Real Name: (?) Magnus (?) Magneto was not always a villain: A survivor of the Holocaust and the death camp at Auschwitz/Birkenau, Magnus fully discovered his powers after the war, when his daughter Anya was trapped in a burning house and no one would help. Magnus lashed out at the crowd with his power, and later, killed some bandits who attacked him on the road. Fearing his abilities, Magnus' wife Magda left him, and soon died after a difficult childbirth, leaving behind twins who would be raised by gypsies and who would grow up to become Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Magnus made his way to Israel, where he worked as an orderly in a hospital for Holocaust survivors, and where he and Charles Xavier met and became friends. The two even shared the dream of harmony between man and mutant. As years passed, however, Magnus grew disillusioned by mankind's low level of tolerance, and fearing another Holocaust, took an aggressive and lethal stance against humans. The X-Men battled Magneto (and his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) time and again, until he was presumed killed in battle with them and the Avengers.
In reality, Magneto burrowed through the ocean floor and found caverns that led him to the Savage Land, where due to his injuries, he shed his costume in favor of a jet pack and energy-increasing harness. Using advanced genetic engineering he mutated swamp savages into various powered individuals, honing his skills to create an ultimate mutant. In the process, he found the wounded Angel, who had fallen into the Savage Land following a battle with Sauron. Angel didn't recognize Magneto sans helmet, and tried to help protect him from the other X-Men and Ka-Zar's attacks until the truth came out. Magneto then revealed Lorelei, whose hypnotic voice swayed all the X-Men, but not the X-Woman Marvel Girl, who used Cyclops's eye beams to destroy Magneto's machines and hideout. Magneto was thought killed in the explosions, but he survived and came to the so-called "Land of the Dead" city inside the Savage Land. There he projected his astral self to the natives and feigned being dead, so he could manipulate the natives into building an airship filled with the healing and mind-numbing gas that pervaded the area. The plan was to spread the gas over the world, turning humanity into mindless automatons. It was again foiled by the X-Men, who were sent back to find proof of Magneto's demise, and instead found him alive. The heroes took control of the airship when the Land of the Dead became tectonically unstable, but Magneto refused to share their fate in the ensuing storm and jumped into the ocean.
He was found by the mutate Amphibius, who brought him to an island on which Sauron (in human form) happened to be working on a machine to tap the geothermal power of the region. Magneto realized that the apparatus could aid his own failing powers, so he attacked the human Lykos and the amnesiac Iceman, who was there also. The battle soon took a brutal turn when Lykos became Sauron and then Havok and Polaris joined the fray. Magneto was severly injured when they fell near the island's lava pockets, and was presumed dead. He in fact survived, and was rescued by the Sub-Mariner, who, though he distrusted Magneto, brought him to Atlantis. Magneto quickly suborned the Atlantean military and launched an attack on the surface world, but was finally defeated by the Fantastic Four, and trapped in a cone of his own power with a feedback machine.
In yet another bid for ultimate power, Magneto was reduced to infancy by Mutant Alpha, one of his own creations. The young Magnus was transferred to Muir Island, where Moira MacTaggert attempted to control his rage by manipulating his DNA, in the hopes that the world would be spared Magnus' wrath when he grew up. Magnus did grow up, but faster than expected, as Eric the Red II used Shi'ar technology to bring Magnus to adulthood only a few months later. Magnus returned to his old ways, even going as far as destroying a Russian city with a rerouted magma flow and sinking the Russian sub Leningrad with all hands aboard. Although Moira's procedure would later be proven a failure, the "new" Magneto eventually felt remorse for his actions and turned himself over to the World Court, to be tried for crimes against humanity. Magnus would surely have been found guilty, except for the intervention of Fenris, who attempted to assassinate Magneto, Xavier, and Gabrielle Haller, the trio of friends who had foiled their father Baron von Strucker's plans years before. The courthouse was destroyed, and Magnus and Xavier were left alone as Xavier's body deteriorated beyond repair.
As Corsair and Xavier's love Lilandra came through a Stargate to bring Xavier back to the Starjammer, where Shi'ar technology could heal him, Xavier made Magneto promise to protect their dream, and to take over as Headmaster of the School for Gifted Youngsters. While the X-Men were more or less independent, Magnus did supervise the New Mutants until he applied for and was appointed to the position of White King of the Hellfire Club. After Inferno, Magneto was alone again, and reappeared briefly in the Savage Land, an old haunt of his, where Zaladane, a servant of the High Evolutionary, had taken control of the Mutates, more of Magnus' creations.
