Magneto. Magnus. Erik Lehnsherr. A man by many names, but one purpose. The advancement and protection of the mutant race. That purpose has put Magneto against and alongside the X-Men and his friend, Charles Xavier, many times over the years. To Magneto, their purpose was the same, but the methods that were used to acheive them often were not.
Recently, Magneto has been serving as second in command to Cyclops, whose goals aligned more closely to Magneto’s own. However, while the X-Men can protect and train mutants, they can’t do what needs to be done to those that are harming mutants. With this solo title, Magneto is hunting down those people and is doing whatever is necessary to punish them.
I’ve been a little out of the X-Men loop for a while and just started adding Uncanny X-Men to my pull list. I’m still getting used to Magneto being bald and having diminished powers, but the popularity of the “anti-hero” now makes it a perfect time for a Magneto solo title. This book starts out with an investigation into a killing and the poor barista being interviewed is obviously bothered by what he saw. When he tells the police that the guy pulled out the victims fillings with a snap of the fingers, we all know who is involved. It was the image on the next page that showed how Magneto replaced the fillings that jumps us into the story. It also shows that Magneto is not playing around. You do not want to get on his wrong side.
Magneto has always been an interesting character, but whenever he’s been a good guy, he seemed to become less interesting to me. With this book he seems to be toeing the line and that suits me just fine. He spends most of the book out of costume, working covertly, and it has a very spy like feel to it. That is until the end when he surprised me by going full on Magneto in a police department.
I really liked the presentation of this book and I’m definitely interested in where they will take it. Magneto always feels caged when he’s in a group and seeing him on his own, under his own rules is pretty exciting. Check it out and let us know what you think!
Magneto #1
Published: March 05, 2014
Writer: Cullen Bunn
Cover Artist: Paolo Rivera
