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

[crabby_lioness]

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

[jarodrussell]

Matt Fraction, the writer, says: "And Magneto knew where the bullet was; he'd seen it; he knew where to look."

Wikipedia says: "In a final bid to gain their trust, Magneto focuses his powers, attempting to divert the interstellar path of the metal bullet Kitty is trapped in and bring her home to Earth."

So, using the power of math, I combine those two sentences to produce: "Mags knew Kitty was in space back when he got his powers, but waited until he had to save her to even try."

However you want to slice it, this is all bollocks anyway. Reed Richards has a time machine. The X-Club have a time machine. They could easily zip back to the day, merely observe the direction and speed of the bullet, and calculate where it would be now.

[angelophile]

You're citing Wikipedia as a reliable source for something?

[jarodrussell]

Only because CBR is citing Matt Fraction as a comic book writer.

[angelophile]

Zing. But as far as I'm aware from previews, Magneto's incommunicado, the X-men have figured out what he's trying to do but why he's doing it? Much more open-ended. Also, worth taking into account that Magneto may have had no clue that Kitty was on the bullet until now. He was aware of its location, like SWORD (who couldn't do anything about it, despite trying), but that doesn't mean that he was aware of Kitty's fate.

[jarodrussell]

You're suggesting he's pulling the giant bullet that almost destroyed Earth back to Earth just because he thought they might want it, not because he's trying to save Kitty?

Well, that's much better.

[angelophile]

Nope, I'm saying he could have only found out Kitty was on board the bullet when he came to Utopia and, while he's now trying to return Kitty to earth, WHY he's doing it isn't clear. Wikipedia's statement that it's "to gain the X-men's trust" is not fact, it's interpretation. He could be doing it because he wants to prove he's a good man to himself, not others. He could be doing it because he cares about Kitty. He could be doing it because he needs Kitty for some terrible scheme to destroy the X-men. That's not clear, yet.

[jlbarnett]

they know where it is. THey just can't get inside it and they couldn't stop it.

[jarodrussell]

Sorry, I didn't show all my work previously. I was able to reduce the values of Bullet and Kitty to zero by combining:

1. Magneto knowing where the bullet was.

2. The X-Men not knowing where the bullet was.

3. The assumption that the X-Men told Magneto they didn't know where the bullet was, but he was able to identify that specific bullet among every piece of debris he detected while in space.

Simply put, you can cancel out the words "bullet" and "Kitty" because the lack of being able to specify Kitty's location against Magneto knowing where the bullet was reduces down to him knowing their locations are one in the same, and thus their specific values don't alter the equation any. Thus they are equal to zero.