Self Demonstrating / Magneto

The Master of Magnet! ...ism.

"I am no hero. Merely a man who has seen and done and endured what can never be forgotten or forgiven."

— Uncanny X-Men #196

(The following should be read in the voice of Ian McKellen, Michael Fassbender, David Hemblen, Tony Jay, Christopher Judge, or Tom Kane. 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.)

It is rather insufferable to think that I am this late to the game. The psychotic jester, that twisted alien with the ring, the bald lunatic, and that tin-plated egomaniac have all had their own pages here for months, and yet I, Magneto, have only been given my own space today. It is a cruel injustice that must be set right, but should I have expected any different treatment from Homo sapiens?

In my role as a so-called villain and opponent to the X-Men, I was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, first appearing in "X-Men" vol. 1 #1 (September 1963). The story of my life, however, begins rather earlier - a Jew, I was born in Weimar Republic Germany in the late 1920s before moving to Poland with my parents in 1939... and those of you with remedial historical training can 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. 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, 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 I, Max Eisenhardt, was anything, I was a 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 Ukraine and lived out the remainder of 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 a mutant, born with the power to manipulate magnetic fields and master the entire electromagnetic spectrum.

Our peaceful life was not to last. While we lived in the Soviet city of Vinnitsa (alas, the Romani lifestyle 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. In retaliation, driven on by fear of what they could not understand, the people of Vinnitsa formed a mob and 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, 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).

It would be decades before I found out that Magda had been pregnant when she fled. I never saw her again, for she died shortly after giving birth. My last memory of my wife is of her screaming in horror and terror at me.

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 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 that hates and fears us. Charles, in his simple naiveté, thought that humans and mutants could 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, 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.

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 HYDRA, who had abducted our friend Gabrielle Haller because she knew the location of a hoard of Nazi Gold. 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.

The final nail in the coffin was when I worked for a Western intelligence agency, tasked with hunting down Nazi war criminals while maintaining my cover as a Double Agent for Mossad, and handing over those murderers to Israel for a richly deserved trial and justice. I had fallen in love again, my darling Isabelle, but my Western masters — who had been well aware of what I was up to, but had up to now condoned it — decided that my latest capture, a worthless architect of misery named Hans Richter, was too valuable to surrender to his fate. They recruited him and murdered Isabelle right in front of my eyes, for which I hunted down each one of my controllers and paid them in kind.

In the face of ever growing anti-mutant persecution, I remade myself as Magneto, a living example of mutant superiority, of mutant existence, so as to make a statement that mutants no longer had to hide in the shadows. I declared war on humankind, because I realized that force was the only thing humans understood, and the only thing that would save mutants from an identical fate. Xavier, now a cripple, made clear he opposed my plans, and I clashed time and time again with his band of mutant heroes, the X-Men. They thwarted plan after plan, and battled me and my Brotherhood, amongst whom were two bitter young mutant twins called the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver — whom I later learnt were Wanda and Pietro, my children by Magda, though unfortunately only after my radical ways had proceeded to alienate us from one another.

In the face of endless opposition, from my own kind and my own children, as well as non-mutant superhumans such as The Avengers, who accepted Wanda and Pietro into their ranks, I have learnt to soften my stance somewhat. I have even 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 I am under the illusion that mutants are safe. The safety and well-being of my people are of paramount importance, and rest assured, 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.

If I live by any creed, it is this: Never. Again.

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 Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender. My voice was also given by John Stephenson, David Hemblen, Christopher Judge, Tony Jay, Richard Green, John DiMaggio, and Tom Kane.

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Examples of how my character may be described:

