#magneto testament

[pacing-er]

I've seen ppl talking about how Cherik may get a different name if it becomes more widely known that comic Magnetos birth name was Max Eisenhardt, but am I the only person who thinks that really won't need to happen? In the comic timeline(s) where he was called Max as a child, he still chooses to be called Erik Magnus Lehnsherr in adulthood. That is a name he chose for himself, not one imposed on him, which means he wants to use that name. Given that "Max Eisenhardt" would be very dear to him since his family would have known him by that name, I see the change of name as more of a "Max died"/loss of innocence symbology. He cannot become the boy that he was before Auschwitz, it has changed him in a way he can't come back from, just like he can never get his family back. He is a different person now, so he chose a new name for himself. Not that he would hate being called Max, I just think that he would feel more disconnected from it or not want it to be used by people he dislikes or doesn't care about. It would be something very personal with a lot of baggage.

Additionally, if the Magneto: Testament comics can be seen as applicable to the rest of the Marvel canon, he chose "Erik" because it was his uncle's name. Erich Eisenhardt was someone who Max had looked up to and seen as a courageous and strong person, so an adult Erik would want to wear that name to carry on his legacy. I think that is a beautiful name choice and I don't feel it's necessary to erase it by calling him Max.

(DISCLAIMER: of course I know the whole name debate originated from inconsistencies in the early comics, and that the movie-verse erased that particular origin anyways, but I think it is a beautiful part of his characters history and should stay)

[keepsmagnetoaway]

X-Men: Magneto Testament 5 (March 2009)

Greg Pak/Carmine Di Giandomenico

The last issue. I honestly don't even know if I recommend this series or not. It's outstandingly good, incredibly accurate and faithful, but it's also a horrible experience, by design.

In this issue, the Sinti/Roma part of the camp is liquidated, though Magda survives: she does this not through Magneto's actions or through some story contrivance but through an extremely specific, true incident of a train being sent to Buchenwald and then back for complicated reasons. The details aren't worth going into here but the point is that once again Greg Pak has rooted this story very deeply in historical fact, and made young Magneto into a powerless bystander, disarming him and us.

There is, then, a sudden and desperate escape at the end, and Max and Magda get away, to live and to fight.

But this, again, is nothing but the pure historical fact. There was a Sonderkommando uprising in the camp, and the comic gives us the details. It is true - we think - that a handful of inmates really did escape this way, though many more died.

And so...yeah. The end.

This really is a comic unlike anything I've read before. I mean, I've read Maus, obviously, and you should too, and this isn't in Maus' league, but to do this in the context of an X-Men comic is stunning. This issue has an epilogue that tells the entirely true story of an artist who was an inmate in Auschwitz, Dina Babbitt, a story I won't go in to here but which is deeply important, and its inclusion here along with a reading list - an actual reading list! - is a further hallmark of how seriously this project was taken.

There is a lot else that could be said about this comic and how it fits into other comics, but it honestly feels absurd to look at this and go "hmmmm, how does Magneto's work in an Auschwitz crematorium inform his decision to work with the Blob?", because that's a question of a totally different moral and narrative universe. In that sense this arguably fails, strictly speaking, as an X-Men comic, but I'm deeply glad to have read it. Then again, I'm also pretty glad to be getting away from it and back to the stupid stuff next.

[magnetic-regent-magneto]

[burningfudge]

just finished reading magneto testament

i’m not okay.

[magnetostits]

i’m rereading magneto testament bc i’m making a reading guide for magneto and this scene is so heartbreaking

[marvelstars]

I agree and I believe it was done on purpose, for Magneto this was a repetition of that event, just this time he wanted to reassure Leech just like his father did with himwhen he was a child.

this might be (will be, likely is) me over-thinking stuff but I just noticed that the head wound Magneto has in his last scene in Remember Me mirrors in shape and placement the head wound he has in Magneto Testament in the scene where his family is killed (and in both scenes, everyone around him dies and he is mistaken for dead but survives)

[kurt-accursedd]

Did a thing with some blorbos ✨✨✨

[newfuturegirl]

[pacing-er]

I've been trying for a few days to get my thoughts in order on white haired Magneto, since that is something that I have strong feelings about.

It is canon in some of the comics that Magneto's hair is white due to a secondary mutation, though this is inconsistent throughout the decades of iterations. Because he is mostly depicted as an older man, people naturally assume that he is white haired because of his age. However in most early depictions of a younger Magneto his hair is white. This includes the Legion Quest comics, wherein (timeline inconsistencies aside) we are seeing an Erik Lehnsherr from 20 years past, likely 40 or 50 at the oldest. Even earlier in the timeline when his first daughter Anya died he was likely in his 30-40s, but he was still depicted with stark white hair. This would be very premature hair whitening and--though not impossible--it is unusual. Additionally we see a de-aged child Magneto at several points in the comics with white hair. It would make sense for him to have this secondary mutation considering he seemingly passed it on to two of his children (Pietro and Lorna) and one of his grandchildren (Tommy). So, yes, there is a decent amount of evidence that Magneto has naturally white hair because of his mutant DNA.

