Magneto () is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The X-Men #1 (cover-dated September 1963) as an adversary of the X-Men. Magneto is a powerful mutant, one of a fictional subspecies of humanity born with superhuman abilities; his mutant power is the ability to generate and control magnetic fields.
Introduced as a villainous mutant using his powers to terrorize humanity, writers have since fleshed out his origins and motivations. These later stories established Magneto as a Holocaust survivor, born Max Eisenhardt (alias: Erik Lehnsherr and Magnus). His extreme methods and cynical philosophy derive from his "never again" determination to protect mutants from suffering the same fate as the Jews at the hands of a world that fears and persecutes them.
Magneto's backstory further establishes him to have once been a friend of Professor X, the leader of the X-Men, but their differing philosophies caused a rift in their friendship. His role in comics has progressed from supervillain to antihero and eventually superhero, having served as an occasional ally of the X-Men. He even led the New Mutants for a time as headmaster of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters, and was eventually recognized as a fully-fledged member of the X-Men. Writer Chris Claremont, who created Magneto's backstory, compared the character to then-Israeli opposition leader Menachem Begin, with later commentators comparing the character with the American civil rights leader Malcolm X and Jewish Defense League founder Meir Kahane.
The character has been adapted from the comics into other forms of media. Magneto appears in X-Men: The Animated Series (1992–1997), voiced by David Hemblen, and its revival X-Men '97 (2024–present), voiced by Matthew Waterson. Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender have portrayed Magneto in 20th Century Fox's X-Men film series (2000–2019), with McKellen set to reprise the role in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film Avengers: Doomsday (2026). In 2014, IGN ranked Magneto 1st in their "Top 100 Comic Book Villains" list.
Publication history
Magneto first appeared in the debut issue of The X-Men in 1963. Since the 1960s, Magneto has appeared in The Uncanny X-Men, X-Men, Astonishing X-Men, Alpha Flight, Cable, Excalibur, The New Mutants, various X-Men miniseries, and many other Marvel titles. His first solo title was a one-shot special, Magneto: The Twisting of a Soul #0 (Sept. 1993), published when the character returned from a brief absence; it reprinted Magneto-based stories from Classic X-Men #12 and 19 (Aug. 1987 and March 1988), by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Bolton.
When asked about his approach to Magneto, Jack Kirby stated, "I saw my villains not as villains. I knew villains had to come from somewhere and they came from people. My villains were people that developed problems." In a 2008 interview, Stan Lee said he "did not think of Magneto as a bad guy. He just wanted to strike back at the people who were so bigoted and racist...he was trying to defend the mutants, and because society was not treating them fairly he was going to teach society a lesson. He was a danger of course...but I never thought of him as a villain."Marvel Spotlight: Uncanny X-Men 500 Issues Celebration, pp. 5-7 In the same interview, he also revealed that he originally planned for Magneto to be the brother of his nemesis Professor X.
Writer Chris Claremont stated that Menachem Begin was an inspiration for Magneto's development, as David Ben-Gurion was for Professor X. "There's a lot of talk online now that Magneto stands in for Malcolm X and Xavier stands in for Martin Luther King, which is totally valid but for me, being an immigrant white, to make that analogy felt incredibly presumptuous. An equivalent analogy could be made to [Israeli prime minister] Menachem Begin as Magneto, evolving through his life from a terrorist in 1947 to a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 30 years later."
Asked about the Malcolm X/Martin Luther King Jr. parallels, Claremont also said "It was too close [in the 1970s]. It had only been a few years since the assassinations. In a way, it seemed like that would be too raw. My resonance to Magneto and Xavier was borne more out of the Holocaust. It was coming face to face with evil, and how do you respond to it? In Magneto's case it was violence begets violence. In Xavier's it was the constant attempt to find a better way... As we got distance from the '60s, the Malcolm X-Martin Luther King-Mandela resonance came into things. It just fit."
Magneto's first original title was the four-issue miniseries Magneto (Nov. 1996-Feb. 1997), by writers Peter Milligan and Jorge Gonzalez, and penciller Kelley Jones. In the miniseries, Magneto had been de-aged and suffered from amnesia, calling himself Joseph; it was later revealed that Joseph was a younger clone of Magneto. Later, Magneto became ruler of the nation Genosha and then appeared in two miniseries; Magneto Rex (written by Joe Pruett and drawn by Brandon Peterson) and Magneto: Dark Seduction (written by Fabian Nicieza and drawn by Roger Cruz).