• Above Good and Evil: 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 fanciful dichotomies.
• Adaptational Heroism: In the 90s X-Men cartoon, because the show was basing its stories on what was current in the comics and at the time I wasn't an antagonist, I actually was an ally to the X-Men in most of my appearances.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • While I renounce Homo sapiens' limited labels of morality, my counterpart in Wolverine and the X-Men (2009) was willing to allow Sentinels free reign of Genosha, killing my fellow mutants en masse, simply so that the remainder would be more willing to wage war, something that goes against everything I have ever struggled for.
  • 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.
  • Worst of all is the inept counterpart of myself faced by the Ultimate X Men, who completely sacrificed any and all of my moral ambiguity to become nothing more than a repugnant mutant supremacist and genocidal maniac.
• Affably Evil: In some portrayals, Depending on the Writer, I am a gentleman in my pursuit of mutant freedom. Being played by the charming Sir Ian McKellen in the movies highlights this aspect of myself.
• Ambiguously Jewish: 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, though I do on occasion make reference to my sins and the God that will not forgive them.
  • 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.
  • In the 90s cartoon series, I was stripped of my status as a Holocaust survivor, as World War II and the Nazis were not allowed due to the insipid "moral code" of human animation producers. Instead, I was given a background as a boy from a more generic Eastern European country which was invaded and conquered in a more recent armed conflict, with my parents being killed during the invasion. Though not quite as horrific as the Holocaust, it still convinced me that using reason in the face of violence was a foolish gambit, and that humanity was far too brutal and warlike to make coexistence a possibility.
  When I was a child, my people talked while others prepared for war! They used reason when others used tanks, and they were destroyed for their troubles. I won't stand by and watch it happen again, I WON'T!
• Antagonist Abilities: Whilst I scoff at the mere idea of "fighting fair" (your X-Men hardly agree to battle me one-on-one, now, do they, Charles?), I confess that my mastery of magnetism gives me a number of abilities which opponents have trouble circumventing.
  • First of all, there is the gift of Flight, and my ability to stay well out of reach of brutish attackers like the brash Logan.
  • Secondly, I am able to place Deflector Shields and other barriers around me to protect even from long-distance attacks.
  • Thirdly, my magnetism can act as an Area of Effect that does not even require conscious aiming or precision, although this is rather taxing for me.
  • I have demonstrated the ability to perform Villain Teleportation, if the need requires.
  • I can use any of the many objects in my vicinity as Flying Weapons to keep my opponents busy and distract them as I complete my objectives.
  • If there is sufficient iron (or other metals) in their bodies, I can manipulate others like People Puppets.
  • When damaged, I can magnetically seal my wounds and reduce damage to prevent blood loss. Why, I can even create a makeshift prosthetic heart for myself on short notice. (Though I can't keep it going forever.)
  • Due to the human mind relying upon electromagnetic synapses and other similar functions, I have been known to dabble in Mind Manipulation when given sufficient cause.
  • And last but certainly not least, being the Master of Magnetism makes me effectively able to shape reality to my very whim.
• Anti-Hero: Regardless of whether I fight against or with the X-Men, I never hesitated to give scumbags exactly what they deserve.
• Anti-Villain: One that has started many an argument of varying maturity. To some, I am a Well-Intentioned Extremist supremacist mass-murdering terrorist demagogue, with occasional outright genocidal ambitions; alternately, some people still root for the Brotherhood despite their muddled blood, weep for my cause, or have contempt for my position in life. No matter the style "Anti-Hero" they label me, my ideals are rightfully accorded with respect, as all of humanity in this Crapsack World are persecuting scum who have it coming... which is all Depending on the Writer. Even God had trouble balancing favorites in the Good Book, I suppose.
• Arch-Enemy: The X-Men in general; Charles Xavier in particular... although I don't take it personally. If not Charles, then the Red Skull. As much as I battle the X-Men, they are ultimately a Friendly Enemy 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.
• The Artifact: Yes, World War II was 70 years ago. Age is but a number, I'm still a paragon of power.
• Artistic License – Physics: Writers play around with the moniker of "Master of Magnetism" to the point that very little of what I can accomplish has anything to do with magnetism.
• Astral Projection: It's suggested I learned how to do this despite not having any Psychic Powers of my own, though perhaps it is merely that, though I do have psychic powers, I prefer to use my Magnetism. I would prefer not to say.
• The Atoner:
  • I have in many days attempted to atone for my misdeeds, a result of my status as the main villain with good aims adversary to Charles and his X-Men. During two of my atonement phases, I even joined them.
  • In an alternate universe, I had made a deal with an entity from another universe hoping to give mutants a fighting chance, but I soon learned to my horror that I had brought a deadly virus to Earth, and I devoted the remainder of my life in that universe to saving as many people, human AND mutant, as I could from the monsters that were once heroes.
• Barrier Warrior: I can raise electromagnetic barriers, with varying degrees of "electro-" and "-magnetic."
• Berserk Button: Do not even THINK the words "Just Following Orders" in my presence.
• Big Bad: Formerly, the chief antagonist of the X-Men. We have since found more common ground.
