Magneto (Marvel Comics): Difference between revisions

Fictional character appearing in Marvel Comics publications and related media

Comics character

Magneto (; birth name: Max Eisenhardt; alias: Erik Lehnsherr^{[needs IPA]} and Magnus) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The X-Men #1 (cover-dated September 1963) as an adversary of the X-Men.

The character is a powerful mutant, one of a fictional subspecies of humanity born with superhuman abilities, who has the ability to generate and control magnetic fields. Magneto regards mutants as evolutionarily superior to humans and rejects the possibility of peaceful human-mutant coexistence; he initially aimed to conquer the world to enable mutants, whom he refers to as Homo superior, to replace humans as the dominant species. Writers have since fleshed out his origins and motivations, revealing him to be a Holocaust survivor whose extreme methods and cynical philosophy derive from his determination to protect mutants from suffering a similar fate at the hands of a world that fears and persecutes them. He is a friend of Professor X, the leader of the X-Men, but their different philosophies cause a rift in their friendship at times. Magneto’s role in comics has progressed from supervillain to antihero to superhero, having served as an occasional ally and member of the X-Men, even leading the New Mutants for a time as headmaster of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.

Writer Chris Claremont, who originated Magneto’s backstory, modeled the character on then-Israeli opposition leader Menachem Begin,^[9] with later commentators comparing the character with the American civil rights leader Malcolm X^[10][11] and Jewish Defense League founder Meir Kahane.^[12][13] Magneto opposes the pacifist attitude of Professor X and pushes for a more aggressive approach to achieving civil rights for mutants.

Ian McKellen has portrayed Magneto in various films since X-Men in 2000, while Michael Fassbender has portrayed a younger version of the character in the prequel films since X-Men: First Class in 2011. Both actors portrayed their respective incarnations in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Publication history[edit]

Magneto first appeared in the debut issue of The X-Men in 1963.^[14] Through the 1960s, Magneto appeared in several issues of the original X-Men comics, including The Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, Alpha Flight, Cable, Excalibur, The New Mutants, many X-Men miniseries, and several other Marvel titles. His first solo title was a one-shot special, Magneto: The Twisting of a Soul #0 (Sept. 1993), published when the character returned from a brief absence; it reprinted Magneto-based stories from Classic X-Men #12 and 19 (Aug. 1987 and March 1988), by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Bolton.

When asked about his approach to Magneto, Jack Kirby stated, “I saw my villains not as villains. I knew villains had to come from somewhere and they came from people. My villains were people that developed problems.”^[15] In a 2008 interview, Stan Lee said he “did not think of Magneto as a bad guy. He just wanted to strike back at the people who were so bigoted and racist…he was trying to defend the mutants, and because society was not treating them fairly he was going to teach society a lesson. He was a danger of course…but I never thought of him as a villain.”^[16] In the same interview, he also revealed that he originally planned for Magneto to be the brother of his nemesis Professor X.^[16]

Writer Chris Claremont stated that Menachem Begin was an inspiration for Magneto’s development, as David Ben-Gurion was for Professor X. “There’s a lot of talk online now that Magneto stands in for Malcolm X and Xavier stands in for Martin Luther King, which is totally valid but for me, being an immigrant white, to make that analogy felt incredibly presumptuous. An equivalent analogy could be made to [Israeli prime minister] Menachem Begin as Magneto, evolving through his life from a terrorist in 1947 to a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 30 years later.”^[17][18]

Asked about the Malcolm X/Martin Luther King Jr. parallels, Claremont also said “It was too close [in the 1970s]. It had only been a few years since the assassinations. In a way, it seemed like that would be too raw. My resonance to Magneto and Xavier was borne more out of the Holocaust. It was coming face to face with evil, and how do you respond to it? In Magneto’s case it was violence begets violence. In Xavier’s it was the constant attempt to find a better way… As we got distance from the ’60s, the Malcolm X-Martin Luther King-Mandela resonance came into things. It just fit.”^{[19][20][21][22]}

Magneto’s first original title was the four-issue miniseries Magneto (Nov. 1996-Feb. 1997), by writers Peter…