Magneto #10

[history79]

3 pages from the preview

Comments

[crinos]

Hey, its that turtle guy.

So someone finally remembered that the S men exist?

[long_silence]

I really don't get the S-Men at all. Goat Faced Girl. Tsar Sultan. Avalanche's daughter who has water powers and hates mutants even though Red Skull was the one who kidnapped and tortured him.

They just seem like a really random group of ideas

[crinos]

Well we'd probably be able to get them better IF MARVEL ACTUALLY USED THEM.

I mean they had one fight with the X-men/Avengers, then we went into that endless Apocalypse Twins storyline.

[thehood]

They are a group of super human humans that have suffered at the hands of mutants. Mzee's family was murdered by Magneto's brotherhood for example.

Though none of them seem to realize that Red Skull is far worse than Magneto.

[damar148]

Is that a freakin Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?

[glprime]

I'm having a flashback to GotG: "...Ninja Turtle, you better stop pokin' me..."

[crinos]

That is Mzee. He was a survivor of an Ethiopian village that was destroyed by Magneto, and bonded with an African god of destruction, which turned him into a turtle.

He's part of the N men. A group of metahumans who was assembled by the Red Skull to help him commit genocide against the newly returning mutants.

[icon_uk]

Another N-Men?

[crinos]

Sorry, I meant S Men, not N men. Not sure why I typed that.

[leoboiko]

If you don't stop, Marvel will soon have a crossover event where they'll introduce us to all the Men, from A-Men to Z-Men.

[silverhammerman]

I'm kinda unhappy about the Magneto series getting swept up in the whole Axis event, I'd quite liked the short arcs of Magneto just tearing through baddies like a mutant version of the Punisher. Plus with the Marauders and MGH stuff, it was at a pretty interesting point storywise and now we're not gonna get followup for three or four months while this stuff takes center stage.

I've really been liking this series though, so I hope they find some way to keep its forward momentum while doing this side story.

[silverhammerman]

Yeah, I mean that's the thing, I really can't argue against this on a logical level, but at the same time it's hard not to be a little disappointed to see the previous story threads get derailed.

The big problem for me is that I worry this will wind up being a shaggy dog story, a go nowhere tie-in that has no effect on main crossover and does little but keep the solo story from progressing. Sure getting to see Magneto put a hurting on the Red Skull would be cool, but at the same time we know that nothing's gonna really happen, because Red Skull has to be defeated in the main Axis title.

[long_silence]

That line about having hidden weapons at his disposal makes me think he is going to use the Marauders clones and MGH in this arc.

[thehood]

But it makes perfect sense though, there was no way Magneto would just ignore what Red Skull is doing in AXIS.

Hell, i'm surprised they didn't have a confrontation sooner seeing as how Skull took Xavier's powers.

[starwolf_oakley]

I'm starting to wonder if Magneto is just too interesting to be "Kill all humans."

[umbrall]

If hes "Kill all humans" he isn't being written competently. His wife was human, his ex, Lee Forrester is human, Luna was human...Magda and Luna are probably the two people he loved most in his life.

He should be much more complicated.

[umbrall]

Definitly agree...but this writing isn't reassuring me. The inner dialogue isn't that of a man whose top 5 people list has 3 humans on it. And the nailbomb in issue one didn't help. Im not saying Magneto wouldn't do that...but if he is well written it won't be his goto number one.

I find I can enjoy this if I imagine this is Magneto sliding into his electromagnetic insanity again. Brain fizzing from overuse of his powers. "You don't know our pain...you are our pain!" It fits well with a character sliding into madness.

But if you have to imagine that a character is descending into insanity to reconcile it with the portrayal shown, there is a problem with the writing.

[brooms]

The inner dialogue isn't that of a man whose top 5 people list has 3 humans on it.

out of curiosity, what's the full top 5?

[umbrall]

No, I meant Luna. While Anya certainly was the favorite child, I don't feel she can be categorized as either mutant or human. No-one ever found out.

I think Magneto and Luna has interacted more times, at least off-panel. As I remember the "Son of M" story, the moment she spotted him, Luna went "Grandfather!" with evident delight. Indicating that knew him by sight and had had positive interaction with him. They did interact in the Vision and Scarlet Witch miniseries, as well, I seem to remember.

In Silent War, Crystal seems very familiar with him. She does not call him Magneto, but adresses him as "Eric". As far as I remember, the only other person to do that was Xavier.

Also, Magneto has always seemed to keep a bit of his withered heart clean and polised for his grandchildren.

[umbrall]

Yes. When I was pointing out that a lot of the people whom Magneto loved most were human, I just didnt think I could include Anya on either side of the human/mutant fence.

I myself was a bit fascinated by that one word from Crystal "Eric". Says a lot.

What does the Royal Family of Attillan think of Magneto as a dynastic connection? Pietro probably disagrees with them.

I'd like to see Luna take her best friend to talk to granpa when he starts to worry about being a mutant. That'd get the Richardses into a panic:)

I'd also like to see Magneto interact with the Fallen King.

In my headcanon, Luna is more like Magneto than either of her parents. She'll grow up to be a combination of Magneto and Xavier. Domination through soft power, rather than hard forces. Cold, distant and a harsh mistress. But far more effective than either could ever have dreamed.

[shadowpsykie]

given her visual empathic powers, i can see that she would HAVE to be cold and distant, but softly. as you said

[arilou_skiff]

True, but I don't think he should be entirely without "kill all humans" either. (or at least, "beat the humans so badly they'll never have the strength to hurt a mutant again or dare to even dream of doing so.")

[starwolf_oakley]

Maybe the "problem" with Magneto is similar to a problem I'm seeing with the Marvel Cinematic Universe: The bad guys want to make the world a better place, but think the best way to do that is by killing millions of people. That what HYDRA wanted in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLIDER and appears to be Ultron's plan in AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON.

So, Magneto thinks the best way to make things better for mutants is to kill millions of humans, but not *all* humans. Given all the "black ops murder squads" both the X-Men and the Avengers have, maybe Magneto isn't that bad.

[arilou_skiff]

I think I prefer him to be written as not having genocide be the preferred solution, but not having taken it off the table. It's not what he *wants* but if the choice comes between killing all humans and having his mutants safe he'll kill all humans. (it's just that he's never been quite put into that position)

[coldfury]

I don't think Hydra wants to subjectively make the world a better place. I think that the philosophy of Hydra is that "we are superior, we should be running things, and we're not afraid to kill anyone who is a threat to us wanting to run things." mixed with a bit of racism and genocidal tendencies. The whole plot of Winter Soldier was to have a computer run through an 'Enemies List' and take out anyone who didn't fit into their planned world.

I don't think they believe that they will make the world 'better', aside from the fact that them being in charge will *naturally* be better by their standards.

[mrstatham]

Well, no, a better world would have been one of the results of the Insight project, if you can argue that a world with no crime or problems as a result of absolute control is a better world (in short, it isn't). The entire thing about control and superiority becomes less of a racial matter - as evidenced by their willingness to murder the very white, very rich, very smart Tony Stark and people like the President - and more just about straight-up controlling every last thing, kind of like Brubaker having the Red Skull state, during his run, that he's become bigger than fascism and - to me - has become about more than race.

And I do think that the faction of HYDRA fronted by Pierce actively believed they would create peace through their actions, having seen a world so torn apart by violence and terror that removing political figureheads and people like Tony Stark - who, prior to WS, coaxed terrorists into attacking him at his own home and antagonised the Mandarin - seemed like a smart bet.