There are several possibilities then:

-Magnetos hair had been a natural color as a child but turned white due to a secondary mutation when his powers manifested.

-Magnetos hair had been white due to a secondary mutation since birth, with his powers manifesting separately later.

-Magnetos hair turned white due to outside factors (ex.: Excessive stress, Other mutant interference, etc.)

With the magic of comic books, all three of these possibilities are (frustratingly) canon at once. However, I personally subscribe to the idea that Magneto would have had a natural hair color at birth and through his early childhood. In the comics his mutant gene is said to have activated very late, since he was well into adulthood when he got his powers whereas normally a mutant's powers would come during puberty. This is stated to have been because of malnutrition and disease from a childhood spent in the Ghettos and Concentration Camps. His white hair could have manifested later at the same time as his powers, which activated after the death of his first daughter Anya. This would also help avoid the problem of depicting a Jewish child with stark white hair in Auschwitz, which would be unrealistic at best and outright offensive at worst. I think that this is why both the movie and Magneto Testament versions of the character are given a natural hair color. Of course, there is a comic where Magneto is explicitly depicted as white haired from birth including his time during the Holocaust (House of M) but I haven't read it yet so I can't comment on whether or not I think it is in poor taste. As for why de-aged child Magneto is consistently depicted with white hair, it would be because this version of him already manifested his mutant abilities. If he didn't have a mutation affecting his hair color at all, then this detail would be inexplicable (but this is an X-Men comic so who knows atp).

The difference between physical mutations and mutant powers is a whole other thing. We see mutants like Nightcrawler who are physically mutated from birth but don't unlock their mutant powers until puberty, and we see characters like Glob Herman who look normal as children and then physically mutate at puberty in addition to getting their mutant powers. There doesn't seem to be a set rule when it comes to physical mutations like hair color and whether they manifest at birth or not. For Lorna, whose background has been rewritten several times throughout her history, she is said to have been green haired since birth in one comic and then had her hair turn green when her powers activated in another. The fun of comics with decades of history and dozens of different writers and artists is that you get to pick and choose what details you like and want to keep. There is no "right" interpretation of a character and that is both frustrating and freeing. That being said I obviously have not read every X-Men comic out there, so there are definitely details I missed and haven't considered yet.

Please share in the notes your opinion on white haired Magneto and your own personal head-canon!

[keepsmagnetoaway]

X-Men: Magneto Testament 1 (November 2008)

Greg Pak/Carmine Di Giandomenico

This is a difficult series to talk about.

X-Men: Magneto Testament (stupid punctuation is original, hereafter just Testament) was pitched as the definitive origin story of Magneto, and we're reading it now as part of our "Era 0" set of pre-1963 stories: it's set between 1933 and 1945, with the context and content that those dates imply.

We already know, from our read, a little about the experiences of Magneto/Erik Lehnsherr/Max Eisenhardt (the latter name is his true birth name, first revealed here) during the Holocaust: it first came up for us in Classic X-Men 12. It was first mentioned in an issue of the mainline story, 150, that we've not quite gotten to yet, but aside from those two mentions (and some stuff in another classic back-up, 19), there had been relatively little concrete detail on this. Indeed, for a long time there was some confusion about Magneto's Jewishness, given that he also spends a while pretending to be Sinti/Roma while looking for his wife Magda, whom he meets in this series and is herself Sinti/Roma.

Testament sets out to be an authoritative version of Magneto's origin, but what makes it remarkable is that it's not actually very interested in that story, or in the parts of that story that we would presume to be important. At no point in these five issues does Magneto consciously use a superpower, nor does he meet or hear of another superpowered person or mutant: nothing fantastical happens. Testament is instead an extremely meticulous, near-documentary account of the Holocaust.

That's entirely intentional, and that intent is on display in a note from the writer, Greg Pak, at the end of the first issue. This is a remarkable comic but obviously one that doesn't fit very neatly inside my "make dumb jokes about men in spandex" wheelhouse, so the next few posts will be a little heavy: but so is this comic, and so it should be.

[magnetic-regent-magneto]

𝐌𝐚𝐠𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐨 -- small Max Edits. Magneto:Testament & X-Men Red. ||

[papa3slut]

[samasmith23]

The comic Magneto Testament says otherwise:

From X-Men: Magneto Testament #1 by Greg Pak & Carmine Di Giandomenico.

Magneto is not Jewish.

everyone point and laugh

[l4z3rbolt-graphik-design]

[arkhamshadows]

Magneto's white hair being a physical mutation and not (only) a sign of old age is SO important to me. Magneto Testament showed that he was born with black hair and developed white hair in his 20s.

