Why Mags Can Save Kitty

[protogarrett]

I wanted to share this from an interview over at CBR.com.

From an interview with Matt Fraction:

1) I'm a little bit confused. Magneto can't keep Utopia floating, yet he can allegedly grab a massive bullet light years away that gets more dense as it flies through the depths of space. This is a bullet that has been travelling in space since before 'Messiah CompleX,' which was almost two years ago. Reed Richards and Tony Stark couldn't figure out a solution, but this option was available? It seems...sketchy.

Well, I think you've misread the book a little bit and you're making some presumptions; let me see if I can get your suspension of disbelief back on track some.  As was stated in the scene with the X-club, he could, theoretically, keep it floating, but only if that's all he does all the time. The power drain is constant and to counter it, he'd have to constantly be recharging the batteries, as it were.  But he needs to eat, sleep, and do something that isn't just crank his power to ten 24-7. So it's not a can't, it's more of a shouldn't, or couldn't for very long.  It'd be fruitless and ultimately just exhaust him.

And Magneto knew where the bullet was; he'd seen it; he knew where to look. And the power-rebooting process he underwent in space augmented him with a depth of ability he'd lacked for a long time.  That it happened close to where Kitty passed, that his magnetic awareness, as it were, was revitalized close to her...I mean, that might have had something to do with it.

Mags had it all over Reed and Tony in this case; but if you don't buy that the old man (who used to be an even older man but then wasn't and was good, then evil, then good, then dead, then alive, then dead, then alive but in space and can control magnetism) can bring back a giant, airless, foodless and waterless (Seriously! I should've asked Joss when I had him on the phone - WHAT HAS KITTY BEEN EATING!?!) hollow ghost bullet containing a ghostly girl from deep space, but the man who can stretch his body like silly putty (that got his powers by stealing a rocket and going into near-earth orbit with his college buddy, girlfriend, and her brother) and the billionaire with the billion dollar suit of armor (that used to have transistors and magnets in his chest after stepping on a Vietcong landmine, was then a teenager, then an adult, then infused with a living techbridge that tied him to his armor, then erased his entire brain) couldn't find her...well, when you put it like that, it's a fair cop.  Admittedly, when the issue is framed in those terms, I have trouble buying it too.

In all seriousness, though, you're assuming that Magneto is going to hop up and skip and dance if he successfully brings Kitty home.  There's no value in what Magneto's doing if it isn't a sacrifice for him to do.  If it was easy, it'd be an empty gesture. This is not easy. This comes with a price.  Keep reading

This all makes sense to me and I find it to be a good answer to the questions we raised in this SD post. And for leagality.
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Comments

[From: crabby_lioness]

Basically, "because Mags is willing to go the distance on this project."

[From: jarodrussell]

tl;dr: Because I'm Matt Fraction, beeotch.

[From: jarodrussell]

If it was easy, it'd be an empty gesture.

So every time Superman rescues a cat from a tree, pulls someone from a burning building, or does anything that's less that rebooting the universe...it's an empty gesture? I would hate to see what Christmas is like at his house.

"Well, kiddo, I know you've been wanting a puppy, but if I just gave you the puppy and you loved it, that'd be an empty gesture, so...no, your puppy is in this pit of vipers your mom and I dug last night. Go on, save your puppy. PROVE YOUR LOVE TO IT!"

This is why we can't have nice comics.

[From: tammy_moore]

Eh, Mags isn't Superman though. Saving Kitty isn't just doing what he does...it's a redemptive act and for it to have value it has to have a cost.

It's more like if Kiddo sold their puppy for crack, realised that they had done the wrong thing and bought back the puppy from the dog fighting ring by jumping in a letting a mastiff chew on his foot.

[From: jarodrussell]

...it's a redemptive act and for it to have value it has to have a cost.

So if Mags was able to save Kitty easily two months ago (arbitrary number), but waited until now because it would require a much greater effort, you're saying that would be the more redemptive act?

I know I'm a hateful cynic, but if I cared about Kitty...which, I don't so let's pretend we're talking about Stargirl. If Magneto came up to me and said, "Oh, by the way, I saved Stargirl. Two months ago when I was in space, I realized where she was, but I waited until now to do anything about it because I wanted to prove I was going straight this time," I'd ask him if she was on the way back now, and if he answered, "Yes," I'd smile, nod, and when his back was turned blow his brains out with a plastic bullet. Waiting until he get something out of the deal is worse than a hollow gesture, it's proof Mags still isn't a god guy, but rather an opportunistic bastard.

It's more like if Kiddo sold the puppy for crack, realizes they'd done wrong, but dad waited until he needed kid as an alibi before getting the puppy back.

[From: crabby_lioness]

That's assuming he realized what the rocket was, and not just some random space junk.

[From: tammy_moore]

*wibbles hand* I can spin it either way.

