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| “ | When I was a boy, I saw men executed. Women and children. Each night, I swore to myself, never again. But, we must prevail. Goodbye, Senator. Mutant liberation begins. | „ |
| ~ Magneto trying to kill Senator Robert Kelly. |
| “ | I call no one master, especially not one who would destroy the innocent along with the guilty! | „ |
| ~ Magneto fighting Apocalypse. |
| “ | Please... Do not make me let you down. | „ |
| ~ Magneto imploring the judges, and more broadly, humanity, to give him the chance to prove his beliefs about mutant-human coexistance wrong |
| “ | Professor X: We are not gods, Magnus! Magneto: Gods abandon those who believe in them. Mutants do not. |
„ |
| ~ Magneto denying the concept of divinity, reaffirming that Mutants are better. |
Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, better known as Magneto, is the main antagonist of the 1992-97 animated superhero television series X-Men and one of the titular main protagonists of its 2024 Disney+ sequel X-Men '97.
He is a revolutionary mutant leader born during the Holocaust who believes mutants are the next stage of evolution for humanity and are destined to take over the world, desiring to create an utopia for his species. Magneto is Professor Charles Xavier's sometimes best friend and on-and-off ally. Recently Magneto became one of the leaders of the X-Men after Professor Xavier left Earth.
In the original series, he was voiced by the late David Hemblen, who also played Shere Khan in Jungle Book Shonen Mowgli, Reverend Buckley in Where the Spirit Lives and the Night Master in Yin Yang Yo!. In X-Men ‘97, he is voiced by Matthew Waterson.
Biography[]
X-Men: The Animated Series (1992)[]
During the first season, he plans to incite a war with humanity and allow mutants to live safe in the world, but is thwarted by the X-Men. Following the first season, Magnus would be an uneasy ally of the X-Men and still seems to respect Professor Xavier.
In Season 2, Mr. Sinister tricks Xavier and Magneto into going to the Savage Land only to end up trapped there and get their powers removed; Xavier regained his ability to walk here. When the X-Men arrive to save the two, Sinister is blown up and Magneto goes his separate ways.
In Season 3, he is introduced by the High Evolutionary to his children, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. He tells them that their mother was horrified at him upon hearing his speeches about mutant freedom and abandoned him while still pregnant with the children. They manage to defeat High Evolutionary, but the two still hold Magneto in negative regard.
During Season 4, he creates Asteroid M and kidnaps mutant scientists from Russian and American space-stations to do so, and brings loads of mutants (including the X-Men) to his haven. He ends up being betrayed by Fabien Cortez and is forced to destroy his mutant sanctuary upon discovering his intention to launch nuclear missiles at Earth. He also kidnaps Psylocke for Apocalypse in hopes that he'll create a utopian world for mutants, but in the end he manages to stop Apocalypse before he destroys the entire universe.
In the series finale, Magneto gathers an army of mutants to attack the world, but upon hearing that Xavier was dying, he saved him by sending his telepathic message to Lilandra and watches him be taken away by her.
X-Men '97 (2024)[]
Following Professor Xavier's death, Magneto unexpectedly takes charge of the X-Men and Xavier's school. He promotes coexistence between mutants and humans amidst rising tensions but faces opposition. Agreeing to stand trial for his past actions, he becomes a target for anti-mutant groups. Despite chaos, he emerges as a symbol of unity, securing a pardon and integrating Genosha into the international community.
Yet, his stability is short-lived as sinister forces arise, like Mister Sinister's creation of a Jean Grey clone, who called herself the Goblin Queen. This clone threatens the X-Men and their son Nathan; however, the original Jean helped her break free from Sinister's control, thus the clone helped foil that particular Sinister scheme. Afterwards, the clone renamed herself Madelyne Pryor, who left the team on friendly terms, with even Magneto forgiving her, since she was under mind control before. Magneto also grapples with personal revelations, including Rogue's connection to him and her conflicting feelings for him and Gambit.
As new challenges and betrayals arise, including attacks on Genosha and old enemies resurfacing, Magneto must protect mutantkind and strive for peace amidst treacherous circumstances. Magneto tries to convince Rogue to join him as co-ruler of Genosha, which she doesn't agree to, but does relent to thinking about it. At the ball celebrating Genosha's candidacy into the UN, Magneto and Rogue have an intimate dance, which is shortly interrupted.
