MAGNETO (COMICS)

'Magneto' ('Erik Magnus Lehnsherr') is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe. Primarily associated with the superhero group the X-Men, both as ally and enemy, he first appeared in ''X-Men'' #1 (Sept. 1963), created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. Magneto has been the X-Men’s primary antagonist since his (and their) first appearance. He has led several teams against them, including the Brotherhood of Mutants and the Acolytes. He is also the father of the superheroes Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch, and Polaris.
Magneto is depicted as one of the most powerful mutants in the Marvel Universe, possessing the ability to create magnetism and electricity. He is also one of the most morally complex characters in American comic books. A Jewish Holocaust survivor, his actions are driven by the purpose of protecting the mutant race from suffering a similar fate. Characterizations of Magneto have varied through the years, from supervillain to anti-hero to even hero, but he is most often shown as an uncompromising militant and has engaged in acts of terrorism when he felt it was for the benefit of mutantkind. This puts him at odds with his best friend Charles Xavier, whose X-Men seek peaceful coexistence with the rest of humanity. His magnetic field has been measured at over 200 tesla. While his militant actions have made him unpopular with some humans, many mutants have come to view him as a savior; at one point, when he was assumed to have died, he was portrayed as a martyr, with the phrase "Magneto was right" becoming popular among the mutant community and his face becoming an icon in T-shirts and posters, similar to Che Guevara.
While Magneto is Jewish, for a while he maintained a cover identity as a Sinte Gypsy while searching for his wife Magda. This created confusion amongst some readers as to his heritage,^[1] until it was authoritatively confirmed that he is Jewish.^[2][3] This confusion probably stems from a comic book published in the early 1990s which attempted to retcon Magneto into being a Sinte, possibly because Marvel was preparing to make Magneto a deadly villain again in the crossover called "Fatal Attractions" and they did not want to draw accusations of anti-Semitism by having one of their main villains be Jewish. This attempted retcon was corrected a few years later when it was revealed that the name "Erik Lehnsherr" and the Sinte ethnicity were part of a cover identity, as mentioned above.
He has been featured in almost all X-Men animated series and video games and in the feature-film series, in which he is portrayed by Sir Ian McKellen. ''Wizard Magazine'' rated him the 17th greatest villain of all time.^[4]

Contents

Publication history

Fictional character biography

Early life

Rise of Magneto

Redemption

Avalon and Genosha

Xorn

House of M

The Collective

Endangered Species

Powers and abilities

Inspirations

Other versions

In other media

Bibliography

Footnotes

References

Publication history

Magneto first appeared in the debut issue of ''X-Men'' in 1963, along with the titular team of the same name, where he attempts to take control of a missile base. Magneto later forms the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in ''X-Men'' #4, which faces the X-Men regularly for the first few years of the title's existence.
Through the decades from the 1960s, Magneto has appeared in several issues of the original X-Men series, generally known as ''Uncanny X-Men'', as well as in such spin-offs as ''X-Men'', ''Astonishing X-Men'', ''Alpha Flight'', ''Cable'', ''Excalibur'', and ''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 & 19 (Aug. 1987 & March 1988), by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Bolton.
Magneto's first original title was the four-issue miniseries ''Magneto'' (Nov. 1996 - Feb. 1997), by writers Peter Milligan & Jorge Gonzalez, and penciler Kelley Jones. The miniseries took place during a period where it was believed Magneto had been de-aged and was suffering from amnesia, calling himself Joseph; it was later revealed that Joseph was a younger clone of Magneto.
Later, Magneto became ruler of the nation Genosha. During this period, he received two miniseries; ''Magneto Rex'' (written by Joe Pruett and drawn by Brandon Peterson) and ''Magneto: Dark Seduction'' (written by Fabian Nicieza and drawn by Roger Cruz).

