History SelfDemonstrating / Magneto

* PutOnABus: It seems that when I've battled humanity for "too long", I end up swept aside so other villains can "take the splitlight for a while" or other such rot. You equate this to a mere TV show? This is a war I battle! But if I must, the first instance was after my 12th battle when I unexpectedly found myself a prisoner of [[DiabolusExNihilo an unexpected extra-terrestrial called the Stranger]].

* PutOnABus: It seems that when I've battled humanity for "too long", I end up swept aside so other villains can "take the splitlight for a while" or other such rot. You equate this to a mere TV show? This is a war I battle! But if I must, the first instance was after my 12th battle when I unexpectedly found myself a prisoner of [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere an unexpected extra-terrestrial called the Stranger]].

* GlassCannon: My powers are typically highly destructive, even if all the writers can think of is manipulating metal, but at the same time I myself am no more durable than any non-powered man.

Our peaceful life was not to last. While we lived in the Soviet city of Vinnitsa (alas, the life of a Roma did not suit me), I was cheated out of my pay by my employer and, in anger, used my powers consciously for the first time by throwing a crowbar at him through sheer will alone. [[DisproportionateRetribution In retaliation]], driven on by fear of what they could not understand, the people of Vinnitsa formed a mob and [[KickTheDog burned down the inn where Magda, Anya, and I were living]]. When I saw my daughter's burning body fall out of her room, prevented from helping her by KGB minions who held me down and battered me repeatedly, [[{{Understatement}} I did not take it well]]. I unleashed the fury of my newfound powers, killing the thugs who held me down, the animals who killed my daughter, and tearing a chunk of their wretched city to the ground. Magda survived, but my power, and my temporary insanity, terrified her into fleeing, leaving me alone to bury our daughter (and when Soviet troops attempted to stop me doing so, I turned their guns on them and pulled their triggers).

In the face of endless opposition, from my own kind and my own children, as well as non-mutant superhumans such as ComicBook/TheAvengers, who accepted Wanda and Pietro into their ranks, I have learnt to soften my stance somewhat. I have even [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor joined the X-Men myself from time to time]], and worked with them to combat greater mutual menaces. But I stand by my most core belief. I have seen the lowest depths of human evil; I may have dragged myself from the abyss of my own hypocrisy, but though I am no longer as bent on genocide and domination does not mean mutants are safe. The safety and well-being of my people are of paramount importance, and rest assured, [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou human troper]], I am prepared to do ''anything'' to ensure our survival and prosperity, and to avert the repetition of history which would see mutantkind consigned to the death camps.

I saw once and for all that Charles' views and mine were incompatible once we were drawn into battle with those Neo-Nazi trash known as [[NebulousEvilOrganization HYDRA]], who had abducted our friend Gabrielle Haller because she knew the location of a hoard of NaziGold. We both revealed our powers that day and overpowered the HYDRA agents, Xavier with his boundless telepathic might and I with my ever-growing mastery over the forces of magnetism. But a fellow mutant, the first one I had ever met, refused to deal with these pond scum with the harsh hand they deserved. In disgust, and realizing we had nothing more to say to one another, I took the gold for myself and left.

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Some bigoted comic authors have claimed that I am in truth no different than the Germanic bigots who butchered my family, upholding the same creed of racial supremacy with equal fervor. Naturally, I reject such claims entirely; although it is true that I have noted the uncomfortable similarities in my own crusade to promote Homo Superior to its rightful place and the Nazi beliefs in the Ubermensch and the Untermensch, I have never countenanced the sort of barbarism the Nazis used to slaughter those they considered unfit. I resort to violence only because it is necessary to take such proactive steps to protect my people from humanity; humans will eliminate themselves eventually without any need for direct intervention on my part. Indeed, at least twice I have sought to simply remove my people from humanity to leave them to their fates, such as when I founded Genosha or established Asteroid M, but such efforts have always simply redoubled humanity's fervor to strike at me and mine.
** However, the same cannot be said about my odious incarnation in the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe. Whereas I fight only to protect mutantkind, he actively encourages mutants to kill and terrorize humans as part of his "mutant supremacy" creed. He has taken separation from humanity to the extreme, attempting to create a new mutant culture to the extent of devising new "mutant commandmants" (something I can almost grudgingly respect), very similar to Himmler and Hitler's efforts at building up their new "Aryan culture"... and also denigrating humanity to levels of the worst form of Untermensch. Filth that they were, even the ''Nazis'' did not consider cannibalism as an appropriate "use" for their undesirables, whilst this twisted mutant once threatened on live television to keep surviving humans as literal ''livestock'' for the new mutant civilization. That this psychotic charlatan dares claim the mantle of Master Of Magnetism is an insult, and he should count himself lucky that he was killed by that universe's Cyclops in retaliation for [[ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}} the cataclysm he caused]], as I would have found a way to destroy him for tainting my name eventually. I find a dark satisfaction in the knowledge that, unlike my own mutant brethren, the mutants of the Ultimate universe are the result of failed attempts at recreating the serum that created their version of ComicBook/CaptainAmerica that entered the human gene pool, the reveal of which destroyed the resolve of my impotent counterpart. [[spoiler: Naturally, I consider any rumors that my own mutants being just one of several results of the Celestials tampering with the human genome in prehistory to be nothing but transparent anti-mutant propaganda]]

