| “ | All those years wasted fighting each other, Charles...to have a precious few of them back. | „ |
| ~ Magneto's dying words, reconciling with Professor X in 2023. |
| “ | You built these weapons to destroy us. Why? Because you are afraid of our gifts. Because we are different. Humanity has always feared that which is different, but I am here to tell you, to tell the world, you're right to fear us. We are the future. We are the ones who inherit this earth and anyone who stands in our way, will suffer the same fate as these men you see before you. Today was meant to be a display of your power. Instead I give you a glimpse of the devastation my race can unleash upon yours. Let this be a warning to the world and to my mutant brothers and sisters out there, I say this. No more hiding. No more suffering. You have lived in the shadows and shame and fear for too long. Come out. Join me. Fight together in a brotherhood of our kind, a new tomorrow that starts today. | „ |
| ~ Magneto's infamous speech on live TV at the White House. |
| “ | You don't know your own strength, but I do. Reach down. Feel the metal in the ground. Reach as deep as you can. You'll find you have the power to move the very Earth itself. | „ |
| ~ Apocalypse emphasizing the truly remarkable power Magneto has always possessed. |
Erik Lehnsherr, also known as Magneto, is the main antagonist of the X-Men film series. He is an extremely powerful and ruthless mutant with the ability to manipulate all forms of magnetism and is the former archenemy of the X-Men. He serves as the main antagonist of the first X-Men and The Last Stand, a major character in X2, the main protagonist of First Class, a minor character in The Wolverine, the secondary antagonist of Days of Future Past and Apocalypse, and a major character in Dark Phoenix.
His older self was portrayed by Ian McKellen, while his younger self was portrayed by Michael Fassbender.
What Makes Him Magnificent?[]
- To call him tragic is an understatement. He was a Holocaust survivor whose mother was killed by Sebastian Shaw before he tortured him, and it gets worse in Apocalypse when his wife and young daughter are killed due to his mutant cover being blown while trying to live in peace.
- He's a well-intentioned extremist who wants to protect mutantkind's future. And honestly, given how bad it gets in Logan as well as the 2023 timeline in Days of Future Past, he's not entirely wrong that humans and mutants cannot coexist.
- He deeply cares for Charles and Raven, leaving on good terms with the former more often than not. He even takes visible offense when Pyro says that he wanted to kill Charles in The Last Stand, and becomes vengeful when Hank tells him that Jean killed Raven in Dark Phoenix.
- He's given a masterful and extremely charismatic performance from both Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender.
- His power to control metal is very cool to say the least, and he always uses it effectively. The best examples being:
- In X2, he escapes a plastic prison by ripping all the iron out of a security guard's blood. He also reworks Cerebro to trick Charles into nearly wiping out humanity.
- In The Last Stand, he completely reorients the Golden Gate bridge. Made even more impressive is that he is elderly.
- In Days of Future Past, he cleverly breaks into government buildings, hijacks a small army of Sentinels, and then literally rips the saferoom right out of the White House from outdoors, nearly killing President Richard Nixon this way.
- In Apocalypse, he reverses the polarity of the Earth herself. In fact, Apocalypse never enhanced him like the other three, presumably out of fear that he would be creating a Horseman strong enough to supplant his own dominance. He merely tells him to reach into the ground and embrace the full extent of his own arsenal he's always possessed.
- He's a chessmaster both literally and figuratively. In The Last Stand, he stops Juggernaut from getting depowered in the first wave while letting the weaker members of his army charge at the humans.
- It's hard to mourn quite a few of his victims due to how immoral they were, which makes him easier to root for. Said victims include Mitchell Laurio, William Stryker, Sebastian Shaw, the Nazis at the bar in First Class, and the men who kill his wife and daughter in Apocalypse.
- In Days of Future Past, his future self atones for his villainy by helping the X-Men fight the Sentinels, rescue Rogue (in the extended cut) and stop Mystique from killing Bolivar Trask.
- In Apocalypse, he saves a man from being crushed by a metal contraption at the cost of his own anonymity, and while he wants to kill his coworkers later, it is only because they ungratefully reported him to the police, and their reporting resulted in Magneto’s family dying.
- In Dark Phoenix, he saves an entire military squad on Genosha despite his dislike for humans.
What Makes Him a Baddie?[]
- He displays hypocrisy at numerous points by trying to kill fellow innocent mutants in order to achieve his goals. Examples are:
- Putting Rogue in a machine that will drain her to death. Even Wolverine calls him out on this.
- Ordering Juggernaut to kill Leech, a young boy, to eradicate the cure for mutancy.
- Attacking and nearly killing Mystique, Wolverine and Beast in Days of Future Past, even stabbing and paralyzing Wolverine's entire body with rebars before throwing him far away into the Potamac River where he nearly drowns.
- In X2, he manipulates Charles into nearly wiping out every human on the planet.
- In First Class, he strangles Moira close to death while blaming her for paralyzing Charles' spine, as she fired the bullet that struck him right after he saved her from getting blown up by an entire barrage of missiles. He also nearly destroys an entire army fleet of both Americans and Soviets (which is just blatant overkill).
- In Apocalypse, he destroys large portions of the Earth while affiliating with the titular antagonist in hopes that he’ll "build a better world from the ashes of the old one". Before that, he tried to mass-murder his own coworkers after one of them reported him to the police.
External Links[]
- Magneto at the Villains wiki
- Magneto at the X-Men Movies wiki