Fictional character biography

Early life

During the 1940s, the young Magneto, his parents, and his sister are persecuted for being Jewish.^[5] They are shot at by the Nazis and buried in a mass grave; Magneto manages to survive, only to be captured and sent to Auschwitz. There, he is forced to work in the Sonderkommando.

While in Auschwitz, Magneto falls in love with a gypsy named Magda. Together, they escape the prison camp and marry, and Magda soon gives birth to their daughter, Anya. Anya is later killed in a fire, with a mob of people preventing Magneto from rescuing her.
Enraged, Magneto's powers manifest uncontrollably, killing the mob and the surrounding townspeople. Terrified, Magda flees Magneto, discovering months later she is pregnant again. After giving birth to the mutant twins Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch in Wundagore, Magda disappears.
Shortly after Magda's disappearance, Magneto is hunted for the destruction of the town, while attempting to search for his former wife, thus forcing him to pay a renowned forger, Georg Odekirk, to create the cover identity of "Erik Lehnsherr the Sinte gypsy" for him.^[6] Magneto also worked as a hunter of Nazi war criminals for a mysterious agency, taking orders from a man known as Control. Control and his agency decide Magneto is taking too many liberties in his assignments, and they attempt to kill him, but Magneto seemingly kills them all.
Xavier later remembers meeting Magneto, at the time using the alias "Magnus",^[7] while working at a psychiatric hospital near Haifa. There, lengthy debates are held by the two regarding the consequences humanity faces with the rise of mutants, though neither reveals to each other that they are mutants. However, they are forced to reveal their inherent abilities to one another, while facing Baron Von Strucker and HYDRA. Following the battle, Magneto leaves, realizing that his and Xavier's views are incompatible, with a cache of hidden Nazi gold. The gold, which was also sought by Strucker, provides initial financing for his various enterprises.

Rise of Magneto

Magneto's experience in the Auschwitz concentration camp shapes his outlook on the situation that mutants face in the world. Determined to keep such atrocities from ever being committed against mutant-kind, he is willing to use deadly force to protect mutants. He believes that mutants ("''Homo sapiens superior''") will become the dominant life form on the planet. However, he constantly wavers between wanting peaceful existence with ''Homo sapiens'' and wanting to enforce his superiority over all humanity.
Magneto's first terrorist act was attacking a United States military base. He is thwarted by Charles Xavier's mutant students, the X-Men. After forming the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, Magneto briefly conquers the fictional South American nation of San Marco in the hopes of establishing a mutant homeland there, but is once again foiled by the X-Men. He later creates Asteroid M, an orbital base of operations in an asteroid he and his followers hollow out, but it is later destroyed in a battle with the X-Men.
After several unsuccessful attempts at rallying more mutants to his cause, Magneto tries to force the allegiance of the Stranger. A powerful alien being, the Stranger encases Magneto in a special cocoon and spirits him away to another planet where he remains for a long time. Magneto's Brotherhood splinters, and Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch desert him. Magneto eventually escapes and makes his way back to Earth where he attempts to reenlist them to his cause, but his plans are foiled by his former minion Toad, who has grown tired of Magneto's cruel treatment.
Using ancient and advanced alien technology he finds near the core of the earth, Magneto creates an artificial humanoid he names "Alpha the Ultimate Mutant." Alpha rebels against his creator and reduces Magneto to infancy. Magneto is then placed in the care of Xavier's former love interest, Professor Moira MacTaggert at Muir Island. At Muir Island, MacTaggert tinkers with the infant Magneto's genetic code in an attempt to prevent him from becoming "evil" in adulthood. However, her genetic tampering loses its effect when Magneto activates his powers again. Magneto is eventually restored to adulthood when he is found at Muir Island by the alien Shi'ar agent Erik the Red.

Redemption

X-Men's 150th issue begins a serious recasting of Magneto's role in the X-Men series. He returns to his attempts at global conquest, but this time casts himself as the savior of a self-destructive world. The world is on the brink of nuclear holocaust, and Magneto's solution is to make himself a kind of benevolent dictator, taking all the money spent on national defense the world over and using it to feed the hungry, build schools, etc. Nonetheless, he still intends to overthrow governments and rule the world, and thus is opposed by the X-Men.

