The Avengers vs X-Men crossover, published by Marvel Comics in 2012, was built on the premise of putting the two most powerful superhero teams against each other to let readers find out who came out on top. Not every battle in the event, however, can be considered fair, and when Illyana Rasputina, aka Magik, the Sorceress Supreme of Limbo, took on Natasha Romanoff, the Black Widow, the lethal Avenger was completely outmatched.
When the Phoenix Force was spotted heading towards Earth, her next host was supposed to be Hope Summers, the first mutant born after M-Day. The X-Men believed that this would herald the rebirth of the mutant race, while the Avengers were worried that the Phoenix could bring forth the destruction of Earth. As is often the case with superheroes, diplomacy was never an option, so the two groups clashed in a series of battles around the world. In the end, the Phoenix Force shattered and it possessed five different mutants, but before that happened readers could enjoy some all-out fights between their favorite heroes, such as Iron Man vs Magneto, the Thing vs Namor, Spider-Man vs Colossus, Captain America vs Gambit, Daredevil vs Psylocke, and Thor vs Emma Frost. However, none of these fighters was as outmatched in their battle as Natasha was in facing Magik.
The unlikely confrontation took place in the Blue Area of the Moon, in the pages of AVX: Vs #3 – by Christopher Yost, Terry Dodson, Rachel Dodson, and Guru-eFX. The two fighters initially seemed equally matched, with Illyana dragging Natasha to Limbo, the demonic realm she rules over. There, Black Widow took the upper hand, despite the hordes of demons swarming around her, and used her superior combat skills to beat down Illyana, finally holding a gun to her head and threatening to shoot her if Magik did not bring both back to the Moon. Once in the Blue Area again, however, Illyana manifested her Soulsword and stabbed Natasha with it, taking her out in one hit. Standing over her defeated enemy, Illyana arrogantly says that this was all a game for her since the beginning: “Because if it wasn’t you would be dead.”
There is a long-held belief in Marvel comics that characters without superpowers can make up for the lack of them with enough training and combat prowess, and while this is often true, in some contexts the power gap is just too wide. Magik, in fact, has a vast array of abilities at her disposal, starting with her mutant power to teleport, which allows her to travel in an instant across interstellar distances, and even through time. If that wasn’t enough, she is the Sorceress Supreme of the Limbo dimension, trained in the arcane arts by the demon Belasco and by Dr. Strange himself. While in Limbo, her magic is almost limitless, and while it is true that her powers are reduced while on Earth, she didn’t even use magic after dragging Natasha to Limbo, proving she was truly just toying with the Black Widow. However, Natasha’s greatest mistake in the fight was to underestimate Illyana. She thought that Magik was just a kid that she could overcome with superior grit and skills, but Illyana has spent decades in Limbo being tortured by Belasco and other demons, meaning she is not afraid to take a beating.
While the Black Widow is one of the most lethal Avengers, thanks to her gruesome training in the Soviet Red Room and her experience as a spy and an assassin, she was still completely outmatched when taking on Magik, a powerful X-Men who is also the Sorceress Supreme of Limbo.
