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Erik Lensherr)
Magneto (real name unknown, alias "Erik Magnus Lensherr"), is a comic book supervillain 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).
Magneto is a mutant with almost total mental control over the force of magnetism, and thus over objects susceptible to that force, such as iron. He can assemble complex machinery and manipulate ferrous objects at great distances. He can create force fields of great strength, stopping nearly all physical and energy attacks, and he can fly.
To a lesser extent Magneto also controls many other energy forms: heat, light, ultraviolet, gamma rays, and even gravitons. He can intensify and focus these forces to cause damage to anyone within his vicinity. Magneto can detect movement within the magnetic lines of force, and is able to detect teleporting or invisible creatures nearby.
Magneto has also demonstrated talents in the areas of genetic engineering, electronics, robotics, and computers.
Magneto is one of the most powerful individuals in the Marvel Universe.
Early Life
Magneto is a survivor of the Auschwitz death camp. As a young boy, with his powers not yet developed, he 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.
After World War II, he married 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 hostile 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 persuers, paid a forger named George Odekirk to create the cover idendity of "Erik Magnus Lensherr" for him. His true name remains unknown.
Magneto made his way to the newly created nation of Israel. Magneto 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 ex-Nazi, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and his HYDRA agents from obtaining a large cache of Nazi gold. 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 in the Marvel Universe face. 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, and 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 (including his children Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch, though their familial ties were unknown to all three at the time), hoping to establish 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 infant 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. Later, Magneto was evetnually found at Muir Island and restored to adulthood by the alien Shi'ar agent, Shakari, who normally goes by the code-name Erik The Red.
Magneto's Second Rise
Magneto returned to his attempts at global conquest. He has been opposed time and again by the X-Men and a number of other self-styled 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 and then raising a volcano in the city of Varykino as an object lesson, he was shocked when he physically struck down the adolescent X-Man Shadowcat 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 (Xavier was at this point an observer at the trial and had no authority to do so, furthermore he was dying and his lucidity may be questioned). Magneto agreed and chose not to return to the courtroom. Instead he took over Xavier's school under the identity of Michael Xavier, Charles Xavier's cousin, and was a fugitive from justice.
Though Magneto made a substantial effort as the headmaster to a group of young mutants and an ally to the X-Men, his tenure was disastrous. He was forced to deal with the death of all of the younger students, the New Mutants, and their traumatic return to life. He was manipulated by the White Queen, mutant headmaster of the rival school the Massachusetts Academy, battled legally recognized heroes such as The Avengers and the Supreme Soviets, was unable to prevent his students Roberto da Costa and the alien Technarch Warlock from running away from the school, saw the death of the young mutant student Douglas Ramsey and witnessed on national television the apparent death of all of the senior X-Men. Feeling that desperate measures needed to be taken Magneto forged an alliance with the X-Men's enemies The Hellfire Club and went so far as to oust longtime co-chair Sebastian Shaw in order to establish himself as the Grey King.
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, 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 reestablish 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.
Recent Activities
In recent years Magneto has set his sights significantly lower than world conquest; he seeks 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. During the concluding battle on Avalon, Magento ripped the metal from Wolverine's bones, enraging Xavier to such a degree that he apparently mindwiped Magneto, leaving him comatose. He then remained in this state in Avalon, until Avalon itself was destroyed, when 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. 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 him. With a pair of brief diversions - first to pose as "Erik the Red," and reveal 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, he killed Odekirk to prevent 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 severly 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 UN mutant affairs officer), decided to give the master of magnetism the island nation of Genosha.
Magneto ruled that nation for some time with the aid of many who had previously opposed him. Genosha was recently decimated by yet another rogue mutant, namely Cassandra Nova Xavier, Charles Xavier's previously unknown dead sister. Magneto and 16 million mutants who were gathered at Genosha were reported deceased. In New X-Men #132 , months after the event, a team of X-Men searching in the debris found a recording of Magneto's last words as he laid dying. He has since been held as a martyr of the mutant cause and his ideas are becoming wide-spead in the mutant community, still opposing those of Xavier.
In New X-Men #146, it was revealed that that Magneto had somehow survived the Genosha tragedy to later infiltrate the X-Men disguised as the Chinese mutant known as Xorn; it was alleged that "Xorn" never existed, and was simply an identity conceived wholly by Magneto. He has recently ended this charade and revealed his scheme to destroy the X-Men and reverse the polarity of the Earth's magnetic field. In New X-Men #150, Magneto was able to successfully kill Jean Grey ("Phoenix") by using a lethal electromagnetic pulse, giving her a planetary-scale stroke. As she lay dying, Wolverine went feral and decapitated the Master of Magnetism. "I will not be judged by children. Give me death. Make me immortal" were his apparent last words.
However, with the launch of a new Excalibur series, it was revealed that the "Magneto" who had joined the X-Men as Xorn, killed Jean and devestated New York was a fake, and the real Magneto had in fact never left Genosha, and had spent the time since recovering from injuries Wolverine had inflicted on him in X-Men #113.
He is presently working with Professor X to rebuild the island nation of Genosha.
Television and Film
Magneto was played in the movie X-Men and its sequel by Sir Ian McKellen. Magneto's powers in the movie appear to be subtly different than in the comic books. In particular, Magneto's powers appear to only affect metals, and to have a limited range, though he is still one of the most powerful mutants on Earth. In the movies his primary goal is to ensure the survival of mutantkind, and he is willing to kill all non-mutants or change them into mutants to ensure this.
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.
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