• Big Good: In the Age of Apocalypse timeline, I led the mutants opposing Apocalypse and his twisted minions.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation: I am the Master Of Magnetism, not the "Master of Magnet" as one of the ridiculous "video games" once portrayed me, nor do I ever invite my opponents to be "Welcome to Die!".
• Boxing Lessons for Superman: Years after discovering my mutant powers, I studied magnetism in depth, along with many other different scientific fields, in order to perfect my gift.
• Brainwashing for the Greater Good:
  • When I was de-aged by Alpha, Charles and that woman Moira 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.
  • I... confess I have made use of this, once making Mastermind bury a young Lorna's traumatic memory of killing her mother with her newly activated powers. But I was right to do so!
• Broken Pedestal: Suffice to say, some of my Acolytes were thoroughly displeased to even look at me when I lost my powers on M-Day. Miss Joanna Cargill especially so.
• Brought Down to Badass: There have been times where I have had to make do without my powers, for one reason or another. They do nothing to slow my effectiveness however, as Joanna Cargill (and her eyes) can attest.
• Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: My dear sister Ruthie saw butterflies immediately before she, I, and our parents were apprehended by nazis. They were executed, and I was thought dead and left in the same mass grave.
• Byronic Hero: Perhaps the only appellation humans apply to me that I would consider suitably respectful. I am a savior, driven to the things I do only because my people need someone willing to stand up and fight for their rights in the face of a world that will always hate and repress them. If this causes me to engage in behavior that humans would not consider "heroic" from their bigoted perspective, than so be it.
• Card-Carrying Villain: When I adopt such a moniker, it is partly out of a sense of irony. Largely, however, it is because I do not care to waste time answering to homo sapiens' moral standards. If they will call us "Evil Mutants" regardless, then my Brotherhood and I will embrace the term and live up to it.
• Changing Clothes Is a Free Action: On our last date, dear Isabelle showed up in a yellow sarong, but as soon as we got to my hotel room she was wearing a black dress.
• The Chew Toy: It would appear that the universe at large may have a thing against mutants as mankind does.
• Convection, Schmonvection: Of course I can fuse metal together in close proximity to my skin. For obvious reasons it does not harm me.
• Cool Helmet: One that protects me from psychic intrusions as well. As a result, "Bucket Head" is a Fan Nickname.
• Dark and Troubled Past: My life before I became Magneto was riddled with suffering and loss... most of which was bought on at the hands of you barbaric homo sapiens! I've suffered tremendous heartbreak and pain through enduring the horrors of the German conflict and the loss of innocents, my family included, at the hands of brutal, soulless "men" who were simply "Just Following Orders". This very sentence makes my blood boil. From then, my suffering never seemed to truly cease, from the loss of my first wife and daughter to the constant conflicts I've been waging in the name of my fellow mutants. Humans did this to me... and they continue to show why they are unworthy of living in my utopia.
• Dark Messiah:
  • I will use any means necessary to bring mutants back into dominance. My people have even considered me their "Mutant Messiah" in contrast to Charles' approach.
  • After the events of Avengers vs. X-Men, I have bequeathed the role to Cyclops, as he alone is responsible for the plan that has brought back mutantkind from the brink. It is not often that even I am impressed.
• Deadpan Snarker: Depending on the Writer, my incarnation in the live action films was very much witty.
• Depending on the Writer: Many, MANY humans, moronic or not, penning my stories.
  • Am I an Anti-Villain with sympathetic aims, a leader with extreme methods toward a golden age for mutants, or a completely psychotic madman who will strike down ANYONE who gets in my way? It depends on what interpretation there is of me you think holds the most water.
  • How reliant I am on my helmet to resist telepathy tends to depend on whether humans remember I have telepathic talents of my own. I'm not sure when it started, but it appears they've mistaken my helmet for that of Charles' unruly step-brother.
  • Whether or not my powers extend to a certain magical hammer has also widely varied. At times, I am written as unable, yet on other◊ occasions I am more than capable of it.
• Determinator: Nothing less could withstand the barbarity of the Holocaust.
• Disappeared Dad: In my defence, I did not know Pietro and Wanda were alive or my children until well into their adulthood. As to Lorna, I did know she was my daughter, but made no attempt to contact her.
• Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us: 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.
• Doting Grandparent: Even if she is lamentably powerless, I will not allow any to harm my granddaughter Luna. Indeed, I once swore I would rather die than allow her to suffer a moment's grief.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: No one had told my earliest chronicler, Stan Lee, that I had been a Holocaust survivor, a fact that Chris Claremont later discovered. Hence, the mortifying, and completely out of character instance where I am depicted leading a Nazi-styled invasion of San Marco.
• Enemy Mine: Truth be told, I have had to side with Charles and his X-Men when the need arises.
  • Said forced team-ups may have also been the result of another entity playing a foolish game.
  • 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.
• Even Evil Has Standards: First of all I am not evil. I use the term ironically to defy you homo sapiens' nonsensical moral applications, such as when I named my organization the Brotherhood of "Evil" Mutants.
  • I am far more moral than the likes of Sebastian Shaw, Apocalypse, or William Stryker. I work for a cause. They work only for themselves.