White hair as a sign of his old age is already very effective -- nazis killed his family and tried to kill him too but he fought tooth and nail for his life. They failed; he lived long enough for time to bleach his hair white! But his hair color being a mutation that passes onto his children and grandchildren says that not only did he survive, his family did too. Death could still claim him but his legacy lives on in Pietro and Tommy. It's so symbolic.

I love seeing his hair long or short and styled (usually slicked back). He's proud of his hair and he's proud of being a mutant 🤍

[angelfirstclass]

Cherik- the heart and soul of X-men 97.

So whether you ship them together or think of them as brothers or whatever, the relationship between Erik Lensherr and Charles Xavier is the heart and soul of this show and dare I say the entire franchise in whatever form. We see their friendship and being nemeses and relationship in pretty much all versions of the X-men and Xmen 97 is chock full of Cherik gold.

The series starts out with Magneto inheriting the X-men and Xavier's entire estate which says a lot about their close relationship and Xavier's trust in Magneto. He trusts and relies on him even above his precious X-men as they are caught off guard by this news and are even hurt by it like Scott. In this act, Xavier follows his heart and feels that by doing this he gets Magneto to come to his path and for the X-men to lose an adversary and also be less burdened with leading the team.

Going forward, Magneto loyally follows Xavier's path honoring his memory and legacy. Even reluctantly and with gritted teeth his restraint is "proof of (his) desire to honor Charles Xavier's dream of mutant human coexistence". To see how far he was before as a X-men adversary to one who truly wanted to honor Xavier was very extreme and a testament to Erik's love for Xavier. He goes through a lot in the series even undergoing a massacre and even through that event continues to try to be a X-man and show restraint and be a leader, but eventually it becomes too much for him.

The scene in episode 2 is very telling of their relationship when Magneto speaks of the helmet and how he could always sense Charles as a presence. "I was in his thoughts and he in mine." Romantic or not, this line highlights just how important the two of them were to each other and that's love is it not? Then Rogue hits the nail on the head by stating that Magneto was worried about if he felt how much Xavier still loved him, Magneto wouldn't be able to go through with his crusade. Magneto canonically lays out that he knew/knows that Xavier loves him.

At the end of ep 2, Magneto is seen looking at a picture of Charles and himself when they were young that is kept framed on Charles' desk. Whether that was Charles' picture (which I suspect) or put there by Erik, the implications are clear the two are important to each other despite the past or their differences. Storm is talking about finding connection and pans on Rogue and Magneto and Morph and Wolverine, but also stands for Charles and Erik.

In ep 5, Magneto is considered to rule over Genosha because of his trial and because Xavier trusted Magneto with the X-men. He mentions the pivotal bar scene we will see later and what a moment it is for Magneto. At this moment, he is seeing his and Xavier's dreams coming true which he never thought possible. It turns out Magneto was right, but at this moment Xavier's dream seemed real and it was Magneto that was leading the way to get them there.

At this point I have to mention Rogue in that she is the only other person that is connected to Erik and understanding of his thoughts. I like Rogue and don't think that it gets in the way of Cherik. Rogue has seen Erik's inner thoughts through her absorption powers or by the time spent talking to him. She is the one who gets the Cherik relationship better than most and understands the love the two have for each other and how long and deep their relationship is. She is not an obstacle to Cherik, she may be the Queen Erik wants (particularly when he thinks Charles is gone), but is also someone who gets the Cherik thing and understands. This leaves so much room for love triangles and Magneto bi loveness galore. Rogue GETS it, she's not going to stand in the way.

Then leading to the finale, there is so much Cherik even a non-Cherik fan is left with no doubt that there is something there between the two. Whether its the salty "Welcome home, cheater" vibes about the Bird Queen, the bickering about Genosha and Bastion and Magneto's response, and the scintillating together in Erik's mind sequences, there is so much Charles-Erik action going on that the writers gifted us.

Granted, I was sort of pissed at Xavier in the first part of the finale for not being on Magneto's side and being so harsh on him after all that Erik had been through as well as thinking that going into his head was a violation. I still kind of feel that way, but I'm more understanding of Xavier's flaws (he's not perfect, not by a longshot) and also of how much he loves Erik despite violating his mind. The fact that he was willing to lose his own mind and also endure the tragedies and pain of Erik despite knowing Erik's tragic history is a testament to how much he loves Erik. Magneto may have conflicting feelings about what happened after season 1, but I don't think he's going to ever forget how Xavier basically talked him out of oblivion and made him come back to himself talking about love and family.

Magneto saves the day, but it must be remembered that Professor Xavier did not have to return Magneto back to his mind or the world. Magneto has been a fierce adversary in the past and is currently causing major mayhem to the planet and still Xavier considers him a brother and encourages him to recognize and become Magneto again. In another storyline, Rogue could have absorbed Magneto while he was down and got the planet up and running, but that's not the direction the writers went with because it didn't highlight the Cherik relationship as well. The writers wanted to focus in on Cherik and so I again repeat that Charles and Erik's relationship is the thesis, the plot, the heart of the show and I can't wait to see more.