Home › The New Mutants › #73

Cover: Bret Blevins

The New Mutants #73

Name: The New Mutants #73
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Mar 1989 · Marvel · 1.50 USD; 2.00 CAD; 0.50 GBP

☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join free

“The Gift”

About this Issue

New Mutants #73, titled 'The Gift,' delivers the dramatic payoff to Illyana Rasputin's entire character arc: Magik sacrifices her corrupted Darkchilde self, banishing the demonic hordes of Limbo back through a massive stepping disc and sealing it with the Soulsword, only to emerge — or rather dissolve — into a child-sized shell of eldritch armor. The result is that the teenage Illyana we knew effectively ceases to exist, a rare and genuinely costly heroic sacrifice in mainstream superhero comics of the era. As the concluding chapter of the New Mutants' three-part Inferno thread, it is also the narrative hinge on which the broader 1989 'Inferno' crossover turns: with the demon invasion's source collapsed from within, the rest of the X-titles can push toward resolution. The issue also crystallizes a key team fracture, as the New Mutants witness Magneto apparently negotiating with the demon N'astirh at the Hellfire Club, permanently severing whatever trust they still had in their headmaster.

In "The Gift," the New Mutants face a haunting journey into Limbo as Magik confronts the dark legacy of her past. With the help of Colossus and the team, she attempts to rescue her younger self from the clutches of S'ym, but the confrontation forces her to reckon with the cost of her powers. Written by Louise Simonson and illustrated by Bret Blevins, with inks by Al Williamson and Mike Manley, and colors by Glynis Oliver, this pivotal issue features a striking cover by Bret Blevins.

writer Louise Simonson · artist Bret Blevins · inker Al Williamson · inker Mike Manley · colorist Glynis Oliver · letterer Joe Rosen · cover Bret Blevins

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (VF) $6

CGC 9.8 · 32 in census $86

CGC 9.6 · 10 in census $39*

CGC 9.4 · 7 in census $27*

CGC 9.2 · 5 in census $24

CGC 9.0 · 2 in census $22*

CGC 8.5 none in existence

Show all 8 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 7.5 · 1 in census $20*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

This exact issue on ebay

CGC 9.8 ▾ $71.96–$80.75 2 listings

CGC 9.8 $71.96 CGC 9.8 $80.75

CGC 9.4 $115 1 listing CGC 8 $56 1 listing

CGC ▾ $7.99–$9.99 2 listings

CGC $7.99 CGC $9.99

Raw — MINT ▾ $5–$7.04 2 listings

MINT $5 MINT $7.04

Raw — NM+ ▾ $10–$19.5 2 listings

NM+ $10 NM+ $19.5

Raw — NM ▾ $4.99–$24 2 listings

NM $4.99 NM $24

Raw — NM- ▾ $6.99–$14.53 2 listings

NM- $6.99 NM- $14.53

Raw — VF/NM $16 1 listing Raw — VF+ $9.95 1 listing

Raw — VF ▾ $2.11–$12.11 4 listings

VF $2.11 VF · Newsstand $3.99 VF $9.6 VF · Newsstand $12.11

Raw — F/VF $4 1 listing

Raw — FN ▾ $5–$9.99 2 listings

FN $5 FN · Newsstand $9.99

Raw / ungraded ▾ $2.5–$20 24 listings

Verified matches for The New Mutants #73 · eBay asking prices, seen 20 days ago

More listings for this title

The New Mutants, Vol. 1 The Gift #73A Marvel Comics 2+ Ship FREE $4.99

Related listings we couldn't confirm as this exact issue · 1 total · seen 20 days ago

Sell my copy

Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.

We Buy Collections ▸

Fast, fair offers · we handle grading & shipping

History

Writer Louise Simonson and penciler Bret Blevins produced this double-sized, 52-page issue as the third and final New Mutants chapter of Inferno, a company-wide X-titles crossover that editor Bob Harras managed by maintaining roughly 20 pages of character timelines to keep the sprawling cast coherent across multiple titles. The issue was released on newsstands on November 8, 1988, carrying a March 1989 cover date — standard Marvel dating practice of the period. Simonson has noted publicly that she deliberately wrote the story to leave a door open for future writers, characterizing the infant Illyana rescued through Limbo's stepping discs as an alternate-timeline child rather than strictly the same individual the team had known, though the narrative presents her departure as absolute.

Trivia · 8 facts

Story title: 'The Gift'; serves as Part 3 of 3 of the New Mutants' Inferno tie-in thread (preceded by New Mutants #71–72).
Creative team: written by Louise Simonson, penciled by Bret Blevins, inked by Al Williamson and Mike Manley, colored by Glynis Oliver, lettered by Joe Rosen; edited by Bob Harras under editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco.
Published as a 52-page giant (direct and newsstand editions), with an on-sale date of November 8, 1988, and a March 1989 cover date.
Central event: Magik (Illyana Rasputin) sacrifices her Darkchilde form by throwing her Soulsword into a world-spanning stepping disc, banishing S'ym and the Limbo demons and collapsing the demonic invasion of Manhattan — leaving behind only her eldritch armor, inside which Colossus discovers a de-aged, approximately seven-year-old Illyana.
Key character beat for Magneto/Hellfire Club: the New Mutants observe N'astirh apparently offering an alliance to Magneto and the Hellfire Club's Inner Circle atop the Club's roof, an event that conclusively destroys the team's already fragile faith in their headmaster.
Wolfsbane (Rahne Sinclair) is the moral fulcrum of the climax: it is her bond with Illyana, and her insistence that Illyana still has a choice, that persuades Magik to reject the Darkchilde path and instead embrace self-sacrifice.
The de-aged Illyana subsequently returned to her family in Russia and would later become one of the earliest casualties of the Legacy Virus in the early 1990s X-Men comics.
The issue has been reprinted in: X-Men: Inferno (Marvel, 1996), X-Men: Inferno Omnibus (Marvel, 2021), and New Mutants Omnibus Vol. 3 (Marvel, 2023); N'astirh's storyline continues directly into Uncanny X-Men #242 and X-Factor #38.