Magneto is the manifestation of the saying, “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” You could probably reasonably say:
Professor X : Magneto :: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. : Malcom X
Professor X and the X-Men were all for mutant equality, but they always favored peaceful acceptance. Conversely, Magneto recognized that large portions of society would never accept mutants. It also bears mentioning that Magneto carried some “racist” (for lack of a better word) tendencies towards non-mutants. In his view, non-mutants are lesser beings.
It’s kind of hard to argue that non-mutants aren’t lesser beings when mutants literally have powers that no normal human could ever hope to have, powers that can even defy the basic laws of physics.
Well not all mutants. We always focus on the “cool” ones but there were a ton of mutants that were hopelessly disfigured and with powers that amount to anyone holding a bat
I think poison Ivy is the best example of the “yeah I can’t pretend this is the villain anymore”
Fuck Batman
Mt.freeze just wanted to save his wife but the bills made him turn to crime.
He should have cooked meth.
Dr. Ice.
Guy robbed banks with non-lethal force, definitely less harm than peddling drugs
Engaging in a consensual transaction is more harmful than taking other people’s money without their permission?
Cool story dude, but nope, incorrect.
Magneto was meant to be a stand in for Malcom X…
Malcom X’s only crime was that white people were afraid of him. Meaning he did nothing wrong.
So Magneto can’t be a villain unless you have him gripping the villain ball pretty hard.
The problem with Magento as a character is that he’s portrayed as Malcolm X in his rhetoric, but as Dr. Strangelove in his technique. The number of times Magneto has tried to engage in Uno-Reverse Genocide - reprogramming Sentinels, reverse engineering killer viruses, rebounding mind control, redirecting asteroids and bombs aimed at his friends back towards civilian non-mutant areas, reversing the magic ray that strips you of your mutant abilities so that it gives them to you instead - makes him deeply unsympathetic simply because this shit never actually works and typically turns him the poster child for “Why All Mutants Must Be Exterminated!” rhetoric works on the non-mutant population.
Say what you will about Malcolm X, but he never tried to brainwash the LAPD into killing all the white people.
I’m wondering whether Magneto ever did something analagous to a hajj like Malcolm X did. It radically altered his views. I would imagine if Magneto did this there would be some deus ex machina to set him back to genocide.
