History ComicBook / Magneto

[[folder:Magneto: Not a Hero]]

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[[caption-width-right:200:Still the Master of Magnetism.]]

->''"Because it is not your '''powers''' that give you the strength to fight, but your '''conviction'''"''
-->-- '''Magneto''', ''Magneto vol. 3'' #9

''This page is about the 2014 comic series, for tropes about the character of Magneto, [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto please see his character page]].''

Once the deadliest, most feared mutant mastermind on the planet, Magneto is no longer the man he once was. After falling in with Cyclops and the X-Men, Eric Lehnsherr became just one more pawn in another man’s war. But now, determined to fight the war for mutantkind’s survival on his own terms, Magneto sets out to regain what he’s lost…and show the world exactly why it should tremble at the sound of his name. Magneto will safeguard the future of the mutant race by hunting down each and every threat that would see his kind extinguished—and bloody his hands that they may never be a threat again.

Launched in March 2014, the Magneto solo-series follows after the events of ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen2013'' #16 and picks up after a TimeSkip, where Magneto is one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most wanted and doing what he can to protect the mutant race by crossing lines others won't.

!!This 2014 series provides examples of:

* AntiHero: Magneto has no qualms about maiming, torturing, or killing anyone if he believes it will in some way keep innocent mutants safe.
* AnArmAndALeg: Magneto chops off Scalphunters arms and legs, leaving him a quadraplegic, while he's tracking down and killing the Marauder clones.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
** That [[spoiler:cyborg]] can talk without lungs.
** That former member of Friends of Humanity must have a incredibly thick neck for it to remain intact while impaled by several sign poles.
* AscendedFangirl: Briar to Magneto.
* BadassLongcoat: Magneto sports a black trenchcoat when he needs to hide his suit.
* BigBad: Red Skull turns out to behind most of the anti-mutant operations in the first 12 issues, as part of the ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'' event.
* BlatantLies: After so many false promises of mercy, Max and Magda simply aren't buying Hitzig's offer of no punishment for those who surrender.
* BloodierAndGorier: Compared to most other X-Men comics. Magneto is shown graphically murdering others with various metal implements in nearly every issue.
* BloodSport: Magneto uncovers a Hong Kong underground fight club that kidnaps mutants and forces them to fight against the vicious Predator X, a genetically engineered monster that instinctively hunts anything with the X-Gene. Magneto kills it, breaks up the fight ring, then pumps the organizer full of Mutant Growth Hormone and leaves him in the Predators pen.
* CallBack: When Magneto demands a stronger batch of [=MGH=], Jeremy thinks he can do it by mixing in Hypercortisone D, aka Kick, which was central in Creator/GrantMorrison's run.
* CategoryTraitor: Briar jokes that she is this for funding a community of traumatized mutants on Genosha. In reality, SHIELD doesn't mind that she supports mutant concentration camp survivors, but they do have a tiny problem with her hiding a terrorist. At any rate, that's the joke that gets her laid.
* CombatPragmatist: Because he can't go toe-to-toe with most others due to his broken powers, he straight up ambushes and kills without fanfare.
* CloningBlues: While THEY dont particularly care, there's definite cloning blues surrounding the Marauder clones. The original six Marauders have cells of clones all over the world that are activated and treated as disposable troops by Mr Sinister.
* ContinuityNod: Briar's highlight reel contains, among other, unspecified rampages, newspaper clippings from the time Magneto sank a Russian submarine, as well as video from the time he ripped the metal out of Wolverine's skeleton.
* DistinctionWithoutADifference: Briar asks Arclight whether the reason she is jealous is that she is with Magneto, or that Magneto is with ''her''.
* DoomedByCanon: The ''Last Days'' tie-in focuses on Magneto trying to destroy the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Earth before it can collide with Earth-616. Anyone who has read the first issue of ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'' knows this is futile, since the two worlds end up colliding anyway.
* FanDisservice: Magneto's emotional breakdown is this to Briar in-universe.
* FantasticDrug: Mutant Growth Hormone. Magento takes it himself, but he had it made using his own blood.
* FinalSolution: Red Skull's plans for mutants. He's also extended it to Inhumans as well.
* {{Flashback}}: Many of these throughout the series. Most are to Magneto's childhood in the Warsaw ghetto and in Auschwitz, but two are to Utopia (Logan has [[spoiler:killed someone for him]], seemingly as a favor) and Rio de Janeiro (where he exhumes the body). As shown in Uncanny X-Force, the body belonged to [[spoiler:Herr Hitzig]].
* ForegoneConclusion: The ''Last Days'' tie-in focuses on Magneto trying to destroy the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel Earth before it can collide with Earth-616. Anyone who has read the first issue of ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015'' knows this is futile, since the two worlds end up colliding anyway.
* FreudianExcuse: The S-Men, Minzee in particular, lost their homes and family due to Magneto or mutant actions.
* HeelFaceBrainwashing: Magneto does this to a bunch of clones of the Marauders.
* HeroicSacrifice:
** [[spoiler:Amy]], who realizes it is the only realistic way to stop Hitzig.
** [[spoiler:Magneto himself]] in the final issue.
* HumanResources: The super-power drug Mutant Growth Hormone can only be synthesized from the blood of mutants.
* {{Hypocrite}}:
** Briar averts this with the girls she meets at the fair by not calling them out on their wounds being self-inflicted instead of Magneto-inflicted. She defends it by saying that if they want to delude themselves that Magneto hurt them personally, well, that's kind of what the rest of them do.
** Magneto looks like this when he complains that SHIELD couldn't be bothered to help Genosha during or after the sentinel attack, not many pages after his recollection of mercy-killing several survivors, but the reason he did that could easily be that he knew no help would come.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice:
** Magneto kills a man by tearing out his fillings and "replacing" them with street signs.
** Magneto used rusty nails to deal with a bunch of armed men. No one got out with a few all over.
* ImprovisedWeapon: A paperclip proves surprisingly versatile.
* ItsPersonal:
** Minzee lost his family due to the Acolytes attacking him while being led by Magneto years ago. When they meet again he wants blood.
** Subverted with the Magneto fanclub that Briar frequents. It's full of people who were injured in one of Magneto's rampages, and they all want to take it personally, but it is very rare that Magneto gives individual lessons to people who aren't actively going after mutants.
* JustInTime: Magneto doesn't know it, but he kills Amy mere seconds before the hallucination that feeds off her power kills Briar.
* MeaningfulName:
** Agent Haines. "Haine" is French for "hate".
** "Hitzig" means "heated" in German. The guy was in charge of the ovens at Auschwitz.
** Briar is a good, [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadowing]] name for someone who lives to be a thorn in Magneto's side.
* MeaningfulRename: Magneto introduces himself as Max to Samuel. Unlike Mr. Sullivan (the alias he uses at the motel), Max is his birthname, notwithstandinding that people tend to call him Mags. Samuel's camp of homeless people reminds him of his life in Krakow, Poland, where he lived before taken to Auschwitz.
* MercyKill: Magneto does this every few issues. It's part of his Moral Grey.
** The homeless man who was made into a [[spoiler:mutant-killing cyborg]].
** The man in the flashback on Genosha whose body was crushed under debris. And the other wounded who came to Magneto for help.
** Played with with [[spoiler:Amy]]. It's not that she particularly wants to die, it is just that she understand that it is the only realistic way to keep people safe.
* NeverHurtAnInnocent: Averted. We get a look into a past incident during one of Magneto's rampages, and meet with a victim who decides to work with Magneto so that this trope goes into effect.
* NeverMyFault: Briar, possibly jokingly, accuses Eric of turning her into a race traitor, as though she hasn't been following him around demanding a chance to help him.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain: The mutant fighting ring in Hong Kong has, in Magneto's own words, animals that are genetically engineered mutant killers with impenetrable metal skin, and yet
-->'''Magneto:''' These fools are using them for sport.
* NoBodyLeftBehind: [[spoiler:Magneto's body turns to ashes as his power overloads]] in the final issue.
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: Samuel just gave Magneto soup while under an alias because he seemed down on his luck. The S.H.I.E.L.D. agents have the authorities kick the people there off the land and are trying to bring him in for questioning when he clearly doesn't know a thing.
* NoNonsenseNemesis: Magneto doesn't play around. No second chances, no warnings, nothing.
* NothingPersonal: At a Magneto-con, Briar acknowledges that all the Magneto fans have probably convinced themselves, to some degree, that his collaterally damaging them was in some way personal. Even the ones who are faking their injuries.
* NoticeThis: A comic book example. Metal objects are shown in a distinctive shade of blue in each scene, so as to show [[MagnetismManipulation what weapons Magneto can potentially use]].
* PaintItBlack: Magneto has switched from his White costume to a Black one to mark his change in mindset.
* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Red Skull, the S-Men, the Purifiers...
* PowerIncontinence:
** When Magneto was doused with the Phoenix Force's Flame he had his power altered and fluctuated. He gets around this by using MGH made of his own genetic material. However, in Comicbook/UncannyXMen2013 it is revealed that [[spoiler:it was nanobots]].
** Amy, the mutant who Magneto met during Axis in Red Skull's camp, [[spoiler:had her powers fall out of her control and made Hitzig who haunted Magneto's mind real. To stop it, he had to [[MercyKilling put her down]].]]
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Upon meeting two girls in the Genosha concentration camp and learning that they don't want to be saved because they're afraid of being caught again and punished, Magneto gives them a dressing-down informing them how cowardly they are.
* RootingForTheEmpire: In-universe, there's apparently a signifigant subculture dedicated to idolizing supervillains. Magneto alone has a large fanclub of human fans who even ''display scars they've gotten from his rampages'' with pride.
* ShaggyDogStory: [[spoiler:All Magneto's efforts were for nothing, as he realized in the end.]]
* StalkerWithACrush: Briar Raleigh would be this for Magneto. To be exact, Magneto [[spoiler:crushed her leg with her car during a rampage that had nothing to do with her]], and she developed a crush on him because she realized she found all that raw power sexy. It's implied that this was her BDSM "awakening".
* UnwillingRoboticisation: A vagrant is made into a cheap knock-off of an Omega Sentinel and forced to kill mutants. He's [[MercyKilling put down]] by Magneto.
* VillainousRescue: When the combined forces of the X-Men and the Avengers are falling before a gang of hero-hunting Sentinels, Magneto puts together a team of A-list villains [[MyFriendsAndZoidberg (and the Hobgoblin)]] to fly to the rescue. And it is ''glorious''.

Launched in March 2014, the Magneto solo-series follows after the events of ''ComicBook/UncannyXMen'' #16 and picks up after a TimeSkip, where Magneto is one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s most wanted and doing what he can to protect the mutant race by crossing lines others won't.

Once the deadliest, most feared mutant mastermind on the planet, [[Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto Magneto]] is no longer the man he once was. After falling in with Cyclops and the X-Men, Eric Lehnsherr became just one more pawn in another man’s war. But now, determined to fight the war for mutantkind’s survival on his own terms, Magneto sets out to regain what he’s lost…and show the world exactly why it should tremble at the sound of his name. Magneto will safeguard the future of the mutant race by hunting down each and every threat that would see his kind extinguished—and bloody his hands that they may never be a threat again.

[[caption-width-right:200:Still the Master of Magnetism]]

* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Combines with NiceJobFixingItVillain, since it's not clear who is "hero" or "villain" and the fact that Magneto considers himself AboveGoodAndEvil anyway. The mutant fighting ring in Hong Kong has, in Magneto's own words, animals that are genetically engineered mutant killers with impenetrable metal skin, and yet

Once the deadliest, most feared mutant mastermind on the planet, ComicBook/{{Magneto}} is no longer the man he once was. After falling in with Cyclops and the X-Men, Eric Lehnsherr became just one more pawn in another man’s war. But now, determined to fight the war for mutantkind’s survival on his own terms, Magneto sets out to regain what he’s lost…and show the world exactly why it should tremble at the sound of his name. Magneto will safeguard the future of the mutant race by hunting down each and every threat that would see his kind extinguished—and bloody his hands that they may never be a threat again.

