Marvel Just Made a Huge Change to Magneto

X-Men has taken Magneto on an interesting journey. Magneto hasn’t been a villain in a long time, joining the X-Men in the early ’00s and staying with the team ever since. Magneto played a big role in the Krakoa Era, and it was revealed in the new “From the Ashes” run of X-Men that Krakoan resurrection played merry hell with his powers. The X-Men’s newest villains, 3K, have created their own team of X-Men, who attacked Cyclops’s team starting with issue #16. Nova has a kaiju size mutant to attack the X-Men’s base, and Magneto takes control of a Sentinel to fight it, his powers momentarily returned thanks to a special drug. X-Men #17 continues the battle between the two groups of X-Men, with Magneto and the monstrous mutant battling it out. The kaiju asked what happened to the brutal Magneto of old, and the mutant master of magnetism reveals his answer, one which shows how different Magneto is nowadays.

Magneto’s journey over the years has been the main reason that he’s become as popular as he has. Go back and read the early issues of X-Men from the ’60s, and you will see a very different type of Magneto. Magneto’s evolution is one of the best things about the character, and this latest revelation plays into that. However, it might also build into something else, as writer Jed MacKay has been dropping some cryptic hints to the future of Magneto in X-Men, one that might play into the X-Men reboot we’re sure to get when they make their MCU debut.

Magneto Reveals a Big Reason He’s Become More Heroic

During the fight, the massive mutant asks what happened to Magneto over the years. Magneto was once one of the most dangerous mutants on the planet, and was honestly quite bloodthirsty at times. Magneto tells her that he lost his taste for violence over the years because it constantly failed. He tried to kill his way to the place he wanted mutants to be, but it never worked. In Magneto’s own words, “drinking blood only makes you sick.” Magneto reveals that he’s come to a different conclusion about violence nowadays. While he may embrace violence, as he believes all mutants have, he’s started to see violence in a different way. He classifies many of his former actions “a tantrum” and this is actually one of the most astute ideas in X-Men history. Looking at Magneto’s history, it’s easy to see that he was definitely a person who threw tantrums, his violence making no difference at all to his dreams of mutant supremacy.

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Magneto’s history definitely shows this off. Look at when he killed the village of people that allowed his daughter Anya to die. Magneto was distraught and emotional, his Holocaust PTSD taking control of his actions. However, it was definitely a tantrum. The same thing could be said about the Russian sub he sunk or the time he ripped out Wolverine’s adamantium. The times he’s used violence intelligently — for example, in “Magneto War” he threatened to switch the magnetic poles unless he was given control of Genosha — he’s actually succeeded. Magneto has finally learned a lesson that other mutants learned years ago — that violence is a tool. Magneto’s years as a terrorist didn’t get him anywhere, it just made him more violent and bloodthirsty. Magneto did more damage to mutants with his senseless violence than good, and his time with the X-Men has shown him that violence is only successful when there’s a point behind it. This is a big change for Magneto.

Magneto’s New Outlook Could Change Everything for the X-Men

Magneto has been quite different in X-Men since writer Jed MacKay took over the book. While he’s definitely still an ally of the X-Men, there has been something rather dark about him. He’s more contentious with the X-Men than he’s been in a long time. He’s taken a liking to the new mutants created by 3K, and it feels like it’s leading Magneto in a direction that he hasn’t gone in a long time. “From the Ashes” seems to be all about positioning the X-Men to go in more classic direction — because Marvel always reboots things to a more MCU fan friendly direction whenever big MCU projects debut — and a huge part of that is Magneto as a villain.

While many fans don’t want Magneto as a villain at all, this is almost certainly going to happen at some point. This new outlook on life could lead to that. See, Magneto has just watched his people nearly die at the hands of Orchis. He keeps witnessing human violence and hatred towards mutants, and it feels like he’s getting fed up. Magneto has realized that violence isn’t the only answer, but it’s definitely one of them. Magneto breaking away from the X-Men and using violence more thoughtfully is definitely something that may be in the cards, and this issue’s revelations could play into that.

X-Men #17 is on sale now.