Magneto: Testament Part 2

[proteus_lives]

Greetings True Believers.

Here is part two of the mega-post about the 2008 mini-series X-Men: Magneto Testament.

It is a very well done and well researched story. If you want to get a handle on Magneto as a character (or who he should be as a character) check this series out.

You may want to consider it not safe for work because of the Nazis treatment of Jews and others.






Max and his family flee before the Nazi invasion of Poland.



Like other Jewish refugees, they flee to Warsaw but become trapped there when all Jews are confined to the Warsaw Ghetto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Ghetto

Max and his uncle help their family by becoming smugglers. His uncle keeps him from killing a German soldier after Max watched the man shoot a child in the street. Uncle warns him against killing because the Nazis will take massive retaliation. "Max...we can't punish them...but we can defeat them...if we keep on surviving."

Max continues to "find" coins and supply his family with food. In 1942 the Nazis begin putting people on trains. There disturbing rumors and tales about them. The Nazis are offering work and shelter to whoever gets on the train and Max almost gets on one but sees blood on the floor and flees.

The family decides to get out of the Ghetto. They escape through a smuggling tunnel and the uncle sends to a contact on the outside. But he's not coming with them, he has decided to stay and fight in the upcoming rebellion. Max tries to stay too but doesn't.



They make it over the Vistula river and into the woods but their contact has betrayed them.













Part 3 coming soon.

Comments

[crabby_lioness]

Max isn't going to be consciously aware of his powers for another ten years. He's too busy trying not to die, and too malnourished. His powers don't properly manifest until after he's had a few years of decent meals and rest under him. Right now he's just "lucky".

[psychopathicus_rex]

Right, I get that. My point is that this COULD have been a turning point in his life regarding his awareness of his powers, and had that been the case, he probably could have saved his family. But the moment passed, and he remained just 'lucky' enough to not be hit himself - and once he DOES recognize his powers, I'm guessing that will haunt him for the rest of his life, in an 'I could have done something if I'd only known' sort of way.

[valtyr]

I think it's clear that at this point, his powers are very low level and subconscious; even if he were aware of them, there is a whole world of difference between being aware of the presence of metal, and being able to control speeding bullets and turn them on their wielders.

That being said, I think there's no question that if Magneto's powers had been fully manifested in 1939, things would have gone very differently - possibly on a global scale - and I can't see how that wouldn't haunt him forever. And mean that when it seems like a second Holocaust of his other people is on the horizon, he would fight it in all the ways he couldn't fight the first one.

I think in many of Magneto's more out-there villainous moments against flatscan humans, in his head he's fighting the Nazis as he couldn't then.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Oh, I get that he CAN'T do anything here, but he's not going to buy that argument once he finally works out just what he's capable of. As you say, that'll haunt him forever.

[stolisomancer]

Man, that would be a What If I would read. It'd be hard to do, but "What If Magneto's Powers Manifested in 1938" would be interesting as hell.

[valtyr]

It really would. It can be surprisingly easy to forget just how ridiculously powerful Magneto is; his powers could've single-handedly gutted the Nazi war machine. And that's not even addressing the social effects of a Jew at that point in time suddenly manifesting vast and apparently supernatural powers.

[crabby_lioness]

With even the tiny, headache-inducing amount of power he started out with, Aushwitz would be a pile of twisted rubble.

[proteus_lives]

Much motto.

It would probably hinge on whither his power came in full-blast in 1938 or 1944. In 38 he might just stop the proscuestion of his people and fight the various governments attempt to claim him. In 44 after years of running, the death of his family and living in death camp, he might just sweep Europe clean.

"And that's not even addressing the social effects of a Jew at that point in time suddenly manifesting vast and apparently supernatural powers."

Yes, in a time were superpowers are virtually unheard of and mutant wasn't even a word, supernatural is the word for it. Many Jews would likely consider him the Messiah finally come.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

Yes, in a time were superpowers are virtually unheard of and mutant wasn't even a word, supernatural is the word for it. Many Jews would likely consider him the Messiah finally come.

A few, but I'm not sure about "many." He would be seen as the savior of the Jews, but I don't see him caring too much about restoring the kingdom of Israel or rebuilding the temple. Most of the Jews who still thought of the messiah in those terms would care about those things. Also about the messiah being a teenage boy who isn't especially religious.

The powers themselves wouldn't suggest "messiah" to most Jews. The idea that the Messiah is going to be divine and have supernatural abilities is a Christian idea, not a Jewish one.

[proteus_lives]

Well, if I was being shoved onto a nazi train and he come along and stopped. I'd call him whatever he liked.