  • Don't even mention the Red Skull to me. Then you will see how "evil" I can be. Speaking of the Skull, the fool managed to steal Charles' brain to gain new "powers" and exploit both humans and mutants. I learned this in the tie-in prelude to the Autumn 2014 event AXIS in my own title. For my friend's sake, THE. SKULL. MUST. PAY. Unfortunately, in my blind rage, I killed the Skull, only to awaken my darker half, Onslaught.
  • I was horrified at the 9/11 attacks to the point that myself, Wilkson and Victor had to help the survivors trapped under the rubble.
• Evil Genius: I am amongst the many geniuses of this world, specializing in Magnetism (obviously) and Physics in general as well as having a keen knowledge of Genetic Engineering, Engineering in itself, Geology, and other sciences. I'm also very much multilingual, even being able to decipher a long-lost language and have reconstructed advanced computer devices from memory. As expected from my leadership, I am also a talented strategist, a requirement in my war on humanity. I am also quite the connoisseur of the fine arts and finest literature, thus admitting that Homo sapiens have made at least some worthwhile contributions to life. To others, my ability to manipulate the lessers amongst you is paramount.
• Evil Is Petty: During one of my more "unstable" periods, when I regained my youth and vitality but before I regained my composure and focus, I used my command of magnetism to make that irritating oaf Wolverine punch himself in the face.
• Evil Plan: My methods can be rather... extreme, I will admit, but in truth I should be lauded for my efforts to prevent mutant genocide. Only a homo sapiens would consider creating a utopia for them instead to be evil.
• Extra-ore-dinary: Whatever the writers decide of my powers, I can always control metal.
• The Extremist Was Right: 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.
• Fantastic Drug
  • I admit to using the illegal stimulant known as mutant growth hormone. I harvested it from my own genetic material for my own use! I see no issue with boosting my powers in such a manner, though I advise anyone else who recognizes the merits of practice to do so sparingly. Addiction is a terrible thing.
  • The very existence of the disgusting drug "kick" derived from the disgusting parasite sublime is a blight on my existence. In truth I cannot even blame you homo sapiens for it, but I can blame you libelous slanders for claiming I would ever willingly inhale, ingest or inject myself such a thing!
• Final Boss: In nearly every Video Game about the X-Men ever made. It would be easier to list the ones that don't feature me as this.
• Flanderization: Since the movies, both fans and even writers often seem to assume that my powers are restricted to manipulating metallic objects.
  • My dear Briar was level-headed, if manipulative, when I met her. Now she seems to have become a sex fiend who is turned on by the thought of my daughter fighting for her life. There is no telling how this will affect our relationship.
• Foe Romance Subtext: Many have felt there is some sort of unspoken romance between Xavier and I. I cannot deny that despite our years of combat I still love Charles and would be insulted if someone suggested otherwise.
• 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.
• Freudian Excuse: Back in my day, it was called the Holocaust. …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. 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.
  • Perhaps what truly makes my Ultimate Universe counterpart so disgusting is that he has no reason to be a mutant supremacist. He was not a victim of the Nazis or even of prejudice in general that we know of, instead being born to an affluent and high society family. Yet he chose to take up the cause of mutant supremacy to a level even I would shudder at.
• Friendly Enemy: Depending on which writer is "guiding" my hand (usually that Chris Claremont takes this view), there will be many times in which I heavily regret the seemingly never-ending conflicts I have with Charles and his X-Men, even as I do what is right by my people.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Once I was just a simple young man, until my family saw just how horrible humans can be. Though it was after their murder of my daughter that I became fully devoted to my cause. Had they simply left me alone, I would have stayed Max Eisenhardt. But now, I am so much more. Now, I am Magneto.
• Glass Cannon: 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. Or did you think I learned how to create force fields around myself for the fun of it?
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Goes without saying, but when my eyes are aglow, you would be smart not to get in my way.
• Good Is Dumb: I admit that during the first period I had running Xavier's Institute, I made some exceedingly foolish decisions.
• He Who Fights Monsters:
  • The "monsters" in this case being you vile, disgusting, bloodthirsty racist genocidal humans and, prior to that, the madmen of Nazi Germany and their inconceivable horrors. That fool, Charles, would have you believe some Freudian theory about this reflecting on my own destiny, but...
  • My incarnation in Wolverine and the X-Men (2009) is certainly this trope. In the approaching conflict with the anti-mutant faction in America, when warned that the war would lead to a Bad Future where civilization is destroyed by the Phoenix Force and the Sentinels reign supreme with humans and mutants alike trampled underfoot, he crossed the line by using Sentinels to attack Genosha to provoke the war, feeling it would be best if he controlled both sides, even though he killed numerous innocent mutants in the process.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: 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 I yanked miss Kitty Pryde off of what you Homo tropiens might call the Bus.
• Hollywood Evolution
