Magneto is one of the most iconic villains that Marvel has ever created. He first appeared alongside the X-Men in X-Men #1 on September 1, 1963 and was a Stan Lee and Jack Kirby creation. Ever since he has alternated between battling, working with, and even leading the X-Men. Needless to say, Magneto’s relationship with the X-Men has always been complicated, and it has only gotten more complicated as time as worn on.
Magneto’s rivalry with the X-Men largely revolves around his friendship with Professor Xavier and their disagreements on the future of mutant kind. Professor X has always believed that mutants can earn their place among humanity by serving as their protectors, and Magneto has believed that mutants need to protect themselves from humans and even act preemptively when deemed necessary. It seems we are going to see this play out on the big screen with a new X-Men cast soon.
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Image via Marvel Comics -
Image via Marvel Comics -
Image via Marvel Comics
To understand the complicated topic that is the Professor X and Magneto friendship and rivalry, one must grasp the intention of the mutant metaphor. That friendship came to a bitter conclusion with a death in the recent X-Men ’97 season. Mutants are cast as a minority class in Marvel Comics, and their struggle for equality and acceptance is often intended to mirror real-world struggles for civil rights. This can also make talking about the X-Men a little fraught, because it’s very easy to put one’s foot in their mouth when discussing such a subject.
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Magneto’s position has shifted over the years as well, ranging from believing that mutants should either dominate or annihilate humanity all the way to joining up with the X-Men to serve Charles Xavier’s dream of mutant-human coexistence. The complexity of this has been shown well through X-Men ’97 and especially in the most recent season. However, there have been consistencies in his attitude. He believes in mutants’ rights to defend themselves, and believes that mutants need not be the model minority, i.e. needing to be a near-perfect citizen to justify one’s place in society.
That last one is the concept that Magneto understands, but the X-Men will never and can never grasp. Setting aside the Brotherhood, the threats to destroy the world, and the clashes with other superheroes, Magneto fundamentally does not believe that a mutant needs to justify themselves by being humanity’s protector. Magneto has never been passive, but he has never waged war on the passive. For example, Magneto has never gone after the Morlocks, a group of formerly sewer-dwelling mutants who hide from human persecution. He always tried to recruit more mutants to the Brotherhood and waged his war against the X-Men, but he doesn’t go on the offensive with mutants just trying to survive in humanity’s world.
That being said, the X-Men don’t press-gang mutants into joining, and they have tried to keep a peaceful relationship with the Morlocks. However, their actions and mandate will forever imply that mutants need to “earn” their place in the world rather than having a basic right to exist. This can never really change, as it would go against the superhero comic format. The X-Men need to be superheroes, and being superheroes will always mean sometimes protecting humanity from threats both human and mutant.
Both Magneto and the X-Men Have Changed a Lot Over the Years
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Image via Marvel Comics -
Image via Marvel Comics -
Image via Marvel Comics
The amount of change that the X-Men and Magneto have gone under over the years complicates this discussion further. Magneto has been a mainstay member of the X-Men for over a decade now. He is currently on Cyclops’ Alaska-based X-Men team. Cyclops has had his actor recently cast for the new X-Men movie, so it will be interesting to see his and Magneto’s interactions on the big screen again. He recently got maimed by the Chairman for being unwilling to exterminate humanity for the good of mutant proliferation. Magneto is not the hard-liner that he used to be, but the X-Men aren’t the model superheroes they once were either.
Ever since Avengers vs. X-Men, the X-Men have been trending more radical, with X-Men teams even clashing over their differences. Cyclops essentially took Magneto’s place in the aftermath of AvX, and he has only softened slightly since then. The Krakoa era of X-Men books had the team working with their old enemies and starting their own mutant nation. Krakoa maintained a contentious relationship with global governments, especially the United States. The current X-Men book being written by Jed MacKay has had Cyclops outright threatening government officials if they continue to harass mutants.
While Magneto has softened over the years, the X-Men have only gotten harder and more willing to agitate government organizations. The result is that the two have met somewhere in the middle. While the X-Men will never escape the “model minority” comparisons, more recent X-Men books have had the team trending more in Magneto’s direction rather than sticking to Xavier’s dream. Magneto’s mainstay presence on the team seems to have only proven one thing that has remained true over the years. Magneto was right.
- Release Date
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March 20, 2024
- Network
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Disney+
- Directors
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Jake Castorena, Emi Yonemura, Chase Conley
I’m Abhishek Sharma, an author at TigerJek.com. I enjoy exploring games, testing different strategies, and turning what I learn into clear, useful guides. My goal is to help players understand the game better and improve without the usual confusion.