-->-- '''Magneto''', ''Comicbook/{{Magneto|2014}} vol. 3'' #9

[[redirect:Characters/MarvelComicsMagneto]]

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[[caption-width-right:350: The Master of Magnetism]]

->''"I have been known by many names. Max Eisenhardt. Erik Lensherr. Magnus. Magneto. Each name marks its own sin, and one day I will answer for those offenses. But not today. Only my actions...what I do in the name of all mutants...hold any real meaning."''
-->-- '''Magneto''', ''ComicBook/{{Magneto|2014}} Vol. 3'' #1

Magneto is a character that appears in comic books published by Creator/MarvelComics, commonly in association with the ComicBook/XMen. Created by writer Creator/StanLee and artist Creator/JackKirby, the character first appeared in ''The X-Men'' #1 (September 1963) as the ArchEnemy of the X-Men.

[[StartOfDarkness The story of his life, however, begins rather earlier]] -- a Jew, he was born in UsefulNotes/WeimarRepublic Germany in the late [[TheRoaringTwenties 1920s]] before moving to UsefulNotes/{{Poland}} with his parents in 1939... and you can [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust venture a guess as to the end result of that]]. As a young man, he witnessed and endured some of the very worst of what humanity had to offer. [[OrphansOrdeal His family was murdered when he was just a boy]], and dumped in a mass grave before his very eyes; soon after, he was himself sent to Auschwitz, where as a ''Sonderkommando'' he was forced, on pain of death, to mete out that same fate to thousands of other innocents at gunpoint, running their gas chambers and furnaces. Lame with hepatitis, [[DespairEventHorizon all hope and reason crushed under the mad Nazi jackboot]], he was ready to admit that so many times he was tempted to resign himself to his black fate.

But if [[SecretIdentity Max Eisenhardt]] was anything, he was a [[{{Determinator}} survivor]].

The one good thing he remembered from those years was his darling love, Magda, a UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} girl interned with him, and during the October 7 revolt in 1944 the pair managed to make their escape. They 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 them a daughter, Anya. They were happy together, though he hid from his wife a great secret he was only just uncovering himself -- he was [[SuperpowerfulGenetics a mutant]], born with the power to [[MagnetismManipulation manipulate magnetic fields and master the entire electro-magnetic spectrum]].

Their peaceful life was not to last. While they lived in the then-Soviet/now-Western Ukranian city of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinnytsia Vinnitsa]] (alas, the Romani lifestyle did not suit him), he was cheated out of his pay by his employer and, in anger, used his 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 he were living]]. When he saw his daughter's burning body fall out of her room, prevented from helping her by KGB agents who held him down and battered him repeatedly, [[{{Understatement}} he did not take it well]]. He unleashed the fury of his newfound powers, killing the thugs who held him down, the mob who killed his daughter, and tearing a chunk of their city to the ground. Magda survived, but his power, and his temporary insanity, terrified her into fleeing, leaving him alone to bury their daughter (and when Soviet troops attempted to stop him from doing so, he turned their guns on them and pulled their triggers).

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

With pain and anguish and the torment, he fled Europe, and began traveling, eventually making his way to Israel where he did volunteer work in a psychiatric hospital for Holocaust survivors, those who were overwhelmed by the sheer barbarity of it all. Another volunteer at that hospital was a young American named Charles Xavier, and he was destined to be his [[FriendlyEnemy best friend and greatest enemy]]. He and Charles discussed many things, foremost amongst them the subject of mutantkind's coexistence with the rest of humanity and the consequences humanity faced with the rise of mutants, though neither revealed to the other that they were mutants.

He saw once and for all that Charles' views and his were incompatible once they were drawn into battle with the NebulousEvilOrganization known as [[ComicBook/{{Hydra}} HYDRA]], who had abducted their friend Gabrielle Haller because she knew the location of a hoard of NaziGold. They both revealed their powers that day and overpowered the HYDRA agents, Xavier with his boundless telepathic might and Erik with his ever-growing mastery over the forces of magnetism. Following the battle, Erik, realizing that his and Xavier's views were incompatible, took the gold for himself and left.

The final nail in the coffin was when he worked for a Western intelligence agency, tasked with hunting down Nazi war criminals while maintaining his cover as a DoubleAgent for Mossad, and handing them over to Israel for trial. He had fallen in love again with a woman named Isabelle, but his Western masters -- who had been well aware of what he was up to, but had up to now condoned it -- decided that his latest capture, Hans Richter, was too valuable to surrender to his fate. They recruited him and murdered Isabelle right in front of his eyes, for which he [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge hunted down each one of his controllers and paid them in kind]].

In the face of ever growing anti-mutant persecution, he remade himself as Magneto, a living example of [[IronicEcho mutant superiority]], of mutant ''existence'', so as to make a statement that mutants no longer had to hide in the shadows. He declared war on humankind, because he concluded 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 his plans, and he clashed time and time again with his band of mutant heroes, the X-Men. They thwarted plan after plan, and battled him and his [[Characters/XMenBrotherhoodOfMutants Brotherhood of Evil Mutants]], amongst whom were two bitter young mutant twins called the ComicBook/ScarletWitch and ComicBook/{{Quicksilver}} — whom he later learned were Wanda and Pietro, his children by Magda, though unfortunately for him only after his radical ways had proceeded to alienate them from one another. He later found himself leading a second supervillain team, the [[Characters/XMenAcolytes Acolytes of Magneto]] who not only believed in his cause of mutant supremacy but went so far as to worship him as a divine mutant messiah.

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

Because if Magneto lives by any creed, it is this: '''[[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust Never. Again.]]'''

For his 2014 solo series, see [[ComicBook/Magneto2014 here]].

Read in his own voice [[SelfDemonstrating/{{Magneto}} here]].

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[[AC:{{Anime}}]]
* ''Anime/MarvelAnime: Anime/XMen''
* ''Anime/MarvelDiskWarsTheAvengers''

[[AC:{{Film}}]]
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'': Portrayed by Sir Creator/IanMcKellen (older), Creator/MichaelFassbender (younger) and Bill Milner and Brett Morris (as a child).
** ''Film/XMen1'' ([=McKellen=])
** ''Film/X2XMenUnited'' ([=McKellen=])
** ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' ([=McKellen=])
** ''Film/XMenFirstClass'' (Fassbender)
** ''Film/TheWolverine''[[note]]Cameo in mid-credits scene[[/note]] ([=McKellen=])
** ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'' ([=McKellen=] and Fassbender)
** ''Film/XMenApocalypse'' (Fassbender)
** ''Film/DarkPhoenix'' (Fassbender)

[[AC:VideoGames]]
* ''VideoGame/XMen'' (Of "[[MemeticMutation Welcome To Die!]]" fame)
* ''VideoGame/XMenLegends''
* ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance''
** ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance3TheBlackOrder'' (Boss and Playable villain), voiced by Creator/TomKane
* ''VideoGame/XMenMutantApocalypse'' (FinalBoss)
* ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom''
** ''VideoGame/XMenChildrenOfTheAtom'' (FinalBoss)
** ''VideoGame/MarvelSuperHeroes'' (Playable villain)
** ''VideoGame/XMenVsStreetFighter'' (Playable villain)
** ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcomClashOfTheSuperheroes'' (AssistCharacter)
** ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom2'' (Playable character)
** ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' (Playable character), voiced by Creator/TomKane
* ''[[VideoGame/SuperHeroSquadOnline Marvel Super Hero Squad Online]]''
* ''VideoGame/XMenDestiny''
* ''VideoGame/LEGOMarvelSuperheroes'', voiced by Creator/NolanNorth
* ''VideoGame/MarvelHeroes''
* ''VideoGame/MarvelPuzzleQuest''
* ''VideoGame/MarvelContestOfChampions''
* ''VideoGame/MarvelFutureFight''

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheFantasticFour1978''
* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderMan1981''
* ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAndHisAmazingFriends''
* ''WesternAnimation/PrydeOfTheXMen''
* ''WesternAnimation/XMen''
* ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution''
* ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen'', voiced by Creator/TomKane
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperHeroSquadShow'', voiced again by Kane
* ''WesternAnimation/IronManArmoredAdventures''

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!!Magneto provides examples of:

* AbortedArc: A good chunk of ''X-Men: Blue'' is dedicated to Magneto deciding there's no point in trying to reform, and turning into a vicious bastard ready to Do What's Necessary... this was promptly ignored faster than a speeding bullet.
* AboveGoodAndEvil: In ''Not A Hero'', he tells his genetic twin that there are no heroes or villains; there is only what he wants and how he'll get it.
* AdaptationalHeroism: In the 90s ''X-Men'' cartoon, because the show was basing its stories on what was current in the comics and at the time he wasn't an antagonist, he actually was an ally to the X-Men in most of his appearances.
* AdaptationalVillainy:
** While he may renounce ''Homo sapiens''[='=] labels of morality, his counterpart in ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen'' was willing to allow Sentinels free reign of Genosha, killing fellow mutants en masse, simply so that the remainder would be more willing to wage war, something that goes against everything pretty much every other incarnation has ever struggled for.
** Likewise, his film counterpart, while charismatic, and certainly true in every regard about mankind's treatment of mutants, is still an utter self-serving bastard - though in ''First Class'', prior to his FaceHeelTurn, and in ''Days of Future Past'', after his HeelFaceTurn (his situation at the end of ''Apocalypse'' is somewhat ambiguous), it becomes AdaptationalHeroism.
** ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'' completely sacrificed any and all of his mainstream counterpart's moral ambiguity to become nothing more than a mutant supremacist and genocidal maniac.
* AffablyEvil: In some portrayals, DependingOnTheWriter, he is a gentleman in his pursuit of mutant freedom. Being played by the charming Sir Creator/IanMcKellen in the movies highlights this aspect of himself.
* AGodAmI: During the 90s he wholeheartedly embraced the role of a wrathful, [[Literature/TheBible Old Testament]]-styled deity to inspire awe and devotion in his new followers, the Acolytes. It is not clear if he truly believed himself to be a deity during this time or if he simply played a role already expected from him — in introspection years later, he would say only that he "raised himself above them as a messiah". However, at his very worst he has outright called himself a god to lord over humanity, having done so in the Ultimate Marvel Verse and now currently doing so in the ''House of X'' storyline.
* AmbiguousDisorder: Sure, many of his idiosynchracies can be attributed to PTSD, but some, like his odd speech patterns and his disregard for societal norms? Not so much.
* AmbiguouslyJewish:
** He is Jewish by birth, and his status as a Holocaust survivor is integral to his character and backstory, but this aspect of his character is not always openly stated. In addition to more specific examples, on a few occasions he is shown to still believe in God, but it's never made clear if he is a practicing Jew. Whenever he references scripture, it is usually the gospels - though that could just be a case of his being widely read and using more familiar (and to his mind, ironic) quotations. He shaves, though no one knows how. And in ''ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen'', he eats steak and bacon.
** In the comics, at one point, Marvel at one point {{retcon}}ned his ethnic status away while they were preparing for one of his 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 him to, it was to a Sinte, a Romani subgroup. It was a rather disingenuous move given their motivations.
** In [[WesternAnimation/XMen the 90s cartoon series]], he was stripped of his status as a Holocaust survivor, as World War II and the Nazis were not allowed due to the "moral code" of the animation producers (i.e. FOX). Instead, he was given a background as a boy from a [[{{Ruritania}} more generic Eastern European country]] which was invaded and conquered in a more recent armed conflict, with his parents being killed during the invasion. Though not quite as horrific as the Holocaust, it still convinced him 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.
--->'''Magneto:''' 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!
*** ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' was allowed to reference World War II in relation to his backstory, and shows Wolverine and ComicBook/CaptainAmerica rescuing him as a child from what is clearly a concentration camp, though the show does not explicitly identify it as such.
* AngryWhiteMan: It depends on the version. One can of course apply this to the entire X-Men Mutant Metaphor, but Magneto in particular is, after all, outwardly a handsome white man who claims to represent all mutants unlike the X-Men (led by the disabled Professor X) and the Morlocks (who cannot "pass" as human unlike Magneto and Professor X) and makes little to no attempts to build consensus or build something that can appeal to people who do not agree with him.
** On the other hand... the main version is a Jew who survived Auschwitz. He's spent most of the last decade as a member of the X-Men, albeit usually of the more ruthless variety — certainly, he's stopped bothering with attempts at global conquest. And he has actively attempted to create sanctuaries for mutants before, on a small scale on Asteroid M/Avalon, then on a larger scale in the Savage Land and Genosha, the latter of which took mutants of all varieties. While each of them were destroyed by Mutants (the former crashed after a brutal duel between Holocaust and Exodus, the Savage Land was a bust, and Genosha was wiped out by Cassandra Nova), the latter used Wild Sentinels, technology created by humans to slaughter mutants, to pull it off. And when one considers the countless generations of Sentinels, and the various groups that have actively tried to wipe mutants out... well, there's a ''reason'' that he's one of the more popular Marvel villains. You can see where he's coming from.
** The Ultimate Marvel version, on the other hand, takes this UpToEleven. He's not a Jewish Holocaust survivor, he's the son of two Canadian Weapon X Agents. He's also a psychotic racist who murders Prosimian, the genetically engineered ape who helped him, because he sees him as an UpliftedAnimal and so untermenschen to Homo Superior, which is merely a small part of why everyone wants his head on a pike (the larger part being Ultimatum and his very thorough attempt to wipe out humanity)[[note]]And come the end of ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}} they get it, albeit what's left of it when Ult!Cyclops blasts it with his Optic Vision[[/note]].
* AntagonistAbilities: Whilst he would scoff at the mere idea of "fighting fair" (in his defence, the X-Men and his other enemies hardly agree to battle him one-on-one), his mastery of magnetism gives him a number of abilities which opponents have trouble circumventing:
** First of all, there is the gift of {{Flight}}, and his ability to stay well out of reach of brutish attackers like the brash [[ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} Logan]].
** Secondly, he is able to place {{Deflector Shield}}s and other barriers around him to protect even from long-distance attacks.
** Thirdly, his magnetism can act as an AreaOfEffect that does not even require conscious aiming or precision, although this is rather taxing for him.
** He has demonstrated (once) the ability to perform VillainTeleportation, if the need requires. No one's entirely sure how he did it, not even InUniverse, but he managed it.
** He can use any of the many objects in his vicinity as {{Flying Weapon}}s to keep his opponents busy and distract them as he completes his objectives.
** If there is sufficient iron (or other metals) in their bodies, he can manipulate others like PeoplePuppets — Wolverine and Colossus are, for obvious reasons, the most prominent victims of this. However, this was done to a truly ludicrous degree in a Spider-Man comic, where he was able to make an electromagnet pull Spidey to it, with Spidey attributing it to pulling at the "metallic salts" in his body. Realistically, if this could even be done, it would almost certainly kill the victim by ripping the salts out of their body (though Spidey ''did'' have the Captain Universe power at the time, even if he didn't know it).
** When damaged, he can magnetically seal his wounds and [[DamageReduction reduce damage]] to prevent blood loss.
** Due to the human mind relying upon electromagnetic synapses and other similar functions, he has been known to dabble in MindManipulation when given sufficient cause.
** Related to this, he also has a limited version of PsychicBlockDefense — it's stated to be stronger than the average person's, but not strong enough to keep a strong telepath (like, say, his arch-enemy Charles Xavier) out. His shiny metal helmet provides an even greater level of this power, sufficient to rebuff even Charles.
** And last but certainly not least, being the Master of Magnetism makes him effectively able to [[RealityWarper shape reality to his very whim]].
* AntiHero: Regardless of whether he fights against or with the X-Men, he never hesitated to [[PayEvilUntoEvil give scumbags exactly what they deserve]].
* AntiVillain: One that has started many an argument of varying maturity. To some, he's a WellIntentionedExtremist supremacist mass-murdering terrorist demagogue, with occasional outright genocidal ambitions; alternately, some people [[RootingForTheEmpire still root for the Brotherhood despite their muddled blood]], [[SympathyForTheDevil weep for Magneto's cause]], or [[TragicVillain have contempt for his position in life]], and DependingOnTheWriter, his ideals can be portrayed as rightfully accorded because he lives in a CrapsackWorld where all of humanity are [[HumansAreBastards persecuting scum]] who have it coming... which again, is all Depending on the Writer.
** Of course, this all depends on whether or not he's slid up the scale to AntiHero, a position he's occupied for the last decade. For his part, he's outright stated that he doesn't give a damn what people call him — all that matters is what he wants (the protection of mutantkind) and how he'll get it (by pretty much any means necessary).
* ArchEnemy:
** The Franchise/XMen in general; Charles Xavier in particular... although he [[FriendlyEnemy doesn't take it personally]].
** If not Charles, then the Red Skull. As much as he battles the X-Men, they are ultimately a FriendlyEnemy he would much rather join forces with (and frequently has), but the Skull is by far the one being alive that he despises more than anyone. He symbolizes everything he detests, and he would gladly crush his throat with his bare hands if not for the fact that, for Magneto, such a death would be too kind for such Nazi scum.
* TheArtifact: Yes, World War II was 70 years ago. [[ComicBookTime Age is but a number, he's still a paragon of power.]] (Plus, he's been de-aged a couple of times.)
* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Writers play around with the moniker of "Master of Magnetism" to the point that very little of what he can accomplish has anything to do with magnetism. The general consensus nowadays is that he's actually manipulating electromagnetism (which is one of the fundamental forces of the universe, and goes a long way to explaining how powerful he is[[note]]simply speaking, there are just two fundamental interactions that can be "experienced" in regular life: gravity and electromagnetism. And gravity is only responsible for keeping astronomical objects together. For EVERYTHING else, there is electromagnetism. From keeping the molecules together and to the nature of the sunlight. So basically, a person who controls electromagnetism can do ANYTHING. Except, maybe, [[NuclearOption splitting atoms]], which does involve some other interactions.[[/note]]).
* AstralProjection: He used to be able to do this, despite not having any PsychicPowers of his own — though perhaps it is merely that, though he does have psychic powers, he prefers to use his magnetism. Whatever the case, these days it is one of those things that is quietly ignored. The exception being Creator/JohnByrne, who brought it back a little sometime around the early 2000s, but after that, it has pretty much been dropped.
* TheAtoner:
** He has repeatedly attempted to atone for his misdeeds, a result of his status as the [[BigBad main villain]] [[WellIntentionedExtremist with good aims]] adversary to Charles and his X-Men. During two of his atonement phases, he even joined them, as he has for the last decade. This time, it looks like sticking, even if he does fall into the GoodIsNotNice[=/=]PragmaticHero category.
** [[ComicBook/MarvelZombies In an alternate universe]], he had made a deal with an entity from another universe hoping to give mutants a fighting chance, but he soon learned to his horror that he had brought a deadly virus to Earth, and he devoted the remainder of his life in that universe to save as many people, human AND mutant, as he could from the monsters that were once heroes.
* AxCrazy: He's been known to lose it here and there, though since the Claremont days, this behavior has been written off as a tragic consequence of WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity, though the trauma from his teen years spent as a Sonderkommando in Auschwitz and abandonment issues tied to his wife running out on him moments after the death of his first child certainly didn't help his mental matters.
* BadassBaritone:
** In ''VideoGame/XMenLegends'', due to being voiced by Creator/TonyJay.
** In the 1990s animated series, David Hemblem gave the proper gravitas and weight to his words.
** There's also Richard Green from the second ''X-Men: Legends'' and the first ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance'' game.
** Similarly, Creator/FredTatasciore gave this to him in ''VideoGame/XMenNextDimension'', ''X2: Wolverine's Revenge'', and the second ''Marvel Ultimate Alliance'' game.
** Creator/TomKane lent his talents to him in ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen'', ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' and ''VideoGame/{{Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3|The Black Order}}''.
** Bill Graves also gave him the proper weight in ''VideoGame/XMenDestiny''.
** In ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' he was voiced by Creator/ChristopherJudge.
** Creator/NolanNorth even gave him this kind of voice in ''VideoGame/LEGOMarvelSuperHeroes''.
* BadassBoast: He's given quite a few throughout his career as a mutant terrorist/revolutionary, almost all of them immediately backed up. One in particular when he revealed his identity while trapped in an underground mutant fighting club orchestrated by gangsters & corrupt power brokers in Hong Kong, China. Upon the revelation, the crowd's expressions changed from [[SmugSnake cruel enjoyment]] one minute to [[OhCrap wide-eyed terror]] the next. He even lampshades it.
-->'''Magneto:''' Some of you might have realised ''who'' I am. If so... then I suggest you warn the others. Because anyone who is still here in five minutes, will die '''SCREAMING MY NAME'''.
** Gives a couple during the ''Magneto: Not A Hero'' miniseries, both to the resurrected Joseph, after the latter tries to needle him about his HeelFaceTurn.
--->'''Magneto:''' You're foolish to think that because I have changed the methods in which I plan to achieve my goals that I am any less powerful. You can float around out here, wear my clothes, and be worshipped by that broken woman, pretending to be me. But don't forget... you're nothing but my clone.
--->'''Magneto:''' *[[CurbstompBattle immediately post thrashing Joseph,]] who tries to give him a BreakingSpeech* The thing that ''none'' of you will ''ever'' understand is that there are no sides. There's no ''heroes'' or ''villains''. There's just ''what I want'' and ''how I'll get it.''
** Sometimes people do it on his behalf.
--->'''Gambit:''' How do you outnumber ''Magneto''?
