Resurrection of Magneto #2 annotations
As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.
RESURRECTION OF MAGNETO #2
“The Weight of the World”
Writer: Al Ewing
Artist: Luciano Vecchio
Colour artists: David Curiel & Jesus Aburtov
Letterer: Joe Sabino
Design: Tom Muller & Jay Bowen
Editor: Jordan D White
COVER / PAGE 1. Storm confronts Magneto at his memorial – a straightforward scene from the comic.
PAGES 2-4. Flashback: Magneto acquires a magic key.
This is a flashback to Giant-Size X-Men: Magneto #1, a one-shot from 2020. It’s the issue where Magneto buys an island from Namor the Sub-Mariner, in order that Emma can use it as the location of the first Hellfire Gala. In return, Magneto helps Namor to open a large metal doorway in the Molloy Deep, bearing the seal of the Old Kings of Atlantis (“Uhari, I think”). Inside, after fighting a kraken for a few pages, they encounter three apparent witches – the green one seen in this flashback, and two others who are just out of shot. The green witch challenges them to choose correctly between a “spiral” (a shell) and a stone in order to return to the surface. Namor chooses the shell and is immediately attacked by the thing which is on his face in the flashback. The witch then challenges Magneto to make the same choice; Magneto notices that there is a third plinth, apparently vacant, and chooses it. The witch then gets very angry but hands over the key seen here.
In the original story, the witch’s line is “Trickster. Fraud. Liar. Thief. Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Do you care at all what this does?” Magneto’s reply – “No, I do not” – is cut from the flashback. The original story then cuts to Magneto and Namor having left the witches’ vault, and no further explanation is given about what the key does, though we do see that Magneto keeps it.
The Krakoan letters on page 2 weren’t in the original. They’re B and J, and the references is to the High Priestess card as shown in the Rider-Waite tarot deck. On the original card, the B and J are on pillars (also one black and one white), and the reference is to the pillars of Boaz and Jachin in the temple of Solomon; they’re a symbol used in Freemasonry.
PAGE 5. Recap and credits.
PAGES 6-7. Magneto reads the names in his memorial.
This is where we left off last time. From the descriptions we get later, all of these are the names of people who died as a result of Magneto’s actions in life, but many of them are bit part characters or previously anonymous background figures, so I’m not going to go through them in detail. If the design of Magneto’s memorial has any particular significance, I don’t recognise it. (EDIT: To be clear, I meant the bit with his helmet and cape, not the list of names.)
“‘As a boy, I turned my back on God forever.’ I told Ororo that once.” Uncanny X-Men vol 1 #150, when he gives in after realising that he’s hurt a child (Kitty Pryde).
Douglas Ramsey – Cypher – is on the list because he died in New Mutants vol 1 #60 during the time when Magneto was meant to be the New Mutants’ headmaster and guardian. Obviously, he got better.
PAGES 8-11. Storm approaches Magneto, and he tries to send her away.
Suzanna Dane. Suzanna Dane was Polaris’ mother, who had a brief affair with Magneto. The flashback shows her plane being torn apart when Lorna’s mutant powers manifest, as shown in flashback in X-Factor #243 (2012) – so a very indirect concept of someone that Magneto killed. (Presumably Lorna’s adoptive parents – her maternal aunt and her husband – chose not to change her surname in the circumstance.)
“You called, Max. I felt your pain…” Last issue – or at least, this is Storm’s interpretation of what she experienced to prompt her to come here. She repeats this twice, and Magneto makes it pretty clear that he did not summon her, at least consciously.
Christopher Bach. Bach was the one-off villain of the 2011 miniseries Magneto: Not a Hero. Magneto helpfully recaps the plot for us.
“I know Krakoa couldn’t bring your daughter back to you…” Because even after the Scarlet Witch created the Waiting Room, allowing all deceased mutants to be resurrected, it turned out that Anya had not been a mutant.
PAGES 12-14. Magneto recalls his role in the Quiet Council.
“I suggested a nation of laws – and we spoke of those laws in high and poetic cadence – and thus, made three laws that cared more for poetry than people.” House of X #6. The three “laws” of Krakoa were always unworkably high-level to be true laws in the “rule of law” sense, as Magneto says – making them basically just a cover for the Quiet Council to do whatever it wanted. The flashback in page 12 panel 2 shows the Quiet Council about to send Sabretooth to the Pit, also in House of X #6.
