Amanda Sefton

Amanda Sefton (real name Jimaine Szardos) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum, the character first appeared in X-Men #98 (April 1976). The character has also been known as Daytripper and Magik at various points in her history. She is the foster sister and former lover of superhero Kurt Wagner / Nightcrawler of the X-Men.

Publication history
Amanda Sefton debuted in the ninety-eighth issue of the 1976 X-Men series, created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum. She later appeared in the 1981 Uncanny X-Men series. She appeared in the 1998 Excalibur series. She appeared in the 2000 X-Men: Magik series, her first solo comic book series, by Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning, and Liam Sharp.

Fictional character biography
Jimaine and her mother Margali are Manouche witches. When Nightcrawler joined the X-Men, Jimaine eventually followed him to the US, assumed the identity of Amanda Sefton, took a job as a flight attendant, and became Nightcrawler's girlfriend. When Margali attacked the X-Men, believing Nightcrawler to have been responsible for the death of Stefan Szardos (her son; Jimaine's brother), "Amanda" revealed herself as Jimaine, convinced her mother to let Kurt live, and resumed her on-and-off relationship with him. Their relationship broke apart when Kurt suffered a severe case of self-doubt following an encounter with the Beyonder upon the latter's arrival on Earth.

Daytripper
Much later, and in need of her magical abilities, Nightcrawler called his former girlfriend Amanda Sefton to aid Excalibur. For dramatic reasons she chose to adopt the codename Daytripper, playing on Kurt's codename, and presented herself in a new costume. Once familiarized with the problem at hand, Amanda did the best she could to help Meggan and Rachel Summers locate the lost Captain Britain in the time-stream, but as they made contact, they only achieved to exchange Captain Britain for Rachel, who entered the time-stream in his place to emerge in some distant future.

Following this incident, Kurt and Amanda traveled to Germany, where her mother Margali had been taken captive by D'Spayre. As Kurt wondered how such a powerful sorceress could be held captive against her will, Daytripper explained that the Winding Way is not only a mystic discipline, but also it functions like a journey with ups and downs. Margali was at a low point and powerless, otherwise D'Spayre would never have been able to defeat her. The pair rescued their mother and Amanda returned with Kurt to Excalibur. Back on Muir Island, Amanda was the only one who recognized that the team's scientist Rory Campbell was the man destined to become the future mutant hunter Ahab, but she promised him to keep her knowledge secret and offered to be there for him whenever the need would arise.

Around this time she suffered a mystical/telepathic attack on a plane while working a shift under her air hostess job. It involved the fate of the Black Queen.

After Excalibur had been attacked by opposing sorcerers trying to acquire the Soulsword of the deceased Illyana Rasputin, Amanda convinced Shadowcat to give her Magik's Soul Sword for safe-keeping. Amanda thought it best to hand the sword over to her mother. Only when it was too late, Amanda realized that she was tricked by her own mother who wanted the Soulsword to kill all those ahead of her on the Winding Path.

Even at her most powerful, Margali wanted more, and she covertly joined the London Hellfire Club, acting as their red Queen. She planned to destroy London and take over Britain. Shortly after helping to defeat her mother and the Hellfire Club, Amanda left Excalibur without even telling Nightcrawler.

It is later revealed it was not Amanda who made that decision, but Margali who had taken over her body. Upon her defeat among the Hellfire Club, Margali was captured by the villain sorcerer Belasco and was tortured in his realm. From his realm, she secretly switched minds with her daughter so that she could win back her freedom. Eventually, Margali, using Amanda's body, made her way back to Limbo, where the mother and daughter pair switched back and defeated Belasco with Nightcrawler's help. Margali apologized for exposing her daughter to such danger, but then quickly left. Amanda realized that without her mother or Belasco, she was the only person able to take over as Limbo's new ruler. It was too dangerous to leave the dimension unguarded, given that several demons could have used it to invade Earth.

Magik
At this moment, Amanda thrwarted Belasco N'Garai’s takeover of Limbo and Earth. She was forced to conceal her identity until of the end of the battle. Those who had not figured out that her new alias was Illyana were informed of this at the end of the battle. Following that, Amanda rallied together the rulers of all other dimensions of Hell to unite them in a common goal: The preservation of Hell.

Amanda has also mastered the ability to magically control the stepping discs of Limbo, just like Belasco did before her, and practiced to wield the Soulsword. During one of Nightcrawler's trips to Limbo, Amanda secretly hid the powerful Soulsword in Kurt's body, thinking it was safe there since his soul was the purest that she could find. There was a shift in the cosmic balance and powerful forces at work. They were in search of the Soulsword, and shortly after, Amanda was attacked and overpowered by Nightmare. She was rescued by the timely arrival of her Margali. Together, they discovered that Nightmare had been manipulated into attacking them by someone else. Amanda and Margali immediately sought out Nightcrawler to warn him, but upon their arrival, the demon Hive revealed himself and took over the body of Nightcrawler's teammate, Wolverine.