  • The X gene is not just the next step in the evolution of the hominid genus, it is the adaptation that finally allows multicellular life on this planet to free itself from the parasitic bacterial colony commonly known as "Sublime". Instead of celebrating our emergence you homo sapiens slander us as corruptions of your genome by hostile Celestials, playing right into your puppet master's flagella. Thankfully the X gene tends to bestow the those who inherit with more gifts than mere immunity, ensuring mutants will ultimately triumph over both our microscopic and macrospic foes.
  • Loath as I am to admit it, on Earth X the appearance of the X gene really is the result of Celestial meddling, and mutants really are their pawns to be discarded once we are done unwittingly incubating one of their eggs. In "our" timeline the Celestials merely "gifted" this Earth with Eternals and Deviants, who have largely avoided notice of you homo sapiens thanks to your irrational fixation on us.
• Humans Are Bastards: Tell me this, can YOU continue to champion human democracy and gentleness if you had seen AND felt EXACTLY what hand your kind dealt to me and other mutants around the world?! You would be a fool or a similar prejudiced scum to believe otherwise!
• I Have Many Names: Erik Magnus Lehnsherr and other shortened variants such as Erik Magnus, Magneto (of course), The Master of Magnetism. To be honest, my REAL name is Max Eisenhardt, a German-Polish Jew. In most other retellings, I am content with simply "Magnus".
• Imagination-Based Superpower: Magnetism is capable of anything in my hands. For example, my Magnetic Attraction power can hypnotize the less mentally capable. I have also magnetically lifted various objects and entities that logically I should not have been able to, like simple water. I can even manipulate the entire electro-magnetic spectrum, albeit without the same potency as regular magnetism, and once in a while I display some latent telepathic powers.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Not me, of course; for all humanity's atrocities against mutantkind, I would never condone so repugnant an action in response. However, my reprehensible counterpart in the Ultimate Marvel universe quite blatantly states he has eaten human flesh in the past, and then goes so far as to threaten to turn humanity into literal livestock for mutantkind as part of his build up to executing the President of America.
• Immune to Mind Control: I have a special helmet that prevents me from being mind-controlled. A most useful tool when my arch nemesis (Prof. X) is one of the most accomplished psychics in the world.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Even if my methods reach far into the depths of villainy as you see it, even if I almost become exactly like my oppressors, I desire nothing but a world where mutants are FREE from the hand of racism dealt by man.
• Joker Immunity: 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 Trope Namer if not for the Joker.
• Knight Templar: In the past, I have done whatever it takes to ensure prosperity for mutant-kind. Naturally, how far I am forced to go depends on who's writing at the moment.
• Large Ham: How else can I show that I'm superior to you human beings than with powerful speech and gestures?
• Light 'em Up: I have occasionally manipulated the visible electromagnetic spectrum to make myself invisible. I do have a slight white motif with my hair and lightning, but I don't go pretentiously overboard.
• Lightning Can Do Anything: If there's no possible way for my magnetism to pull off a certain insane feat, that is where the "electro" prefix of "electromagnetism" comes in.
• The Lost Lenore: Before I became Magneto, my wife Magda and I tried to live an ordinary live with our daughter Anya. That changed when she burned to death in a fire, right in front of my very eyes, as humans prevented us from doing anything to save her. They did not have long to regret that decision.
• Love Triangle: I am part of one, locked in combat with that insolent Cajun Remy LeBeau (better known as Gambit, to you) for the affections of the mutant Rogue. She promises nothing about the future, but I have won the triangle for now.
• Made of Iron: In one of my confrontations with Charles' students, I received several blows to the head from Colossus, yet still remained standing, to say nothing of the fact I simply shrugged off that loutish Wolverine's attempts to skewer me.
• Mad Scientist: In my earlier exploits, I frequently displayed an aptitude for incredible acts of science, once managing to renovate Charles' house into a full-blown cloning facility, to say nothing of my skills at building vast complexes in improbable places, like underneath the Antarctic ice, or in an asteroid.
• May–December Romance: Some humans claim to be bothered by the age difference between myself and lovely Rogue, even though thanks to being turned into a baby by Alpha the "Ultimate Mutant" and later returned to adulthood by a Shi'ar agent, I now have a body that is physically in its thirties. The age difference is never brought up when people talk about Wolverine's romantic relationships with women of roughly Rogue's age (Jean Grey, Mariko Yashida, Yukio, etc.) even though he is old enough to be my grandfather. But double standards have always been Homo sapiens' hallmark. Regardless, it has been brought to my attention that Rogue and I have married and started a family in at least one universe, which... does not displease me.
• Meaningful Name:
  • My original name, Max Eisenhardt, is quite poetic. "Eisen" is the German word for "Iron". "Hardt" sounds like German ("hart") and English ("hard"), which both mean the same thing. "Max" connotes intensity. Who would have guessed a man with such a name would later become the hardened master of metal manipulation?
  • In German names, the "-hard/hardt/hart" suffix originally means "strong"; it is also present e. g. in "Bern(h)ard" (strong as a bear) or "Gerhard" (strong with the spear). Thus "Eisenhardt" means "strong as iron", or in my case also: strong with iron.
• Morality Pet: At times, Kitty Pryde — fellow mutant and fellow Jew — serves in this capacity. One of my terms as a "face" is due to delivering her from danger.