When he discovers that Jean Grey has been killed, he tells Cyclops that he respected her, and all the X-Men, and grieves for her death. Cyclops throws this back in his face, and he responds in anger, revealing that all of his family has been killed, and he knows about grief.
As Storm stands over his sleeping figure, she has this to say: "For all his crimes, for all the grief and pain he has caused, Magneto is not, in his heart, an evil man. Given different circumstances, he could have been like us - or we like him."
Though he has no qualms about sinking a Russian submarine that attacks him and then raising a volcano in the city of Varykino as revenge, he does give time for a mass evacuation before lava sweeps over the city. Likewise, he is shocked when he physically strikes down the adolescent X-Man Kitty Pryde in battle. Remorseful at almost killing such a young mutant, Magneto puts an end to his attempt at world conquest and retreats to rethink the path his life has taken.^[8]
Magneto later discovers that former Brotherhood members the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are actually his children, simultaneously learning about their recent marriages to the Vision and Crystal, as well as the birth of Quicksilver's human daughter Luna Maximoff. Seeing Luna as a bond to the human race he has rejected, Magneto tries to reach out to his children, but, angered by his rejection of them and their mother, they push him away and refuse to forgive him.
Magneto finds himself allied with Professor Xavier and the X-Men when a group of heroes and villains are abducted by the Beyonder, a nearly omnipotent yet frustratingly short-sighted being, to an alien world to participate in the Secret Wars; the being placed the heroes and villains according to their desires, and so Magneto was placed with the heroes as his desires were based on a wish to help mutants rather than the more selfish drives of the others. This surprises many of the other heroes, who still believe he is a villain, although they mostly come to accept him as an ally; Captain America even speaks in his defense on some occasions, and the Wasp develops a certain affection for him, although it is tempered by her knowledge of his past.
After the Secret Wars are over, Magneto is transported back to his base, Asteroid M, where the alien Warlock, travelling to Earth, collides into the asteroid, breaking it to pieces. Magneto is sent falling towards Earth and into the Atlantic Ocean, sustaining serious injuries. He is rescued by Lee Forrester, the captain of a fishing trawler. Lee helps him recuperate from his injuries and the two share a small romance.
After recuperating from his injuries, Magneto is asked to aid the X-Men in battling the returned Beyonder, and Magneto stays with the X-Men even after the Beyonder is defeated. His association with the team softens his views on humanity and Magneto surrenders himself to the law to stand trial for his crimes. A special tribunal is organized, and chooses to strike all charges against Magneto from prior to his "rebirth," deeming that this had constituted a figurative death of the old Magneto. However, the tribunal is interrupted by an attack from Fenris, the twin children of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. Fenris is defeated but Professor X is brought to near-death due to the strain of the battle and previously sustained injuries. Xavier asks Magneto to take over his school and the X-Men, and tells him that doing so would make amends enough for his past crimes. Magneto agrees and chooses not to return to the courtroom. Instead he takes over Xavier's school under the assumed identity of Michael Xavier, Charles Xavier's cousin. Seeing him try to reform, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver begin accepting him as their father.
Though Magneto makes a substantial effort as the headmaster to the New Mutants and an ally to the X-Men, his tenure is disastrous. He is forced to deal with the death of all of the younger students, the New Mutants, and their traumatic return to life after being slain by the godlike Beyonder. He is manipulated by the White Queen, mutant headmaster of the rival school "The Massachusetts Academy" into battling sanctioned heroes the Avengers and the Supreme Soviets. Magneto submits to a trial once again, but uses mind-control circuitry he salvages from the wreckage of Asteroid M to alter the opinions of the head justice in charge of the trial. As a result, he is finally absolved of his past crimes. Magneto does not make that decision lightly and wrestles with it afterwards. Feeling that desperate measures needed to be taken after the genocidal massacre in the Morlock tunnels, Magneto and Storm join the Hellfire Club jointly as the White King. He is unable to prevent his students Roberto da Costa and the alien Technarch Warlock from running away from the school, sees the death of the young mutant student Douglas Ramsey, and witnesses the apparent death of all of the senior X-Men on national television. Magneto ousts longtime co-chair Sebastian Shaw in order to establish himself as the head of the Hellfire Club, a move which alienates the New Mutants permanently. However, he appears to have quickly lost interest in the Club due to the endless intrigues among its members.
Seeing conditions for mutants grow progressively more perilous, Magneto begins seeking allies to protect mutants from humanity. He participates in the "Acts of Vengeance" alongside such established villains as Doctor Doom, the Wizard, and the Mandarin, although he is defeated in a confrontation with Spider-Man (Albeit a Spider-Man temporarily empowered by the energies of the Captain Universe entity). He also confronts Red Skull, an unrepentant Nazi war criminal, on whom Magneto takes revenge by entombing him alive. He works alongside the American intelligence agent Nick Fury as well as a number of Russian operatives in order to re-establish peace in the Savage Land. Tired of the constant state of strife, Magneto builds a second orbital base where he hopes to live a life of quiet seclusion. He is, by this point, a figurehead for the cause of mutanthood and is sought out by a group of new mutants calling themselves the Acolytes.