While preparing for the inevitable confrontation, Magnus saved Rogue from a version of Ms. Marvel that had been generated upon her return from the Siege Perilous. Rogue and Magneto teamed up with Ka-Zar and S.H.I.E.L.D. to defeat Zaladane, but afterwards Magnus dropped out of sight again. He returned when a group of mutants, the Acolytes, begged him to step in and help the mutants who were being oppressed and enslaved in Genosha. Magneto agreed, and when the X-Men tried to stop him, the Acolytes captured them and they were brought to Asteroid M to be "reprogrammed" by Moira, also a captive. The process, however, was a failure, and during the ensuing battle, Magneto was severly injured. The Acolyte Cortez, who claimed to be healing Magneto, was actually using his power-amplification ability to mask Magneto's pain, but letting his "master" weaken in the process. Cortez further betrayed his leader when he triggered the nuclear missiles Magnus had set up around the asteroid. It took all of Magnus' power to keep the station from blowing up, but the damage was too severe.
While the X-Men escaped, Magneto and the remaining Acolytes crashed to Earth. Months later, the wreckage was discovered, and Magneto was missing, implying that he had survived. He returned, stronger than ever, to a larger, more fanatical following of Acolytes, and co-opted the remains of Cable's space station, Graymalkin, into a new orbital base he called Avalon. When Magnus threatened the Earth once more, Xavier and the X-Men journeyed to Avalon, where after physically pulling all of the adamantium out of Wolverine's body, his mind was apparently wiped by Professor X and he remained on Avalon in a vegetative state.
After the fall of Avalon, Magnus was thought to have become "Joseph," but Magneto's reappearance rendered that supposition false. In that appearance, Magnus dressed as Erik the Red, and put Gambit on trial for assembling the Marauders and precipitating the Mutant Massacre. He then went back into hiding, emerging only briefly to kill the forger who had created the "Erik Lehnsherr" identity for him years ago. After a few more weeks of preparation, Magneto launched his offensive: another electromagnetic pulse that began to spread across the globe. This time, he was attacked by Astra II, a former member of the Brotherhood, and the creator of Joseph, who was revealed to be a clone.
Apparently, after the fall of Avalon, Astra found Magneto and healed his mind, so that she could use his DNA to create a clone. She intended for the clone to kill Magneto, but the Master of Magnetism proved too resourceful, and was only injured, while the clone was knocked on the head and became an amnesiac. Astra had Joseph attack Magnus while he was controlling the Earth's magnetosphere, which severly disrupted Earth's magnetic field. It was all Magnus could do to keep from becoming pure EM energy. The (un)timely intervention of the X-Men distracted him, however, leaving Joseph to fix the magnetosphere. Magneto was briefly subdued by the X-Men as Joseph made the ultimate sacrifice to destroy his template's machines, but before the battle could resume, a U.N. ship landed in the Arctic Circle, and Magneto was offered sovereignty over the island of Genosha in return for some security considerations and a promise never to initiate hostilities against the nations of the world. Magnus accepted, but after everyone else left, discovered that his powers were gone. Whether this developed from fatigue or something else is unknown.
Magnus recouped his strength and set about consolidating his political power and regenerating his physical power. He was opposed by a mutate, the son of the late Genegineer, as well as by Quicksilver and Rogue. After defeating the mutate zealot's forces, however, Rogue left, but Magnus had Voght manipulate Pietro into staying as a member of the cabinet, in the hope that he would learn to be a loyal son. Then, Magneto was captured by Apocalypse along with a number of X-Men and used as part of the machine that channeled the power of The Twelve into the High Lord. However, Magneto's physical weakness and inability to access his powers short-circuited the machine. In the ensuing fight, he found he could commandeer Polaris's powers and use them as his own. When Apocalypse was defeated, Magnus returned to Genosha with Polaris, and began teaching her to expand her control, while using her as a front for his own power. Over the next six months, Magneto managed to rebuild much of war-torn Genosha, and put the mutants in charge. Many of the liberties of the humans have been restricted, but in many ways, they are living productive and even happy lives. The sole exception was the city of Carrion Cove, which started a rebellion. They had technology that they felt could not be allowed to fall into Magneto's hands, namely, the genetic manipulation chambers from the mutate process, which would allow Magneto to re-establish his full mutant power. Though the U.N., rogue Acolytes, Cortez, and the Avengers opposed him, Magneto finally made it to the chamber and healed his weakened body, leaving him more powerful than ever before.
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Magneto survived, though he was severely weakened and was confined to a hoverchair for his recovery. Unfortunately for him, he was unable to effectively defend himself or his people from the Wild Sentinel attacks launched by Cassandra Nova. Though Magneto seemed to have died in that attack, he somehow managed to save Polaris and collect the electromagnetic signatures of many of Genosha's citizens into a sort of "black box" recording that was later found by the X-Men.