Some of the requirements for the Jewish messiah.
Isaiah 1:26: "And I will restore your judges as at first and your counsellors as in the beginning; afterwards you shall be called City of Righteousness, Faithful City." Some Jews interpret this to mean that the Sanhedrin will be re-established. (Isaiah 1:26)
Once he is King, leaders of other nations will look to him for guidance. (Isaiah 2:4)
The whole world will worship the One God of Israel (Isaiah 2:11-17)
He will be descended from King David (Isaiah 11:1) via Solomon (1 Chronicles 22:8-10, 2 Chronicles 7:18)
The "spirit of the Lord" will be upon him, and he will have a "fear of God" (Isaiah 11:2)
Evil and tyranny will not be able to stand before his leadership (Isaiah 11:4)
Knowledge of God will fill the world (Isaiah 11:9)
He will include and attract people from all cultures and nations (Isaiah 11:10)
All Israelites will be returned to their homeland (Isaiah 11:12)
Death will be swallowed up forever (Isaiah 25:8)
There will be no more hunger or illness, and death will cease (Isaiah 25:8)
All of the dead will rise again (Isaiah 26:19)
The Jewish people will experience eternal joy and gladness (Isaiah 51:11)
He will be a messenger of peace (Isaiah 52:7)
Nations will recognize the wrongs they did to Israel (Isaiah 52:13-53:5)
The peoples of the world will turn to the Jews for spiritual guidance (Zechariah 8:23)
The ruined cities of Israel will be restored (Ezekiel 16:55)
Weapons of war will be destroyed (Ezekiel 39:9)
The people of Israel will have direct access to the Torah through their minds and Torah study will become the study of the wisdom of the heart (Jeremiah 31:33)[2]
He will give you all the worthy desires of your heart (Psalms 37:4)
He will take the barren land and make it abundant and fruitful

Magneto could do some of that.

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

A few of those things, but most of them would be beyond Magneto even at full strength. Some because they're impossible ("Death will cease" How's he going to do that?) and some because they would mean changing the way everyone thinks on a fundamental level.

Besides, I don't think he'd care much about the religious aspect of some of those things.

On the other hand, I can see himself setting himself up as king and imposing a Pax Magneto on the world. But that's the later Magneto. Would Max have even tried that?

[stolisomancer]

Absolute bare minimum: World War II never really starts at all. Germany gets forcibly regime-changed from within, and it's the late thirties, so it's simple for Max to restrict information. All the outside world knows at first is that Germany went from saber-rattling to absolute silence with remarkable speed.

Without that, there's no Captain America; Steve Rogers lives out a normal life and dies. There's no nuclear arms race, or it takes place considerably later. The United States takes a bit longer to get out of the Great Depression.

[crabby_lioness]

Absolute bare minimum: World War II never really starts at all.

Sorry, not gonna happen. You've still got the world-wide Depression and Germany's still suffering under a triple burden of that, the burden of the Weimar peace settlement, and recovering from WWI. They've still got 1000% inflation with prices rising so fast they literally rose twice a day (people scrambled to buy goods with the paycheck in the morning, because if they waited to the evening the goods would be more expensive.) Something's gonna break.

Originally the Nazis came to power on an anti-Communist platform (Anti-sematism was a side plank, not the main one.). Either some other right-wing group is going to form under that rubric OR Germany would become Communist and line up with the Soviet Union.

[stolisomancer]

I'd say a lot of it comes down to who this guy is pre-Magneto. Does he overthrow the German government and set a new one up in its place? Does he take over? Does he just do the bare minimum to save the Jews and then fall back into the shadows?

It is well within his power to ensure that Germany is incapable of beginning an international war machine. With that, I'd say your second option seems more likely: a Communist revolution in Germany.

[valtyr]

Well, if Magneto is still the same age he's a child. He's also not going to be ready to just kill people, and his parents will hold a lot of sway over him. Good chance they'll start be going into hiding... 'overthrow the Government' is few people's first thoughts. Max is far, far less ruthless than Magneto.

Also, it's worth considering the potential of Magneto's powers to make money; I've no idea what the mineral resources of Germany are, but mining just got waaaay easier. As did much major construction.

Honestly, there are so many fascinating stories that could be told.

[crabby_lioness]

At his current age, he's too young for that sort of political machination, even if he's got the brute power. Make him five years older and things get more interesting.

It is well within his power to ensure that Germany is incapable of beginning an international war machine.

His beloved father is a war hero. It's more likely he ensures Germany becomes an even more powerful international war machine.

But you've still got the economy to fix. That's what really drove the war effort. "Full" employment by a combination ofconquest and selective disempowerment of minorities. They're neither the first nor the last to take that route.

[crabby_lioness]

I'm guessing that will haunt him for the rest of his life, in an 'I could have done something if I'd only known' sort of way.

No question about that. I imagine it'll haunt not only him, but it'll also haunt any of his surviving sonderkomando buddies who figure out who "Magneto" is. You'll learn about them in the next two parts.

See, there is a reason to read the WWII stuff after all. :)

[psychopathicus_rex]

Never said there wasn't - just said that I was looking forward to the next bit more.