** In the original ''ComicBook/SecretWars1984'', he calmly tells the gathered heroes that he is more powerful than any of them, with the possible exception of ComicBook/TheMightyThor. No one argues the point.
* BadBoss: In many ways, this can be considered to be his FatalFlaw. While his goals (at least post-Claremont CharacterDevelopment) are noble and his means are, if not condonable, at least ''understandable'', the ways he treats those who follow him have always been... well, bad. As an unrepentant CardCarryingVillain in the Silver Age, it is unsurprising to see Mags mercilessly bullying and demeaning minions such as Mastermind and the Toad, but even during the Claremont era when he was trying to reform, Mags had a somewhat cavalier attitude about the students under his charge, ultimately abandoning them for a failed bid to steer the Hellfire Club's wealth and resources towards pro-mutant agendas. Later followers like the Acolytes were treated little better, and just as recently as 2016, he delivered a [[http://i.imgur.com/TK32s8N.jpg brutal]] TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Exodus, arguably his most loyal follower ever. As the Cullen Bunn Magneto run demonstrates in multiple instances, Mags just can ''not'' stop himself from treating (and seeing) his followers as "[[http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Fo6mrBfRgjI/U8Q6nKMZqzI/AAAAAAAAC00/n2qwJlauA_s/s1600/Magneto+(2014-)+006-011.jpg underlings]]" more than people, to be bent and used and thrown away at his discretion.
* BarrierWarrior: He can raise electromagnetic barriers, with varying degrees of "electro-" and "-magnetic."
* BerserkButton:
** Do not even ''THINK'' the words "JustFollowingOrders" in his presence.
** And the same goes for "for the Greater Good".
* BewareTheSuperman: The creed he lives and breathes every day he wakes. Humans are a persistent stain on the Earth and it is up to mutantkind to rinse it off. Metahumans should be feared and respected for their superiority and he will see it done.
* BigBad:
** Formerly, the chief antagonist of the X-Men. They have since found more common ground.
** His ComicBook/UltimateMarvel counterpart was the BigBad of that entire universe, up until his death in ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}''.
* BigGood: In the ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse timeline, he led the mutants opposing Apocalypse and his twisted minions.
** The main incarnation has become the chief mentor of the time-displaced X-Men, who came from an era where Magneto tried to kill them every other week. Both sides are entirely aware of the irony.
* BlatantLies: Magneto, a man who has spent decades locked in fruitless battle against his fellow mutants and witnessed the GenocideFromTheInside actions of insane mutants such as Stryfe and Onslaught, has the gall to tell a group of human officials that mutants have never made war on each other in the ''House of X'' event.
* BoxingLessonsForSuperman: Years after discovering his mutant powers, he studied magnetism in depth, along with many other different scientific fields, in order to perfect his gift.
* BrainwashingForTheGreaterGood:
** When he was de-aged by Alpha, Charles and Moira [=MacTaggert=] did this to him. As it transpired, it hadn't actually worked. At all.
** Of course, he also made use of this, once making Mastermind bury a young Lorna's traumatic memory of killing her mother with her newly activated powers.
* BrokenPedestal: Suffice to say, some of his Acolytes were couldn't bear to even look at him when he lost his powers on M-Day. Joanna Cargill a.k.a. Frenzy, formerly his right-hand woman, particularly so.
* BroughtDownToBadass: There have been times where he had to make do without his powers, for one reason or another. They do nothing to slow his effectiveness, however, as Joanna Cargill (and her eyes) can attest.
* ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth: Ruthie sees butterflies [[spoiler:right before she and her family are captured and executed by Nazis]].
* ByronicHero: He's driven to the things he does only because he believes that his people need someone willing to stand up and fight for their rights in the face of a world that will always hate and fear them. If this causes him to engage in behaviour that would not be considered "heroic" from a human perspective, then so be it. Michael Fassbender, the actor who portrays his young self in the ''X-Men'' film series, even portrayed Rochester, a classical example of this trope, in a 2011 adaptation of ''Film/JaneEyre''.
* TheCaligula: DependingOnTheWriter. Back in the Creator/StanLee comics, Magneto was simply capricious and domineering because that was expected of a villain. However, he really looks ''[[TheSociopath very bad]]'' when you take those old comics ''seriously'' — especially considering his treatment of the Brotherhood, with constant death threats, physical "discipline", and demands for the "fear" and "blind obedience" of his terrified followers. In later years, many writers tend to ignore this, but other stories looking back to that period have his ex-compatriots reacting realistically to the abuse, showing that (for example) Scarlet Witch still suffers from what amounts to post-traumatic stress disorder years later due to [[DomesticAbuse the way he treated her]] while she was his minion.
-->'''Wanda:''' His notions of kindness and benevolence were ''repulsive''. Whenever I wavered in my loyalty for a ''heartbeat''; whenever I toyed with the notion of ''leaving'' his service, he would... find a way to ''hold on'' to me. ''Tightly''.\\
\\
Considerable time has passed since then. I have grown stronger. Come to terms with much of what once frightened me. But never have I been more terrified than at the feet of the man who could kill me with a thought.\\
\\
Around him I was fragile. Vulnerable. I cannot be certain... that I will not be again.
* CardCarryingVillain: When he adopts such a moniker, it is partly out of a sense of irony. Largely, however, it is because he does not care to waste time answering to ''homo sapiens''[='=] moral standards, such as when he named his organization the Brotherhood of "Evil" Mutants. If they will call his kind "Evil Mutants" regardless, then his Brotherhood and he will embrace the term and live up to it.
* TheCasanova: Not as much as others, but for a guy on the far side of 80, he's got game. (It probably helps that he doesn't look it.) He's generally fairly attractive to women and famously came on to The Wasp during ''ComicBook/SecretWars'', and he's had at least two (possibly five. No one was really sure about Zaladane, and the twins now say they aren't his) children - and that's just the main version. Many of his lovers have been regular humans who still started a relationship with him [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys despite knowing he's a misanthropic mutant terrorist and supremacist]].
* ChewToy: It would appear that the universe at large may have a thing against mutants as mankind does.
* CoolHelmet: One that protects him from psychic intrusions as well. As a result, [[BucketHelmet "Bucket Head" is a]] FanNickname.
* CultOfPersonality: This, along with AsskickingEqualsAuthority, is the main reason why the mutant community still keeps looking to him for leadership despite his spotty track record. Much like real life examples of this trope, Magneto is described as an extremely charismatic individual who mutants in particular revere with a near-religious fervor (his Acolytes even worshiped him as a god outright).
* CurbStompBattle: Usually, he is the one handing them out. But when he faced [[AGodAmI the Stranger]], he quite convincingly turned the tables on him.
* CycleOfRevenge: Oddly enough, with the United States government and Russia. Magneto's attacks have made the two governments ''despise'' him and build various projects solely for the purposes of killing him. This results in Magneto attacking them even harder, which results in a general decay of mutant-human relations overall. Professor Xavier used to have decent ties with the government until he protected Magneto from their wrath a couple of times.
* DarkMessiah:
** He will use any means necessary to protect mutantkind (it used to be 'ensure that they ruled the world', but he's since settled for protecting them). ''Any''. His people have even considered him their "Mutant Messiah", in contrast to Charles' approach.
** Prior to the events of ''Comicbook/AvengersVsXMen'', he has bequeathed the role to [[Comicbook/{{Cyclops}} Scott 'General of the Mutants' Summers]], as he alone is responsible for the plans that first preserved mutantkind, then brought back them from the brink. It is not often that even ''he'' is impressed.
* DeadpanSnarker: DependingOnTheWriter in the comics; his incarnation in the live action films is very much this trope.
* DeathIsCheap: Magneto's been through the revolving door of Mutant Heaven more than once. ''X-Men'' vol 2. issue 3 ends with him supposedly being KilledOffForReal, but that was 1993. And then there was the destruction of Genosha. Not to mention that time he died fighting the Ultimate universe.
* DependingOnTheWriter:
** In older works: is he an AntiVillain with sympathetic aims, [[WellIntentionedExtremist a leader with extreme methods toward a golden age for mutants]], or a completely psychotic madman who will strike down ANYONE who gets in his way? It depends on what interpretation one thinks holds the most water, though these days, it's generally the former, with Magneto see-sawing between AntiHero and AntiVillain.
** How reliant he is on his helmet to resist telepathy tends to depend on whether the writer remembers (or chooses to remember) that he has telepathic talents of his own. Ever since the ''Film/XMen1'', the helmet does all the work, Juggernaut style.
** Whether or not his powers extend to [[ComicBook/TheMightyThor a certain magical hammer]] has also widely varied. [[VideoGame/LEGOAdaptationGame At times]] he's written as unable, yet on [[http://i.stack.imgur.com/kj0dz.jpg other]] [[ComicBook/TheAvengersEarthsMightiestHeroes occasions]] he is more than capable of it.
* {{Depower}}: At the end of ''House of M''. It took a few years before he got re-powered.
* {{Determinator}}: Nothing less could withstand the barbarity of the Holocaust.
* DomesticAbuse: His treatment of the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and perhaps Scarlet Witch in particular, with everything from threats to {{Gaslighting}} to outright physical violence, with a subtext of sexual abuse. It's to the point that those comics can be potentially ''uncomfortable'' for some readers today, with him manipulating the psychologically fragile Witch like a cult leader or abusive husband, alternating threats and promises and constantly reminding her of how he saved her from the horrible humans, so now she must show him "blind obedience" in all things. Given that many fans (and writers) are used to a Magneto who is more of a NobleDemon, this is not usually played up more recently, and usually overlooked, as with the behaviour of other characters that would be seen as OOC, as a sort of meta version of the old 'it was a Doombot' excuse — that said, 'usually' is not 'invariably'. There are also stories that delve into that era. One, told from the Witch's point of view, is both heartbreaking and terrifying.
-->The terror of remembrance knives through her. She has suffered abuse at his hands so many--\\
\\
''[[LittleNo No.]]''
* DotingGrandparent: Even if she is powerless, lamentably so for him, he will not allow any to harm his granddaughter Luna. Indeed, he once swore he would rather die than allow her to suffer a moment's grief.
* DoUntoOthersBeforeTheyDoUntoUs: This was one of his main rationales in his war on humanity, and one of the main sticking points in his philosophical differences with Charles: He must strike at humans before they do mutants harm. Now, he's mellowed somewhat. Or to be exact, he's much more discerning when it comes to his targets.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: That Magneto had been a Holocaust survivor wasn't part of his backstory until Creator/ChrisClaremont wrote him in the '80s, a good couple of decades after his debut. In the early Creator/StanLee-Creator/JackKirby run, [[https://graphicpolicy.com/2016/03/03/peoples-history-of-the-marvel-universe-week-6-this-man-magneto/ Magneto was more or less a mustache-twirling villain without any benevolent attributes]], {{Gaslighting}} his own subordinates, exploiting his own children as pawns, and as a kind of PoorMansSubstitute for Dr. Doom (i.e. Central European tyrant), with retroactively out-of-character moments such as leading a Nazi-styled invasion of San Marco. In fact, Ultimate Magneto in terms of narrative fidelity is TruerToTheText than the benevolent TragicVillain mantle Magneto got under Claremont's run.
** The fact that he had some degree of PsychicPowers in the same time frame. He meets with Xavier on the astral plane and he hypnotically compels Warren's parents to go to bed. Later stories vaguely allude to those abilities by explaining he uses magnetism and blood iron manipulation to do so. The ''X-Men vs. Avengers'' mini-series revealed that his helmet also had special circuitry that gave him MindControl abilities, perhaps retroactively explaining some of those weird Silver Age moments.
* EnemyMine:
** He has had to side with Charles and his X-Men when the need arises. Said forced team-ups may have also been the result of [[VideoGame/CapcomVs another entity playing a game]].
** On another occasion, he 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 their plans, through he and the other participants in the plot were manipulated by Comicbook/{{Loki}} the trickster god, and Magneto used the team-up as an opportunity [[KickTheSonOfABitch to trap the Red Skull in a ditch with no food or water whatsoever]].
* EpisodeZeroTheBeginning: ''Magneto'' #0 was an origin story that has since been superseded by ''Magneto Testament''.
* EthnicityMonarch: In several stories, Magneto is appointed to the position of head of state of some sort of nation or base that becomes an autonomous mutant state. In particular, within the story ''ComicBook/HouseOfM'', is first declared the ruler of the mutant state of Genosha, but after a brief war against the United States, expands his territory until he has become King of Earth, and primary defender of mutantkind.
* EvenEvilHasStandards:
** He's far more moral than the likes of Sebastian Shaw, Apocalypse, or William Stryker. He works for a cause. They work only for themselves.
** Don't even mention the ComicBook/RedSkull to him. Then you will see how "evil" he can be. [[spoiler:In ''ComicBook/{{AXIS}}'', the Skull managed to steal Charles' brain to gain new "powers" and exploit both humans and mutants. When Magneto learned this, he declared that for his friend's sake, THE. SKULL. MUST. PAY. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Unfortunately, in his blind rage, he killed the Skull, only to awaken his own darker half]], ComicBook/{{Onslaught}}.]]
* EvilGenius: He is amongst the many geniuses of the 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. He's also very much multilingual, even being able to decipher a long-lost language and having reconstructed advanced computer devices from memory. As expected from his leadership, he is also a talented strategist, a requirement in his war on humanity. [[CulturedBadass He is also quite the connoisseur of the fine arts and finest literature]], admitting that ''Homo sapiens'' have made at least some worthwhile contributions to life. [[ManipulativeBastard To others, his ability to manipulate the lessers amongst mankind is paramount.]]
* EvilIsPetty: During one of his more "unstable" periods, when he regained his youth and vitality but before he regained his composure and focus, he used his command of magnetism to make Wolverine punch himself in the face.
* EvilMentor: Not during the New Mutant days, but much, much later, when Hope Summers is around. Cable is particularly wary of letting the cynical teenager anywhere near Magneto for precisely this reason. Actual evil-ness may vary, but Erik was definitely not the best influence someone like Hope needed.
* EvilPlan: His methods to prevent mutant genocide can be rather... extreme, especially if you're human.
* EvilutionaryBiologist: Magneto creates the dangerous mutant team called the Savage Land Mutates, by subjecting them to experiments that greatly enhanced their physiology.
* ExtraOreDinary: Whatever the writers decide of his powers, he can always control metal.
