The amazing Todd Nauck and I take a deep dive into our Magneto mini-series with Jace of the Comic Source podcast. You can watch, and listen, below:
Friday, August 4, 2023
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The amazing Todd Nauck and I take a deep dive into our Magneto mini-series with Jace of the Comic Source podcast. You can watch, and listen, below:
Did you know that first issue of Magneto had a reference to an Iceman story you wrote in the 80s?
ReplyDeleteJack
Yeah, I noticed that when I wrote it. ; )
DeletePersonally, I liked the idea of Magneto in the Silver Age being a role he played.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly, I one of the things that always stuck with me from the Earth X saga was something similar. It did not go into quite as much detail, but it stated that Magneto called his group "the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants," It forced the X-Men to take the role of being good.
I wonder if this is just the natural conclusion people would come to if they read the comics and think of it.
It was Claremont who introduced the idea of Magneto being a Holocaust survivor, and more geared toward protecting mutants. The Silver Age and pre-giant-size bronze Age stuff had him talking about racial superiority, and even having Mastermind create what looked like Nazis marching in to take a city. That is not the kind of thing you forget when you experienced the Holocaust survivor retcon before the Silver Age stories.
Magneto has always been difficult to square as a character. Most people prefer, and likely only have a connection to the sympathetic villain element. And yet... he has the power to be a great villain. The angle of Mutant superiority as the "obvious" step in human evolution is great villain stuff.
Writers have been dealing with such things since the 90s.
Even Morrison's run, which many people greatly enjoy had the issue. The run crescendos with Magneto taking over Manhattan, and actively killing flatscan humans. Morrison even draws attention to the irony of him surviving the holocaust, then becoming Hitler like.
Marvel seemed to realize that meant going back to the silver age version, losing a lot of story potential, and oh yeah having a survivor of one of the worst events in human history...the most prominent one in mainstream comics... be an unfeeling monster. A guy who through one of their most popular properties most popular era was shown to be defined by that experience. It is probably not unfair to think some small minded people would use that to promote bad ideas.
So, they brought Claremont in and had Magneto and Xavier trying to build Genosha after sentinels killed...I think..a million mutants and devastated the city. Revealing the other Magneto was another mutant was under the influence of a drug, and simply believed himself to be Magneto.
Some called it a cop out, but I rather liked the series as a whole, It was just character work between Xavier and Magneto, and I don;t care if a very comic-booky means s got us there.
The point is.... I really think stories like this are where Magneto does his best. Where they are removed from the larger goings on at Marvel, or with the Mutants. It becomes a hard square to circle
As I said, I really liked the Xavier and Magneto series, but also the Magneto Testament, where it actually looks at what powerless Magneto's life was like during the Nuremberg Laws and Holocaust. The story was handled far more maturely and responsibly than I think even the best writers would be allowed to do in say.. an X-Men annual.
Also a one shot by Claremont where we see Magneto's rage at (non-mutant) children inhumanely detained at..let's say A border.
I think this mini series of yours will both add to Magneto's rich character and hopefully push him to stories more removed from the mainstream Even though,,,yes, I am aware...this mini is pretty mainstream.
JAck
He's such a fascinating character on so many levels...and, given my love of early X-Men...it's been a blast trying to, as you say, square that circle.
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