Redemption: Magneto was repowered in space, becoming immediately and intensely aware of everything around him. But it was only when he came to Utopia and say the work the X-Men had been doing trying to track Kitty that he realised the relevance of what the bullet's magnetic signature actually was. It also took him a while to assess his new strength levels.

With the X-Men's efforts to locate and rescue Kitty proving futile, Magneto decides to try and save her, even if it kills him.

Manipulative Git: He realised what the bullet was but had no reason to try and save Kitty until now. He wants the X-Men to trust him and what better way than returning Kitty to them?

...if he's a good manipulative git then he should just be sitting there sweating and looking strained without actually risking himself.

Either works, I think.

[From: shadowpsykie]

they better not kill Pixie....

[From: crabby_lioness]

Pixie hasn't been around long enough for losing her to *really* hurt.

[From: protogarrett]

We need Joss Whedon to build her up a bit more first before having her impaled on something.

[From: suzene]

Hasn't stopped Kyle and Yost from cutting down lots of other X-kids, and with Kitty back, Pixie will be redundant on multiple levels.

[From: neuhallidae]

Eh, whatever happens with Kitty's return, Pixie's got at least until May, unless they pull another "continuityLOLwut?" and off her while her miniseries is still going.

[From: protogarrett]

What does Pixie have to do with it?

[From: thatnickguy]

She's an X-character that has yet to die.

That needs to be fixed and fast.

[From: jarodrussell]

Most of the time when pervs like Wolverine have a "special friend", that "special friend" grows up, and they find new friends...Jubilee, Pixie, or Armor. Thanks to comics, though, "special friends" like Kitty keep getting rebooted to their younger selves. So Wolverine can stay friends with Kitty and drifts away from his new friends, leaving them to the whims of psychopath comic writers.

[From: crabby_lioness]

I love the idea of Mags as Cyclops' scary senior advisor. It sets up such a delightful dichotomy. "Who do you want to deal with? The dour, young punk with the glasses or the retired meglomaniac who'd kill you as soon as look at you?" What a choice!

[From: cainofdreaming]

Basically it boils down to "Mags knew where it was, so he can do it"? But the SWORD knew where it was too. Heck, they even sent a spacecraft to it. Are we to believe that's what stumped everyone else, but not Magneto and SWORD personnel? Or that Brand and Beast didn't inform anyone when they had the location?

Buh?

[From: neuhallidae]

The only possible fanwank argument I have for why SWORD apparently doesn't matter is that Gyrich fucked them all over before Brand got the chance to tell anyone other than Lockheed (however, this argument is admittedly based on spotty memory, and therefore could be crap).

The correct answer, however, is probably that Fraction doesn't give a good goddamn about what happens outside the series he's writing, even when it should have an effect, or at least get a side mention. This seems to be a bad habit at Marvel.

[From: jarodrussell]

Also, if Fraction is going to get hung up over "WHAT HAS KITTY BEEN EATING!?!" then my time machine suggestion makes even more sense: she hasn't been eating anything, because she hasn't been in the bullet since about an hour after it passed through Earth. Reed Richards zipped back in time to save her, but because he didn't want to diverge the time line he waited to return her until after he rescued her. That's why SWORD didn't save her, because she wasn't in the bullet when they found it. That's why she didn't starve, because from her perspective, she's only been gone an hour.

But there I go using common fucking sense instead of using half-assed reasoning to ramp up the drama for no good reason. Bad, jarodrussell, no biscuit for you.

[From: stolisomancer.insanejournal.com]

You don't eat enough fiber.

You also probably don't get enough hugs.

[From: jkcarrier]

I think it would be hilarious if everyone was all, "Yay, Magneto's saving Kitty! ...Um, Mags? That bullet's coming in awfully fast. Maybe you should..."

"Mua-ha-ha-ha! I can't believe you saps fell for that 'I've turned over a new leaf' thing AGAIN! Suckers!"

Bullet hits Earth, everyone dies.

[From: stolisomancer.insanejournal.com]

Whedon had either Reed or Tony say something like "She's partially fused with the bullet."

Bullets don't have to eat.

[From: cmdr_zoom]

A mutant wizard did it.

[From: newnumber6]

Yeah, I still don't buy it. If Mags actually went out into space and found the bullet and brought it back, I could get behind it. Hell, even if he created a wormhole to it (as he has on rare occasion) and brought it back through the wormhole, I could buy it.

Him using his magnetic powers to affect a bullet light years away and getting farther all the time, all while sitting on his ass on Earth? I don't care how much it costs him, it's too much for me. There ain't nothing he can't do if he can do that.

[From: starwolf_oakley]

I once read that Magneto can control Thor's hammer as along as he concentrates and does nothing else. Maybe it's just like that.

Also, were ever supposed to think the bullet was going lightspeed or just under lightspeed? Yes, I know you can go faster than light in the Marvel Universe. Some retcons of the Fantastic Four's origin said Reed was testing a faster-than-light engine for the fateful test rocket flight.