Why Magneto is Not Right (... About Everything)

[andraste]

The X-Men have been on my mind lately, between making a new vid and remaking an old one (coming along nicely!) and the other week I was talking about Magneto with Selena in someone else's comments, and I got to thinking.

Being on the internet and reading many X-Men related things, I often have to remind myself that when people say 'Magneto was right' they probably mean 'Magneto was right when he decided that minorities have the right to defend themselves and to meet force with force' or 'Magneto was right when he told Charles that the situation was much worse than he wanted to admit' or 'Magneto was right when he said that being nice to people who are oppressing you doesn't make them stop.' All of those are correct statements! Even 'Magneto was right when he decided to go for the red and purple cape and helmet look' is arguable depending on the artist and doesn't make me want to set anything on fire.

Probably random people on the internet do not mean 'Magneto was right when he decided genocide is just fine if the people you're killing are Evil Oppressor Humans, including those Evil Oppressor Humans who are babies.' Or 'Magneto was right when he almost destroyed most of the plants and animals in the world with nuclear weapons even though the sheep and pine trees and lobsters are not oppressing any mutants.' Or 'Magneto was right to to be personally offended by the Golden Gate Bridge and destroy it as often as possible.' (I am worried that a depressing number believe 'Magneto was right when he decided people with cool superpowers were morally superior to those without them', though.)

It's not like people always agree with their favourite characters just because they agree with them some of the time. Hell, I would certainly not going around saying 'Professor X was right when he decided he knew what was best for Raven/Jean/Insert Character Here even though he really, really did not' or 'Professor X was right when he made the worst possible argument on that beach' or 'Professor X was right when he decided to spend a decade day drinking and shooting up because he was sad.' But I will freely admit that in the big picture of Charles vs. Erik, I am shamelessly biased in favour of the one who has NOT ATTEMPTED GENOCIDE.

Don't get me wrong - I love Erik to bits and find him a deeply sympathetic character who is right about lots of things. Just ... not so many things that 'Magneto did nothing wrong!' will ever not make my hackles rise.

In the comics, Magneto has been in every position from 'misunderstood hero' to 'irredeemable villain.' That's is a position he shares with many characters who have existed since 1963, especially the ones that at least started out as bad guys. So whether or not he's actually Right depends entirely on what issue we're in. In the movies, though ...

Never mind Magneto's ill-advised plan to kill most of the world's population or let Apocalypse take it over or whatever bad idea he has for dealing with humans this time around. It's really the way he treats other mutants that rubs me the wrong way. Just ask Raven, especially after X3.



I've seen plenty of people argue that the way he behaves in that film is out of character, but the thing is, he does similar stuff in every movie he appears in. For all his claims that he wants to save all the mutants so they can live in mutant paradise together, he is often not good at actually helping them and treating them with kindness.

Now, I'm not going to count every instance where Erik fights other mutants against him - he's got plenty of good reasons to oppose Shaw and his minions in First Class and the X-Men in subsequent stories. What I'm talking about is a lot of behaviour that's mean or unnecessary or downright stupid. So let's consider it film by film, in internal chronological order. (I know there are at least two different time lines here. He is a jerk in both.)

1. First of all: even in First Class when he's allied with Charles and the proto-X-Men, he treats Hank with obvious contempt. It's certainly understandable that Erik is against Hank's cure idea and thinks he's is wrong to hide his mutation. But does he try to convince Hank to be mutant and proud, the way he does with Raven? No, he looks down on him and snipes at him for no readily apparent reason. (It's interesting to wonder why. Is it because Hank's rather low-key powers don't impress him? Because he was working for the government? Because Raven and Charles both like Hank and he's jealous?) Also, he leaves Charles injured on the beach next to a crashed plane and takes the only teleporter away instead of getting Azrael to drop him at a hospital first, which is really the least he could have done. No wonder Charles is mad ten years later.

2. Speaking of which, in Days of Future Past, his reaction to finding out that Raven's DNA will one day be used to make Sentinels and the X-Men need his help is ... trying to kill Raven, who has been nothing but an ally to him up to that point. Well done Erik, way to almost ruin the future all over again. Honestly, DoFP would have been much more efficient if they could have found a way to send Future!Erik back in time to just punch himself in the face for all those terrible plans his younger self came up with.

3. Then in the third part of the trilogy, he not only goes along with Apocalypse but with his plane to take over Charles's body and powers. As I said, I'm not going to count every instance of Erik fighting the X-Men against him - but what he's going to let Apocalypse do here is particularly cruel, not to mention dangerous. He's willing to fight the X-Men, but the guy who has lived for thousands of years by killing his fellow mutants and taking their powers? Obviously a trustworthy ally! (I mean, I know Erik is having a truly epic terrible day and not thinking straight, but does he really not see the logical outcome here? Does he think he can somehow stop the guy who has become an immensely powerful telepath in addition to everything else he already is from deciding he wants magnetic powers next?)

