Magneto Has Become the Perfect X-Man and That’s Exactly the Problem

The X-Men became legends over the decades and Magneto is a big reason why. The Mutant Master of Magnetism was introduced alongside the X-Men, set as their perfect opposite. Charles Xavier was one pole and he was the other, bringing together the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants and fighting to destroy humanity. In the early days, I think the best way to describe the character is that he’s basically Doctor Doom if he was racist against humans. However, all of that would change once Chris Claremont came to the X-Men. Magneto’s first few appearances in his hands were the old school villain, but that was about to change in a huge way.

Claremont revealed that Magneto was a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust, losing his families to the Nazis. Later, his daughter Anya was burnt to death by anti-mutant bigots, leading his wife Magda to leave him. This changed the character forever, bringing up the question of whether Magneto should be a hero or villain. He would join the Xavier Institute in Uncanny X-Men #200 and since then he’s gone back and forth with the group, sometimes fighting them and sometimes joining them. For over a decade now, since he regained his powers after losing them in House of M, he’s been a member of the X-Men and has become one of the best on the team. We all love Magneto, but it might be time to switch gears with the character.

The X-Men Aren’t the Same with Heroic Magneto

This above scene was one of the most shocking in Magneto’s long, illustrious history. He had showed up to Utopia with his powers back, shocking everyone, used them to bring Kitty Pryde back to the Earth after the events of Giant-Size Astonishing X-Men #1, and then knelt down in front of Cyclops and proclaimed him the leader of the mutant race. This is one of those moments that a lot of fans never thought they’d see. We’ve seen heroic Magneto a number of times over the years, but we’ve never seen him kowtow to Cyclops in such a way. In fact, over his years with the team, Magneto would become one of Cyclops’s most ardent soldiers.

The conception of Magneto has changed a lot over the years, leading us to where he is today. Claremont was able to make him into the ultimate sympathetic villain, but he was still a bad guy. He still wanted to do terrible things to humanity and when he became a hero, he still went for the throat as much as possible. However, it’s this that has made him into Cyclops’s perfect enforcer over the years. Even though Magneto stopped believing that mutants should enslave humans ages ago, instead saying he’s against any force that oppresses others and that’s humanity in a nutshell, he still believes that humans are violent and can’t be trusted. He’s still ready to do what needs to be done, which perfectly fits who the X-Men are today.

The changes to Magneto were mirrored by the changes to Cyclops. He took over the mutant race after New X-Men and kept getting more and more militant, until he basically only believed in keeping mutants alive and no longer cared about co-existence, especially after the events of House of M. This matched Magneto’s beliefs to a tee and he gained a new respect for the one-eyed mutant; before, he respected him in combat, but now he respected him as a man. It’s not so much that Magneto changed to join the X-Men, but more like the X-Men changed and now Magneto was on their side. His battle against humanity fits the one that the X-Men currently fight, which is why he’s become such a perfect member of the team. However, Magneto as a hero has hurt the X-Men in a lot of ways.

The X-Men have amazing villains, but they are missing a character like Magneto, someone to truly oppose them. Now, there are villains who are popular as he is – Apocalyspe and Mister Sinister were often grouped with Mags as the team’s big three – and others who have grown close to his stature like Mystique and Sebastian Shaw, but there’s no true opposition. One of the best things about Claremont making Magneto so sympathetic was that now, you got where he was coming from. You understood why he did what he did. You even rooted for him a little (or a lot, I don’t know you). It made his stories more interesting and it’s part of what made him so popular over the years.

While Xavier’s dream is no longer the center of the X-Men comics, that doesn’t mean that Magneto can’t still oppose the group. Magneto has always been a violent supremacist, creating numerous bases where he and like-minded mutants could congregate, and having him creating a competing mutant group to the X-Men would be perfect. Right now is an interesting time for the X-Men. Since the end of the Krakoa Era, mutants have been under the gun. The X-Men haven’t been able to make any headway and mutants are still under threat. Magneto deciding that the group isn’t doing enough could be just the shot in the arm the current X-Men books need.

Making Magneto a villain again is one of those tantalizing prospects that seems closer than ever with the X-Men moving to the MCU. Marvel Studios likes to play to what people know and while X-Men ’97 has shown another side of Magneto and the X-Men’s relationship, most fans know him as the team’s greatest enemy. When the MCU does something, the comics usually follow. However, even without MCU synergy, we need Magneto as an antagonist again and it could honestly be better than what we got before.

Magneto Needs a Major Shake-Up and Villainy Would Give Him That

Magneto from X-Men: God Loves, Man Kills is the perfect conception of the character. It gives us the man who lost his family and wants to make sure no one else experiences that and it gave us the man who would punish even the innocent gravely for the sins of the monstrous. Magneto in 2026 is everyone’s favorite leftist murder grandpa and he’s perfect in this role. However, the X-Men aren’t in the best place right now and they could use a Magneto to oppose them, someone who wants to put humanity in the place that they want to put mutants.

With the X-Men coming to the MCU, there’s a good chance we’re going to get to see a villainous Magneto again sooner or later and that means we’ll see it in the comics. However, it needs to happen sooner rather than later. The X-Men need something exciting to happen and nothing would be better than Magneto finally turning against them and going his own way, leading to conflict down the road. Heroic is Magneto is cool, but the X-Men don’t need him anymore. They need evil Magneto.

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