Avalon and Genosha

After this, Magneto sets his sights significantly lower than world conquest; he seeks only a haven for mutantkind. He first attempts to make the orbital base known as Asteroid M such a haven but is opposed by the governments of the world and the X-Men. The X-Men do not know whether or not Magneto is returning to his villainous ways, so they confront him. At the time the X-Men are divided into two teams, code named Blue Team and Gold Team.
Xavier sends in the Blue Team, led by Cyclops. Cyclops has never trusted Magneto, despite his reformation and Xavier trusting him enough to ask him to take care of the school in his absence. Without giving Magneto a chance to explain himself, Cyclops orders the team to attack. During the battle Wolverine, who had been friends with Magneto when Magneto was on the team, attempts to kill him, much to Magneto's shock. With the exception of Rogue, none of the X-Men are any different. Feeling betrayed by his former allies, Magneto flees.
Magneto later discovers how Moira had tampered with his mind when he had been de-aged. Enraged by this, he feels that his redemption has been a lie. Though it was later revealed that the genetic tampering had lost its effect when he had first used his powers after being re-aged, and thus his actions had never been influenced by Moira's tampering, the damage was done. Magneto once more becomes the X-Men's enemy. The United Nations Security Council, in response to a resurgent Magneto, votes to activate the "Magneto Protocols" - a satellite network, in slightly lower orbit than Avalon, which skews the Earth's magnetic field enough to prevent Magneto from using his powers within, preventing him from returning to the planet's surface.
In response, Magneto generates an electromagnetic pulse not only destroying the satellites, but deactivating every electric device on Earth within minutes. The X-Men respond by hacking into Avalon's own computer systems to teleport a small team to the station with the aid of Colossus (who had joined Magneto as one of Magneto's Acolytes). There the X-Men engage Magneto in battle.
Finally, Wolverine launches a killing strike which leads Magneto to respond by ripping the adamantium from Wolverine's bones. This act of self-defense enrages Xavier to the point that he blanks his former friend's mind, leaving him in a coma. This action lead to the creation of Onslaught. Magneto remains comatose on Avalon worshipped by his Acolytes, under the leadership of Exodus, until Avalon itself is destroyed. During the destruction, Colossus places Magneto in an escape pod sending him back to Earth. This pod is intercepted by Astra, a former ally who now desires his death. She clones Magneto and when the clone is ready, she restores Magneto's mind since she feels there is no point in killing him unless he knows it is her doing.
After a pitched battle, Magneto triumphs over the clone sending him crashing into a South American barn. However, too weak to continue the battle, the real Magneto goes into hiding while the now-amnesiac clone becomes known as Joseph (christened as such by the nun who discovered him) and eventually joins the X-Men. Since the world believes Joseph to be the real Magneto, Magneto takes his time to plan. He engages in a pair of brief diversions, first posing as "Erik the Red" and revealing Gambit's past crimes to the X-Men, resulting in Gambit's expulsion from the group. Then he kills Odekirk to prevent his true identity from being discovered by Sabra and Gabrielle Haller.
Following this, Magneto constructs a machine to amplify his powers and blackmail the world into creating a mutant nation. The X-Men and Joseph, who has fallen under Astra's control again, oppose him. The X-Men defeat Magneto, leaving his powers severely depleted from over-strain, while Joseph sacrifices his life to restore the Earth to normal. The United Nations, manipulated by its mutant affairs officer Alda Huxley, cedes to Magneto the island nation of Genosha, which has no recognized government. Magneto rules that nation for some time with the aid of many who had previously opposed him, including Quicksilver, Polaris, and the founder of the Acolytes, Fabian Cortez.
Despite the UN's hopes that Genosha's civil war between humans and mutants would destroy or at least occupy him, Magneto crushes all opposition to his rule and rebuilds the nation by forming an army of mutants dedicated to his cause, including mutants coming from all over the world seeking sanctuary. Eventually, Magneto is able to use the Genegineer's equipment to fully restore his power. Intending to declare war on humanity, he captures Professor X to use as a symbol with which to rally his troops. In the Eve of Destruction storyline, Jean Grey recruits a new lineup of X-Men to help Cyclops and Wolverine rescue Xavier and defeat Magneto. Taking the opportunity for revenge, Wolverine attacks the defeated Magneto, leaving him with serious injuries and crippling him for a time.