• Mundane Utility: Perhaps more like Artistic Utility, but my life-sized steel sculpture Calling Cards should count as this.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In essence, my reaction to harming a young Katherine Pryde in battle. For all that I have sworn to fight for Mutantkind by any means necessary, I shall not harm children.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: 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 Ultimate Marvel 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 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 Captain America that entered the human gene pool, the reveal of which destroyed the resolve of my impotent counterpart. 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
• Nazi Hunter: When the need arises; burying Red Skull alive was particularly satisfying.
• Never My Fault: Some humans pretend that my actions have harmed more of my fellow mutants and hurt the cause of mutant rights than they have ever helped, and that I'm pinning the blame for that on humanity. They sure are fine ones to think of me this way!
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: Over the course of my career, I've found many ways to use the power of magnetism to manipulate related forms of energy for a variety of uses. For example, turning invisible by bending light, manipulating electromagnetic energy to shoot lightning bolts, or altering the behavior of local gravitational fields; some see this as "evidence" of a unified field theory that states all energy is the same, but just emitted in various ways. Still, in most cases, magnetism is far easier to manipulate than any other, so I usually stay with that.
• Noble Demon: Pretend you never met me or knew of what massacres I had been forced to commit and place yourself in my position: Wouldn't you do anything to protect your loved ones and your people from harm?
• Noodle Incident: My father never told me how he saved Major Scharf's life, only that it was too ugly to tell me at the age of sixteen.
• Not Quite Flight: Controlling magnetic lines of force enables me to levitate. It is also a likely explanation for how I can move things lacking ferrous metal.
• Not So Above It All: When Rogue and I fought the Children of the Vault, I threatened to tear down their structure even if it meant the humans in Mumbai fell with it, but they called my bluff as I was carrying a dying human woman.
• Old Superhero: I have spent decades protecting mutants from the depravations of homo sapiens and my power only grows with my experience (doubtless you believe some of that time was spent as a supervillain). I also have two grandsons, who helped me find their mother the last time she went missing, and a granddaughter.
• Older Than They Look: Thanks to the courtesy of Alpha and the High Evolutionary, I'm in my physical prime, despite being almost a century old.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: Genetic manipulation, particle physics, engineering, designing weapons, space stations, superpowered humanoid lifeforms, devices that generate volcanoes and earthquakes, devices that block telepathy, devices that can nullify all mutant powers except for my own. I've reconstructed computerized devices from memory. I could probably make the top ten list for smartest people on this piddling planet if I put my mind to it.
• Pay Evil unto Evil:
  • I once imprisoned a man in a basement with limited water and no light. By the time he was found, he was wishing for death. The man in question was the Red Skull; a villain so vile and repulsive that even the psychotic clown won't work with him.
  • I once did this with Fabian Cortez, a treacherous mutant supremacist that in the past tried to kill me, manipulate wars between humans and mutants that led to the destruction of a safe haven for mutants I created, and also tried to use my granddaughter as a human shield. The minute I no longer needed him, I flung him miles away and then smashed him into the ground.
• Put on a Bus: It seems that when I've battled humanity for "too long", I end up swept aside so other villains can "take the spotlight 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 an unexpected extra-terrestrial called the Stranger.
• Putting on the Reich: People ill-knowing of what I have been through tend to bring up my domination of San Marco, wherein I had an army of mercenaries, outfitted with Waffen-SS surplus uniforms. The stylized "M" armbands were one step away from swastikas, otherwise the resemblance to that monster Adolf Hitler was total. Come to that, many of my actions as a man willing to use any lengths to replace mankind with my own genetically superior people do draw unavoidable comparisons.
• Rebellious Spirit: I have a bit of a problem with authority, as you might imagine, and I don't recognize peers easily. It should go without saying that I call no man "master," save myself. That said, I brook no opposition within my own ranks.
• Revenge Before Reason:
  • After being restored by Erik the Red, I was determined to avenge myself on the X-Men, ignoring the fact that in the time since I had last encountered them all but Cyclops had been replaced with entirely different people. Eventually, they had no recourse but to flee, but I still vowed to confront them at another time.
  • If a human were to harm another Mutant, I confess I would more likely call for their death than anything else, even a truly heartfelt apology. Though such things from Homo Sapiens are fleetingly rare as it is. It became much less amusing when my former Acolyte, Exodus, turned this around on me for defending Charles from Frenzy.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Unlike Xavier, I recognize that there can be no peaceful cooperation between humanity and mutantkind. Mutantkind will take its flawed predecessor's place, and although I try not to be too carelessly callous, I will not lose sleep over doing what must be done.
• The Rival: Charles Xavier, as a result of our differing views on whether mutantkind and man can live in peace or not; in the wider Marvel Universe, my rival is instead Doctor Doom. I am the closest he considers to be legitimate competition.