* TheExtremistWasRight: One has to concede that that no matter how many times the X-Men have stopped his 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.
** A note that in various ''What if'' stories, it's stated the reason mutants are hated and feared is a large part ''due to the actions of Magneto.'' His terrorist attacks against the military and governments of the world pretty much underscore how helpless humanity is against mutants. Mind you, Marvel being the CrapsackWorld it is, if Magneto ''didn't'' exist, then the X-Men would get slaughtered by Apocalypse as they would otherwise have forgone LevelGrinding.
* FatalFlaw: A tossup between [[CycleOfRevenge Wrath]] and {{Pride}}, depending on who's writing him that day. His actual evil quotient is very variable, but a constant in almost all his appearances and incarnations is his deep-seated rage at the human race. Most of the time this rage comes from the very valid place of his traumatic childhood, but even at his most tragic the human race as a whole isn't to blame for what happened to him, yet decades later he still cannot bring himself to forgive a race of billions for the sins of thousands (almost all of whom are long dead). For those [[ComicBook/UltimateXMen few incarnations]] that ''don't'' give him his usual traumatic backstory, or in [[ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen storylines]] where he's backed off from wanting to PutThemAllOutOfMyMisery, Magneto's pride rises to the fore. This is when he's most likely to declare AGodAmI (which has 'evolved' to "[[SuperSupremacist Gods Are We]]") and surrender his reason completely to his ego. Whether it's Wrath or Pride pulling the trigger, the end result is him shooting himself in the foot at the finish line of getting what he wants, over and over and over again.
* FinalBoss: In nearly every VideoGame about the X-Men ever made. It would be easier to list the ones that don't feature him as this.
* {{Flanderization}}: Since the movies, both fans and even writers often seem to assume that his powers are restricted to manipulating metallic objects.
** When Briar showed up in the solo series she was a mostly rational person who was sexually attracted to Magneto. In ''X-Men: Blue'' she is so kinky it's creepy, even being turned on by the thought of her boyfriend's daughter possessed and thrashing a mansion while trying to kill children, as Daken accidentally discovers because he is there to smell her when she thinks about it. That said, she could have mostly just dialled it down around Magneto when they first met.
* FlyingFirepower: He can throw around ShockAndAwe and pretty much everything else on the electromagnetic spectrum - though he's quite happy to use a large building instead.
* ForgotAboutHisPowers: There was an incident in which Reed Richards managed to dupe him with a wooden gun. The sheer simplicity of his trick dumbfounded Magneto to the point in which the authorities took him in without incident. To this day he still cannot explain what happened.
* FreudianExcuse:
** Back in his day, it was called the Holocaust. [[DoubleSubverted ...But no, that's not quite right. That wraps things up too nicely.]] The Holocaust happened, and he survived, even attempting to not let such an event shape him negatively. [[TraumaCongaLine Then his daughter was killed]], and he discovered and unleashed his powers to deal some righteous judgement... and, regrettably, his beloved Magda left him in fear soon after he had unleashed his wrath upon the culprits responsible.
** Perhaps what truly makes his ComicBook/UltimateMarvel 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 his mainstream counterpart at his worst would shudder at.
* FriendlyEnemy: DependingOnTheWriter (usually Creator/ChrisClaremont takes this view), there will be many times in which he heavily regrets the seemingly never-ending conflicts he has with Charles and his X-Men, even if he thinks that [[IDidWhatIHadToDo he does what is right]] by his people.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: Once he was just a simple young man, until he saw just how horrible humans can be. Though it was after the murder of his daughter that he became fully devoted to his cause. Had they simply left him alone, he would have stayed Max Eisenhardt. But now, he is '''Magneto'''.
* GeneralFailure: Few of Magneto's supporters remember that back in the late 90's he got exactly what he always wanted when the U.N. allowed him to take control of the island nation Genosha, a former [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything anti-mutant slavery/apartheid state]] that had been crippled by the downfall of the previous regime and years of civil war. With this, Magneto was given a real opportunity to found the mutant sanctuary nation he always spoke of, a population of millions of mutants to build it back up to greatness, and a land said to be rich in natural resources. What did Magneto do with this fledgling mutant nation? ''Ran it straight into the ground''. Months and even '''years''' after taking control of Genosha the island's capital city was still in ruins every time the X-Men came to visit, with the only difference being opulent new buildings Magneto raised up to rule from. He also completely failed to teach his citizens to protect themselves in any way, to the point where when Cassandra Nova sent Sentinels to the island nation, all 16 million of its mutants were eradicated ''in minutes''. Strangely, this abject failure on Magneto's part seems to have been forgotten completely, and both in-universe and out he is still regarded as a potential mutant savior who just needs the right promised land to lead his people into (again).
* GenocideSurvivor: He is a Jewish man who survived UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust when he was a boy. The experience of watching his entire family die and being sent to Auschwitz fundamentally shaped his personality, beliefs, and his reaction to the persecution of mutants. Magneto is more than willing to use deadly force to protect mutants because he's determined to make sure that what happened to the Jewish people in 1940s Europe never happens again.
* GlassCannon: His powers are typically highly destructive, even if all the writers can think of is manipulating metal, but at the same time he's no more durable than any non-powered man - though by physically human standards, he's MadeOfIron and capable of taking a beating. Those force fields he creates aren't just for fun.
* GlowingEyesOfDoom: Goes without saying, but when his eyes are aglow, you would be smart not to get in his way.
* GoodIsDumb: During the first period he had running Xavier's Institute, he made some exceedingly foolish decisions.
* GoodIsNotNice: He seems to prefer that people not think of him as nice, and lives up to that image. At one point, he even chided Rogue for thinking he was doing something just to be nice.
-->'''Magneto:''' I came here to be alone with my thoughts.
-->'''Rogue:''' That a polite brush-off?
-->'''Magneto:''' Have you ever known me to be polite?
* HeWhoFightsMonsters:
** The "monsters" in this case being for him the [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters vile, disgusting, bloodthirsty racist genocidal humans]] and, prior to that, the madmen of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany and their [[ThoseWackyNazis inconceivable horrors]]. Charles would pinpoint towards some Freudian theory about this reflecting on Magneto's own destiny, but...
** [[spoiler:His incarnation in ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen'' is certainly this trope. In the approaching conflict with the anti-mutant faction in America, when warned that the war would lead to a BadFuture [[ItMakesSenseInContext 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.]]
* HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: He will always do what needs to be done to safeguard the future of mutantkind -- regardless of whether others consider his actions "good" or "evil," such as when [[spoiler:he yanked Miss Kitty Pryde off the [[TheBusCameBack Bus]].]]
* HelmetsAreHardlyHeroic: As a menacing villain he had an iconic helmet. His times as a Face, most particularly the Claremont run where he lead the New Mutants, has him mostly eschewing his helmet, usually only wearing it for practical defense against enemy telepaths. Morally ambiguous phases has him wearing it regularly, though most of the time [[LightIsGood they're white]].
* HeroicRROD: During Matt Fraction's ''Uncanny X-Men'' run, he managed to use his powers to find the space bullet Kitty was trapped in, and drag it back to Earth. The strain nearly killed him, and kept him out of commission for a long while.
* HowMuchMoreCanHeTake: His immense willpower often leaves him pushing himself no matter how much damage he takes. Whether it's injuries suffered from enemies or the strain of pushing his powers too far he is not likely to stop until he literally can't act anymore.
* HumansAreBastards: This is his view of humans after the hand he was dealt (it was the Holocaust, after all) and seeing a similar hand being dealt to other mutants around the world. Somehow it didn't occur to him that the victims of the holocaust were also human beings such as his own family.
* IHaveManyNames: Erik Magnus Lehnsherr and other shortened variants such as Erik Magnus, Magneto (of course), The Master of Magnetism. To be honest, his REAL name is Max Eisenhardt, a German-Polish Jew. In most other retellings, he's content with simply "Magnus." In the movies, it's always "Erik."
* IHaveNoSon: He's prone to this attitude regarding Pietro when he's in a KickTheDog mood, and at least once he's come right out and said it. And then, not content to stop there, he added that '''the android Ferris''' was more of a son in his eyes than Pietro, citing Ferris's emotionless loyalty as more in accordance with his idea of a son. He has never done this to any of his daughters, even when finding out that they're ''actually not his daughter''. Of course, given his relentless emotional abuse of Scarlet Witch during the early days detailed above, one can hardly argue he treated them any better...
* IgnoredEpiphany: No matter how many times he has a HeelRealization and [[ComicBook/NewMutants tries to]] [[ComicBook/TheChildrensCrusade redeem]] [[ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen himself]], [[ComicBook/FatalAttractions inevitably he always]] [[ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen backslides]] and returns to the megalomaniac supervillain he is at his core. Indeed, as of 2018 he has even reorganized the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and has happily returned to mindless terrorism, saying only that "the old ways work best" in explanation (as if he wasn't beaten over and over again in the past using those 'old ways').
* ImaginationBasedSuperpower: Magnetism is capable of anything. For example, his magnetic attraction power can hypnotize the less mentally capable. He has also magnetically lifted various objects and entities that logically he should not have been able to, like simple water. He can even manipulate the entire electro-magnetic spectrum (which helps explain some of his weirder abilities), albeit without the same potency as regular magnetism, and once in a while he displays some latent telepathic powers.
* ImAHumanitarian: Not '''him''', of course; for all of his contempt towards humanity, he would never condone so repugnant an action in response. However, his [[AdaptationalVillainy reprehensible counterpart]] in the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel 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.
* ImmuneToMindControl: He has a [[CoolHelmet special helmet]] that prevents him from being mind-controlled. A most useful tool when his arch nemesis (Professor X) is one of the most accomplished [[PsychicPowers psychics]] in the world.
* ItsAllAboutMe: Along with his LackOfEmpathy for his followers, this tends to be his greatest flaw -- although his motives are good, perhaps even noble, they're tainted by his distinct conviction that only '''he''' can lead mutantkind to a better future.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He really wants his people to be free from sapien racism and oppression, even if he has to become ANaziByAnyOtherName to achieve it.
* JerkWithAHeartOfJerk: DependingOnTheWriter, sometimes his messianic ambitions are nothing more than a front for his raging ego and god complex (90s Magneto, we're looking at you).
* JokerImmunity: He's Marvel's premiere example. That very trope page brought up that he may well have had more intended permanent deaths, de-powers, and lobotomies to render him harmless than any other super villain, so much so that he might have likely been the {{Trope Namer|s}} if not for the Joker.
* KickTheSonOfABitch:
** Twice he's done this to the Red Skull, with the second time killing him outright.
** He ''might'' have done this to the Future Brotherhood in ''X-Men: Blue'', killing them for disrespecting Charles's vision, using time-travel for their own ends, and just being ass-hats. ''Might have'', because we never see what he did...
* KilledOffForReal: In the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel universe, during ''ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}}''
* KnightTemplar: In the past, he has done whatever it takes to ensure prosperity for mutantkind. Naturally, how far he's forced to go depends on who's writing at the moment.
* LackOfEmpathy: A strange example in that he is much more like to show empathy for his enemies (the X-Men) than his own followers. Even after being more or less redeemed, he still doesn't seem to think much of anyone that follows him, and in a conversation with former follower Frenzy he even says outright he is not interested in having followers anymore. Naturally, the latest (as of 2018) story arc has him reorganizing the Brotherhood and recruiting many of his former mistreated followers, all of whom dropped everything they were doing to work for him again.
* LargeHam: How else can he show that he's superior to you human beings than with powerful speech and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51kYWI3A390 gestures]]?
* LightEmUp: He has occasionally manipulated the visible electromagnetic spectrum to make himself invisible. He does have a slight [[LightIsNotGood white motif]] with his [[WhiteHairBlackHeart hair]] and [[ShockAndAwe lightning]], but he doesn't go pretentiously overboard.
* LightningCanDoAnything: If there's no possible way for his magnetism to pull off a certain insane feat, that is where the "electro" prefix of "electromagnetism" comes in.
* LittleNo: Prone to these. Appears to be immune to its counterpart, BigNo.
* LockedIntoStrangeness: His hair is usually shown to have turned grey thanks to a youth spent in Auschwitz. Even de-aging and re-aging don't change that.
* TheLostLenore: Magda and Anya. Magneto even renamed the central plaza of Genosha after his first wife (d'aww). Less so for Lorna's mother.
* LoveTriangle: He is part of one, locked in combat with the Cajun Remy [=LeBeau=] (better known as ComicBook/{{Gambit}}) for the affections of the mutant ComicBook/{{Rogue}}. She ''promises'' nothing about the future, but he won the triangle during their time on Utopia. It, of course, did not last, but as for Magneto he wishes her the best in every way.
* LukeIAmYourFather:
** Showing up just as your daughter in-law has given birth to say "hi" to your granddaughter was probably ''not'' the best way to break the news to your son that he is, in fact, your son. But definitely a memorable way to do it.
** For years, Polaris wasn't sure whether Magneto was her father or not, until she did some investigating and found evidence of magnetism in the debris of the plane her mother died on. She went to confront Magneto, who confirmed he was her father.
* MadeOfIron: In one of his confrontations with Charles' students, he received several blows to the head from [[ChromeChampion Colossus]], yet still remained standing, to say nothing of the fact he simply shrugged off Wolverine's attempts to skewer him.
* MalcolmXerox:
