Magneto vol 3
This one rather slipped by me – we’re actually two issues into volume 4 by now, which is a “Last Days” Secret Wars tie-in. But let’s go back to volume 3 before it slips from mind entirely.
It is the fate of the lower-selling Marvel comic to spend a lot of its time doing crossovers, which is why Magneto has wound up doing both Axis and Secret Wars. But that means joining in large-scale high-stakes adventure with big name characters and mainstream Marvel Universe concepts floating around, all of which was quite at odds with the tone established by the early issues of the series. They went for Magneto as a small-scale, largely de-powered vigilante still hanging in there despite being a shadow of the man he once was.
These five issues fall between the crossovers, and as it turns out, they don’t try to yank the book back in a direction it can’t stick to. They do dial it back a bit, with a little more emphasis on horror and a lot more on psychology. It’s certainly territory where Gabriel Hernandez Walta’s art feels much more appropriate – and Walta is a godsend for this book, keeping it grounded and character-based even as the plot keeps raising the stakes.
But writer Cullen Bunn accepts the cranking up of scale, at least to some degree. Or perhaps he was always intending to go vaguely in that direction (he must have anticipated being dragged into these sorts of stories from the outset, after all). At any rate, it turns out that he does have a hook for the series as it moves into more traditional Magneto territory.
There are two stories in these five issues, though issue #13 is a largely self-contained prologue. It’s a solo story for Briar Raleigh, with Magneto himself only appearing right at the end (in a scene that frankly feels as if it was nailed on to make sure that the title character showed up in the book). Briar is a human injured by Magneto in the past, who’s been bankrolling him for a while now, for reasons yet to be fully explained. Issue #13 doesn’t explain them either, instead showing us that she’s part of an underground subculture of people obsessed with super villains, some of whom have fabricated their own tales of being glamourously injured at the hands of celebrity maniacs, and some of whom seem traumatised by a genuine encounter with an A-list villain in which they were a bystander who barely merited a speaking part.
This leads to Briar seemingly betraying Magneto to SHIELD (it’s a trick, of course), so that SHIELD can show up in Genosha in issue #14 to try and take him in. Magneto is back in charge of a re-emerging mutant community in the aftermath of Axis and still hasn’t got over the fact of his total impotence when the place was wiped out at the start of Grant Morrison’s run. After making a big deal about establishing that he could take out SHIELD easily (he’s now relying routinely on MGH to boost his powers), Magneto cheerfully surrenders in order to get on board the SHIELD Helicarrier, and erase a government database of mutants. But, as he then points out, simply slipping out and going home wouldn’t send the sort of message he wants, and so he brings in the Marauders to do a bit of gratuitous damage first.
Issues #16-17 see the nascent Genoshan community being stalked by a serial killer who turns out to be the concentration camp commander from Magneto’s childhood. Or, more accurately, a mental projection of him. The pay-off is that one of the traumatised mutants is involuntarily bringing this ghost to life, and Magneto has to despatch them – even though the ultimate problem is really about his own hang-ups.
The point here seems to be the asymmetry of how villains and their victims personalise matters. It’s spelled out by Briar in issue #13, when she says that “it’s almost like they’ve convinced themselves Magneto hurt them personally. Don’t we all do that to some degree?” Similarly, in issue #17, “Hitzig” makes a point of explaining that while Magneto might be obsessed with him, the feeling isn’t mutual: “I never even knew your name… I barely even knew you existed”. And in between, we have Magneto going out of his way to make a point against SHIELD, not to achieve anything concrete, but ultimately to send a message that will stick in the humans’ minds.
Magneto wants to be an inspiring and reassuring leader figure to the mutants, and a bogeyman to anyone who threatens them. He’s trying to build and exploit his own legend, in some ways because he’s trying to adopt and adapt the impact that the Holocaust had on him as a child – a point we saw in the earlier issues. Up to a point, this is sound psychology.
But it also means Magneto is positioning himself in a “great man” role that he seems a little too keen to buy into. The truth, as the story also acknowledges, is that there were much bigger forces at work and it was only ever really personal in young Erik’s mind. Magneto is trying to adopt a role that is somewhat illusory, which leads him to convince himself that what’s good for him blurs with what’s good for his mutant community. So his solution to the “Hitzig” projection is to kill the mutant who’s creating it, giving a superficially convincing tragic speech about how it’s all for the greater good. Even though she’s suicidal anyway and offers no resistance, she makes sure to point out that this is nonsense. If all he really wanted to do was get rid of the serial killer, he could kill himself. (Or, for that matter, he could pack her off to the X-Men to get her out of range – but that would involve explaining himself too.)
Without wanting to pre-empt volume 4, it looks as though this theme of hubris will be continuing, as Magneto tries to live up to his A-list billing with a grand plan to save the universe all by himself. Plainly, that’s not going to work out. And this is where Bunn seems to have a found an interesting approach for Magneto that can withstand the book’s increase in scale and return to more traditional X-Men plot territory such as new communities on Genosha – to some extent this version of Magneto is trying to build his own legend for understandable reasons, but there’s a part of him that has simply started believing his own hype.
Not only is this an interesting take on the character, who remains somewhat sympathetic despite his more monstrous acts, because he so plainly stands in the position of being a genuine victim in turn. It also plays rather neatly off the tension between this book’s style and the more typical Marvel Universe plots that it now finds itself engaged in, because the gap between this book’s take on Magneto (as viewed from his own perspective) and the more traditional version (as generally viewed by the people opposing him) is precisely what the stories are about. So whether or not it’s by design, the style clash between what this is book is doing and the broader crossovers can even, with a degree of squinting, be read as an expression of the theme.