In reality, Magneto survived (how is unknown) and remained in Genosha, completely unaware that an impostor had taken his name and duplicated his powers. The impostor posed as the Chinese mutant Xorn and infiltrated the Xavier Institute, only to later reveal himself as "Magneto" and destroy it. The impostor attacked New York and killed about 5000 people before the X-Men confronted him, whereupon he killed Phoenix IV, causing Wolverine to behead him. Unbeknownst to anyone but Professor X Magneto was still alive in Genosha. The false Magneto's "corpse" was brought there as well, but it was mostly a cover for a bunch of weapons and technology. Magneto is now secretly working with Xavier to rebuild Genosha, and it appears that the major power boost he received from the Carrion Cove technology has mostly worn off. However, when Wanda lost her mind and killed some of the Avengers (causing that team's dissolution), Magneto somehow sensed it and opened a wormhole to New York, where he collected her unconscious form and returned to the island. His powers increasing again, he effectively sealed himself and Charles in with his daughter and begged his old friend to help her...
| Wanda, however, had other ideas and resisted, turning the world into a mutant paradise in which Magneto was the effective king of the world, based out of Genosha. Under the revised history, Magneto survived Auschwitz, but when the US government began building Sentinels in the late 1970's he opposed them publicly, finally having a major showdown in Central Park in which he defeated the giant robots, then revealed a conspiracy leading to President Nixon. The United Nations ceded Genosha to Magneto and with his influence, most governments passed pro-mutant laws, leading eventually to Magneto populating most governments with his people, such as Captain Britain in the UK, Apocalypse in North Africa, and Sunfire in Japan. Magneto further solidified alliances with Victor von Doom of Latveria, Queen Ororo of Kenya and Namor of Atlantis. He gathered his children to him, including Polaris, and they in turn provided him with grandchildren. At some point Magneto was allied with Charles Xavier, but Xavier apparently died to save Genosha.
Magneto's alliance with Doom was tenuous, and in fact the Latverian tried to betray Magneto by trapping him in a dimension in which his powers didn't work. Fortunately for him, the It got Polaris to bring her family back, and Magneto humbled Doom, demanding his allegiance once more. Meanwhile, Magneto prompted his son Quicksilver to pursue Queen Ororo of Kenya, hoping to sway her to his policies, but she continually rebuffed Pietro. In addition, Magneto traveled to Chicago when anti-mutant viral bombs were planted around the city by Hank Pym, and was confronted by Tony and Howard Stark as the last of the bombs was found. Magneto attacked Tony, but his power deflected and killed Howard, leaving Tony with leverage over Magneto, as the last bomb was still active. However, Tony refused to detonate the bomb and Magneto left, possibly ceding some sovereignty, but that is unclear. Magneto also lost control over Australia when the Hulk deposed his governor, Exodus and the ruling mutant party, and over Africa when Black Bolt killed Apocalypse, who Magneto had sent to kill the Black Panther. Later, thanks to Layla Miller, many of the heroes regained their memories of the world as it should have been, and they assaulted Genosha during Magneto's birthday party. During the battle, Magneto's mind was restored and he realized that it was Quicksilver who had prompted Wanda to change the world. Lashing out in anger, he nearly killed Quicksilver, but was stopped from further action by Wanda's reverse warp. |
Following the end of the House of M reality warp, Magneto was left powerless. He was accosted by Wolverine, who decided to leave him in the ruins of his life. Soon he discovered that Quicksilver had brought the Terrigen Mists to Genosha and re-powered the mutants there, but with terrible side effects. After trying to care for Callisto, who had collapsed from sensory overload, Magneto confronted Pietro, who threatened and yelled at him. Magneto left him alone, and did not intervene when O*N*E came to the island to try and capture him.
Some time afterwards, the mutant energies released by M-Day settled on a mutant named Michael Pointer, giving him a multitude of powers. Soon, Pointer came under the influence of Xorn's personality (Magneto IV), who made him fly to Genosha to see Magneto. Xorn/Michael told Magneto that mutants would only follow him (hence the Magneto IV deception) and tried to re-power Magneto. However, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent "Quake" made a tiny tremor in Magneto's brain and managed to increase her power field to separate the mutant energies from both Magneto and Michael. S.H.I.E.L.D. then took Magneto into custody, but before they could even leave the island, the transport vehicle exploded. Strangely, no remains of Magneto's body, even at the cellular level, were found in the wreckage, implying that Magneto is still alive...
 Magneto II (robot) |  Magneto III |  Magneto IV |