** It's common for fans to paint him as a (rare) white, albeit [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant non-WASP]], version of this trope at least based on TheThemeParkVersion of the UsefulNotes/CivilRightsMovement as the more radical alternative to his FriendlyEnemy Charles Xavier's Martin Luther King, Jr. In actual fact King and X barely knew each other, met only once, and none of their differences ever led to any actual split in the movement. Likewise, Malcolm X was actually known to be considerably more moderate than his reputation allowed, while King was more radical than people knew.
** Magneto has also been [[http://forward.com/news/8878/orthodo-x-men-1/ compared to Meir Kahane]], the founder of the paramilitary Jewish Defense League and the now-banned Kach Party in Israel. Like Magneto, Kahane endured the Holocaust and believed that his people could only survive "by any means necessary". The Professor X-Magneto divide is further explored and paralleled by fellow Holocaust survivor [[http://forward.com/opinion/7470/orthodo-x-men-on-screen-and-off/ Irving Greenberg]], who was a close friend of Kahane until they split over Kahane's radicalism.
* ManOfKryptonite: Magneto's powers make him one of the very few opponents that Wolverine has no chance against in a stand-up fight. Even before he tore the adamantium off Logan's bones, he's done things like shove Logan's claws back into his arms and toss him around like a rag doll without even touching him.
-->[''from'' X-Men ''#25''] Ah, Logan. We dance the dance again and again...and you've never learned the steps very well, have you? [''flings Wolverine across the room with a flick of his fingers'']
* MayDecemberRomance: Some fans are bothered by the age difference between himself and 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, he now has 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 (ComicBook/JeanGrey, Mariko Yashida, Yukio, etc.) even though Wolverine is old enough to be ''Magneto's'' grandfather. Regardless, Rogue and he have married and started a family in [[ComicBook/AgeOfApocalypse at least one universe]].
* MeaningfulName: His 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; and 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 his case also: strong with iron. "Max" connotes intensity. Who would have guessed a man with such a name would later become the hardened master of metal manipulation?
** The name "'Lensherr" looks and sounds a lot like the German "landesherr" which means "territorial lord".
** "Erik" means "ruler", which is how he sees himself. It may also be in honor of his uncle Erich, who chose to stay in Warzaw and help the Jews there.
** Magnus means "great", so Erik Magnus, while mixing Germanic and Latin, means "great ruler".
** Magda means "girl" or "maid", and the reason they could first meet at an all-boy school is that she was the cleaning lady's daughter.
** Anya means "mercy".
** Ruth (his sister) means "friend" in its Hebrew origin and "sadness" or "grief" in English. Without getting all [[IncrediblyLamePun punny]], can we agree that after she died he became both ruthless and friendless? Hers is the only death he never refers to directly.
*** Her alias that she uses for "passing" as a "real German", is Greta, which means "pearl".
** Briar means "thorn". Even when she helps him, she annoys him quite a lot.
* MessianicArchetype: Became one of these to the Acolytes, though to his very slight credit this was not his idea -- it was Fabian Cortez who created a religion around Magneto and elevated him to a divine figure to control his followers, but Mags certainly embraced the idea.
* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: As a BadBoss, one shouldn't be surprised that the majority of times his underlings betray him it is motivated by this. The king of mistreatment-induced betrayals where Magneto is concerned is his long-time sycophant the Toad, who Mags used to, in Toad's own words, "[[http://i.imgur.com/8n4h2Vj.jpg Insult me, hit me, order me around like a slave]]". Unsurprisingly Toad eventually reached a breaking point and more than once turned on Magneto, though tragically his borderline abused housewife mentality leads him to just keep returning to Mags's side. Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, who also endured Magneto at his worst, left his side to join the Avengers and never looked back.
* MoralPragmatist: It seems like Magneto sprints through the HeelFaceRevolvingDoor more than any other "super-villain". He doesn't; it's just that the most efficient way to achieve his goals changes with the status quo, and Magneto has never been shy about embracing a faster or better method… provided he thinks it will work.
* MoralityPet: At times, Kitty Pryde – fellow mutant and fellow Jew – serves in this capacity. [[spoiler: One of his terms as a {{Face}} began with delivering her from danger.]] If not her, then Luna (when she's his granddaughter).
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In essence, his reaction to harming a young Kitty Pryde in battle. For all that he have sworn to fight for mutantkind by any means necessary, he '''will not''' harm children.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName:
** Early Magneto, pre-Claremont (who was the first to characterize him as a Holocaust survivor) was pretty much envisioned as one by Creator/JackKirby and the ComicBook/UltimateMarvel incarnation as well as Grant Morrison's ''Planet X'' returns to this (Planet X was very swiftly retconned as being Xorn posing as Magneto). Unlike his more well known mainstream and cinematic/animated versions, these versions of Magneto actively encourage mutants to kill and terrorize humans as part of his "mutant supremacy" creed. Ultimate Magneto has taken separation from humanity to the extreme, attempting to create a new mutant culture to the extent of devising new "mutant commandmants" (probably the one thing similar to what his mainstream counterpart would do), 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. He eventually was killed by that universe's Cyclops in retaliation for [[ComicBook/{{Ultimatum}} the cataclysm he caused]].
** Later versions of Magneto post-Claremont, moderate this by bringing this as a BecameTheirOwnAntithesis moment, at times becoming no different than the Germanic bigots who butchered his family, upholding the same creed of racial supremacy with equal fervor. It has been noted that there's uncomfortable similarities in his own crusade to promote Homo Superior to replace humans as the dominant species and the Nazi beliefs in the Ubermensch and the Untermensch, though Magneto has never, canonically, countenanced the sort of barbarism the Nazis used to slaughter those they considered unfit. He considers violence as a necessary proactive steps to protect his people from humanity; he believes that humans will eliminate themselves eventually without any need for direct intervention on his part. Indeed, at least twice he has sought to simply remove his people from humanity to leave them to their fates, such as when he founded Genosha or established Asteroid M, but such efforts have always simply redoubled humanity's fervor to strike at him.
* NaziHunter: Most famously when he buried the Red Skull alive. He's also been shown to have worked with American intelligence services hunting Nazis in hiding during the Cold War (although thanks to the sliding timeline, it's ambiguous exactly when or how long he did this for).
* NeverBeHurtAgain: When he's given sympathetic motivations, he gives this reaction. He's a [[UsefulNotes/TheHolocaust Holocaust]] survivor who doesn't want mutants to face the kind of genocidal [[FantasticRacism bigotry]] he endured in his youth, though it does kind of go against him when he has no qualms about doing that to humans.
* NeverMyFault: He refuses to assume that his actions may have harmed more of his fellow mutants and hurt the cause of mutant rights more than they have ever helped; he only pins the blame for that on humanity.
* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: Over the course of his career, he's 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 [[UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein 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 he usually stays with that.
* NoPronunciationGuide: Until dramatic media made the way he prefers his name to be pronounced more widely known, certain people insisted on pronouncing it "magnet-oh".
* NobleDemon: He has committed many atrocities, but they're driven to protect his loved ones and his people from harm.
* NotMeThisTime: In ''House of M'', reality's rewritten so Mutantkind is on top, with Magneto in charge. The various heroes come to the not-unreasonable conclusion that Magneto is the one who made Wanda use her powers to make this happen, but it eventually turns out it wasn't. It was ''Quicksilver'', and Magneto was brainwashed along with everyone else. He... doesn't take it very well.
* NotSoDifferent: Many had tried this on him, but none had enraged him as much as when the Red Skull did this. He paid him back in kind.
* NotQuiteFlight: Controlling [[ArtisticLicensePhysics magnetic lines of force]] enables him to levitate. It is also a likely explanation for how he can move things lacking ferrous metal.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Courtesy of Alpha and the High Evolutionary, he's in his physical prime, despite being almost a century old.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: 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 his own, reconstructing computerised devices from memory. He could probably make the top ten list for smartest people on the planet if he put his mind to it.
* ParentalAbandonment: An understandable case with Pietro and Wanda, since he never actually knew they were alive to begin with. Lorna Dane, on the other hand, doesn't have that excuse. Magneto wiped her memories of accidentally killing her mother, and left her to be adopted because he figured (rightly) that a three year old had no place with a man who was losing his marbles.
* PayEvilUntoEvil:
** In ''God Loves, Man Kills'', he finds out a bunch of rednecks attacked a mutant family, killed the children and left their bodies near a school so the next morning they'd be found. Erik tracked them down, and... well, you can probably guess.
** Killing Zaladane, who was posing a serious threat not just to the Savage Land, but the world as a whole.
** He once imprisoned a man in a basement with limited water and no light. By the time said man was found, he was wishing for death. The man in question was the ComicBook/RedSkull; a villain so vile and repulsive that even ComicBook/TheJoker [[ComicBook/BatmanAndCaptainAmerica won't work with him]].
** He once did this with Fabian Cortez, a treacherous mutant supremacist that in the past tried to kill him, manipulate wars between humans and mutants that led to the destruction of a safe haven for mutants Magneto created, and also tried to use his granddaughter as a human shield. The minute he no longer needed him, he beat the crap out of him.
* PersonOfMassDestruction: His high-order magnetism powers allow him to wreak destruction on a global scale if he's in the mood for it, and depending on what side of the FaceHeelRevolvingDoor he's on, sometimes he's ''very much'' in the mood for it. This has been toned down in recent years as he's crept more and more towards full time protagonist status, but when he decided to release a global EMP pulse in ''ComicBook/FatalAttractions'', "hundreds... maybe thousands" of people died.
* ProgressivelyPrettier: Overlaps with BeautyEqualsGoodness (or at least sympathetic AntiHero) as the original Magneto was [[EvilMakesYouUgly typically villainously ugly]] but became steadily more of a SilverFox as he became more and more sympathetic.
* PutOnABus: It seems that when he has battled humanity for "too long", he ends up swept aside so other villains can "take the spotlight for a while." The first instance was after one of his battles when he unexpectedly found himself a prisoner of a [[DiabolusExNihilo an unexpected extra-terrestrial called the Stranger]].
* PuttingOnTheReich: His domination of [[BananaRepublic San Marco]], wherein he had an [[PrivateMilitaryContractors army of mercenaries]], outfitted with Waffen-SS surplus uniforms. The stylized "M" armbands were one step away from swastikas, otherwise the resemblance to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler was total. Come to that, many of his actions as a [[KnightTemplar man willing to use any lengths]] to replace mankind with his own genetically superior people do draw unavoidable comparisons, which have been elaborated on in the text.
* RebelliousSpirit: He has a bit of a problem with authority, as one might imagine, and he doesn't recognize peers easily. It should go without saying that he calls no man "master," save himself. That said, [[{{Hypocrite}} he brooks no opposition within his own ranks]].
* ReedRichardsIsUseless: In the supervillain years, Magneto demonstrates an astounding inventive mind - geothermal bases, robotics that outstrip anything anyone else could dream of, without any psychotic murderizing... and yet he doesn't think of using these gifts for anything other than his war on mankind or petty revenge games on the X-Men.
* RefugeeFromTime: Magneto is one of the most famous examples of the trope. Every year it becomes less and less plausible for him to have been a Holocaust survivor and writers have to jump through hoops to explain how he remains middle aged and physically fit despite being close to a century old. However, Magneto as a character is so intertwined by his time in Auschwitz that it would require reworking the character from the ground up to try and retcon his origins to a later time period.
* RetCanon: Prior to the movie, his helmet was just a helmet. It provided no psychic protections.
* RetCon: Has been subject to many--the idea that he was a Jew in World War II and victim of Nazi anti-Semitism, which is arguably the character's defining trait nowadays, is one itself, not actually showing up until the 1980s. Moreover, it was a particularly heavy-handed one at that, since Magneto was originally a [[ANaziByAnyOtherName heavily Nazi-coded]] blond and blue-eyed {{Ubermensch}} villain who speechified like a cut-rate Hitler and dressed up his {{Mook}} soldiers [[PuttingOnTheReich literally like Nazi stormtroopers with the swastikas filed off.]] Other than this big one, there have also been endless other retcons about various aspects of his origins and past since, back and forth. (Polaris is his daughter--No, she's not! Scarlet Witch is his daughter--No, she's not! He's a Polish Jew--No, actually a Gypsy--No, he's really a ''German'' Jew! His real name is Magnus--No, Erik--No, Max! And on, and on...) However, none of them has influenced the essence of the character in any similarly major way.
** Likewise, his relationship with Charles Xavier, which also didn't come along until the 80s.
* RevengeBeforeReason:
** After being restored by Erik the Red, he was determined to avenge himself on the X-Men, ignoring the fact that in the time since he had last encountered them all but Cyclops had been replaced with entirely different people. Eventually, they had no recourse but to flee, but he still vowed to confront them at another time.
** If a human were to harm another Mutant, he would more likely call for their death than anything else, even a truly heartfelt apology. It became much less amusing when his former Acolyte, Exodus, turned this around on him for defending Charles from Frenzy.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized: Unlike Xavier, he believes that there can be no peaceful cooperation between humanity and mutantkind. If it was up to him, Mutantkind ''will'' take its flawed predecessor's place, and although he tries not to be too carelessly callous, he will not lose sleep over doing what he thinks must be done.
* TheRival: Charles Xavier, as a result of their differing views on whether mutantkind and man can live in peace or not; in the wider Franchise/MarvelUniverse, his rival is instead ComicBook/DoctorDoom. He is the closest he considers to be legitimate competition.