“And in my hubris, I enforced those unenforceable laws.” This is the future Exiles being sent to the Pit – Third Eye, Madison Jeffries, Nekra, Melter and Oya – as they appeared in Sabretooth #2 (2022), complete with the numbers over their heads showing which law they had broken. Magneto goes on to talk about how the Exiles were treated as “inconveniences to be wished away”, which is basically the theme of their story.
“When Vulcan returned, I chose to bury him.” X-Men Red #10. The analogy with the Pit hasn’t been drawn before, but it’s fair.
The Toad. The flashback is to X-Men: Trial of Magneto #5, where Toad is sent to the Pit after allowing himself to be framed for the Scarlet Witch’s murder. Magneto’s dialogue attempts to exonerate Wanda of being complicit in this very questionable scheme. Storm isn’t quite sure she believes him.
“Shall not the judge of all the world do right?” Genesis 18:25. It’s Abraham attempting to deter God from destroying Sodom.
PAGE 15. Storm tells Magneto about the Fall of Krakoa.
A straightforward montage of events from X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023.
PAGE 16-18. Magneto flies into a rage and goes through more names.
“I told you to watch him!” What Magneto said in X-Men Red #7: “Our enemies will strike, and Charles will feel forced by events to act. To do something, because something must be done, however terrible, and because, in the no-place of his heart, he cannot see a choice. And on that day, he will martyr us all. He is a good man, Ororo. We must be wary of good men. For what will they not do, to show how good they are? Watch him.”
In other words, Magneto basically predicted something along the lines of X-Men: Hellfire Gala 2023, and wanted Storm to step in and prevent Professor X from sacrificing mutantkind to save humanity. As for Storm, as so often in Al Ewing’s stories, she was busy somewhere else.
“I climbed the Tower. I stood in the gaze of the Dominions.” The same journey we saw Storm take last issue.
Sharon Friedlander was a minor 1980s supporting character, principally from New Mutants. She died in Uncanny X-Men #298.
Ilya Popov is a new name, but he was a member of the crew of the Leningrad submarine, which Magneto attacked in Uncanny X-Men #150.
Faina Moroz is also a new name, but the crowd watching the death of Magneto’s daughter Anya is from Classic X-Men #12.
“Charles, you saw in me what counted. What I could not see in myself…” This panel is a flashback to Uncanny X-Men #200 (1985), and Magneto agreeing to take over as headmaster of Xavier’s school. (Specifically, it’s the final panel on page 38.)
PAGES 19-21. Storm shows Magneto the names of people he saved.
And Magneto is convinced to use his magic key to return to the real world.
PAGES 22-23. The Shadow King corners Storm and Magneto.
Or at least, that’s who it looks like. We last saw Shadow King in New Mutants #23 (2022), when he was driven out of his host Amahl Farouk.
PAGE 24. Trailers. The Krakoan reads SHADOWS.
Elizabeth Alain appeared in Magneto 3 in 2014. She was a human who was kidnapping homeless people and turning them into Sentinels. She begged Magneto to spare her life, pointing out he had also done horrible things in his life. Magneto killed her anyway. The point is the theme of this issue- Magneto’s fatal flaw is that he shows no mercy to others for their sins and expects none for his sins and is only in the realm of judgement because he feels he deserves it.
It’s odd that during this crossover Magneto is being punished for Sharon Friedlander’s death and Frenzy, who actually killed her, isn’t.
The point of the plate with Magneto’s name on it is that Magneto is also a victim of his own inability to show mercy.
Note that in X-Men Red 18 Annihilation claimed she was summoned from “the lands beyond”. “The lands beyond” are probably where Storm and Magneto end up at the end of this issue, especially since the solicits for next issue mention Annihilation.
It’s not clear that it WAS the Shadow King in New Mutants 23. The dialogue implied it was merely the personification of Farouk’s fear that he would never be free of the Shadow King.
Note that in Uncanny X-Men 275, Magneto flashed back to an encounter with the Shadow King and noted he was ashamed of the cost of his survival. We never found out what that was about. Maybe we will next issue.
Yes, Marvel surprisingly uses the scene of Magneto facing the Shadow King quite often for a story that never saw print. It was used by Jonathan Hickman at some point during the HoX/PoX/DoX series.
