Resurrection of Magneto is a 2024 comic book limited series by Marvel Comics. Written by Al Ewing and drawn by Luciano Vecchio, it is part of the wider Fall of the House of X crossover, while also following plot threads from X-Men Red (2022).
On Arakko (formerly Mars), Ororo Munroe has been having dreams of Magneto, who died some time previously fighting the mad Eternal Uranos. With Mutantkind scattered and Professor X missing, Storm knows Mutantkind needs Magneto more than ever. But even without the Five, missing in the fall of Krakoa, her friend destroyed all his memory back-ups, removing that avenue of return for him. So Storm's going to have to find another way to bring him back, regardless of who or what stand in her way...
Resurrection of Magneto contains the following tropes:
- Ambiguous Situation: Storm arrives in the Waiting Room to find it apparently empty. Tarn suggests it might not be empty, or all the inhabitants have gone somewhere else, but this requires taking Tarn at his word.
- Arc Number: As with Rise of the Powers of X, five. Storm sees five of Magneto's helmets in her vision, but has no idea why. Ashake tells her that in magic, five's a pretty important number.
- Arc Welding:
- Issue #1 makes explicit that Enigma, the Dominion created from a brain uploading of the original Nathaniel Essex, is indeed the threat the Beyonders warned the Defenders about back in Defenders: Beyond.
- The Shadow King suggests that a number of powerful evil beings such as itself, Annihilation, the First Fallen, the Goblin Force (from Mutant X), the Adversary and Le Bete Noir (from Bishop & Cable) are aspects of a greater evil force, but never clearly says either way. This aligns with what's implied in Defenders: Beyond when the Anti-All from the Third Cosmos shattered into fragments.
- Badass Adorable: Loolo and her brother hear Storm cry out in terror and come rushing in asking if there's something they need to kill. Ororo thinks this is adorable, though according to Craig they'd take being called such as an insult.
- The Bus Came Back:
- Storm first meets Tarn in the otherwise empty afterlife.
- Soon after, she meets Ashake, her identical distant ancestor (first introduced in the Claremont days of New Mutants, and who Ororo met more recently in the events of Gambit vol 6).
- Call-Back: Issue #3 has Magneto going over his misdeeds through the Krakoa era, including The Trial of Magneto and the events of Sabretooth.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: In issue #4, Magneto uses his spare helmets as representatives of which moral alignment he should go with; black for the Magneto of old, all fire and vengeance, white for Charles's idealism, or red. He ultimately goes with red.
- Continuity Nod:
- Storm flashes back through a montage of her interactions with Max over the years, from X-Men #160, to Red issue #1.
- Five being the number of magic refers back to magic coming into existence with the Fifth Cosmos as stated in The Ultimates (2015).
- The Dominion explains that the place they're talking with Ororo was accessed via the Negative Zone, and that it was created in the fifth multiverse, a fact established back in the last issue of Ewing's Ultimates. As they mention the Beyonders, there's a shot of them matching their appearance in Defenders: Beyond.
- One of the lives Magneto blames himself for taking is the villain of Magneto: Not A Hero.
- Among the deaths Magneto holds himself responsible for are Basilisk (killed by Xorn when he impersonated Magneto in New X-Men), Sharon Friedlander (killed by Frenzy), and Cypher (stray bullet).
- Magneto uses the strange key the sea creature gifted him back in Giant Size X-Men: Magneto.
- Issue #3 shows The First Fallen among the "faces of evil" (Adversary, Shadow King and Annihilation) - a Claremont creation from his 2004-2006 run in 'Uncanny X-Men''. While fighting it, Storm mentions that Nightcrawler told her about it, since Storm was off in her own subplot during those events.
- The Shadow King's illusion of Magneto brings up his actions from 2023's Magneto miniseries.
- Magneto's line as he's fully reborn at the end of issue #3 is "men call me power!", something he said all the way back in the Stan and Jack days, and repeated a few times since.
- Fighting a Shadow: Storm destroyed the staff of Annihilation back in X-Men: Red, but meets it again in issue 3, with it chiding her for thinking destroying its physical avatar would do more than slow it down.
- Fold-Spindle Mutilation: In the final issue, the newly resurrected Magneto faces an elite squad from the anti-mutant extremist group Orchis. They explain that if he uses his powers against them, they'll release nerve gas and kill the hostages they're holding. However, there's metal within their armour and weapons, so Magneto compresses that material into small spheres before the soldiers or their sensors can trigger the gas; the flesh and bone wrapped inside the armour is instantly reduced to wet, dripping pulp.
- Forgiveness: The main theme of the second issues. Max needs to come to terms with his feelings of guilt. Storm shows him all the good he's done and it gives him the strength to forgive himself.
- Horrifying the Horror: Dominions are giant Mechanical Abominations with powers spreading over multiple planes of reality, but even they seem unnerved by Enigma, since they say while they just consume, it threatens.
- Internal Reveal: Max reveals to Storm that he was the one who murdered Wanda, not Toad.