* RoguesGalleryTransplant: It doesn't happen too often, but many readers first came to know Magneto through his appearances in crossover with ''Franchise/{{Spiderman}}'' and an {{Expy}} called Matto Magneto (who looks nothing like him but isn't so far from '60s Magneto in terms of personality) appeared in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManAndHisAmazingFriends''. He also appeared in a prominent story in Creator/StanLee's newspaper Spider-Man strip, which allowed Peter to show off his scientist smarts by using his knowledge of magnetism against the Master.
* SelfFulfillingProphecy: Magneto believes war with humans and mutants is inevitable, so he attacks humans first. This, of course, results in humanity becoming more hostile to mutants.
* ShockAndAwe: A primary attack of his, aside from throwing any amount of tons of metal at his enemies, is shooting bolts of lightning. Don't expect to turn his own powers against him either.
* ShootingSuperman:
** Most people never learn that bullets are made of metal. There have been attempts to counter his abilities with non-metallic ballistics, but mutant gifts tend to continuously outpace 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 him. They should have known better. Magneto finally got fed up with this and rips out the adamantium from Wolverine's body, which gave Wolverine bone claws… and so took away that advantage against him.
* ShootTheDog: After a jaunt into a bad future during ''X-Men: Blue'', he found the scientists who helped cause part of it, murdered them all and levelled the facility they were working at, just to be sure.
* ShoutOut: ''Magneto: Testament'' gives shoutouts to ''Night'' by Elie Wiesel ([[spoiler:when Kalb tells Max to say he's eighteen]]) and ''Man's Search for Meaning'' by Viktor Frankl ([[spoiler:when Max tells Magda to hide in the corpse pile]]).
* SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids: Played with, as from his perspective he is this played straight, considering himself a cynical realist and regarding his ideological rival Charles Xavier as a WideEyedIdealist who prefers to focus on an unrealistic dream than cold hard reality. Ironically, ''he'' actually fits the Wide-Eyed Idealist label more than Xavier, as he is forever trying to force radical changes very quickly in a way that very rarely works out, either historically or for him personally. Meanwhile, 'the dreamer' Xavier focuses on slow-and-steady efforts that, while failing to produce results in the short term, have historically been more successful than Magneto's violent rebellions.
* SilverFox: For a man pushing upward of ninety, he is ''ripped''. And he's had a surprising amount of love interests over the decades.
* SlaveBrand: He will forever carry the tattoo of a Nazi concentration camp upon his skin. As his cinematic counterpart so eloquently stated, he would sooner die than allow another needle to touch his skin, or that of any other Mutant.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: A character-personified version, with Charles on the Idealism end and himself vice versa. Magneto believes that peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants is not reasonable.
* TheSociopath: DependingOnTheWriter -- he was originally written as one of these, and there's a strong argument to be made that he's ''always'' been one, even during his CharacterDevelopment periods where he's (more or less) tried to reform, or at least pursue less-violent ends to his goals. As Charles Xavier's {{Foil}}, Magneto has been consistently written as a BadBoss who, in spite of his lofty goals and rhetoric, treats the actual ''people'' supporting him as little more than expendable pawns on his chessboard, and that's not even getting into his history of [[ArchnemesisDad poor parenting]] and [[PersonOfMassDestruction mass murdering]]. Writers more sympathetic to Magneto's position have cited WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity as the excuse for this behavior, but some other writers have been less charitable... Creator/GrantMorrison in particular wrote Magneto's as an obvious (and flagrant) sociopath, so much so that he crossed the line into blatantly StupidEvil. This interpretation proved to be too much for fans to swallow, and a quick {{Retcon}} established the Morrison Magneto as an impostor.
* SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX: Before he met [[spoiler:Rogue]], he generally was romantically or sexually involved with non-mutant women – Magda, Isabelle, Polaris's mother, the Wasp, and Cyclops' former lover Lee Forrester, and now, billionaire Briar Raleigh.
* SpellMyNameWithAnS: People are often confused as to the spelling of his preferred civilian name. Erik is sometimes written as Eric, and Lehnsherr is written as Lensherr as often as not.
* StatingTheSimpleSolution: Marvel were planning to have a major battle between him and Wolverine, when Creator/PeterDavid realized that Magneto could just rip Wolverine's skeleton out and be done with it. So he did.
* StevenUlyssesPerhero: Yes, his "human" name translates roughly into "intensely strong iron". Plus, he has used "Magnus" as a middle name since the ill-fated incident that cost him the closest to family he could ever experience. Though, one believes that "Magneto" is a far more superior and indicative moniker.
* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: As this page states, his powers are essentially limited to whatever the writers can think of with magnetism, which means they can vary considerably from one story to another.
* StrongAndSkilled: There is a very, VERY good reason they call him "The Master of Magnetism" as he is one of the strongest mutants on Earth, as well as having great skill and creativity in how he implements his mutant abilities. Considering magnetism is one of the four fundamental forces of nature, his powers are held in high regard by humans and mutants alike, and it also helps that he is a learned scientist in his own right, so he WOULD know how best to use them. It is also why he is able to fight those with similar abilities who truly CAN be considered UnskilledButStrong. He once did battle with a cosmically powered ComicBook/SpiderMan on his own. On [[ComicBook/SecretWars another occasion]], he told the assembled heroes of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse that only ComicBook/TheMightyThor was his equal in power. No one argued the point with him.
* SuperpowerLottery: Long story short, he has total control over one of the four fundamental forces of the universe. This doesn't put him in spitting distance of strongest mutant, what with the likes of Franklin Richards and the Grey-Summers family, but he's far away stronger than most others.
* SuperSupremacist: He has reacted to human persecution of mutants (in particular the parallels to his personal experiences in the Holocaust) by advancing his own version of mutant superiority over humans. He's not always aware of the tragic irony of his beliefs. Other times he is and just doesn't care.
* SupremeChef: He's no savage, you know. To go along with his vast powers, he's also quite the skilled cook. It was a necessity during his time as a child prisoner of Nazi concentration camps.
* SurpriseIncest: Downplayed. When he used his mind control powers on (the then long since heroic) Wanda the Scarlet Witch, there was no physical abuse (that we saw, at least), but he did force his "pretty puppet" to [[BellyDancer dance suggestively]] for his pleasure. This is, of course, hardly something to be proud of in any case, but it was made a lot worse by the revelation that she is really his ''daughter''. This is one of those incidents that is quietly ignored nowadays, for obvious reasons. Though Wanda occasionally accuses him of doing horrible things to her, it's vague enough that she could just mean having her join the Brotherhood at all.
* TangledFamilyTree: His is... complex. to say the least. He's even present on the page image.
* TookALevelInKindness: Though he's never been completely sympathetic, Magneto was at his best during his time with the ComicBook/NewMutants. His time leading the titular mutant youth squad gave him a number of PetTheDog moments, cooled (for a time) his SuperSupremacist leanings to manageable levels, and established his relationship with Professor X as one of mutual respect rather than antagonism (indeed, he often grappled with the enormity of carrying his ideological rival's burden as a teacher and caretaker, as opposed to the comparatively easier job of supervillain he'd had before). When he returned to his old ways Charles was furious enough at him to hit him with a MindRape attack, but also disappointed that his old friend had abandoned his attempts to be a better person.
** The circular storytelling inherent in the comics medium led to this getting recycled near-wholesale when Magneto returned after "his" role as BigBad in ''Planet X''. Even discounting that story, though, Magneto was still depicted as a better person than when he'd been canonically seen last (dictatoring it up in Genosha), and he surprisingly tried to stay on the straight and narrow for quite a long time after, though eventually the siren song of StatusQuoIsGod became too strong to resist and he relapsed.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Infamously in the 90s during the ''ComicBook/FatalAttractions'' story. While the swerve doesn't come out of nowhere (he'd already abandoned the New Mutants and by extension his mission to carry on Charles Xavier's legacy by this time), Magneto is depicted as more villainous here than he'd ever been since the Silver Age, killing thousands of people with his EMP pulse and setting himself up as [[AGodAmI a god]] to his fanatical mutant followers, the Acolytes. Stripping the adamantium from Wolverine's skeleton, an act he'd always been capable of but previously refrained from doing, was a throwing down of the gauntlet to Charles and a message that any restraints he'd once had on his behavior were gone, leading his old friend to conclude that wiping his mind was the only acceptable alternative.
** As with Took A Level In Kindness above, this has also been recycled thanks to circular storytelling, and more than once in his case. One infamous example, during Creator/GrantMorrison's ''X-Men'', had Magneto take so many levels it was retconned into not being the real Magneto in the aftermath. There's still his recent (as of 2019) relapse in ''ComicBook/XMenBlue'', though, where he finally gives up and just embraces his supervillain roots, even going so far as to re-organize the Brotherhood. And then you have Cullen Bunn's long run on Magneto as a curious case, depicting him as a man trying to do good for his people but too damaged by his fundamental LackOfEmpathy to do it without using the people around him as pawns and making moral compromises along the way.
* TragicVillain: Witnessed the absolute worst of humanity as a small child during the Holocaust, which made him swear that he would never allow something similar to happen to mutantkind. Even with all of the villainous things he does, it's all done for the greater good of his people.
* {{Ubermensch}}: It's not easy to consider him "nice" in any respect, but he believes himself to have his own type of moral code that allows him to believe [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans that it will all mean well in the end]], placing himself as leader, and having to eliminate the inferiors. To any medical psychologist that would thus make him a [[TheSociopath sociopath]] ideologue with typical monstrous egomania and entitled ruthlessness; others at least put him in a more [[IDidWhatIHadToDo sympathetic light]]. Still others go so far as to claim it's [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity all a result of bipolar disorder brought by his powers]] and claim he's just plain mentally ill.
* UncannyFamilyResemblance: Part of the reason the retcon of being Pietro's father works so well - they do look and act a lot alike.
* UnexplainedRecovery: Early in Grant Morrison's ''New X-Men'', Magneto is apparently killed by the Mega-Sentinel trashing Genosha, then pops up again as Xorn, ending with Wolverine cutting off his head. Then, when Chris Claremont's ''Excalibur'' started up a short while later, Erik turns up fresh as a daisy. What decapitation? Eventually, ''House of M'' has Doctor Strange speculate that Wanda's reality warping powers had something to do with it, but she neither confirms or denies it.
* UnreliableNarrator: Adrian Eiskalt in X-Men Unlimited. Magneto killed his brother. [[spoiler:He recalls one version of events to fuel his revenge fantasies, and another when he decides he doesn't want revenge after all.]]
* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: Whatever it takes, mutantkind WILL prevail.
* VagueAge: The first time we see Ruthie she is Max's older sister. Max is nine and she is at least twelve and working in a flower shop. Later, when Max is sixteen, she is clearly not in her late teens, especially given her parents' last exchange about her.
* VillainWithGoodPublicity: In spite of his decades-long history of unbroken failure, Magneto's charisma and CultOfPersonality is such that he is held on a level with his more mature ideological rival Charles Xavier even by those mutants who don't buy into his "mutant rights through violence" rhetoric.
* VisionaryVillain: No matter how vile they may be, his every act is a stone in the foundations of a world where mutants do not live in fear of ''homo sapien'' oppression.
* WeddingEnhancedFertility: Must be the case with Magda, who spent eight years in a Nazi detention camp, and at least some of that time in Auschwitz. Females there were sterilized with a painful infection clogging their ovaries, but in the panel after her wedding to Max in ''A Fire in the Night'', she has given birth to a baby.
* WellIntentionedExtremist: He'll do what he must to ensure mutants never suffer any more at the hands of you humans. [[spoiler: Indeed, [[VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3 when his universe was merged with the universe known as Capcom]], he was able to finally build a world for Homo Superior to live on.]]
* WickedCultured: He has a full understanding and appreciation for the few things that he finds positive and admirable that human culture has produced over its long, floundering history.
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: It would certainly appear that his powers have left his mind damaged from the constant use, leaving him in a state of constant irritation and agitation. There was the time in which him, after [[TheMole posing as Xorn]], 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 his own likening the imitator's actions to UsefulNotes/NaziGermany. Of course, that [[{{Retcon}} was later attributed]] to his addiction to the mutant-power-boosting drug "Kick". Then they tried to claim the drug was actually a sentient virus. What [[ContinuitySnarl REALLY REALLY happened]] was when Wolverine decapitated the thing, revealing its TRUE identity as the REAL Xorn's EvilTwin, imitating Magneto imitating Xorn!... No wonder [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara]] seems to have a point when he notes how other people wonder why new readers can't get into comics.
* WordOName: Magnet, which is fitting for his powers, + O = Magneto.[[note]]Thouh interesting enough, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magneto Magneto is actually an existing word as well]][[/note]]
* WorthyOpponent:
** Their conflicting ideologies aside, Charles Xavier is still his dearest friend, and has done more to help mutants than anyone in the world.
** As much as he is reluctant to admit it, he must concede that perhaps alone of all humanity, ComicBook/CaptainAmerica does seem to truly believe in the ideal of equality that he espouses.
* YouAreWorthHell: Towards mutants. At a certain point he figures he is hellbound anyway, so he might as well keep doing the dirty work.
-->'''Magneto''': I am damned, so let the stains cover ''me''.
* YouHaveOutLivedYourUsefulness: He did this once to Fabian Cortez, after [[WelcomeBackTraitor he temporarily allowed him back in his ranks]] due to need of his [[HealingHands powers]], but as soon as he found a machine that served as a substitute, [[PayEvilUntoEvil he finally killed him for his treachery against him years earlier]].
----