* ArchEnemy: The Franchise/XMen in general; Charles Xavier in particular... although I [[FriendlyEnemy don't take it personally]].
** If not Charles, then the ComicBook/RedSkull. As much as I battle the X-Men, they are ultimately a FriendlyEnemy I would much rather join forces with, but the Skull is by far the one being alive that I despise more than anyone. He symbolizes everything I detest, and I would gladly crush his throat with my bare hands if not for the fact that such a death would be too kind for such Nazi scum.

** When I was de-aged by Alpha, Charles and that woman [=MacTaggert=] did this to me. ''How dare they! How '''dare''' they play God with my mind, claiming it was for some greater good!'' ... As it transpired, it hadn't actually worked at all.

Despite my resentment towards humans, I admit that some of them have portrayed me in a clever way in the films. The actors that played me are Creator/IanMcKellen and Creator/MichaelFassbender. My voice was also given by John Stephenson, [[WesternAnimation/XMen David Hemblen]], [[WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution Christopher Judge]], [[VideoGame/XMenLegends Tony Jay, Richard Green]], [[VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance John DiMaggio]], and [[WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen Tom]] [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom Kane]].

* [[ForgotAboutHisPowers Forgot About My Powers]]: [[WesternAnimation/TheFantasticFour1978 There was an incident in which Reed Richards managed to dupe me with a wooden gun. The sheer simplicity of his trick dumbfounded me to the point in which the authorities took me in without incident.]] To this day I still cannot explain what happened.

** Said forced team-ups may have also been the result of [[VideoGame/CapcomVsWhatever another entity playing a foolish game]].

But if I, [[SecretIdentity Max Eisenhardt]], was anything, I was a [[TheDeterminator survivor]].

I fled Europe, fled the pain and anguish and the torment, and began traveling, eventually making my way to Israel where I did volunteer work in a psychiatric hospital for Holocaust survivors, those who understandably were overwhelmed by the sheer barbarity of it all. Another volunteer at that hospital was a young American named Charles Xavier, and I was destined to be his [[FriendlyEnemy best friend and greatest enemy]]. Charles and I discussed many things, foremost amongst them the fate of mutantkind and the threat posed to it by a world [[FantasticRacism that hates and fears us]]. Charles, in his simple naiveté, thought that humans and mutants could [[{{Pacifist}} live peacefully together]], but his only taste of humanity's bestial nature was being bullied by his oaf of a stepbrother, and some brief time as a medic in the Korean War. I, however, had been weaned on a diet of nothing but man's inhumanity; I had seen nightmarish horrors the likes of which Xavier could not begin to imagine, and I was resolved, I was ''determined'', that such a thing must not happen twice. Mutants, ''[[MasterRace Homo superior]]'', would not have to repeat the history of my sorry childhood. We had not yet revealed to each other that we were both, ourselves, mutants.

In the face of endless opposition, from my own kind and my own children, as well as non-mutant superhumans such as ComicBook/TheAvengers, who accepted Wanda and Pietro into their ranks, I have learnt to soften my stance somewhat. I have even [[HeelFaceTurn joined the X-Men myself from time to time]], and worked with them to combat greater mutual menaces. But I stand by my most core belief. I have seen the lowest depths of human evil; I may have dragged myself from the abyss of my own hypocrisy, but though I am no longer as bent on genocide and domination does not mean mutants are safe. The safety and well-being of my people are of paramount importance, and rest assured, [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou human troper]], I am prepared to do ''anything'' to ensure our survival and prosperity, and to avert the repetition of history which would see mutantkind consigned to the death camps.

