If you have been reading my Substack for any amount of time, then you are likely aware that I love Magneto. He’s more than just my favorite comic book character. He’s my favorite character in all of fiction. While he certainly has become a well known character in the pop culture zeitgeist, his perception among the population varies wildly from one person to another. While I would love to say that most people are familiar with him from reading the comics that he has been appearing in for over sixty years, the truth is that most people know him from the live action Twentieth Century Fox films as portrayed by Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender.
While both of those actors do a fantastic job with the role, it is a pretty drastic departure from the character as he has been portrayed in the comics. The comic book version of Magneto is far more sympathetic than the version on the big screen. That has led to some mind-numbing discourse on social media that I have written about in the past. Those who are fans of comic book Magneto view him as a revolutionary fighting for mutant liberation who has spent more time as an ally of the X-Men by this point than as a villain. He represents a more militant approach to mutant rights that could be described as mutant self-determination than the more assimilationist approach typically championed by Charles Xavier. Even in his most villainous portrayals, he has not been one to rack up a high body count despite his enormous power.
Movie Magneto is a different story. He is more than happy to carry out a full blown genocide of human beings in order to ensure the safety of his people. There is much less nuance to the character, and it makes it much more difficult to defend his position. That seems to be a trend in superhero movies when the villains have radical politics. I’m not saying that’s driven by the veto power that the United States military has over most blockbuster scripts coming out of Hollywood, but I’m not not saying it either. I’m getting off topic, but the point I’m making is that any discussion on whether Magneto’s position and tactics are valid inevitably devolves into an argument where one side is pointing to Magneto from the movies while the other side points to the Magneto of the comics. It’s a fruitless endeavor.
That might soon be changing. This past Wednesday saw the release of the first two episodes of the X-Men ‘97 animated series on Disney+ and the publication of Resurrection of Magneto #3 from Marvel Comics. I highly doubt that this was intentionally timed, but both pieces of media commented on Magneto’s historical transition from villain to hero and how to reckon with his past. Both also prominently featured Storm as an integral part of that reckoning.
Spoilers ahead for both X-Men ‘97 and Resurrection of Magneto.
Let’s start with X-Men ‘97. For those who have missed the massive advertisement campaign from Marvel and Disney, X-Men ‘97 serves as a continuation of the original ‘90s animated series that was canceled back in (you guessed it) 1997. It picks up months after Charles Xavier was critically wounded in an assassination attempt and subsequently whisked away by his bird alien girlfriend to outer space. He is legally “dead” for all intents and purposes in this world. The end of the first episode reveals that Xavier has left his estate (and leadership of the X-Men) to Magneto. The second episode depicts Magneto being arrested and forced to stand trial before judges appointed by the United Nations for crimes against humanity. He passionately argues his position until the trial is interrupted by a mob of anti-mutant bigots led by the villainous X-Cutioner and his Friends of Humanity terrorist organization. Magneto and the X-Men attempt to protect the judges and quell the mob, but Storm is shot by X-Cutioner when she dives in front of Magneto to save him. She’s alive, but the weapon depowers her. This causes Magneto to go full Magneto. He unleashes his awesome power to bring the conflict to an end, and then he gives a speech for the ages that perfectly encapsulates everything that makes him so great.
I hopped on YouTube to watch videos of people watching this episode to see how they reacted to it. The vast majority of viewers were people who watched the original show as kids and whose knowledge of the X-Men (and Magneto) came from the cartoon and subsequent movies. Most of them were skeptical of Magneto actually being serious about leading the X-Men and trying to genuinely carry on Xavier’s legacy. He’s a villain, right? He can’t be trusted! By the end of the episode, these folks were all rooting for the Master of Magnetism. I could tell that this episode was impactful when I saw “Magneto” trending on Twitter everyday since the episode aired at the time that I’m writing this. While this may have been a brand new look at Magneto for most people watching the show, this episode was essentially an adaptation of Uncanny X-Men #200 from Chris Claremont and John Romita, Jr.
This issue (published all the way back in 1985) follows many of the same beats. Magneto is being forced to stand trial for crimes against humanity (wearing a brand new costume that X-Men ‘97 is now utilizing), there is an attack that disrupts the proceedings (this time perpetrated by a pair of literal Nazi twins), Magneto saves the lives of those in attendance, and he becomes the headmaster of Xavier’s school when Charles is gravely wounded and whisked away to outer space by his bird alien girlfriend (I’ll never get tired of typing that out). Magneto would go on to serve as headmaster all the way until 1989.
As if Magneto showing out in X-Men ‘97 wasn’t enough, he also received some phenomenal character work in Resurrection of Magneto #3 from Al Ewing, Luciano Vecchio, and David Curiel. If you haven’t been keeping up with the comics, Magneto had been killed off in 2022 as part of the “A.X.E.: Judgment Day” event. Resurrection of Magneto is a four-issue limited series from Ewing, Vecchio, and Curiel about Storm trying to return him to the land of the living by visiting him in the mutant purgatorial realm called the Waiting Room and trying to get him to crossover into the physical world once more. As you might imagine, this series has been more of an abstract philosophical journey than a more traditional superhero adventure. The third issue sees Magneto having a battle of wits with the villainous Shadow King as he takes the form of different figures from Magneto’s past.
The last figure Magneto must face is his younger self. Specifically, this is the version of Magneto that appeared throughout the Silver Age comics of the 1960s. Magneto was much less nuanced in those days. He was little more than a mustache twirling caricature. It has long been the most difficult thing for fans of the character (myself included) to explain away. The character has been so complex and rich for the majority of his publication history, but the Silver Age version of the character was was mostly just a simplistic bad guy seeking world domination. This was first attempted to be retconned in the four-issue Magneto (2023) series by J.M. DeMatteis, Todd Nauck, and Rachelle Rosenberg.
The explanation given was that Magneto was trying to create a common enemy for both humans and mutants to unite against so that humanity could see the true value of mutants like Xavier’s X-Men. Resurrection of Magneto #3 directly references this series, but it goes a step further.
Magneto ultimately declares that this version of himself was the personification of his rage. He would often let himself be entirely consumed by it in those days after attempting to totally suppress it for too long. Now he allows his righteous anger to be an engine that powers him to create a world where his people can be safe from those who hate and fear them. It’s a powerful moment that allows him to push past the Shadow King and ultimately return Storm and himself to return to the land of the living. Now we will get to see how that righteous anger is unleashed upon the fascist Orchis organization that has been trying to destroy that dream in his absence.
I think the debate around whether the 60's Magneto was an act or not, and the presentation of it as his rage was the case in the 2023 mini series too.