Xorn

Soon after this, Genosha is decimated by Sentinels under the orders of Cassandra Nova Xavier, Charles Xavier's previously unknown dead twin sister, whom Xavier had killed in the womb. Magneto and 16 million mutants who were gathered at Genosha are reported deceased. Months after the event, a team of X-Men searching in the debris find what was apparently a recording of Magneto's last words. Mutant-supremacist ideas, attributed to him, become wide-spread in the mutant community with some holding him as a martyr of the mutant cause. Magneto has become a Che Guevara-like revolutionary figure in the mutant community. T-shirts and posters with Magneto's face and the phrase "Magneto Was Right" become popular items, even amongst certain students in the Xavier Institute.
Meanwhile, the mutant known as Xorn joins the X-Men after being rescued from captivity in China. Xorn is said to be a Chinese mutant with a "star for a brain" and wears a face-concealing metal helmet with a skull-like motif. He also possesses nebulous healing powers, although the only times he was shown to use this ability are when he deactivates a number of microscopic Sentinels and simultaneously restores Professor Xavier's ability to walk, and "heals" a supposedly dead bird.
In the Planet X storyline, he eventually removes the helmet, revealing Magneto's face beneath. It is alleged that Xorn never existed and is simply an identity conceived wholly by Magneto. Having "exposed his deception", he then schemes to destroy the X-Men and reverse the polarity of the Earth's magnetic field, increasing his power with the use of a mutant drug called "Kick". He recruits the Special Class and Esme from the Xavier School to serve as his Brotherhood of Mutants, though most eventually turn against him. Before being decapitated by Wolverine, "Magneto" devastates much of New York City and kills Jean Grey using a lethal electromagnetic pulse, causing her to have a massive stroke.
Some time later, the X-Men find another Xorn, who identifies himself as Shen Xorn and claims that the "Magneto" who devastated New York was Kuan-Yin Xorn, his brother. Marvel editor-in-chief Joe Quesada later elaborated on this,stating that "Kuan-Yin Xorn came under the influence of as-yet-to-be-revealed entity that forced him to assume the identity of Magneto." This remains the official explanation of the Xorn character and its relationship to Magneto.