• Shock and Awe: A primary attack of mine, aside from throwing any amount of tons of metal at my enemies, is shooting bolts of lightning. Don't expect to turn my own powers against me either.
• Shooting Superman:
  • Most Homo sapiens obviously never learn that bullets are made of metal. There have been attempts to counter my abilities with non-metallic ballistics, but mutant gifts continuously outpace feeble human innovations in every capacity.
  • The X-Men themselves did this when they sent Wolverine, whose skeleton is magnetic due to his adamantium bones, on a team to deal with me. They should have known better.
• Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: For all I do respect, and care for Charles, his naïve idealism about mutant and human coexistence blinded him to reality.
• Slave Brand: I will forever carry the tattoo of a Nazi concentration camp upon my skin. As my cinematic counterpart so eloquently states, I would sooner die than allow another needle to touch my skin, or that of any other Mutant.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: A character-personified version, with Charles on the admirable but foolish Idealism end and myself vice versa. Although really, it is more what you call "realism" than mindless pessimism. Look at the history of the homo sapiens race and score its track record of tolerance. Look at how many villains are human or mutant. Given these facts, peaceful coexistence is not reasonable.
• SNK Boss: In X-Men: Children of the Atom. I am the Final Boss so do not expect me to be easy. I can fly, block while flying ^note later entries in Capcom's Marvel fighting games would remove the ability for block while flying meaning I can stay well out of the reach of my opponents while firing at them with fast, powerful projectile attacks. One of my moves was to release four projectiles that can't be blocked and allow me to do what I wish if they connect with an opponent. My super attack is next to impossible dodge and does considerable damage. Unlike the sub boss Juggernaut who was a slow moving power house, I am extremely fast and while my attacks are ranged they are fast enough to be brought out in close, and my standard attacks are reasonable fast and powerful as well. On top of all this I can create a force field that renders me immune to all damage. The last ability would be restricted to an Infinity Gem when I was Promoted to Playable.
• Some of My Best Friends Are X: Before I met Rogue, I generally was romantically or sexually involved with non-mutant women – dear departed Magda, Isabelle, Polaris's mother, Cyclops' former lover Lee Forrester, and now mutant-fangirl Briar Raleigh. The back-stabbing Wasp has powers, but as a result of experimentation, not the mutant gene.
• Spell My Name With An S: Those who have set themselves to the worthy task of chronicling my deeds are often confused as to the spelling of my preferred civilian name. Erik is sometimes written as Eric, and Lehnsherr is written as Lensherr as often as not.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Marvel were planning to have a major battle between me and Wolverine, when Peter David realized that I could just rip his skeleton out and be done with him.
• Steven Ulysses Perhero: Yes, my "human" name translates roughly into "intensely strong iron". Plus, I have used "Magnus" (which is Latin for "great") as a middle name since the ill-fated incident that cost me the closest to family I could ever experience. Though, I believe that "Magneto" is a far more superior and indicative moniker.
• Strong as They Need to Be: As this page states, my powers are essentially limited to whatever the writers can think of with magnetism, which means they can vary considerably from one story to another.
• Superpower Lottery: Several consider me the most powerful mutant alive due to how almost godlike my powers of magnetism can become.
  • Though in media such as those animated cartoons and the films, I limit myself. Realistically, I should be able to: turn invisible (due to visible light being a type of electromagnetic radiation), phase shift (electromagnetism is what keeps solid objects from passing through one another and thus I could deactivate this and walk through walls or go beyond that and become completely invincible), unleash any kind of laser blasts at my foes (once again, light is electromagnetic radiation, as is everything on this chart◊), and even create optical illusions via, again, manipulation of light.
  • To further elaborate, electromagnetism is arguably the most interesting of the four fundamental forces in that its scope, and thus the scope of my powers, encompasses virtually everything in the universe. I explicitly control half of physics, all of chemistry (which when boiled down is the study of protons, neutrons, and electrons), and most of biology (which is a combination of chemistry and physics). In fact, because I can manipulate valence electrons, I can force chemical reactions to occur that are normally impossible or make reactions that normally occur not happen. The EM spectrum by itself gives me heat vision, x-ray vision, illusions, and invisibility, I am essentially my own radio and can scramble any others at my leisure, I can produce the deadliest form of radiation, and I can even produce microwaves on a whim. Furthermore, I can manipulate nervous systems, flash freeze or heat matter by imparting or taking away kinetic energy through protons and electrons, transmute anything into any other thing by rearranging particles at the subatomic level, disintegrate anything bigger than a nucleus, hijack electronics, and a good number of other interesting effects. The long and short of it is: if it can be done via natural means, it can be done by me.
  • You would do well to remember that, during the Acts of Vengeance, I once battled Spider-Man to a standstill. If that feat sounds unimpressive, bear in mind that he was possessed of otherworldly cosmic powers at the time. Long story short, I have total control over one of the four fundamental forces of the universe. This doesn't put me in spitting distance of strongest mutant, but I'm far away stronger than most others.
