant Sized X-Men #1, that was a totally different island circa 1975, like 60 issues before Magneto’s mystery island (yes, there are many islands to speak of, but my favorite is of course the one that is alive!)

My resident X-Men expert says to his knowledge the island in question in the OP hasn’t come up again.

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Hmmm…you’re right. Never of thought of that. Anyway, I wasn’t thinking of the “Magneto’s Island” mentioned in your link. Nor is it “Krakoa…the Island that Walked Like a Man!!” This island appeared somewhere around issue #145 or so. The X-Men and Magneto had their blow-out battle in issue #150. Kitty Pryde was a recent recruit to the team, and was sporting a hideous day-glo disco-inspired costume at the time. The X-Men were using it as their base of operations at the start of the whole Brood story-line.

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Manage to find a copy of the art-work for Uncanny X-Men #148, and a terrific two-page spread by Dave Cockrum showing the ruined city on the island. Note the giant statue of a humanoid with an octopus head - which suggests it’s R’yleh. (I am not quite sure what “non-euclidean geometrical cyclopean architecture” is supposed to look like, but I always imagined it looking something like this.)

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http://www.uncannyxmen.net/x-marks-the-spot/bermuda-island

No wonder it’s so elusive, it’s in the Bermuda Triangle!