House of M

Main articles: House of M


With the launch of a new ''Excalibur'' series, Xavier meets up with the real Magneto who is still alive.
Xavier brings with him the coffin supposedly containing the corpse of Xorn (but which is later shown to be filled with guns), and explains how the impostor has killed over 5,000 people including Jean Grey. Magneto is shocked and angry that people think he is capable of committing such an act. Xavier and Magneto put aside their differences to rebuild the island nation, rekindling their friendship in the process.
Magneto's daughter Wanda suffers a mental breakdown over the loss of her children and starts to warp reality in order to recreate them, inadvertently resulting in random attacks on the Avengers, until Doctor Strange puts her into a coma to stop her. In Genosha, Magneto hears Wanda's psychic cry for help and, creating a wormhole, whisks her away before the Avengers can do anything.
Back in Genosha, Magneto tends to Wanda, becoming more withdrawn and angry, allowing only Xavier to visit, in the belief that Xavier can help Wanda. Xavier is angry to learn that Magneto revealed he was alive, in rescuing Wanda, but agrees to try and help. Months pass with no avail, and not even Dr. Strange's magic helps. The X-Men and the Avengers meet to decide what should be done, and when some of the members suggest killing Wanda, Quicksilver rushes to Magneto to inform him of this development.
Magneto admits that he doesn't know what to do anymore and that the groups may be right, but Quicksilver convinces Wanda that she can undo her wrongs, prompting her to warp reality into the House of M. In the new reality, Magneto is attacked by Sentinels over Manhattan in 1979, and reveals an alleged international anti-mutant conspiracy involving Richard Nixon. This results in Magneto being granted sovereignty over Genosha as leader of the world's mutants.
A group of heroes- brought together by Wolverine, the only hero left unaffected by the shift- have their memories of the "real world" restored by Layla Miller, and they band together and attack Magneto in Genosha, believing him to be the one responsible. During the battle Layla is able to restore Magneto's memories as well, and he confronts his son, enraged that Quicksilver had done all of this in his name. Quicksilver reveals that Magneto would have let Wanda die, but Magneto replies that Quicksilver was only using Wanda and himself, and he would never have allowed this to happen. Furious, Magneto kills Quicksilver by pummeling him with large pieces of steel and then crushing him with a Sentinel.
Sensing her brother's death, Wanda incapacitates Magneto and removes his mouth when he tries to talk to her. She revives Quicksilver, telling Magneto that Quicksilver had only wanted him to be happy, but even when she gave Magneto what he wanted he was still a horrible man, and mutants were freaks. With the phrase "Daddy - No more mutants," Wanda changes the world back to its original form and causes ninety-eight percent of the mutant population to lose their powers. Magneto is one of the many mutants to lose their powers, and is left a broken man; although Wolverine contemplates killing him, he concludes that their old foe deserves every second of his crap 'sapien' life.
When Quicksilver comes to Genosha to restore the mutants' powers with the Inhumans' Terrigen Mists, Magneto condemns his actions, pointing out the disastrous effects the Mists have on non-Inhumans. An angry Quicksilver attacks Magneto with his new powers from the Mists, savagely beating him until his own daughter Luna begs him to stop. When the Inhumans come looking for their Mists, Magneto tells them what has happened.

The Collective

The Collective, a being comprised of energy from all the former mutants' powers, merges with an energy absorbing mutant named Michael Pointer. The Collective kills all of the most recent incarnation of Alpha Flight save for Sasquatch, and battles the New Avengers before landing in Genosha. There it repowers Magneto and reveals itself as Xorn. Xorn explains that he took the image of Magneto because he knew mutants would follow him, and that they needed the real Magneto again. Magneto, not in control of himself, begins attacking the New Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents while he pleads for them to kill him. He is taken down with a direct brain attack from mutant S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Daisy Johnson. Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, and the Sentry combine their powers and send the Collective/Xorn into the Sun. Michael is separated from the Collective and an unconscious Magneto is loaded into a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopter. The helicopter, however, explodes upon take-off through unknown means; his body was not found among the rubble.^[9]. However, as of the end of ''Civil War'', it's been revealed that Pointer, who was shown to retain some powers immediately after the separation, is coerced into joining the newly formed Omega Flight, using a suit designed to harness his powers as the new Guardian. As for Magneto, it's unknown if he retains the powers Xorn gave back to him.

