Magneto, the long-time X-Men foe, is getting his own ongoing title. And, thankfully, he’s going to be a villain – again.
That last bit might not make sense to folks who have only watched the X-Men movies, or older fans who drifted away a couple of decades ago. They would only know Erik “Magnus” Lehnsherr as a villain – an occasionally sympathetic villain, but a villain nonetheless.
This is in opposition to the character’s adventures in Marvel Comics, where there has been a long-standing effort to rehabilitate the Master of Magnetism. At varying times, he has not only been headmaster at Professor Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, not only has he romanced a number of X-women, but he has – hold onto your helmets – been a member of the X-Men, a team he has tried to murder on dozens of occasions!
None of which many long-time fans found convincing.
Baby Boomers were introduced to Magneto in the pages of the very first issue of The X-Men in 1963. It was in that issue that Magneto christened mutants “Homo Superior,” and his third word balloon hinted at his mission: “The human race no longer deserves dominion over the planet Earth! The day of the mutants is upon us!”
That mission became clearer in the ensuing issues: Magneto’s intent was to conquer Earth, and turn ordinary humans into slaves to serve their superiors, the mutants. A lot has been made of Magneto being a sort of Malcolm X to Professor Xavier’s Martin Luther King, in that Magneto would defend mutants by any means necessary, while Xavier fought for peaceful co-existence. But that would come later. In the early issues, if you substitute “Germans” for “mutants” in Magneto’s dialogue, he sounds very much like Adolf Hitler.
Which turns out to be kind of ironic, since we later learned that Magneto is Jewish, and a Holocaust survivor. But that would come later. Much, much later.
Because in the early days, Magneto was all supervillain all the time, given to dialogue like:
“Stop your weak whimpering … I will stop at nothing to achieve mastery of Earth!
“Forgive me for attacking from behind, but we don’t fight by any rules!”
“Loyalty, bah! I rule by fear alone!”
OK, so nobody really talks like that. But florid villain dialogue is one of the guilty pleasures of comics.
In those early days, as you can see, Magneto was completely EEEEEEE-vil! He even formed a group called “The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants” and on a number of occasions even referred to himself as an evil mutant.
And, despite all his chatter about protecting mutants, he definitely tried to kill his fellow mutants, the X-Men, in that first issue. And again in the fourth issue. And the fifth. And the sixth, seventh, eleventh, seventeenth and eighteenth! And many times after that, too many to list here.
But, aside from murder and mayhem, we never learned much about Magneto. In fact, we didn’t even see the face under the helmet until 1969, nor learn the first of his many names until the 1980s.
Speaking of that decade, it was in 1981 that Magneto first mentioned Auschwitz. He also mentions a deceased wife and daughter. This was writer Chris Claremont’s first effort to humanize Maggie -- and what a slippery slope that turned out to be.
First, it should be noted that as late as 1981, Professor Xavier commented on how ignorant he was about Magneto’s past – which was in direct conflict with a story written only a year later, by the same writer, in which we learned that a pre-Magneto “Magnus” and pre-X-Men Charles Xavier were once friends, both helping to build the new nation of Israel in the late 1940s. This formed the pattern about Magneto from that point on, where most of his appearances would reveal more of his past, and “soften” him just a tad more.
Now, I’m not complaining about the Auschwitz bit. That gives Magneto more dimension than his early supervillain days, and provides enormous motivation for his actions. Because, by the 1980s, he was no longer trying to conquer the Earth. Instead, his newly revealed Holocaust background supported his refrain of “Never again!” His intent was to protect mutants, to prevent mutant genocide and/or to create a homeland for them (like Israel for Jews).
A fine idea for character development, but the problem with fine ideas is that they are wonderful toys for writers – toys they can’t resist playing with. So X-writers kept adding one layer on Magneto after another, leading inexorably to him becoming an out-and-out good guy. They established that Magneto was a former husband, whose wife left him, afraid of his power. They decided that Magneto was a Dad, not just of the dead girl, but also of Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch (who were members of the first Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, before reforming and becoming Avengers) and Polaris, a character whose background is too elaborate to get into here. Then he found himself allied with the X-Men in “Secret Wars,” because an alien decided his motivations were “good.” Then he was cleared by the World Court for any previous crimes (in Uncanny X-Men #200, 1985). Then he was promptly made headmaster of Xavier’s school, as if he hadn’t tried to kill all the students multiple times.