** Likewise, my film counterpart, while charismatic, and certainly true in every regard about mankind's treatment of mutants, is still an utter self-serving bastard, who attempted genocide on mankind using Charles himself. He did eventually see sense, however.
*** Thankfully, in the altered timeline, his younger counterpart saw sense a great deal sooner.

** In the comics, at one point, Marvel at one point Retconned my ethnic status away while they were preparing for one of my more vicious phases, afraid that such a villain being Jewish would seem anti-Semitic and cause problems. Naturally, no one wondered if it was anti-''mutant''. And if you're wondering what they changed me to, it was, as I sort of mentioned before, a Sinte. It was a rather disingenuous move given their motivations.

** First of all, there is the gift of {{Flight}}, and my ability to stay well out of reach of brutish attackers like the brash [[ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} Logan]].
** Secondly, I am able to place {{Deflector Shield}}s and other barriers around me to protect even from long-distance attacks.

** If not Charles, then the Red Skull. As much as I battle the X-Men, they are ultimately a FriendlyEnemy I would much rather join forces with, but the Skull is by far the one being alive that I despise more than anyone. He symbolizes everything I detest, and I would gladly crush his throat with my bare hands if not for the fact that such a death would be too kind for such Nazi scum.

* BigBad: Formerly, the chief antagonist of the X-men. We have since found more common ground.

** When I was de-aged by Alpha, Charles and that woman Mactaggert did this to me. ''How dare they! How '''dare''' they play God with my mind, claiming it was for some greater good!'' ... As it transpired, it hadn't actually worked at all.

* ChewToy: It would appear that the universe at large may have a thing against mutants as mankind does.

* TheDeterminator: Nothing less could withstand the barbarity of the Holocaust.

* DoUntoOthersBeforeTheyDoUntoUs: This is one of my main rationales in my war on humanity, and one of the main sticking points in my philosophical differences with Charles: I must strike at humans before they do mutants harm.

** On another occasion, I worked with several of the Marvel Universe's most despicable villains, including the Red Skull, in what was colloquially referred to as the "Acts of Vengeance", in an attempt to destroy the "heroes" who constantly interfered with our plans. The bile still rises in my throat when I think of working with that... Nazi... although in retrospect I realize that I and the other participants in the plot were manipulated by Loki the trickster god.

* FinalBoss: In nearly every VideoGame about the X-Men ever made. It would be easier to list the ones that don't feature me as this.
* [[ForgotAboutHisPowers Forgot About My Powers]]: There was an incident in which Reed Richards managed to dupe me with a wooden gun. The sheer simplicity of his trick dumbfounded me to the point in which the authorities took me in without incident. To this day I still cannot explain what happened.

* FreudianExcuse: Back in my day, it was called the Holocaust. [[DoubleSubverted …But no, that's not quite right. That wraps things up too nicely.]] The Holocaust happened, and I survived, even attempting to not let such an event shape me negatively. [[TraumaCongaLine Then my daughter was killed by you vile lot]], I discovered and unleashed my powers to deal deserved judgment... and, regrettably, my beloved Magda left me in fear soon after I had unleashed my wrath upon the culprits responsible.

* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: I shall always do what needs to be done to safeguard the future of mutantkind -- regardless of whether others consider my actions "good" or "evil." Evidently, I am a "face" in such terminology after [[spoiler:I yanked miss Kitty Pryde off of what you Homo tropiens might call the [[TheBusCameBack Bus.]]]]

* JokerImmunity: I'm Marvel's premiere example. That very trope page brought up that I may well have had more intended permanent deaths, de-powers, and lobotomies to render me harmless than any other super villain, so much so that I might have likely been the TropeNamer if not for the Joker.

* LoveTriangle: [[spoiler:I am part of one, locked in combat with that insolent Cajun Remy [=LeBeau=] (better known as Comicbook/{{Gambit}}, to you) for the affections of the mutant Rogue. She ''promises'' nothing about the future, but I have won the triangle for now.]]
* MadeOfIron: In one of my confrontations with Charles' students, I received several blows to the head from [[ChromeChampion Colossus]], yet still remained standing, to say nothing of the fact I simply shrugged off that loutish Wolverine's attempts to skewer me.

* MundaneUtility: Perhaps more like Artistic Utility, but my life-sized steel sculpture CallingCards should count as this.

* NotQuiteFlight: Controlling [[ArtisticLicensePhysics magnetic lines of force]] enables me to levitate. It is also a likely explanation for how I can move things lacking ferrous metal.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Thanks to the courtesy of Alpha and the High Evolutionary, I'm in my physical prime, despite being almost a century old.