• Supreme Chef: As you know, I am no savage. To go along with my vast powers, I am also quite the skilled cook. It was a necessity during my time as a child prisoner of Nazi concentration camps.
• Tangled Family Tree: Mine is... complex. to say the least. I'm even present on the page image.
• Tragic Villain: Had I not been persecuted so horrendously in my youth for the "crime" of being Jewish (and a mutant), would I have turned out to be a different person? Would I be the man Charles always hoped he could help me become? Perhaps. In a better world, where mutants and humans do not wage war and accept each other as they are, I like to believe I would be. I'd still be with my beloved Magda and our children, living peacefully alongside those I treasure most. Regrettably, we don't live in that world... and I may never know such bliss, for humans stole it from me long ago.
• Übermensch: It's not easy to consider me "nice" in any respect, but I believe myself to have my own type of moral code that allows me to believe that it will all mean well in the end, placing myself as leader, and having to eliminate the inferiors. To any medical evaluator that deems himself worthy of judging me (more so if it's a human psychologist) that would thus make me a sociopath ideologue with typical monstrous egomania and entitled ruthlessness; others at least put me in a more sympathetic light. Still others go so far as to claim it's all a result of bipolar disorder brought by my powers and claim I'm just plain mentally ill. A heartfelt but foolish notion.
• Those Who Fight Monsters: What else would you expect, when one's abilities have allowed him to live through the Holocaust, McCarthyism, the Civil Rights Movement, The Vietnam War, the AIDS epidemic and subsequent witch-hunting vilification of homosexuals... I have seen, to quote Burns, "Man's inhumanity to Man," again and again. In the past, I tried to use my gifts quietly for the betterment of all, like Charles... but I have come to see how slow, inefficient, and utterly futile this method is — how millions suffer and continue to suffer while the pacifistic way simply scratches the surface of Hatred. I see how naive I was to ever believe that peace alone could fight hatred. I know now that the fastest, surest way to eliminate hate is to do just that... eliminate it.
• Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: During a visit to Japan, I found myself locked in combat with an arrogant, yet powerful youth by the name of Tetsuo Shima. Despite his impudence, I nonetheless took it upon myself to put the troubled boy out of his misery.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Averted, as there is a very, VERY good reason they call me "The Master of Magnetism" as I am one of the strongest mutants on earth, as well as having great skill and creativity in how I implement my mutant abilities. Considering magnetism is one of the four fundamental forces of nature, I should be held in high regard by humans and mutants alike, and it also helps that I am a learned scientist in my own right, so I WOULD know how best to use them.
  • It is also why I am able to fight those with similar abilities who truly CAN be considered Unskilled, but Strong. I once did battle with a cosmically powered Spider-Man on my own. On another occasion, I told the assembled heroes of the Marvel Universe that only The Mighty Thor was my equal in power. No one argued the point with me.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: Whatever it takes, mutantkind WILL prevail.
• Visionary Villain: No matter how vile they may be, my every act is a stone in the foundations of a world where mutants do not live in fear of homo sapiens oppression.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: I'll do what I must to ensure mutants never suffer any more at the hands of you humans. Indeed, when our universe was merged with the universe known as Capcom, I was able to finally build a world for Homo Superior to live on.
• Wicked Cultured: I shun the human-applied label of "wicked" — I merely do what I must to provide for my people. Nonetheless, I have a full understanding and appreciation for the few positive and admirable things human culture has produced over its long, floundering history.
• With Great Power Comes Great Insanity:
  • It would certainly appear to you that my powers have left my mind damaged from the constant use, leaving me in a state of constant irritation and agitation.
  • Many would also attempt to remember that ridiculous period in which I, after posing as Xorn, he conquered Manhattan Island and turned it into, more or less, a concentration camp for humans, complete with gas chambers and/or crematoriums. Even with one of my own likening the imitator's actions to Nazi Germany. Of course, that never REALLY happened, and was attributed to my addiction to the mutant-power-boosting drug "Kick". Then they tried to claim the drug was actually a sentient bacteria colony. What REALLY REALLY happened was when Wolverine decapitated the thing, revealing its TRUE identity as the REAL Xorn's Evil Twin, imitating me imitating Xorn! That one human wearing the hat and gluing himself to that settee has a point when he notes how other, gloriously incompetent humans wonder why new readers can't get into comics. I certainly can't after this mess.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Our conflicting ideologies aside, Charles Xavier is still my dearest friend, and has done more to help mutants than anyone in the world (besides myself).
  • As loathe as I am to admit it, I must concede that perhaps alone of all humanity, Captain America does seem to truly believe in the ideal of equality that he espouses.
• You Have Out Lived Your Usefulness: I did this once to Fabian Cortez, after I temporarily allowed him back in my ranks due to need of his powers, but as soon as I found a machine that served as a substitute, I finally killed him for his treachery against me years earlier.

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I suppose you have read and know all about me now. For once, I must admit your so-called compassion has ensured your survival. Now, I must leave to enact my plans for all mutants. For the defence of Mutantkind!