Gradually, the demon's essence was disrupted by the Soulsword, though not before he revealed that there is a major war coming, and that the entire Szardos family factors very importantly into it.

Driven out of Limbo
Amanda resurfaced in New X-Men when she plunged out of a dimensional portal in a blast of flaming energy and landed in a small German village. She pleaded, "Help me...someone please...He's back." Amanda was driven out of Limbo after being overwhelmed by an invasion led by Belasco; although she had fought and defeated him in the past, Belasco now appeared more powerful and, without the Soulsword, Amanda was no match.

She assisted New X-Men Hellion and Surge as well as O*N*E Sentinel operative (and former mutant) Lex in finding students who were kidnapped by Belasco. The students were saved due to Illyana Rasputin usurping control of Limbo. Once the heroes were teleported back to Xavier's school though, Amanda found Limbo to be sealed off.

While Pixie has stated that she has been approached by both Amanda and Doctor Strange about furthering her magical tutelage when she comes of age, Amanda's whereabouts remained unknown for some time, but she was recently mentioned by Cyclops in the aftermath of Second Coming when he was writing her a letter of condolence over the death of Nightcrawler.

Family reunion
After Nightcrawler's resurrection and some period of readjustment, he sought out Amanda for a romantic reunion, but then Amanda was almost kidnapped by a villain called Trimega. After Nightcrawler and his Bamfs subdued Trimega, he chose to grant Amanda and Margali sanctuary in the Jean Grey School for Higher Learning; but then an army of Trimegas descended upon the school. During the battle, it turned out that Margali was actually Trimega's creator and had orchestrated the attack in order to gain knowledge of how to cross into the Afterlife. Armed with that knowledge, Margali opened a portal, whose existence would endanger reality. In order to stop her scheme, Nightcrawler and Amanda attempted to pass the gate, but Nightcrawler's voluntary exile from Heaven barred him from entry, stranding Amanda alone in the Void. They met again when Nightcrawler, fatally stabbed in combat by the Crimson Pirates, was intercepted by Amanda at an "interim station" between life and death, who successfully encouraged him—with some assistance from Wolverine and Phoenix—to return to the land of the living.

Powers and abilities
Amanda is a sorceress following the path of the Winding Way. Her power changes in its levels, waxing and waning 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.

When she became the Sorceress Supreme of Limbo, Amanda began wielding the powerful Soulsword. While she couldn't access the full power of the sword, she could still create and control teleportation energies in the form of "stepping discs". This allows her to absorb souls of others either permanently or to simply store and transfer, to place and store the sword in absolute nothingness and to retrieve it from whence it came with ease. Like Illyana Rasputin, the more Amanda used the Soulsword, the more mystical Eldritch armor appeared on her body in addition to demonic features such as horns and hooves. The armor deflects or limits attacks, both physical and magical. However, on Earth, Amanda's abilities are limited to a different capacity. She has since lost these abilities when Limbo was sealed to her and resumed her normal display of powers.

Critical reception
Deirdre Kaye of Scary Mommy called Amanda Sefton a "role model" and a "truly heroic" female character. Nitish Vashishtha of Sportskeeda ranked Amanda Sefton 7th in their "10 Strongest Marvel Witches" list. Darren Franich of Entertainment Weekly ranked Amanda Sefton 65th in their "Let's rank every X-Man ever" list.

Screen Rant included Amanda Sefton in their "15 Most Powerful Marvel Magic Users (Who Aren’t Doctor Strange)" list, and in their "10 Best Magical Or Supernatural Heroes Not Yet In The MCU" list. Comic Book Resources ranked Amanda Sefton 6th in their "20 Fan-Favorite X-Men Who Aren't Even Mutants" list.

The plot twist revealing that Amanda Sefton is really Nightcrawler's sister, Jimaine Szardos, received mixed reactions. Book Riot described the twist as "the crowning moment of creepy" in their article "The X-Men's Love Lives are Messed Up You Guys."

Magik (2000)
According to Diamond Comic Distributors, X-Men: Magik #1 was the 32nd best selling comic book in October 2000.

Other versions
An alternate version of Amanda Sefton appears in the Days of Future Past timeline. Amanda and Nightcrawler have a daughter Blue who inherited her father's appearance and similar teleporting powers. Amanda and Nightcrawler, along with that timeline's version of Illyana Rasputin, were gunned down by a government strike force deployed to destroy the Xavier Institute after Senator Robert Kelly was assassinated.

Marvel Noir
Set in Marvel Noir, Amanda Selton as The Red Rose appears as a head of the Weapon X program. She was later killed by Kurt Wagner but not before burning his face with a torch.

X-2: X-Men Unite'
A tie-in comic to the 2003 film X-2: X-Men United depicts Amanda and Kurt's past, but reveled as an illusion/flashback to persuade him to join Weapon X.

In other media
Amanda Sefton appears in X-Men: Evolution, voiced by Moneca Stori. This version is an African/Romani American teenager and student of Bayville High School who comes from a normal family and gradually enters a relationship with Nightcrawler.