A good super-villain is more than a flashy costume and impressive set of powers. We don't love The Joker just because he looks like a clown, we love him because he represents chaos. We don't love Thanos because he wears a God-tier glove, we love Thanos because his goal is to gain the love of Death. It's the reason behind every decision and sense of pity for when the villain loses. Magneto is a perfect example of a superb super-villain. However, his motives may be more contradictory than we thought.
Magneto-along with The X-Men-was created in 1963 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. But you knew that. You all know who Magneto is because Magneto's characterization in Fox's X-Men films has been pretty dead-on. He was a Jewish boy living in Germany during Hitler's invasion of Poland, his family was slaughtered and he only survived because his mutant abilities manifested and helped him escape. But even then he was caught and held in Auschwitz. Ever since Magneto truly grasped his powers and escaped his Nazi captors he's lived a pretty crazy life. He mislead two kids into thinking they were his mutant children, he led a team of villains and the team he had been battling for years, all the while carrying the belief that mutants are hunted and feared because of their superiority. In the Marvel Universe mutants or Homo Superior began sprouting in the general public around the 1950's and really came to the public eye in the 60's when The X-Men showed up. The X-Men and their leader Charles Xavier believe that humans and mutants can and should live in harmony. In contrast Magneto believes that mutants are the next step in human evolution and that by nature's whim mutants should inherit the Earth. X-Men writer Chris Claremont claimed his inspiration behind writing both Professor X and Magneto were Martin Luther King Junior and Malcolm X respectively. It is important to remember the two fundamental elements to Magneto's character are that his experience in the holocaust forged his determination to protect his people (mutants) and that he decided to turn the tables on mankind by leading mutants to overthrow humanity instead of the other way around. It is these two points that make Magneto a fascinating character. But I can't help but ask if it also makes him hypocritical.
My High School education on the sensitivity of World War II and the treatment on the Jewish people is a little dusty, but I recall the hatred towards Jewish people in Germany wasn't caused by Adolf Hitler, but rather places like Vienna that were ran by very antisemitic politicians. Hitler rose to power by expanding on this hatred and using it to fuel his people. The role Jewish people played in Christianity, and the conceived idea that some races were simply better than others were also part of the problem. Basically the Jewish people-who Nazi's didn't even refer to as "people"-were used as a societal scapegoat. A single enemy of the country that would unite it's people. Sounds familiar. The serialization, imprisonment, torture, and murder were all part of a plan to keep Hitler in power. And it wasn't personal, it was simply because of where Hitler grew up. I'm sure I'm missing details all you history-fans are screaming at the screen, but I'm not trying to piss anyone off or seem savvy. I'm using this lesson to complain about a comic book character.
In truth mutants are used as allegories for minorities and homosexuals usually, but in Magneto's case he compares them to Jews. They are feared and sometimes pinned as a national threat by people who want to amass power. Reverend Stryker, Senator Kelly, Boliver Trask, these are all characters who have painted mutants as evil to progress their own reputations. They are all Hitler, mutants are the Jews, and Magneto wants to stop history from repeating itself. In the history of Marvel Comics the mutant population has fallen ill to the darker members of the human race. They too have been killed, experimented on, and held guilty of no crime because of their race. Or species. In comparison the plight of the mutants might be worse than the plight of the Jews because mutants not only spread beyond one race or nation of people, but because the fear associated to them is legitimate. There was no absolute way of proving Jewish men were weaker than Aryan men, but when you have an average American citizen next to a woman who can control the weather the matter of natural superiority isn't a question anymore. Mutants are stronger than humans, in the view of Darwinism we should die out to them. However, lets flip the roles.
Magneto has made it clear the human race stands no chance against mutants and that all the anger towards mutants is based of the fear of that truth. But things are different now. Mutants live among people, mutants are on The Avengers, yes every chance the mutants are in trouble humanity is ready to jump down their throat, but if you live in a world where The Norse God of Thunder is rubbing elbows with a super-soldier from the 1940's don't you think you'd get over it? Don't you think both mutants and humans would have enough heavy-hitters that there would be less prompt for one race winning over the other? I'm trying to say that after all these years and all the stories that have happened mutants are no longer in jeopardy. Mutants don't need Magneto to go on a murderous crusade because they have The X-Men and The Avengers and other heroes who will save them as if they were victims in a crime instead of victims in a war. In fact, if Magneto got his way and mankind was wiped out wouldn't that make him like Hitler? Mutants may be more powerful than humans, but Spider-Man and The Hulk and Black Panther are all human and they're pretty powerful. Jane Foster was a cancer patient and now she's The Goddess of Thunder! Humans may not be powerful, but they have potential to be. To say mankind is inferior because they do not have what mutants have can be similar to saying the Jews were inferior because they didn't have the power the Nazis had.
