We started the mutant portion of this series with the founder of the X-Men, Professor Charles Xavier (once again portrayed by the legendary Patrick Stewart). Now, we close it with the X-Men’s most iconic enemy—and occasional ally—Erik “Magnus” Lansherr, better known as Magneto. Dubbed the Master of Magnetism, Magneto stands among the most powerful mutants alive, a status Marvel affirms by classifying him as an Omega-level mutant. But perhaps the most exciting part of Magneto’s return in “Avengers: Doomsday” is Sir Ian McKellen once again taking up the role. His acclaimed performance captures a man shaped by humanity’s worst atrocities—one who believes that coexistence with humans is impossible, but instead, the only way to ensure mutant survival is to strike first before they do.
Origins
Born as Max Eisenhardt, Magneto’s life began in one of the darkest chapters of human history: World War II. As a child, he and his family were imprisoned in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. While his powers would briefly manifest under the intense trauma and conditions of his new environment, the extreme sickness and starvation he endured suppressed any further development. Powerless to save them, Max was forced to watch as his parents and sister were taken from him one by one. This unimaginable trauma would plant the seeds of his future hatred for humanity—but it did not break him. Even in the camps, Max found the strength to inspire those around him, eventually helping to incite a revolt that allowed him to escape alongside his childhood love, Magda. Afterwards, the pair would marry and have a daughter named Anya. Finally, after years of unimaginable horror and pain, Max finally found the peace and happiness that he was unjustly denied.
But unfortunately, or perhaps inevitably, this new life would not last long. While hiding from persecution in an old building, an angry anti-mutant or anti-Jewish mob formed and set the structure ablaze. While Max did his best to shield and protect his family, the situation flooded his mind with memories of the Holocaust and emotionally paralyzed him. Worse, the constant attacks from the mob kept distracting and disorienting him. As a result, Anya perished in the fire. Max may not have been broken in the camps, but this event would finally cause him to snap. Fuming with uncontrollable rage, he ruthlessly attacked the mob in retaliation and killed every last human involved in the deed. However, this would scare his wife to the point where she even fled from him. Not only would Max be abandoned and alone, but that night would make him more distrustful and rageful of humans than he already was.
Regardless, Max attempted to start a new kind of life. He started by forging documents and changing his name to the one we now associate with him: Erik Magnus Lensherr. After that, Erik began hunting Nazi war criminals before eventually deciding to live in Israel. There, things would drastically change for him the moment he met Charles Xavier. Despite their sharply contrasting views on humanity and mutants—as well as their numerous debates on the subject—the two became such good friends that they became like brothers. That is, until storming Baron Von Strucker’s HYDRA base broke their bond. At the time, the two were rescuing Charles’ friend, Gabrielle Haller, who was captured by the infamous group. Shortly after rescuing the girl, Erik quickly decided to act on his darker instincts and steal Strucker’s gold hoard, planning to finance his future war efforts with it. Erik and Charles went their separate ways, and to ensure that Charles couldn’t get into his head, Erik crafted a special helmet that made him immune to any form of telepathy or telepathic attacks. From there, Erik would begin his war on humanity by forming his first iteration of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (consisting of Toad, Mastermind, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver) and clash with the X-Men and other heroes for many years.
Although he would eventually serve as an ally or an antihero in recent years, Erik’s resolve to conquer and exterminate the human race remains as solid as the metal he manipulates.
Powers and Abilities
Such a comparison should not be taken lightly. While Erik’s ability to control metal may sound straightforward, he wields it with overwhelming precision and force. The live-action films strikingly showcase this mastery: lifting vehicles and crushing them effortlessly, halting bullets mid-flight, suspending massive structures, remotely operating weaponry, and even overriding Sentinels to serve his will. As long as metal is present, Magneto can turn the environment itself into a weapon—and in some cases, even his opponents. This is especially evident when facing individuals like Wolverine or Colossus, whose metal-based bodies make them uniquely vulnerable to his control. But Magneto’s potential doesn’t stop there, as he can also manipulate the iron in a person’s blood. A prime example is when he did this to a security guard in “X2: X-Men United,” where he ripped an overdose of iron out of his body, turning it into projectiles and platforms for him to escape from prison.