Endangered Species

Recently, it has been confirmed that Magneto will have a role in the upcoming 'Endangered Species' storyline- focusing on Beast's attempts to find a 'cure' for M-Day and save the mutant race from extinction- and is being looked for by The U.S. Government, the Morlocks, and the X-Men. Professor Xavier has mentioned that he has been unable to locate Magneto with Cerebra, in spite of the increase in power to his recently restored telepathy, suggesting either that his repowerment by the Collective was temporary or that he may somehow be masking his presence to avoid detection. At this moment, both Professor Xavier and Nightcrawler are looking for Magneto, as are agents of the O
★ N
★ E
★ organisation. Xavier and Nightcrawler have found traces of Magneto paying his respects at a local graveyard, standing in front of a tombstone beloning to one of his very first henchmen. Also, the Morlocks are after Magneto for reasons of their own, and use him to justify their terrorist acts.

Powers and abilities

Magneto is a mutant with the superhuman power to create magnetic fields, which he uses to manipulate ferrous metals (iron, steel, etc.). He can also create electrical energy, often in the form of destructive bolts.
As the Master of Magnetism, he can use his magnetic fields to lift, move, and otherwise alter objects composed of ferrous metals, sometimes weighing many thousands of tons. Magneto has been able to stop armies, to raise islands from the ocean floor, and to move mountains. He once blanketed the Earth with an electromagnetic pulse that caused widespread devastation. He can project ferrous metals at high velocity, liquify and reshape them, manipulate iron in the human bloodstream, and achieve a wide range of other effects. Magneto is presumably also able to affect non-ferrous metals through electromagnetic induction, although he may find it more difficult to generate the alternating field required. This may also explain other manifestations of his power, such as the generation of electricity and heat. Although all plasmas are strongly influenced by magnetic fields, Magneto is rarely depicted manipulating fire or any other plasma.
Although Magneto's primary power is magnetism, he has also shown the ability to generate powerful bolts of electricity, and to generate enough infrared radiation (heat) to vaporize steel. Magneto often generates a force field around his body that protects him from projectiles and energy bolts. He can expand the field to protect other people and objects around him. His field has withstood volcanic eruption, the detonation of nuclear weapons, the vacuum of deep space, and attacks from multiple X-Men and Avengers (including Phoenix and Thor). Magneto is capable of personal levitation and sustained flight at high speeds. It is not entirely clear how he is able to achieve flight using magnetism; one explanation would be that his costume contains metallic elements which he is able to affect. While this may raise questions about , this law does not seem to restrict any other application of his powers.
Magneto is able to perceive the world around him as patterns of electromagnetic energy. He can also perceive the electrical auras surrounding living beings. Magneto can use his powers in more than one way simultaneously. Although he often gestures when using his powers, he can utilize them fully even when standing totally still merely by concentrating. His ability to wield his powers effectively is dependent upon his physical condition; when severely injured, his body is unable to withstand the strain of generating strong magnetic fields. Nonetheless, it remains unclear whether Magneto's powers are physiological in nature, or whether he can also create electromagnetic effects by sheer force of will.