Along with many mutants and human guests that died in the OZT-launched Tri-Sentinel attack on Genosha, Magneto was presumed dead; however, he survived, but under the chaos of the assault, he was abducted by the Sentinel-Human hybrid Bastion. Magneto is held captive and tortured, until Valerie Cooper - who had been a co-conspirator in OZT, but became disillusioned by the slaughter - freed Magneto.
Magneto renounced his friend, Professor Charles Xavier's pacifism, and went to the North Pole to unleash a planetary electromagnetic pulse across the Earth, which deactivated all technology that needed a current, unless it was shielded, like Forge's cybernetics or the Blackbird, or Bastion's Sentinel factory; also shutdown were the numerous Prime Sentinels, thus ceasing the imprisoning and extermination of mutants.
Magneto established a base with Asteroid M; as he had declared war on humanity, he went to the X-Mansion to convince them to join him. Most refuse, although Roberto da Costa and Rogue side with him - the former due to resenting his mother surrendering him to the Prime Sentinels, and the latter due to overwhelming grief from the death of Gambit, which also made her blinded by vengeance ever since.
Magneto lifted Asteroid M into orbit. The remaining X-Men split into two teams, one to confront Bastion and the other to face Magneto, while hoping to reason with him and reform his two followers, or failing that, defeat him. During the confrontation, Magneto was stabbed by Wolverine, in response, he ripped the Adamantium out of his body, forcing him into a coma. In response, Xavier entered into Magneto's mind and forced him to reverse the EMP wave, with the impact of a psychic collision of two powerful wills breaking apart his mind, leaving him comatose.
Xavier, wanting to save his old friend, entered Magneto's mind to repair the shattered psyche. Initially interacting with Magnus in a memory of their original meeting in a pub, Magnus remembers enough to realise what has happened, thus criticises Xavier for violating his mind. Magnus' extensive trauma is represented by an ocean that rising outside the pub, with it threatening to crack the windows and flood him with cold isolation and pain. Xavier offers sympathy, explaining he understands, since many people struggle with trauma, himself included, and they can either be drowned by it or use its momentum to sail, becoming stronger and capable to help others.
In despair, Magnus bemoans that he can't remember his parents' faces anymore; Xavier acknowledges a familiar resemblance can be comforting, but also explains that for his X-Men, they all feel like family in spite of their physical and psychological differences. Xavier addresses him as "Erik Magnus Lensherr," yet notes that he has another name, one which he used intending to help mutants, thus Xavier asks Magnus if he knows what the name was; as Magnus' psyche reassembles, he awakens to consciousness to proclaim, "I am Magneto."
While the X-Men had been working to halt the descent of Asteroid M - caused by the Magneto Protocol, the US government's missile attack - the team had only been delaying the fall, rather than stopping it. However, with his mind restored, Magneto halts the plummet, and lifts Asteroid M back above the atmosphere into orbit again. Before anyone can celebrate, a mysterious explosion makes the Asteroid vanish without leaving any trace.
The X-Men are scattered into two different times, one to the ancient past of 3000 B.C., and Jean and Scott to the future of 3060 A.D.; in the ancient past, Magneto helps the team fight off some jackal-headed slave-masters, and are aided by an unknown ally. Once the assailants are thrown away, the team asks the large man for his identity, which he answers as En Sabah Nur - who has the real name and distinctive face of the Apocalypse they know, but his body lacks any of the mechanical permeation of the possibly older version of the same man.
Trivia[]
- He is voiced by Matthew Waterson in the X-Men '97 revival series due to David Hemblen's passing in 2020.
- in X-Men '97, Magneto shows he could have destroyed Earth and humanity years ago if he chose to; he could have wiped out the magnetosphere of Earth and took mutantkind to Asteroid M and watch humanity die as Earth fell apart.
- His anger and rage are more understandable as he was resisting the urge to carry out this plan; pulling off a Noah's arc being the easy way to put an end to the moronic bigotry of humans.
- X-Men '97 revealed that when Rogue was in the Brotherhood of Mutants, she and Magneto had a romantic relationship, which was able to become sexual due to Magneto's influence over magnetic waves, which nullified Rogue's constant absorption powers during the act.
- While it was arguably off-putting due to the significant age gap and how it violated the sanctity of mentor-student relationships, the show treats it as a positive thing due to it being the only time Rogue was able to have an intimidate physical relationship without causing harm or threatening death to her partner. It also acted as a motive for Magneto to attempt Xavier's peaceful methods.