* PutOnABus: It seems that when I've battled humanity for "too long", I end up swept aside so other villains can "take the splitlight for a while" or other such rot. You equate this to a mere TV show? This is a war I battle! But if I must, the first instance was after my 12th battle when I unexpectedly found myself a prisoner of a [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere an unexpected extra-terrestrial called the Stranger]].

* TheRival: Charles Xavier, as a result of our differing views on whether mutantkind and man can live in peace or not; in the wider MarvelUniverse, my rival is instead Doctor Doom. I am the closest he considers to be legitimate competition.

* StatingTheSimpleSolution: Marvel were planning to have a major battle between me and Wolverine, when Creator/PeterDavid realized that I could just rip his skeleton out and be done with him.

* TheExtremistWasRight: Can you really argue with me on this? No matter how many times the X-Men have stopped my plans or saved the world from any other number of threats to it, mutants are still hated and feared by normal humans as much as they were before.

** It is also why I am able to fight those with similar abilities who truly CAN be considered UnskilledButStrong. I once did battle with a cosmically powered Franchise/SpiderMan on my own. On [[ComicBook/SecretWars another occasion]], I told the assembled heroes of the MarvelUniverse that only ComicBook/TheMightyThor was my equal in power. No one argued the point with me.

(The above should be read in the voice of Creator/IanMcKellen, David Hemblen, Creator/ChristopherJudge, or Creator/TomKane. If read in the voice of John Stephenson, all references to yourself should be in the third person, which means you can do it to the comicbook tab as well.)

(The above should be read in the voice of Creator/IanMcKellen, David Hemblen, or Creator/TomKane. If read in the voice of John Stephenson, all references to yourself should be in the third person, which means you can do it to the comicbook tab as well.)

** In ''VideoGame/XMenLegends'', due to being voiced by Creator/TonyJay.

In my role as a so-called villain and opponent to the Franchise/XMen, I was created by Creator/StanLee and Creator/JackKirby, first appearing in ''"ComicBook/XMen''" vol. 1 #1 (September, 1963). [[StartOfDarkness The story of my life however, begins rather earlier]] - a Jew, I was born in UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic Germany in the late [[TheRoaringTwenties 1920s]] before moving to UsefulNotes/{{Poland}} with my parents in 1939... and those of you with remedial historical training can [[UsefulNotes/{{The Holocaust}} venture a guess as to the end result of that]]. As a young man, I witnessed and endured some of the very worst of what humanity had to offer. [[OrphansOrdeal My family was murdered when I was just a boy]], and dumped in a mass grave before my very eyes; soon after, I was myself sent to that hell called Auschwitz and on several occasions I thought I was going to share their fate. While as a ''Sonderkommando'' I was forced, on pain of death, to mete out that same fate to thousands of other innocents as at gunpoint. I and others were made to assist in genocide, to assist those monsters in their gas chambers and furnaces. Lame with hepatitis, [[DespairEventHorizon all hope and reason crushed under the mad Nazi jackboot]], I am ready to admit that so many times I was tempted to resign myself to my black fate.

But if [[SecretIdentity Max Eisenhardt]] was anything, he was a [[TheDeterminator survivor]].

The one good thing I remember from those years was my darling love, Magda, a Romani girl interned with me, and during the October 7th revolt in 1944 the pair of us managed to make our escape. We fled to the Ukraine and lived out the remainder of [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the war]] and its aftermath in relative peace with her family, and Magda bore us a daughter, Anya. We were happy together, though I hid from my wife a great secret I was only just uncovering myself -- I was [[SuperpowerfulGenetics a mutant]], born with the power to [[MagnetismManipulation manipulate magnetic fields and master the entire electro-magnetic spectrum]].

** However, the same cannot be said about my odious incarnation in the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe. Whereas I fight only to protect mutantkind, he actively encourages mutants to kill and terrorize humans as part of his "mutant supremacy" creed. He has taken separation from humanity to the extreme, attempting to create a new mutant culture to the extent of devising new "mutant commandmants" (something I can almost grudgingly respect), very similar to Himmler and Hitler's efforts at building up their new "Aryan culture"... and also denigrating humanity to levels of the worst form of Untermensch. Filth that they were, even the ''Nazis'' did not consider cannibalism as an appropriate "use" for their undesirables, whilst this twisted mutant once threatened on live television to keep surviving humans as literal ''livestock'' for the new mutant civilization. That this psychotic charlatan dares claim the mantle of Master Of Magnetism is an insult, and he should count himself lucky that he was killed by that universe's Cyclops in retaliation for [[ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}} the cataclysm he caused]], as I would have found a way to destroy him for tainting my name eventually. I find a dark satisfaction in the knowledge that, unlike my own mutant brethren, the mutants of the Ultimate universe are the result of failed attempts at recreating the serum that created their version of CaptainAmerica that entered the human gene pool, the reveal of which destroyed the resolve of my impotent counterpart. [[spoiler: Naturally, I consider any rumors that my own mutants being just one of several results of the Celestials tampering with the human genome in prehistory to be nothing but transparent anti-mutant propaganda]]