A long-running mystery throughout the history of the X-Men is to what extent Magneto possesses telepathic powers. A definitive explanation has never been given, though Magneto has been depicted reading minds (stated as a "scan of surface thought") and proved fully capable of astral projection, a reasonably difficult psychic feat. He has been able to fight off telepathic intrusions and attacks from the likes of Psylocke, Jean Grey, and even Professor Xavier through sheer force of will. Magneto himself has been described as being the second most powerful mutant mind on earth, after only Professor Xavier himself, originally under the pen of his creator Stan Lee, then later under the stalwart, but controversial, pen of former X-Men artist John Byrne. Chris Claremont, long-time X-Men scribe and perhaps the definitive writer of Magneto, has claimed Magnus has no psychic talents at all, but instead is just of such an incredibly strong will, that he's able to resist psychic assaults, with varying degrees of difficulty. Later stories, such as during the Secret Wars, as portrayed by Jim Shooter, have claimed Magneto as a "latent" telepath rather than one fully aware and in control of his abilities (which seemed like an attempt to coincide with his original depiction, and Claremont's later take on the character).
In the'' X-Men Vs. The Avengers'' miniseries, Doctor Druid claims the only reason he could mentally enthrall Magneto was because he had taken him unaware, and claimed that it would only work for a limited amount of time, so formidable was Magnus' mind. A psychic screen that masked his presence from the other X-Men was quickly seen through by the Master of Magnetism, and Rogue, after absorbing Druid's power, mentioned the strength of Magneto's mental shields. Psylocke made a similar claim in ''X-Men'' Vol. 2 #2 when she attacked him with her psychic knife, which had been temporarily increased in power by Fabian Cortez, one of Magneto's Acolytes. Although she was able to break through his mental defenses, she remarked that she only had an edge because she caught him off guard and likely would not have come close to even hurting him at her normal level of power. However, it must also be noted that Psylocke's telepathy was not at its peak then, either, due to the fact that it was split between herself and Revanche; Psylocke was unaware of this at the time.
The depiction of Magneto in films indicates that his helmet contains a psychic shielding component. It is able to completely negate both the telepathic abilities of Charles Xavier, and also the illusory ability of Jason Stryker, which proves too much for even Professor X to resist. Professor X reports that Magneto helped him to build Cerebro ; in building a machine designed to amplify psychic emanations it is likely that he learned enough to build a means of shielding them.
Aside from his electromagnetic powers, Magneto is a genius with competance in various fields of advanced science. He is an expert on genetic manipulation and engineering. He has been able to mutate humans in order to give them superhuman powers, create adult clones of human beings, and manipulate the genetic structures of these clones during their development. He has designed magnetically-powered skycraft and spacecraft, complex robots and computers, and magnetically-powered generators. He has also designed artificial living beings, space stations, and machines that nullify mutant powers within a radius of several miles.

Inspirations

Director of ''X-Men'' Bryan Singer has stated that while Xavier is partially based on Martin Luther King, Jr. and Gandhi, the modern depiction of Magneto is in part a derivative of Malcolm X and Meir Kahane. Others have compared Xavier to both King and X, while suggesting Lehnsherr's beliefs are more in line, from a mutant perspective, with those of Louis Farrakhan or Nat Turner.

Other versions

Main articles: Alternate versions of Magneto

In other media

Main articles: Magneto in other media

Bibliography

Main articles: Bibliography of Magneto

Footnotes

1. ''The Religious Affiliation of Comic Book Character Erik Magnus Lehnsherr – Magneto''. URL last checked 2007-01-14.
2. Meth, Clifford. ''Protocols of the Elders of Marvel''. URL last checked 2007-01-14.
3. Quesada, Joe. "New Joe Fridays Week 28" URL last checked 2007-01-14.
4. ''Wizard'' #177
5. ''Classic X-Men'' #12
6. ''X-Men'' vol. 2 #72
7. ''Uncanny X-Men'' #161
8. Uncanny X-Men #150
9. '''New Avengers''' #20

References

★ XMenFilms.net

★ Magneto's bio at UncannyXmen.net

★ Metaphilm: The Dark Wisdom of Erik Lensherr

★ Magneto is Jewish FAQ