4. All of which brings us to the new methodology he apparently learned from Apocalypse: strapping mutants to big machines in order to use their powers. I am with Logan on this one - regardless of whether his plan would have worked or not, he should not have tried to execute it by killing an innocent teenage girl. Maybe he realises that he needs to be around to fight half of the new mutants he just made. Surely he cannot possibly think that they would all really take the side of the man who just turned them green or gave them uncontrollable eye beams even if they didn't all turn into puddles? Also, he is pettily cruel to Sabretooth after Kelly 'escapes' which Sabretooth has done nothing to deserve. (Well, he's done lots of things to deserve it, but nothing that has anything to do with Kelly escaping.)

5. ... and then X2 comes along and he decides to combine his 'kill all humans' plan from First Class with his 'use other mutants' powers' and 'tamper with Cerebro' plans from X1. Yeah. Also note that he uses Jason as well as Charles, and makes no attempt to rescue him from the awful situation his mutant-hating father has put him in. (Neither do Storm and Nightcrawler, mind you, but they don't know what the situation is or that Jason isn't really a willing participant. And I am going to give Charles a pass on not having the wits to tell them to go back for Jason at that particular moment, given that he'd just been forced to attempt genocide twice in a row and probably had a headache.)

6. X3 is indeed a low point for the way Erik treats his fellow mutants, between the way he abandons Mystique and using his new recruits like canon fodder. But again, look at everything above and tell me it's not in keeping with his previous behaviour. Of course he thinks that Mystique stops being a proper person once she loses her powers, and of course he thinks that he needs to be the one to guide the new world but it doesn't actually matter that much if 'lesser' mutants die. While he's at it he tries to use Jean to execute his plan - who has just killed Charles in front of him and eaten Scott and is obviously out of control. I really do not know how he thought that one was going to turn out.

What all of that boils down to is that Erik often acts out of fear. This is perfectly understandable given his history, and not always a bad thing. Fear is a useful emotion. It tells you that something is wrong and helps you get out of danger! But it's not a good foundation to base all of your long term planning on, especially not when you're as frightened as Erik's inner twelve-year-old has reason to be.

A bit of Erik is always going to be that terrified kid trying to tear down the gates of a concentration camp, and he lets that part of himself make the decisions far, far too often. Meanwhile, a bit of Charles is always that kid who just met Raven in his kitchen and is filled up with hope and delight. (If you doubt it, look at his face in Logan when he meets Laura.)

Hope is also not always a good basis for decision making - wishful thinking can lead to ignoring a lot of problems. But at least in this case, it seems to result in a lot less deciding to kill everybody before they can kill you.

Comments

[wychwood]

A+ essay!! :)

I think that Magneto very often holds an understandable position, given his life experiences, and that Charles is often too optimistic that everything will totes work out this time, but he's still way too murder-y to support even when I think he's right in his basic position! And ultimately the reason I struggled with First Class and haven't watched any further in that series is that I couldn't see any way in which that Magneto was morally distinguishable from Shaw - like, apart from Shaw killing his mother, there doesn't seem to be any reason for Magneto not to join him, because they appear to have the same goals and methods.

[andraste]

A+ essay!! :)

Thank you! (I think it was less an essay that an extended AAAAAAAAGH but I certainly tried to make it more articulate than that ...)

I think that Magneto very often holds an understandable position, given his life experiences, and that Charles is often too optimistic that everything will totes work out this time, but he's still way too murder-y to support even when I think he's right in his basic position!

All too often it's like there's a house that's on fire and Charles is reacting by pretending that everything is fine and they just need to talk to the fire, while Erik acknowledges that this is a big problem but his reaction is to set the house next door on fire, too. Neither of these is a helpful strategy!

And ultimately the reason I struggled with First Class and haven't watched any further in that series is that I couldn't see any way in which that Magneto was morally distinguishable from Shaw - like, apart from Shaw killing his mother, there doesn't seem to be any reason for Magneto not to join him, because they appear to have the same goals and methods.

Pretty much. Days of Future Past is probably my favourite X-Men film, but seventies-era Erik doesn't exactly cover himself in glory. It seems that by 2023 when the world is almost destroyed by Sentinels he has finally bought a clue and teamed up with the remaining X-Men. So it's nice that he got there in the end? But then in Apocalypse eighties Erik is even more murdery than usual, so.

[lilacsigil]

And this is why my icon is from the comics!