- Irony: In #4 a Stark sentinel is out to kill Magneto, Storm and Blue Marvel. At the same time a ship carrying pro-mutant human activists comes in, to get evidence of an Orchis mutant prison. The sentinel is about to kill the humans for getting in it's way and Magneto acknowledges that he (a mutant) is now protecting humans from a sentinel. The whole point of a sentinel being to protect humans from mutants.
- It's All My Fault: While Magneto does have quite a few deaths on his hands, some of the ones he's being tormented for are ones he is only tangentially connected to, such as Suzannah Dane. As Storm points out, he's quite happy to be punished for his misdeeds, but flips when anyone tries to get him to take responsibility for the good he's accomplished.
- I Warned You: When Magneto learns from Ororo just what's happened with Mutantkind while he was gone, namely that Charles did something because he felt he had no choice, the very thing he warned Ororo about, he goes berserk.
- Jackass Genie: The Dominions Ororo run into answer her questions, though it's not remotely out of benevolence. Every question answered gives her more knowledge, and therefore makes her a tastier meal for them.
- Meaningful Echo: Back when he died during Judgment Day, Erik warned Ororo to beware of Charles on the grounds "we must beware of good men, for there are no lengths they will go to to show us they are good." In issue 4, he thinks similar thoughts about himself; he's trying to be good.
- Necessarily Evil: Played with in issue 3; Storm acknowledges that as disgusting as he is, the Shadow King is part of a cosmic system, and she must respect that... by fighting him.
- No Indoor Voice: The Shadow King's illusion of Magneto in his earliest, pre-Character Development days, tends to shout every line, sometimes with multiple exclamation points.
- Psychic Dreams for Everyone: What kicks off the plot. Storm has visions of Max standing before a nightmarish plane, surrounded by several versions of his helmet, lamenting that he was wrong.
- Relationship Upgrade: Craig Marshall, who Ororo had previously been seen having dinner with just before Fall of X kicked off, is now in a relationship with her.
- Robo Speak: How the Dominions speak, unlike Enigma over in other X-Men titles.
- Sadistic Choice: Some Orchis goons in issue 4 have Magneto at gunpoint, and tell him to surrender (at which point they will kill him), and not to use his powers or it'll kill the Mutants they already have captive. Of course, by this point Magneto knows full well Orchis won't keep their word for even a second regardless.
- Self-Inflicted Hell: This is what Max finds himself in. It turns out that he is tortured by his guilt over the lives he's negatively influenced, directly or indirectly. He gets out of it when Storm shows him all of the lives he's made better with his actions.
- Sequel Hook: Before Storm fights him, Shadow King hints that even he has an opposite number of some kind, and that defeating him now would be a good idea as a change in the cosmic balance is coming, giving that opposite a leg up...
- Spirit World: Storm enters the "Waiting Room", a sort of limbo for mutant souls. She's not entirely there physically; her body's lying prone on the floor of Dr. Brashear's base while he and Taaia try to resuscitate her.
- Tarot Motifs:
- In issue 1:
- Firstly, Storm enters the Waiting Room on a splash page, and sees in the distance seven objects floating in a sea of clouds above seven pillars: a tower with a crown, a woman in purple, a snake inside a wheel (top row), a three-faced representation of the Living Tribunal, a green crystal, a golden skull with a wreath and a ball with a demonic figure reflected on it (bottom row). This imagery is evocative of the Minor Arcana card "Seven of Cups".
- Ashake, Storm's Egyptian ancestor, shows her a card of the Minor Arcana: the five of swords. In another scene, she summons a lightning to strike down the place where Ororo was standing on, in a clear reference to the Tower card of the Major Arcana, which shows a lightning striking a tower.
- In another scene, Ororo meets the Phalanx Dominion. The panel of her falling down and being detected by the Phalanx is reminiscent of the "Eight of Pentacles" card: six discs on the right side of the image, a seventh one in the bottom left corner.
- In the same, she asks them about Magneto. The Phalanx mentions his soul passed by them, and the accompanying panel shows Magneto in a position akin to the Hanged Man card of the Major Arcana.
- The last page with Ororo mirrors the first page with Magneto downcast and five helmets nearby, three fallen and next to blood, with two helmets standing. This is a visual nod to the "Five of Cups" card of the Minor Arcana.
- In issue 4:
- The first page has Magneto pose like the Heirophant arcana as he faces down some Orchis goons.
- The conclusion recreates the World, with important characters replacing the four living creatures.
- In issue 1:
- Tears of Blood: Magneto is crying tears of blood in his own personal hell.
- Too Spicy For Yog Sogoth: Faced with Dominions that could tear her down to constituent atoms and devour her very being, Ororo's only hope is put up a fight and hope she sticks in their metaphorical mouth.
- We Do the Impossible: Storm goes to Dr. Adam Brashear for help getting to the afterlife. He tell her that while Tony Stark or Reed Richards might say it's impossible, he's built a whole career on doing the impossible.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Back in Judgment Day, Magneto died thinking he was going into the light with his long-dead daughter Anya, and that they'd be happily reunited in the afterlife. The first thing this issue shows is that this is not remotely what's happened to Max.