* BadassGrandpa: I have [[ComicBook/YoungAvengers two grandsons]], who helped me find their mother the last time she went missing, and [[ComicBook/TheInhumans a granddaughter]].

In my role as a so-called villain and opponent to the Franchise/XMen, I was created by Creator/StanLee and Creator/JackKirby, first appearing in ''"ComicBook/XMen''" vol. 1 #1 (September, 1963). [[StartOfDarkness The story of my life however, begins rather earlier]] - a Jew, I was born in UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic Germany in the late [[TheRoaringTwenties 1920s]] before moving to UsefulNotes/{{Poland}} with my parents in 1939... and those of you with remedial historical training can [[UsefulNotes/{{Holocaust}} venture a guess as to the end result of that]]. As a young man, I witnessed and endured some of the very worst of what humanity had to offer. [[OrphansOrdeal My family was murdered when I was just a boy]], and dumped in a mass grave before my very eyes; soon after, I was myself sent to that hell called Auschwitz and on several occasions I thought I was going to share their fate. While as a ''Sonderkommando'' I was forced, on pain of death, to mete out that same fate to thousands of other innocents as at gunpoint. I and others were made to assist in genocide, to assist those monsters in their gas chambers and furnaces. Lame with hepatitis, [[DespairEventHorizon all hope and reason crushed under the mad Nazi jackboot]], I am ready to admit that so many times I was tempted to resign myself to my black fate.

** However, the same cannot be said about my odious incarnation in the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe. Whereas I fight only to protect mutantkind, he actively encourages mutants to kill and terrorize humans as part of his "mutant supremacy" creed. He has taken separation from humanity to the extreme, attempting to create a new mutant culture to the extent of devising new "mutant commandmants" (something I can almost grudgingly respect), very similar to Himmler and Hitler's efforts at building up their new "Aryan culture"... and also denigrating humanity to levels of the worst form of Untermensch. Filth that they were, even the ''Nazis'' did not consider cannibalism as an appropriate "use" for their undesirables, whilst this twisted mutant once threatened on live television to keep surviving humans as literal ''livestock'' for the new mutant civilization. That this psychotic charlatan dares claim the mantle of Master Of Magnetism is an insult, and he should count himself lucky that he was killed by that universe's Cyclops in retaliation for [[ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}} the cataclysm he caused]], as I would have found a way to destroy him for tainting my name eventually.

* SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX: Before I met [[spoiler:Rogue]], I generally was romantically or sexually involved with non-mutant women – dear departed Magda, Isabelle, Polaris's mother, the back-stabbing Wasp, and Cyclops' former lover Lee Forrester, and now mutant-fangirl Briar Raleigh.

* SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX: Before I met [[spoiler:Rogue]], I generally was romantically or sexually involved with non-mutant women -- dear departed Magda, Isabelle, Polaris's mother, the back-stabbing Wasp, and Cyclops' former lover Lee Forrester.

* ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth: My dear sister Ruthie saw butterflies, immediately before she, I, and our parents were apprehended by nazis. She and they were executed, and I was thought dead and left in the same mass grave.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: I am Jewish by birth, but this aspect of my character is not always openly stated. In addition to more specific examples mentioned below, it's never made clear if I actually practice the Judaic faith.

* AboveGoodAndEvil: As I told Joseph during our last encounter, there are no heroes or villains – there is only what I want and how I'll get it. I have no use for imaginary dichotomies.

* FreudianExcuse: Back in my day, it was called the Holocaust. [[DoubleSubverted ...But no, that's not quite right. That wraps things up too nicely.]] The Holocaust happened, and I survived, even attempting to not let such an event shape me negatively. [[TraumaCongaLine Then my daughter was killed by you vile lot]], I discovered and unleashed my powers to deal deserved judgment... and, regrettably, my beloved Magda left me in fear soon after I had unleashed my wrath upon the culprits responsible.