Honestly, though, I was really disappointed in the ending of First Class - his dialogue with Shaw was appalling. There's so many moments in the series where Magneto does (or tries to do) good, but Shaw's behaviour towards him and Erik's behaviour towards other mutants have very nasty parallels. How extreme he gets could be argued as in or out of character, but I think you're entirely right that through every movie the baseline characterisation is that he needs to be in charge and feels justified hurting people "for the greater good" (and the greater good has a really, really wide definition!)

[andraste]

And this is why my icon is from the comics!

Ironically, I love that icon :). (Partly because comics Magneto is right way more often - if also wrong more often because comics are like that - and partly because I love Quentin and his stupid edgy t-shirt.)

Honestly, though, I was really disappointed in the ending of First Class - his dialogue with Shaw was appalling. There's so many moments in the series where Magneto does (or tries to do) good, but Shaw's behaviour towards him and Erik's behaviour towards other mutants have very nasty parallels.

Sadly, I think Erik internalised way too many of Shaw's master race ideals - you can see that again when he teams up with Apocalypse, who's essentially the same. It's hardly surprising he feels that way given how young he was when Shaw got hold of him, but that doesn't make it OK.

How extreme he gets could be argued as in or out of character, but I think you're entirely right that through every movie the baseline characterisation is that he needs to be in charge and feels justified hurting people "for the greater good" (and the greater good has a really, really wide definition!)

All else aside: has he even thought about the fact that if he'd succeeded in killing all humans on either of the occasions when he tried, he'd be putting thousands of mutant children through much of the exact same trauma that he went through? He's not the only mutant with a human mother!

[selenak]

In a free minute: my own theory re: why Erik treats Hank the way he does is that he‘s projecting. To wit: he‘s never forgiven himself for not having killed Shaw in Auschwitz. Never mind the reality of the situation - Erik was a child going through horrors beyond imagining - in his own eyes he probably was a collaborator for NOT killing Shaw. Maybe, given Shaw was the sole remaining adult who took a - gruesome, but not lethal - interest in a situation where everyone else in authority wanted Erik dead - , and given Shaw was a source of food and kept telling him he was special when everyone else told him he was unworthy to live - he even developed a bit of Stockholm syndrome until the war was over. Which would add to his trauma and hate. And he sees Hank who works for the CIA while getting looked down by them and does his best to please his bosses as a kind of awful mirror of the past. Sure, now he hunts Nazis and is feared etc. , but like you said, a part of him will always be that terrified child, and basically Hank is a reflection of that child, trying to survive, and thus he acts like a total jerk towards him.

...though yes, I could see the fact that both Raven and Charles like Hank adding to Erik‘s dislike. Whatever went down with Peter‘s mother, he doesn‘t seem to have allowed himself getting interested in other people (in a good way) long enough for attachments to develop until he encounters the two of them. And Hank is in an odd position from the get go - not completely a student the way Alex, Sean and Darwin are, but not completely a partner the way Charles and Erik are, either. Given his scientific genius, though, he does have potential for heading into the partner direction (which he does in future movies), and newly-getting-attached Erik might have zero experience with sharing.

[andraste]

And he sees Hank who works for the CIA while getting looked down by them and does his best to please his bosses as a kind of awful mirror of the past.

That makes a lot of sense!

One interesting difference between comicverse Erik and the movie version is that comicverse has an older sister, while movie Erik is an only child as far as we know. Not that only children are automatically selfish - in fact, I've found that having all family responsibility stacked on them often leads to the exact opposite. But given his apparent lack of any really intimate relationships between his childhood and meeting Raven and Charles, he might well never have been close to anyone that he had to share with someone else.

[alara]

It's actually kind of sad that crazy, scenery-chewing, megalomaniacal comics Erik is fundamentally a better person than any movieverse version. Because when comics Magneto does the most truly awful things that he does, he is obviously off his rocker, and when he gets his head under control, he's often either outright a good person, or at least a manipulative Magnificent Bastard that's no worse than Charles is. Whereas movie Erik doesn't have that excuse. He's in his right mind most of the time when he does terrible things.

[andraste]

Indeed - I mean, I find it hard to see why a sane person would think 'let's kill the humans with nuclear weapons!' is a good plan, let alone teaming up with Apocalypse or Jean in one of her Dark Phoenix moods, but he doesn't have the excuse that Comics!Magneto has.

(If Charles really wanted to win that argument on the beach, he should have pointed out that Shaw could probably survive a nuclear holocaust and grow more and more powerful absorbing energy, but most mutants including Erik need to actually eat food. Even with a vastly reduced population, the canned beans would probably run out before the planet recovered enough for agriculture to be viable again.)

[redfiona99]

Where is the kudos button? Because yes. All of this. Particularly plan "they want Mystique's blood so I will shoot her"! I know that is by some way the least worse of his sins but really ...

[andraste]

You know, I think of all the dumb things Erik does across six films, that may be the dumbest. Raven is his ally! He could at least try explaining the problem to her first!