* ManipulativeBastard: He always tends to plan before he goes into a fight, and even when surprised, he adapts pretty quickly.

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

Because if Magneto lives by any creed, it is this: '''[[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Never. Again.]]'''

* PutOnABus: It seems that when he has battled humanity for "too long", he ends up swept aside so other villains can "take the spotlight for a while." The first instance was after one of his battles when he unexpectedly found himself a prisoner of a [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere an unexpected extra-terrestrial called the Stranger]].

* GlassCannon: His powers are typically highly destructive, even if all the writers can think of is manipulating metal, but at the same time he's no more durable than any non-powered man - though by physically human standards, he's MadeOfIron and capable of taking a beating.

* DeathIsCheap: Magneto's been through the revolving door of Mutant Heaven more than once. ''X-Men'' vol 2. issue 3 ends with him supposedly being KilledOffForReal, but that was 1993. And then there was the destruction of Genosha.

* UncannyFamilyResemblence: Part of the reason the retcon of being Pietro's father works so well - they do look and act a lot alike.
* UnexplainedRecovery: Early in Grant Morrison's ''New X-Men'', Magneto is apparently killed by the Mega-Sentinel trashing Genosha, then pops up again as Xorn, ending with Wolverine cutting of his head. Then, when Chris Claremont's ''Excalibur'' started up a short while later, Erik turns up fresh as a daisy. What decapitation? Eventually, ''House of M'' has Doctor Strange speculate that Wanda's reality warping powers had something to do with it, but she neither confirms or denies it.

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

* BerserkButton: Do not even ''THINK'' the words "JustFollowingOrders" in his presence.

* IgnoredEpiphany: No matter how many times he has a HeelRealization and [[ComicBook/NewMutants tries to]] [[ComicBook/TheChildrensCrusade redeem]] [[ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen himself]], [[ComicBook/FatalAttractions inevitably he]] [[ComicBook/HouseOfM always]] [[ComicBook/AvengersVsXMen backslides]] and returns to the megalomaniac supervillain he is at his core. Indeed, as of 2018 he has even reorganized the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and has happily returned to mindless terrorism, saying only that "the old ways work best" in explanation (as if he wasn't beaten over and over again in the past using those 'old ways').

* TheLostLenore: Magda and Anya. Magneto even renamed the central plaza of Genosha after his first wife (d'aww).

* LukeIAmYourFather: Showing up just as your daughter in-law has given birth to say "hi" to your granddaughter was probably ''not'' the best way to break the news to your son that he is, in fact, your son. But definitely a memorable way to do it.

* MoralityPet: At times, Kitty Pryde – fellow mutant and fellow Jew – serves in this capacity. [[spoiler: One of his terms as a {{Face}} began with delivering her from danger.]]

* OlderThanTheyLook: Thanks to the courtesy of Alpha and the High Evolutionary, he's in his physical prime, despite being almost a century old.

* ParentalAbandonment: An understandable case with Pietro and Wanda, since he never actually knew they were alive to begin with. Lorna Dane, on the other hand, doesn't have that excuse.

* UnreliableNarrator: Adrian Eiskalt in X-men Unlimited. Magneto killed his brother. [[spoiler:He recalls one version of events to fuel his revenge fantasies, and another when he decides he doesn't want revenge after all.]]

The one good thing he remembered from those years was his darling love, Magda, a Romani girl interned with him, and during the October 7 revolt in 1944 the pair managed to make their escape. They 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 them a daughter, Anya. They were happy together, though he hid from his wife a great secret he was only just uncovering himself -- he was [[SuperpowerfulGenetics a mutant]], born with the power to [[MagnetismManipulation manipulate magnetic fields and master the entire electro-magnetic spectrum]].

Their peaceful life was not to last. While they lived in the then-Soviet/now-Western Ukranian city of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinnytsia Vinnitsa]] (alas, the life of a Roma did not suit him), he was cheated out of his pay by his employer and, in anger, used his 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 he were living]]. When he saw his daughter's burning body fall out of her room, prevented from helping her by KGB agents who held him down and battered him repeatedly, [[{{Understatement}} he did not take it well]]. He unleashed the fury of his newfound powers, killing the thugs who held him down, the mob who killed his daughter, and tearing a chunk of their city to the ground. Magda survived, but his power, and his temporary insanity, terrified her into fleeing, leaving him alone to bury their daughter (and when Soviet troops attempted to stop him from doing so, he turned their guns on them and pulled their triggers).

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/magneto_4316.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:The Master of Magnetism.]]

*** Magnus means "great", so Erik Magnus, while mixing Germanic and Latin, means "great ruler".

** Creator/TomKane lent his talents to him in ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen'', ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' and ''VideoGame/{{Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3|The Black Order}}.

*** ''WesternAnimation/XMenEvolution'' was allowed to reference World War II in relation to his backstory, and shows Wolverine and ComicBook/CaptainAmerica rescuing him as a child from a concentration camp, though the show does not explicitly identify it as such.

** He is Jewish by birth, but this aspect of his character is not always openly stated. In addition to more specific examples, on a few occasions he is shown to still believe in God, but it's never made clear if he is a practicing Jew. Whenever he references scripture, it is usually the gospels - though that could just be a case of his being widely read and using more familiar (and to his mind, ironic) quotations. He shaves, though no one knows how. And in ''ComicBook/JonathanHickmansXMen'', he eats steak and bacon.

** ''VideoGame/MarvelUltimateAlliance3TheBlackOrder'' (Boss and Playable villain)

** ''VideoGame/MarvelVsCapcom3'' (Playable character)

* ''VideoGame/LEGOMarvelSuperheroes''

* ''WesternAnimation/WolverineAndTheXMen''
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperHeroSquadShow''