Erik Lensherr - Definition and Overview

Magneto (real name unknown, alias "Erik Magnus Lensherr"), is a comic book supervillain/superhero/antihero' in the Marvel Comics universe, and the nemesis of the X-Men. He was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and first appeared in X-Men #1 (1963).

History

The beginning

Magneto is a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp. As a young boy, with his powers not yet developed, he and his family were persecuted and thrown into the camps for being Jewish. Magneto witnessed the murder of his family and his entire village by the Nazis during the Holocaust. He has since been tormented by the fact that, had he only been aware of his full powers at the time, he could have put a stop to the entire process; the entire Nazi military would not have presented an insurmountable challenge to Magneto in his prime. However, since Magneto was malnourished and sickly while in the camps, he may not have been in a condition to use his powers even if he was aware of them.

After World War II, he married the gypsy Magda, a fellow survivor of the Nazi death camps, and sired a daughter, Anya. Magneto consciously used his mutant abilities for the first time to protect Magda and himself from a fire. Unfortunately he was unable to rescue his daughter from the blaze due to his inexperience coupled with interference from a mob of angry humans. He unleashed his powers to decimate the human crowd in revenge. Terrified by Magneto's powers, Magda left him. Months later Magda would discover that she was pregnant and would die giving birth under the auspices of the artificially evolved cow midwife named Bova at the foothills of the demonically empowered Wundagore to the mutant twins Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch.

While searching for his wife during this time, Magneto, realising that his name was known to his pursuers, paid a forger named George Odekirk to create the cover idendity of "Erik Magnus Lensherr" for him. His true name remains unknown. It is believed his real name is still Erik, and he has only lied about his last name.

Magneto made his way to the newly created nation of Israel.There befriended Charles Xavier while working at a psychiatric hospital near Haifa. Neither revealed to the other the fact that he was a mutant. The two held lengthy debates hypothesizing what would happen if humanity were to be faced with a new, super-powered, race of humans. The two friends revealed their powers to each other when they prevented Nazi Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and his HYDRA agents from obtaining a large cache of Nazi gold. Magneto had presumably killed Strucker by dropping the cave in on him, but Strucker somehow managed to survive and resurfaced much later. Realizing that his and Xavier's views on mutant-human relations were incompatible, Magneto left with the gold.

Lensherr's rise as Magneto

Magneto's experience in the death camps has shaped his outlook on the current situation that mutants face in the Marvel Universe. Determined that such atrocities will never be committed against mutant-kind, he is willing to use deadly force to protect mutants. He has several times expressed the belief that mutants (whom he calls Homo superior) will eventually become the dominant life form on the planet. He constantly wavers between wanting to exist in harmony with Homo sapiens, wanting a separate homeland for mutants, and wanting to enforce his superiority over all humanity. Magneto's status as hero or villain is a complex one. His methods are often extreme, but his goals are often noble at their root.

Magneto came to the public eye with an attack on the American military base at Cape Citadel (his first comic book appearance, in X-Men #1). He was thwarted by his old friend Xavier's mutant students, code-named the X-Men. He briefly conquered the tiny South American nation of San Marco after forming the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (which included his children Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch, though their familial ties were unknown to all three at the time). He invaded in the hopes of establishing a mutant homeland there, but was thwarted by the X-Men. He went on to create an orbital base of operations in an asteroid which he dubbed "Asteroid M", in which he and his mutant followers had hollowed out a large habitat for themselves. At one point the governments of the world collaborated in the construction of a magnetic grid designed to prevent Magneto from returning to Earth from this base, but in retaliation Magneto personally generated an electromagnetic pulse sufficient to shut down most of the machinery on Earth; it was only Magneto's reluctance to become a Hitler-like tyrant that caused him to ultimately relent. However, when the world governments threatened to wage war against his asteroid, he retaliated by attacking both a Russian city and submarine, sinking it and killing all on board.

Dabbling in genetics, Magneto created an artificial humanoid whom he named Alpha the Ultimate Mutant. Unfortunately, as often happens with artificially created creatures, Alpha rebelled against his creator. Alpha reduced Magneto to infancy using his powers. The World Court chose to strike all charges against the newly youthful Magneto, deeming that this artificial "rebirth" constituted a figurative death of the old Magneto. Magneto was placed in the care of Xavier's former love interest, Professor Moira MacTaggert, at Muir Isle. It was later revealed that MacTaggert tinkered with the infant Magneto's genetic code, in an attempt to remove any genes that might cause him to become the "evil" mutant he would become in adulthood. She claimed that she had hoped to cure both Magneto and her own young son, Kevin, of the problems and dangers that their mutancy caused them. However, any genetic tampering lost it's effect once Magneto first activated his powers again. Later, Magneto was evetnually found at Muir Island and restored to early adulthood by the alien Shi'ar agent Davan Shakari, who normally goes by the code-name "Erik the Red".

Magneto's redemption

Magneto returned to his attempts at global conquest. He has been opposed time and again by the X-Men and a number of other heroes. In his most audacious attempt to conquer the world he threatened the governments of the world with earthquakes and volcanic activity. Though he had no qualms about sinking a Russian submarine killing all aboard after the submarine had attacked and then raising a volcano in the city of Varykino as an object lesson, he did give time for a mass evacuation before lava swept over the city. Likewise, he was shocked when he physically struck down the adolescent X-Man Kitty Pryde in battle. Remorseful at how he had almost killed such a young girl, Magneto put an end to his attempt at world conquest and retreated to rethink the path his life had taken.

Magneto found himself allied with Professor Xavier and the X-Men when a group of heroes and villains were abducted to an alien world to participate in the Secret Wars. He was next called upon to aid the X-Men in battling the nearly omnipotent yet frustratingly short-sighted being, the Beyonder. His association with the heroic team softened his views on humanity and Magneto surrendered himself to the law in order to stand trial for his past crimes. A special tribunal was organized and Magneto intended to abide by whatever verdict was brought. The trial was interrupted by the attack of Fenris, the twin children of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. Fenris was defeated but Professor X was brought to the point of death due to the strain of battle and previously sustained injuries. Xavier asked Magneto to take over his school and the X-Men. Xavier told Magneto that doing so would make amends enough for his past crimes, although Xavier was at this point an observer at the trial and had no authority to do so. Magneto agreed and chose not to return to the courtroom. Instead he took over Xavier's school under the assumed identity of Michael Xavier, Charles Xavier's cousin, and was a fugitive from justice.

Seeing that mutantkind was to be confronted with far more perilous times than ever before, Magneto began seeking allies in order to protect mutants from humanity. Towards this end he participated in the "Acts of Vengeance" alongside such established villains as Doctor Doom, the Wizard and the Mandarin. He also confronted Red Skull, an unrepentant Nazi war criminal, on whom Magneto took revenge by entombing him alive. He worked alongside the American intelligence agent Nick Fury as well as a number of Russian operatives in order to re-establish peace in the Savage Land. Tired of the constant state of strife, Magneto built a second orbital base where he hoped to live a life of quiet seclusion. He was by this point a figurehead for the cause of mutanthood and was sought out by a number of new mutants calling themselves the Acolytes.

Avalon and Genosha

After this, Magneto set his sights significantly lower than world conquest; he sought only a haven for mutantkind. He first attempted to make the orbital base known as Avalon such a haven but was opposed by the governments of the world and the X-Men. The X-men did not know if Magneto was returning to his villainous ways or not, and so confronted Magneto. At the time the X-men were divided into the Blue team and the Gold team. Xavier made the mistake of sending the Blue Team, led by Cyclops, who did not trust Magneto. Without giving Magneto a chance to explain himself, he ordered the others to attack. Feeling betrayed by his former allies, Magneto fled. He later discovered how Moira had tampered with his mind when he had been de-aged as a child. Magneto felt enraged, feeling that his redemption had been a lie. Though it was revealed that the genetic tampering had lost its effect when he had first used his powers after being re-aged, the damage had been done. He became the X-Men's enemy once more.

During one of the subsequent battles with the X-Men, Magento ripped the metal from Wolverine's bones after the feral mutant attempted to kill him. This enraged Xavier to such a degree that he apparently mindwiped Magneto, leaving him comatose. Magneto then remained in this state in Avalon, worshipped by his Acolytes, under the leadership of Exodus, until Avalon itself was destroyed; during the destruction, Colossus placed him in an escape pod, sending him back to Earth.

This pod was intercepted by Astra, a former ally of his who now desired his death. She cloned him, and when the clone was ready, she restored his mind, since she felt there was no point in killing him unless he knew it was her doing it. After a pitched battle, Magneto triumphed over the clone, sending him crashing into a Mexican barn. However, weakened by this, he went into hiding, while the clone became known as Joseph and joined the X-Men.

Magneto then took this time to plan, since the world believed Joseph to be the real Magneto. He engaged in a pair of brief diversions, first posing as "Erik the Red" and revealing Gambit's past crimes to the X-Men, resulting in Gambit's expulsion (although he was later re-admitted); then, when his true identity was on the verge of being discovered by Sabra and Gabrielle Haller, killing Odekirk to prevent this. Following this, he constructed a machine with which to amplify his powers and blackmail the world into creating a mutant nation. The X-Men and Joseph - who had fallen under Astra's control again - opposed him, but even as the X-Men defeated him (leaving his powers severely depleted as a result of over-strain), and Joseph sacrificed his life to restore the Earth to normal, the world governments, pressed by Alda Huxley (the United Nations mutant affairs officer), decided to give the master of magnetism the island nation of Genosha, and Magneto ruled that nation for some time with the aid of many who had previously opposed him, including Quicksilver, Polaris, and the founder of the Acolytes, Fabian Cortez.

Despite the UN's hopes that Genosha's ongoing civil war between humans and mutates would destroy, or at least occupy him, Magneto managed to crush all opposition to his rule, and rebuilt the nation, building a mighty army of mutates dedicated to his cause, with yet more mutants coming from all over the world to seek sanctuary in Genosha.

Intending to declare war on humanity, Magneto captured Professor X, using him as a symbol with which to rally his troops. Jean Grey recruited a new lineup of X-Men to assist Cyclops and Wolverine in rescuing Xavier and defeating Magneto. Taking the opportunity to get his revenge, Wolverine attacked the defeated Magneto, leaving him with serious injuries that left him crippled for a time.

Xorn and Magneto

Soon after this, Genosha was decimated by yet another rogue mutant -- Cassandra Nova Xavier, Charles Xavier's previously unknown dead sister, who Xavier had killed in the womb. Magneto and 16 million mutants who were gathered at Genosha were reported deceased. Months after the event, a team of X-Men searching in the debris found what was apparently a recording of Magneto's last words. Mutant-supremicist ideas, attributed to him, became wide-spread in the mutant community, with some holding him as a martyr of the mutant cause.

Meanwhile, the mutant known as Xorn had joined the X-Men after being rescued from captivity in China. Xorn was said to be a Chinese mutant with a "star for a brain", which allowed him to manipulate gravity. He wore a face-concealing metal helmet with a skull-like motif. He also possessed nebulous healing powers, although the only time he was shown to heal anyone was when he deactivated a number of microscopic Sentinels and simultaneously restored Professor Xavier's ability to walk. He eventually removed the helmet concealing his face, revealing Magneto's face beneath; it was alleged that Xorn never existed, and was simply an identity conceived wholly by Magneto. Xorn's gravity-manipulation powers were well within Magneto's demonstrated range of power, and his "healing" had involved his taking control of the microscopic Sentinels and using them to support the Professor's spine. Having exposed his deception, he then schemed to destroy the X-Men and reverse the polarity of the Earth's magnetic field, increasing his power with the use of a mutant drug called "Kick". He recruited the Special Class and Esme from the Xavier School to serve as his Brotherhood of Mutants, though most eventually turned against him. Before being decapitated by Wolverine, Magneto killed Jean Grey using a lethal electromagnetic pulse, causing her to have a massive stroke, and devastated much of New York City.

Emergence from hiding

With the launch of a new Excalibur series, Xavier met up with the real Magneto, who was actually alive. Xavier had with him the corpse of the Magneto who destroyed New York in a coffin. When asked who was in it, Xavier explained how the imposter had killed over 5,000 people (including Jean Grey). Magneto was shocked and angry that people thought he was capable of committing such an act.

Xavier: The latest death count in New York is 5,000. Slaughtered simply because they weren't mutants, as a demonstration of will and power.

Magneto: And they think me capable of such a thing? Do you think me capable of such a thing?

Xavier: Well, you do have a certain... reputation.

Magneto: Not for THIS!

Xavier and Magneto are now trying to rebuild and bring order to the island nation. They seem to have put aside their differences and rekindled their friendship.

Another Xorn, named as Shen Xorn and claiming to be the brother of the "real" Xorn, has since appeared and joined the X-Men. According to this Xorn, the Magneto imposter actually was Xorn, and was being manipulated by someone else. However, this contradicts what is later given as an explanation.

It has been implied that Scarlet Witch, who was suffering a mental breakdown over the loss of her children, may have been responsible for the impostor that destroyed New York.

Superhuman Powers

Magneto is a mutant with the superhuman power to control magnetism. He can shape and manipulate magnetic fields that exist naturally or artificially. It is unclear, however, whether he must draw magnetic force from outside himself (if so, then he can do so over vast distances), or whether he can also generate magnetic force from within himself. Nor is it clear whether Magneto's power is psionic or purely physiological in nature.

Although Magneto's power is not on the level of the Silver Surfer in his prime, it is for all practical purposes limitless. Magneto can lift a cargo freighter weighing 30,000 tons 50 feet into the air from a distance of 300 feet away. Moreover, Magneto can use his magnetic powers in more than one way simultaneously. He can completely assemble a complicated machine within seconds through his powers. He can erect magnetic force fields with a high degree of impenetrability around himself for protection. Although Magneto often gestures when using his magnetic powers, he can utilize them fully even when standing totally still merely by concentrating.

Although Magneto's primary power is magnetism, he seems to have some ability to project or manipulate any form of energy that is related to magnetism. He can fire a bolt of electricity and create enough intense heat to destroy a metal door. Heat, or infrared radiation, is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which also includes visible light, radio waves, ultraviolet light, gamma rays, and x-rays. Magneto can project any of these. He can create an anti-gravity field, and does so whenever he levitates a non-magnetic object. Hence, Magneto may be living proof of the long-sought Unified Field Theory that all forms of energy are related. However, Magneto almost always uses only magnetism since it is more difficult for him to manipulate other forms of energy.

Magneto has exhibited powers of astral projection and telepathy, and has claimed to be able to control the minds of others. His abilities along these lines are minimal, however enough, perhaps to protect himself against mightier telepaths, but not of great use otherwise.

Magneto's ability to wield his superhuman powers effectively is dependent upon his physical condition. When severely injured, his body is unable to withstand the strain of manipulating great amounts of magnetic forces.

Special Skills

Magneto is an expert on genetic manipulation and engineering, with knowledge far beyond that of contemporary science. He is considered to be a genius in these fields. He can mutate humans in order to give them, superhuman powers, or create adult clones of human beings and then manipulate the genetic structures of these clones during their development. He has learned how to create artificial living beings.

Magneto has mastered many technological fields as well: for example, he has designed magnetically-powered skycraft and spacecraft, complex robots and computers, and magnetically-powered generators.

Magneto has more than a rudimentary knowledge of hand-to-hand combat.

Television and film

"It's going to take place from 1939 Auschwitz up to 1955 or so," says writer Sheldon Turner of his just-announced "period" prequel to Fox's X-Men franchise. An exploration of villain Magneto's "psychological roots," Turner's script will also shed light on the youthful mutant's friend-then-nemesis Charles Xavier. Just don't look for Ian McKellen, 65, to get his helmet on."

Magneto's voice was provided by David Hemblen in the animated television series X-Men. His voice was provided by Christopher Judge in the animated television series X-Men: Evolution.

The album Venus and Mars by Wings includes a song about superheroes called "Magneto and Titanium Man", but probably does not refer to the same character.

External links

• Another biography of Magneto (http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Chalet/4223/magnetobio.htm)
• Magneto is Jewish FAQ (http://www.alara.net/opeople/xbooks/magjew.html)
• Marvel Comics official site (http://www.marvel.com)