This despite, you know, all the other awful things he’s done, like trying to set off a nuclear bomb in a South American country (1964). Or sinking a Russian submarine with all hands (1981). Or, delivering ultimatums to the world (too many to count).
But, somehow, Marvel characters – if not all fans – came to accept Magneto as not-quite-a-villain. Currently he is allied with former enemy Cyclops on an X-Men team that the other X-Men consider outlaw. (Actually, that begs a column on how “Mr. X-Man” Cyclops became something of a bad guy. Some other time.)
None of which makes much sense to older X-fans, for whom Magneto was a “Nyah-ha-ha” style supervillain for almost 20 years. Which is why Magneto #1, shipping Feb. 5, may be appealing to Magneto fans both old and new.
The descripton of the first issue describes a Magneto who once again goes solo, traveling the world to destroy those who would kill mutants. Yes, that’s “destroy” as in – this from the description – “getting his hands bloody” and being “judge, jury and executioner.”
OK, now you’re talking! This Magneto may not be a supervillain as much as an anti-hero, along the lines of The Punisher or even, some days, Wolverine. But it’s still a Magneto older fans will find more plausible than the milquetoast of recent years. And maybe, just maybe, he’ll launch a “Nyah-ha-ha” or two.
Contact Captain Comics at capncomics@aol.com.
Replies
Who's made more face/heel turns? Magneto or Ric Flair?
Can't we have a Magneto from the 60s come to the future and see what a wet week his future self is or a revelation that the truely evil Maggy is still held captive by the Stranger or was never actually de-aged by Mutant Alpha...or........(I've got loads!)
Randy Jackson said:
"If you wanna be the mutant, you gotta beat the mutant! Whoo!"
There aren't really a lot of dividing lines between good guy and bad guy in the mu anymore, Cyclops being the latest example I know about. Sounds like marvel just a flipped a coin again and presto he's a bad guy until they flip it again and all of the people he'll hurt while in this current bad guy phase will immediately forgive him because he'll be a good guy again and maybe be all sullen and mopey for an issue or two, and if he kills anyone they won't have any pesky friends or relatives to bother with.
I must agree. It has become a fairly arbitrary division, to say nothing of unclear.
Mark S. Ogilvie said:
Waitaminnit. Do you guys think "The Face" on The A-Team was a wrestling reference? That had never occurred to me before. Or did it become a wrestling term after the show?
As to the putative topic of this thread: I can believe Magneto could reform -- I'm a believer in redemption -- I just don't think it likely. Further, I can't believe AT ALL that anybody would trust him.
I never bought into the idea that a villain of Magneto's nature could ever be accepted as a hero. That he might have a sudden epiphany and change his ways - sure, that could happen, though I don't know how likely it is. That anyone - no matter how sincere he was - could ever fully trust him strikes me as extremely unlikely.
It puts me in mind of the later seasons of Uchū Senkan Yamato (That's Star Blazers to you gaijin), where the character of Leader Desslok (who spent most of the first two storylines trying to exterminate humanity) came around to admiring the crew of the Yamato (a.k.a. the Argo) and fighting on the side of the Earth people. It was a bit like having the Red Skull suddenly deciding how much he respected Steve Rogers and setting out to be his new BFF.
I always said that pro wrestling was as close to live-action comic books as we were going to get except they don't keep changing sides all the time. Superman never became the Man of Hollywood!
Magneto's time as a hero was explained as Professor X or Moira MacTaggert altering his personality when he became a baby again at the hands (mind?) of Alpha the Ultimate Mutant. (Whatever happened to him?)
It was Neal Adams who made him handsome though he was still the evil unattractive villain when he battled the Avengers, the Defenders and the Champions in the 70s. He regained his looks under John Byrne and the trend continued until Professor X had to leave Earth and put him in charge of his school in Uncanny X-Men #200.
Still, no matter what his past (Doctor Doom was an orphan, the Red Skull an abused child, the Green Goblin an accident victim), Magneto planned on matching and surpassing the Nazis on a global scale. Innocent lives meant nothing to him and he would sacrifice his own mutants to achieve his goals.
His methods may have changed slightly but his objective is the same. His betrayal of Cyclops is not only probable but inevitable! Especially now that there is no Professor X to stop him! (Presently, of course!)
Marvel is filled with villains-turned-heroes but never an arch-enemy and never for long. Most of the Brotherhood reformed but most of them are still active so the Brotherhood could potentially, y'know, ...re-form.
I'm not sure how old the wrestling term "face" (short for "babyface") is. I know some of that stuff goes back over a century, but I don't know about that specific term.
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