MAGNETO

Name: Erik Magnus Lensherr

Group: Former Leader of the Acolytes

Origin: Gdansk, Poland

First appearance: X-Men#1

Known Relatives:

 

BRIEF HISTORY

 

Magneto has tried to conceal the facts about his early life. It is known, however, that he and his family were Gypsies, who were in Germany during the Nazi regime and were sent ot the Auschwitz concentration camp. There, Erik Magnus Lensherr was the only member of his family to survive. It was there where he met Magda, his future wife. They escaped together, and managed to move east to Russia. Magneto's concentration camp experience showed him how ingumane a majority could be towards a minority, a lesson he would remember when he discovered his abilities.

The young Erik spent the following years making his way south through the Iron Curtain. During this time, he married Magda, and had a daughter. At this time they were fully content living in a Russian village. Village life could not contain Magneto, though. He yearned more from life, and consequently moved to Vinnitsa, a town in the Ukraine.

There, he fought to make a living, and was cheated in the jobs he got. Once, when an employer refused Magneto his due pay, attacked him unknowingly by making a crowbar fly at him. This is the first known time Magneto's powers surfaced.

Later that day, the building in which he was living caught fire. He successfully rescued his wife, and when he went back for his daughter, the same employer Magneto attacked prevented him from going in. With the help of police, Magneto was beaten. When he heard his daughter's scream, he once again unknowingly attacked his oppressors. This time, he killed everybody in the scene but Magda. She was so horrified by what Magneto had done, and the accompanying allegations that he would use them to rule the world, she ran away, not telling him she was once more pregnant.

 

After abandoning his search for Magda, Magneto arrived in the newly independent nation of Israel. There, he worked in a psychiatric hospital near Haifa, where he met his future friend, Charles Xavier. Together, they prevented Baron Wolfgang Strucker and his HYDRA agents from obtaining a large cache of Nazi gold. At that point they both revealed their powers to each other. Magneto used his powers to take the gold himself.

By the time Xavier founded the X-Men, in part to combat mutants who threatened humanity, Magneto had decided that the only way to safeguard superhuman mutants from persecution was for mutants to conquer human civilization. Magneto, now using this particular alias and garbed in his familiar costume, first clashed with the X-Men at the American missile base on Cape Citadel. Next, Magneto briefly conquered the tiny South American nation of San Marco with the aid of his newly formed Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Coincidentally, two of the original membes of the Brotherhood were his children, now known as the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Years would pass before Magneto learned that they were his children. The X-Men again foiled his plans of conquest.

At one point Magneto came across what seemed to him to be a treasure trove of alien records and scientific equipment, which had actually been left for him to find by the master geneticist Maelstrom. Using all of this, Magneto created an artificial humanoid which he named Alpha the Ultimate Mutant. Alpha rebelled against his creator and turned him back into an infant. Xavier had the baby taken to his colleague Moria MacTaggert's installation on Muir Island, Scotland. There, the baby was found by the alien Shi'ar agent Shakari, then masquerading under his alias as Eric the Red, who not only transformed Magneto into an adult younger than he had been, but also restored him to the peak of his powers.

In one attempt at conquering the world, Magneto struck down the young adolescent X-Man Shadowcat. He was so shocked that he had personally harned such a youg girl, he immediately began reconsidering the moral path he had taken in trying to defend mutankind. He then allied himself with his former enemies, Xavier and the X-Men, during the first "Secret War" on the planet created by the Beyonder. Later, Magneto heeded Xavier's request to aid the X-Men and the younger New Mutants (now X-Force) in hunting down the Beyonder when he first came to Earth. All of these events helped alter Magneto's attitudes toward humanity.

Finally, MAgneto surrendered himself to the law so that he could stand trial for his past crimes. A special tribunal of the International Court of Justice was set up to try him for crimes against humanity. Magneto intended to abide by the tribunal's verdict, and also used his trial as a forum for declaring his opposition to the persecution of mutants. The trial was interrupted by the attack of Fenris, who were actually Andrea and Andreas Strucker, the children of Magneto's now-deceased evemy, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker,. Fenris was defeated, and in reaction Xavier asked Magneto to look after the X-Men and to take over his School for Gifted Youngsters. Xavier told Magneto that by doing so he would make amends for his past crimes. magneto agreed, and Xavier was teleported off Earth by his lover, the Shi'ar Princess Lilandra and Corsair, leader of the Starjammers. Xavier was healed on hte Starjammer's ship in the Shi'ar Galaxy.

Eventually, Magneto was exonerated of his crimes by the International Court of Justice. However, was still regarded as a major criminal. Following an attack by Nimrod, he and Storm forged an alliance with the Hellfire Club to protect mutants, and Magneto was named White King. He assumed the identity of Xavier's cousin, and headed Xavier's school and was the mentor of the New Mutants.

When an incredible threat to the world came in the form of Zaladane, Magneto, and some of the X-Men went to the savage land to fight her. Zaladane had absorbed Lorna Dane's -- aka Polaris -- powers and was slowly getting control of all magnetic energies, consequently draining Magneto's powers. After a longbattle, Magneto seized back his awesome powers, and incapacitated Zaladane. Despite Rogue's pleas, Magneto killed Zaladane, and reverted to his old beliefs, leaving the X-Men. It should be noted that Magneto and Rogue had sortof an affair, and Rogue's powers were not functioning properly. It has been theorized that Magneto was suppresing them.

The next time Magneto appeared, he once again attempted to conquer the world with his Acolytes. During this attempt, he was attacked and badly wounded by Wolverine. His stronghold, Asteroid M, was also destroyed by an attack by the X-Men. This defeat left Magneto out of the picture for a long time, which gave him the opportunity to plan his comeback.

When Magneto made his encore, it was a grand one; he offered any X-Man to come under his protection. To everybody's surprise, Colossus accepted. Since he was planning another conquest of the world, the United Nations initiated the Magneto protocols in defense. These set up an electromagnetic web around the Earth's atmosphere, negating Magneto's powers. The master of magnetism scorned at this puny attempt, and shot an electromagnetic pulse which basically blacked out the entire world. The X-Men, with the help of Shi'ar technology, went to Magneto's starship and fought him. In this battle Magneto ripped out Wolverine's adamantium, and almost killed him. In response, Professor X fought psychically with Magneto and put him in the comatose state he is in right now.

Colossus takes care of him. Most recently, Exodus has taken the position of leader among the Acolytes. Holocaust has come back with a vengeance against Magneto. The outcome should be resolved in current X-Men issues.

The Master of Magnetism now suffers from amnesia, after regaining consciousness in a village in South America. He is currently off to seek the help of the X-Men to find out who he is.

One last thing, Magneto is now younger than he was, although how is still unrevealed.
This web page was created by Justin Gonyea. Comments, problems, etc. should be sent to jgonyea@hotmail.com

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