A trade paperback novel detailing Magneto's childhood, X-Men: Magneto Testament was written by Greg Pak and released in September 2008. Pak based Magneto Testament on accounts from Holocaust survivors. Before the publication of X-Men: Magneto Testament, Magneto's personal background and history were invented in The Uncanny X-Men #150 (Aug. 1981). He was portrayed as a Holocaust survivor; while searching for his wife Magda, a Sintesa, Magneto maintained a cover identity as a Sinto. This created confusion among some readers as to Magneto's heritage,. URL last checked 2010-09-28. until his Jewish background was confirmed in Magneto: Testament.Meth, Clifford. Protocols of the Elders of Marvel . URL last checked 2010-09-28.
Fictional character biography
Early life
Max Eisenhardt was born in the late 1920s to a middle-class German Jewish family. Max's father, Jakob Eisenhardt, was a decorated World War I veteran. Surviving discrimination and hardship during the Nazi rise to power, the passing of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, and Kristallnacht, Max and his family fled to Poland, where they were captured during the German invasion of Poland and sent to the Warsaw Ghetto.Classic X-Men #12 Max and his family escaped the ghetto, only to be betrayed and captured again. His mother, father, and sister were executed and buried in a mass grave, but Max survived, possibly due to the manifestation of his mutant powers. Escaping from the mass grave, he was ultimately captured yet againThe New Mutants #49 and sent to Auschwitz, where he was branded with the inmate number 214782 and eventually became a Sonderkommando.The Uncanny X-Men #274Excalibur vol.3 #14 While at Auschwitz, Eisenhardt reunited with a Romani girl named Magda, with whom he had fallen in love when he was younger, and they escaped the concentration camp during the October 7, 1944 revolt.
Following the war, he and Magda moved to the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, and Max adopted the name "Magnus". Magda and Magnus had a daughter named Anya and lived uneventfully until an angry mob, spurred on by the first manifestation of Magnus's powers, burned down their home with Anya still inside. Magnus was enraged at the mob for preventing him from rescuing Anya, and his powers were unleashed, killing the mob and destroying a part of the city. Magda, terrified at Magnus's power, left him and later gave birth to the mutant twins Pietro and Wanda before she died. Wanted by the authorities for the deaths and destruction in Vinnytsia, and while searching for Magda, Magnus paid a Romanian forger, Georg Odekirk, to create the cover identity of "Erik Lehnsherr, the Sinte gypsy".X-Men Vol. 2 #72 (February 1998) "Erik" moved to Israel, where he met and befriended Charles Xavier while working at a psychiatric hospital near Haifa, where Gabrielle Haller lived. There, the two debated the consequences humanity faced with the rise of mutants, though neither revealed to the other that they were mutants. However, they were forced to reveal their inherent abilities to one another while facing Baron Strucker and Hydra. After the battle, Erik, realizing that his and Xavier's views were incompatible, left with a cache of hidden Nazi gold, which provided him with the finances to pursue his goals.
Rise of Magneto
Magneto's experiences during the Holocaust (Nazi Germany, Auschwitz, and Vinnytsia) shaped his outlook on the situation that mutants face in the Marvel Universe. Determined to keep such atrocities from ever being committed against mutantkind, he is willing to use deadly force to protect mutants. He believes that mutants ("Homo superior") will become the dominant life form on the planet and he sets about either creating a homeland on Earth where mutants can live peacefully, or conquering and enslaving humanity in the name of mutantkind.
Magneto's first villainous act is attacking a United States military base called Cape Citadel after bringing down missiles. He is driven off by Charles Xavier's mutant students, the X-Men, in their first mission.The X-Men #1 He creates Asteroid M, an orbital base of operations in a hollowed-out asteroid. He then gathers a group of angry and disillusioned mutants including his own, albeit at the time unbeknown to him, son and daughter Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, and formed the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to further his goals. Magneto briefly conquers the South American nation of San Marco in the hopes of establishing a mutant homeland there, but is again foiled by the X-Men.The X-Men #4 He tries to make the Toad infiltrate the X-Men. When that fails, he captures the Angel and tries to force him to tell the secrets of the X-Men. However, the other X-Men rescue their member and destroy Asteroid M.The X-Men #5
Magneto is captured by the Stranger, a powerful alien being, whom he initially thought was another powerful mutant. The Stranger encases Magneto and Toad in a special cocoon and spirits them away to another planet, the Stranger's laboratory world. Back on Earth, Magneto's Brotherhood splinters, and Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch desert him.The X-Men #11 Magneto escapes to Earth by repairing a spaceship on the Stranger's planet, but leaves the Toad behind. He captures nearly all the X-Men and takes over the Mansion, hoping to use the Angel's parents to create a race of mutants, but is recaptured by the Stranger.The X-Men #17-18 Magneto remains on the Stranger's world for a time, but escapes again thanks to the unwitting assistance of scientist Dane Whitman, makes his way back to Earth, and reassembles the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants with the exception of the mutant Mastermind.The Avengers #47-49