Why Magneto was

right, a study on 

his motives,
actions and
justifications
BY NATHANIEL HEATH
Origins and history

• Max Eisenhardt was born in

Germany to a middle class Jewish
family
• They were forced into a ghetto and
then an extermination camp by the
Nazi party
• After the death of the rest of his
family, Max escaped with his
childhood love Magda
Origins and history

• Max adopted a new identity as Erik Magnus

Lehnsherr, and started a new life with Magda
• Having instinctively used his powers many times
as a teenager, Erik conciously used them to
threaten a man refusing to pay him for his work
• Having found out that he was a mutant, the
townsmen burnt his house down with his wife and
child inside
• In a fit of rage, Magneto destroyed the mob with
his powers
Meeting Charles Xavier

• Magnus then travelled to Israel, and worked as a janitor in a psychiatric hospital

• He then befriended another mutant there, Charles Xavier. They had many
debates about the subject of mutant-human coexistence
Time as a villain
• Magneto then began trying to assert dominance
over the world in the name of mutant
superiority, becoming an enemy to Charles' X-
men and the Avengers.
• Eventually Magneto executed one of his most
ambitious plans; to boost his powers and
threaten to destroy the world unless all
countries pledged to total nuclear disarmament
• Magneto abandoned this plan after nearly killing
the teenage Kitty Pryde, a fellow Jewish mutant
Secret Wars

• A powerfull cosmic being known as

'the beyonder' abducted heroes and
villains to do battle for his own
entertainment.
• The beyonder placed magneto on the
heroes side, with members of the
fantastic 4, x-men and avengers
The trial of magneto
• When magneto detected the return of the Beyonder, he contacted
Xavier and began an uneasy alliance with the X men
• After being allied with them for some time, Magneto was arrested by
a government task force
• Magneto was then put on trial before a united nations council
The trial of Magneto

• When the trial was attacked by

Fenris (a pair of superpowered
twins) looking for vengeance on
Magneto for killing their father,
Magneto helped to defeat them
• He was eventually acquited, and
went on to be a member of the x men
and a leader to the new mutants
Genosha

• Magneto eventually threatened the UN into

giving him control over his own nation.
They gave him the island of Genosha
(formally a nation that used mutants as
slave labour) as it had no government at the
time
• Magneto turned Genosha into a haven for
mutants to live on, as he had done before
with his space stations asteroid M and
Avalon
genosha

• Genosha was eventually destroyed by

sentinels. Machine's built by humans to
identify and destroy mutants
• Genosha's population at the time of its
destruction was over 16.5 million, and
was more than 94% of the mutant
population
• Magneto has since been a member of,
and led X men teams to present day
Motivations

• Magneto is motivated by fear of seeing his people killed a second

time. He has seen the holocaust and fears another aimed at
mutantkind. He believes that the only way for mutantkind to survive is
to assert their superiority over homo sapiens
• He harbors no hatred for humans who don’t discriminate against
mutants and has only harmed those who have wronged him and
mutantkind. But he recognises that as a species, humanity is scared of
and full of hate for mutants
Magneto's actions

• Magneto has taken many offensive actions in order to ensure mutant survival.
On the small scale he has hunted and killed humans who threaten mutantkind,
such as scientists developing new sentinel technology and anti-mutant hate
groups like the purifiers.
• His larger scale offensive actions have included: taking over a missile base,
invading a country, threatening to use the planets magnetic poles to create large
scale natural disasters, and sinking a military submarine that tried to nuke him
• His defensive actions have been to set up havens for mutants to live away from
humanity. Such as his space stations asteroid M and Avalon, and the Island
nations Genosha and Krakoa
Mutant massacres

• Magneto believes that humanity will always hate and fear

mutants. He is right in this aspect.
• Many groups have been set up with the idea of mutant
extinction, including William Stryker's religiously motivated
purifiers, Donald Pierce's cybernetic reavers and an anti-mutant
political alliance called 'the right'
• Sentinels are also produced and bought by many nations and
organizations in the marvel universe to kill mutants
• On the larger scale, mutants have been placed in camps to be
tortured and experimented on during 'operation: zero tolerance',
mutants were mindwiped and turned into slaves in Genosha and
Sentinels destroyed Genosha after Magneto took over and turned
it into a haven for mutantkind
Mutant massacres

• In an alternate timeline, known as

the days of future past
timeline, sentinels have taken over
the United States of America and
mutant extermination is well
underway. Mutants are hunted and
killed or put into camps, most of the
population is dead
House of M

• Another alternate reality, created by the

Scarlet Witch, sees Magneto proving a
massive anti-mutant conspiracy in the 70s.
This leads to him and his family ruling over
Genosha and being a very powerful
political family. Mutants make up 50% of
the population and own most businesses
and institutions. This is one of the few
alternate realities where mutantkind is not
an oppresed minority, and it is one where
they have asserted themselves as the earths
dominant species
Moira X

• Moira X (aka Moira Kinross, aka Moira

MacTaggert) is a mutant with the power to
rewind time to the point of her birth every time
she dies, being the only one to retain any
memory of her previous lives.
• Moira has spent many lives trying to ensure
mutant survival. One timeline is very similar to
the main marvel universe and ends with mutants
being destroyed by sentinels. In her 5th life, she
and Charles Xavier create a sanctuary for
mutants to live in peace far away from
humanity. It is destroyed by sentinels regardless.
Krakoa

• In the more recent X-men comics, mutantkind have

started a new island nation on Krakoa (a sentient, mutant
island). Instead of practicing more isolationist policies
like Genosha, Krakoa uses flowers grown on the island
to produce miracle drugs to extend human lifespans, cure
diseases of the mind and create an adaptive universal
antibiotic. They are using these drugs to leverage nations
into granting mutants amnesty and Krakoan citizenship
in exchange for trade deals with Krakoa.
• The long term plans of the krakoan government are to
use their political and financial power to end anti-mutant
hatred by force
Krakoa

• Magneto is regarded as a hero by

the children of krakoa. They see
him as a defender of mutant
rights. He is respected by his
fellow members of its council and
by the x-men. And who would
know what's best for mutantkind
if not mutants?
conclusion

• Magneto has always fought for mutants, an at risk oppressed minority

group that is almost universally hated by their oppressing group. He
has fought to give mutants places of sanctuary, and to prevent humans
from harming mutants. He is correct in his view that simple
coexistence is impossible, unless forced, as humanity will not allow it
in any possibility throughout the vast marvel multiverse. Magneto
would not, and has never harmed humans simply because they are
mutants. And has always acted in the interest of his species.
Thank you