Magneto made his first appearance in the very first issue of the X-Men in 1963. He, Professor X, and the original X-Men members all share the same debut issue, and that moment solidified the Master of Magnetism as not only the mutant world’s most dangerous villain, but also the X-Men’s most persistent antagonist. However, over the years, Magneto became a much more complicated character, a Holocaust survivor who has seen the depths humanity is capable of. He grew up with every reason in the world to distrust humans. This has caused him to go from villain to hero, but without ever losing his sense of distrust.
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Several times over the years, Marvel creative teams have often asked what would happen if Magneto actually won, and those are often when the most powerful versions of the mutant have risen.
7) X-Men: Red’s Magneto
X-Men: Red was a 2022 series by Al Ewing and Stefano Caselli, and it picked up with the Arakko storylines that Jonathan Hickman created in his Krakoa reset. After leading the terraforming of Mars, Magneto stepped down from the Quiet Council and chose to live on Arakko, where he fought alongside Storm and the Brotherhood of Arakko to defend the planet from external threats and internal political collapse. Magneto was a powerful figure here, but he died after Uranos the Undying ripped his heart out. He had destroyed his Cerebro backups to ensure he would never return to life, and it was a rare permanent Magneto death in Marvel Comics.
6) Days of Future Past Magneto
Days of Future Pastย saw a world where the Sentinels had taken over when they chose to kill all superpowered beings and overthrew the U.S. government after being set loose after a Mystique assassination attempt on a senator. Magneto was one of the few mutant survivors, and while he was in a wheelchair, he still led the free mutants in a fight for their survival. This was a turn where Magneto fully embraced Professor X’s role as a protector. While mutants like Wolverine and Colossus died at the end, Magneto survived and went on to form a new X-Men team in this apocalyptic future with Kate Pryde.
5) “Age of Apocalypse” Magneto
“The Age of Apocalypse” started because Professor X’s son, Legion, traveled back in time to kill Magneto before he ever had a chance to hurt his father in the future. However, Xavier sacrificed himself to save Magneto, meaning Legion never existed, and the future changed drastically. Magneto formed the X-Men, using Xavier’s dream, but he never had the ability to lead like his old friend, and Apocalypse conquered the world. However, Magneto was still very powerful, and in the final battle inย X-Men: Omega, Magneto used all his magnetic powers and ripped Apocalypse in half, killing that world’s most powerful villain.
4) Earth X Magneto
Earth X is a 1999-2000 Marvel limited series by Jim Krueger, Alex Ross, and John Paul Leon, and it is set on Earth-9997. This Earth saw the Terrigen Mists mutating almost everyone on Earth, which caused Magneto to fight harder to protect the regular mutant population. He manipulates the Sentinels into building Sentinel City, a fortified mutant sanctuary in the Savage Land where the iron-rich atmosphere lets him weaponize the very winds. Magneto actually loses his powers at one point, with Toad becoming more powerful, but in the end, he regains them and forgives Toad, completing his redemption arc.
3) Krakoa Magneto
The Krakoa-era Magneto was powerful not because of his magnetism control, but because of his political power and the secrets he held. He was part of the Quiet Council on Krakoa, where he and Professor X were two of the only people who knew the secrets behind why they formed Krakoa. They then placed people on the Quiet Council with them to ensure their continued control of the situation. However, on top of his political clout, he displayed one of the most powerful uses of his powers when he pulled a massive iron asteroid from space to seed Mars’s molten core, leading the terraforming that became Planet Arakko.
2) Ultimate Magneto
The Ultimate Universe version of Magneto did something that no other variant did. He committed large-scale mass murder and even killed his long-time friend Charles Xavier before he did so. In this world, he was more genocidal of the human race and formed a larger Brotherhood of Evil Mutants from the Savage Land. He even defeated the Ultimates with Thor. However, his deadliest actions came in “Ultimatum” (2008-2009), where he killed Xavier and then used his magnetism powers to wield Mjolnir to reverse Earth’s magnetic poles. This triggered the Ultimatum Wave, killing more people and heroes than any Magneto in the multiverse.
1) House of M Magneto
The most powerful version of Magneto in history came in the “House of M” storyline, and once again, it had little to do with his mutant powers. After Quicksilver learned the Avengers and X-Men were considering killing the Scarlet Witch, he warned his sister, and she used her powers to create a new reality where mutants were the dominant species and her family was now in control. This was the only timeline where Magneto won on a global scale, and the world was reformed in his vision. However, while he ruled Earth as a monarch, Magneto lost control when he realized it was magic and not his own doing, so he killed Quicksilver, which caused Scarlet Witch to snap again and say “No more mutants,” which ended the storyline. No other version of Magneto wielded as much power as the “House of M” version.
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