Now this sounds pretty bad, I know. I'm calling a holocaust survival the next Hitler, but I have always found it confusing that Magneto-in order to prevent a mutant holocaust-decided to attack humanity. It's hypocritical right? The Punisher does the same thing, but The Punisher isn't a human with superpowers or advanced technology, he's simply mortal. Magneto is one of the most powerful mutants in Marvel and one of the wisest characters too, but has the possibility of him turning into the thing he hated never crossed his mind? Has a character so obsessed with preserving his kind never sympathized with his parent's kind? His kind before discovering he was a mutant? Maybe that's why Magneto's realism has never reached it's peak, because at some point Magneto has never looked in the mirror and asked himself, "What makes me any different".
Thanks for reading.
If you were a mutant, who's side would you be on? Comment below!
My High School education on the sensitivity of World War II and the treatment on the Jewish people is a little dusty, but I recall the hatred towards Jewish people in Germany wasn't caused by Adolf Hitler, but rather places like Vienna that were ran by very antisemitic politicians. Hitler rose to power by expanding on this hatred and using it to fuel his people. The role Jewish people played in Christianity, and the conceived idea that some races were simply better than others were also part of the problem. Basically the Jewish people-who Nazi's didn't even refer to as "people"-were used as a societal scapegoat. A single enemy of the country that would unite it's people. Sounds familiar. The serialization, imprisonment, torture, and murder were all part of a plan to keep Hitler in power. And it wasn't personal, it was simply because of where Hitler grew up. I'm sure I'm missing details all you history-fans are screaming at the screen, but I'm not trying to piss anyone off or seem savvy. I'm using this lesson to complain about a comic book character.
In truth mutants are used as allegories for minorities and homosexuals usually, but in Magneto's case he compares them to Jews. They are feared and sometimes pinned as a national threat by people who want to amass power. Reverend Stryker, Senator Kelly, Boliver Trask, these are all characters who have painted mutants as evil to progress their own reputations. They are all Hitler, mutants are the Jews, and Magneto wants to stop history from repeating itself. In the history of Marvel Comics the mutant population has fallen ill to the darker members of the human race. They too have been killed, experimented on, and held guilty of no crime because of their race. Or species. In comparison the plight of the mutants might be worse than the plight of the Jews because mutants not only spread beyond one race or nation of people, but because the fear associated to them is legitimate. There was no absolute way of proving Jewish men were weaker than Aryan men, but when you have an average American citizen next to a woman who can control the weather the matter of natural superiority isn't a question anymore. Mutants are stronger than humans, in the view of Darwinism we should die out to them. However, lets flip the roles.
Magneto has made it clear the human race stands no chance against mutants and that all the anger towards mutants is based of the fear of that truth. But things are different now. Mutants live among people, mutants are on The Avengers, yes every chance the mutants are in trouble humanity is ready to jump down their throat, but if you live in a world where The Norse God of Thunder is rubbing elbows with a super-soldier from the 1940's don't you think you'd get over it? Don't you think both mutants and humans would have enough heavy-hitters that there would be less prompt for one race winning over the other? I'm trying to say that after all these years and all the stories that have happened mutants are no longer in jeopardy. Mutants don't need Magneto to go on a murderous crusade because they have The X-Men and The Avengers and other heroes who will save them as if they were victims in a crime instead of victims in a war. In fact, if Magneto got his way and mankind was wiped out wouldn't that make him like Hitler? Mutants may be more powerful than humans, but Spider-Man and The Hulk and Black Panther are all human and they're pretty powerful. Jane Foster was a cancer patient and now she's The Goddess of Thunder! Humans may not be powerful, but they have potential to be. To say mankind is inferior because they do not have what mutants have can be similar to saying the Jews were inferior because they didn't have the power the Nazis had.
Now this sounds pretty bad, I know. I'm calling a holocaust survival the next Hitler, but I have always found it confusing that Magneto-in order to prevent a mutant holocaust-decided to attack humanity. It's hypocritical right? The Punisher does the same thing, but The Punisher isn't a human with superpowers or advanced technology, he's simply mortal. Magneto is one of the most powerful mutants in Marvel and one of the wisest characters too, but has the possibility of him turning into the thing he hated never crossed his mind? Has a character so obsessed with preserving his kind never sympathized with his parent's kind? His kind before discovering he was a mutant? Maybe that's why Magneto's realism has never reached it's peak, because at some point Magneto has never looked in the mirror and asked himself, "What makes me any different".
Thanks for reading.
If you were a mutant, who's side would you be on? Comment below!
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