A good return to form, and a welcome part of the line.
Paul,
I’ve been enjoying this run as well. But your review made me think it’s a whole lot better. This is one of the more interesting, thoughtful and convincing (I often think you understand the themes of the stories better than the writers and artists) reviews I’ve seen for a comic series. Thanks, as always, for sharing it.
Rich Larson
I totally agree with everything in this review…it’s smart without trying too hard, it’s reaching without overreaching, and it keeps Magneto juuuuuust sympathetic enough that you can understand his motives and root for him. Quite easily my favorite mutant book Marvel has published for the last two years…who would’ve thought?
Is it possible to root for someone who prefers to kill a mutant instead of attempting to, say, depower her just to save face?
Or who so plainly suffers from a combined Messiah/Martyr complex?
This synopsis make it sound like Magneto is running fast towards a most tragic personal catastrophe. That may be very exciting reading, but it does not make him sympathetic in the least.
Basically Magneto is the ultimate SJW! He is a victim so he believes that gives him every right to be as bad or even worse than the people who hurt him.
“Basically Magneto is the ultimate SJW! He is a victim so he believes that gives him every right to be as bad or even worse than the people who hurt him.”
Oh yes, that’s right, people who support racial equality, gay rights, and feminism are totally out there killing people and getting revenge . . . oh wait, they’re expressing themselves in words in real life and on the internet, just like wastes of oxygen like yourself.
It’s pretty much impossible to come up with a consistent explanation for all the different ways he’s been portrayed over the years. Claremont did the best he could with the idea that the more he uses his powers, the more it alters his brain chemistry, making him increasingly erratic. That’s why he was much more with it after he was de-aged, and gradually went nuttier as he later joined the Inner Circle and went off the deep end in Fatal Attractions. I’ve really liked this book. It’s not groundbreaking, but it’s a very solid look at a broken man who does evil things for both selfish and magnanimous reasons. He killed the girl because it was expedient and because he realizes he’s damned, so what’s one more body on the road to mutant survival? I feel like Bunn has done an admirable job of trying to figure out how to write the character in a way that is somewhat consistent with all his various interpretations over the years.
“Oh yes, that’s right, people who support racial equality, gay rights, and feminism are totally out there killing people and getting revenge . . . oh wait, they’re expressing themselves in words in real life and on the internet, just like wastes of oxygen like yourself.”
I wasn’t talking about the people who actually support racial equality, lgbtq rights and women’s right, I was talking about the people who pretend to support those things and yet they harass, insult, doxx, block etc people of minorities just because we don’t subscribe to the narrative of their cult or simply don’t let them pretend to speak for us.
Even here, you just called a gay man “waste of oxygen”! But I forgive you, I’m not the type who wears victimhood as a badge of honor or use it as an excuse to insult strangers online.
I think you are insulting SJWs by comparing them to Magneto, personally.
Its actually insulting to Magneto.
I don’t generally moderate comments but I think this thread is getting sidetracked into something not very productive. Let’s leave it there and get back to talking about the issue, okay?
Agreed.
I like this Magneto series. It’s clear that the crossovers are leading to detours but I guess that’s a fact of life and Magneto is dealing with that fact better than most.
I like the fact that we get to see both sides of Magneto’s powers here – ranging from overpowered to low powered. It’s enjoyable to see how well they show that he acts pretty selfless at times but that he is also shackled with an enormous ego that means while he is willing to risk his life for a glorious death or noble death, he is willing to kill those he wants to protect in order to protect his reputation.
I guess that being around the X-Men really helps Magneto keep that aspect of his personality in check. On his own, or surrounded by those with less morals, he is liable to do anything.
I don’t think “SJWs” are really a thing… more like a convenient way to shut down conversations and silence activists.
but since you mention it, this most recent iteration of Magneto makes a pretty good analogue to hawkish wing of the state of Israel.
When I said “I don’t generally moderate comments”, I thought the words “but I will if I have to” would be taken as read.
Trading of personal insults will not be tolerated, and I am now deleting further comments in that vein.
So it’s fine to leave in insults toward people who support human rights, but wrong for anyone to defend them. Good job, lawyer man.
I’ve not read this run of Magneto myself, but it strikes me as Bunn is recycling a lot of plot points and character development from Morrison’s run.
Ineffectual leader. Brutal pragmatism. Drug dependency rationalised as a power boost. Machiavellian ideology. He’s even back in Genosha.
The only thing missing is Magneto going batsh!t crazy through Manhattan.
Wow. Some people just can’t let things go.
I wouldn’t say he is recycling Morrison…more building on what Morrison did.
He is kind of doing Morrison’s Magneto. Just doing it better.
This sounds like the rare X-book that is actually worth reading. It’s a shame its getting derailed by this Secret Wars garbage.
I’ll check it out.
He is kind of doing Morrison’s Magneto. Just doing it better.
Well, and the post-Claremont villainous Magento in general, for what it’s worth. The character was redefined as someone who has a genuine point about the dangers of prejudice, but whose efforts to respond to it are undermined by his unresolved traumas and corresponding messiah complex.
I get the sense that a lot of what writers did to Xavier in the years prior to his death were a case of deciding that he, too, was trying too hard to be some kind of world-historical figure. I’m not sure that the move works terribly well with Xavier — and there’s more than a little of superhero comics’ tendency in the last couple of decades to retcon any sort of noble mentor figure into an authoritarian hypocrite — but it enriches Magneto considerably.