The untold story was where Claremont was going to reveal the connection between the Shadow King and the Hellfire Club (hinted at by alternate realities featured in Excalibur). This would have been during the time when Magneto was a king of the Inner Circle.
For some reason I didn’t expect the shift in perspective at all. And it made me much more interested in the story. Turns out I’ve missed Magneto, even though he’s only been gone, what… a year and a bit?
Mike Colombus is the name that the Marvel Handbooks gave to Basilisk, the character from Grant Morrison’s X-Men, who was killed by Magneto (“Xorn pretending to be Magneto”).
@Paul: “ If the design of Magneto’s memorial has any particular significance, I don’t recognise it.”
Given its resemblance to the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC, I assume it’s an intentional allusion.
While I didn’t love issue 1, this issue was excellent. Give me a well-illustrated exploration of guilt and principles, with an elegant solution to a loose end, and I’m here for it.
“Shall not the judge of all the world do right” is also the title of issue #12 of Watchmen. IIRC, Neil Gaiman either suggested it, or tracked down its origin for Moore.
Xorn pretending to be Magneto pretending to be Xorn: as I’ve often argued elsewhere online over the years since then, if you read every single on-panel canon reference to Planet X , most of them by writers who are either fans or sympathizers of Morrisson’s New XMen (Bendis , Soule , Hopeless , even now Ewing ) , the over-all picture that emerges is that Xorneto was BOTH Xorn and Magneto AND Sublime as well : Magneto was depowered after the Genoshan Massacre , was duped into going to China by his supposed followers there in order to pretend to be the urban legend Xorn in order to be bait to entrap John Sublime , but unknowingly was used as the host vessel for the dormant OG Xorn , who had become an energy being * , then the XMen got involved , and Magneto decided to use the opportunity to infiltrate the Xavier Institute , where he accidentally became a host vessel a second time , but for Sublime , who awoke the consciousness of OG Xorn , leading to a psychic confrontation between the two (New XMen 148) , before they were beheaded by Wolverine. Then Wanda resurrected Magneto on Genosha , mysteriously amicable as if the entire decade of X-stories from 1991 to 2001 never happened , with “migraines” whenever he tried to get serious with his powers , but now somehow able to create timespace wormholes like OG Xorn . Then M-Day happened , and OG Xorn returned as the energy ghost Collective , driven mad by all the depowered X-gene mutants’ absorbed lifeforce , but still seeking to reunite with his host vessel Magneto whom he revealed he shared a “connection” (I.e. Shared History) and lamenting that “They” (Xorn and Magneto) failed to successfully lead mutants (Planet X) because they lacked Magneto’s “perfect” mind (because it was imperfect because he was High on Kick/possessed by Sublime) . This explains why Future Wolverine revealed to Future Jean (in her Final Form) that it was Magneto who killed her , on Sublime’s orders , why Adult Jean admitted to her younger self Teen Jean that Xorn was indeed Magneto , why Magneto agreed with Cyclops to “beyond-Omega” mutant Matthew Malloy that he caused Xavier’s most recent paraplegia (New XMen 146) , and why Mosaic got the memories of Xorneto during Planet X when he possessed Magneto during I vs X .
* there IS precedent in 616 for such fusions , before (Gambit and Mary Purcell) and after (Vulcan and Darwin) New X-Men
@Jdsm- To be clear, nothing in this issue suggests Magneto WAS Xorn or was behind Xorn. Sharon Friedlander and Lorna’s mom were also among the list of names, even though Magneto didn’t order Frenzy to kill Sharon or Lorna to kill her mom.
>If the design of Magneto’s memorial has any particular significance, I don’t recognise it.
It reminds me of The Wall of Names, which is a Holocaust memorial. A bit on the nose but I think it works.
@Alexx “Shall not the judge of all the world do right” is actually from the third issue of Watchmen. The twelfth issue’s title is a misquotation of John Cale’s song ‘Sanities’. Cale’s song ‘Paris 1919’ is the source of the ‘You’re a ghost’ line that crops up through Gillen’s Immortal X-Men
Basilisk!
Hyuk!
Not X-plicitly, No , but it CAN be read that way if you want to ignore the Quesada-mandated retcon forced upon Austen as if it never happened ;p