However, as impressive as these feats are, they only scratch the surface of what Erik can do. Magneto isn’t called the Master of Magnetism simply because he can control metal; it’s because he commands magnetism itself and, by extension, the entire electromagnetic force. This means he can wipe out power grids, hijack or disrupt communications, interfere with radars and scanners, overload or disable weaponry, and in some rare cases, control visible light or gamma rays. In extreme cases, he could black out the entire planet and send humanity into a new technological Dark Age. But the worst and most horrifying part is that he can also control Earth’s magnetic field. Theoretically, he could shift tectonic plates or leave the Earth susceptible to natural disasters at best—and cosmic radiation at worst—if this ability is used recklessly. Thankfully, though, he only uses this particular ability for flight and to generate force fields that can withstand bullets, energy attacks, or explosions. Overall, Magneto is not just a typical supervillain; he’s a walking planetary threat. One that even the greatest heroes on Earth struggle to so much as keep up with on the battlefield.
Yet even with near-limitless power, Omega-level mutants are not without their limitations. In Magneto’s case, his body carries the same weaknesses as the humans he persecutes. If he isn’t careful with his shields or aware of his surroundings, even conventional weapons like bullets can prove lethal. Prolonged exertion can also take its toll, as overextending his abilities risks exhaustion and a loss of control. Further, while intense emotions directly fuel his power output, they can just as easily compromise his precision and judgment in crucial moments. The odds double if one manages to remove Magneto’s helmet, which will then allow telepaths to access and manipulate his mind. However, these physical and mental weaknesses are the least of his concerns. As previously stated, Erik’s powers aren’t solely based on controlling metal, but that doesn’t mean he won’t need it for them to work. Without an abundant source of metal or otherwise conductive material for the electromagnetism to take hold of, Magneto’s capabilities on the battlefield become severely limited. In fact, many people exploit this weakness by developing plastic or non-conducting weapons (as in “X-Men: The Last Stand”) or incorporating them into Sentinels or other anti-mutant technology to counter his abilities.
Greatest Feats
But no matter what kind of barriers stand in Erik’s way, he will rip through them—even if they’re his own moralities. A prime example of such drastic action occurs in the 25th issue of the X-Men comics in 1993, where Magneto is presumed dead but returns with a vengeance shortly after. Once he reactivated his old orbital space station (Asteroid M), he coordinated his forces into massive strikes against various mutant teams. In response, Nick Fury and S.H.I.E.L.D. attempt to counter him through large-scale electromagnetic intervention, only for Magneto to seize control of their efforts and unleash a devastating EMP that plunges the world into chaos. Finally, as a last resort, the X-Men would storm the base and attempt to stop him once and for all. But with Erik at an extremely volatile state, mixed with his already high levels of power, the fight was anything but easy. It took the combined might of multiple X-Men—including Professor X himself—just to give Wolverine the opening to stab Erik with his adamantium claws. What follows is one of the most infamous moments in X-Men history. Enraged at the attack, Erik seizes control of Logan’s body and proceeds to violently rip out every last shred of adamantium from his skeleton. With Logan barely alive after such a horrendous deed, Charles crossed his own moral boundaries by frying Magneto’s brain, declaring that Wolverine would be the last one to suffer from Magneto’s brutality. Though Magneto rarely resorts to such extremes, this moment stands as a chilling reminder that when pushed far enough, there are few boundaries he is unwilling to break.
Even so, this moment pales in comparison to what an alternate version of himself does. In the Ultimate universe, during the “Ultimatum” storyline, Magneto reaches a whole new low. His children—Wanda and Pietro (also known as Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, respectively)—have been killed by Ultron, and Erik sets out to obtain restitution in blood. Therefore, with newfound resolve to exterminate the entire human race, he manipulates Earth’s electromagnetic structure, violently shifting the planet’s poles. This causes massive tidal waves to flood numerous cities, drastically adding to the death toll and causing mass hysteria and chaos. The X-Men and other heroes of that universe—including Nick Fury—go to stop him. Still, Magneto takes control of the fight by ripping out Wolverine’s adamantium (but this time, Logan actually dies from the attack). Unlike Xavier’s intervention in the main timeline, however, the heroes win with a different strategy: Nick Fury transmits his own memories into Magneto’s mind, revealing the true origin of mutants and disillusioning him, which then prompts him to reverse the damage he did. This further prompted him to request that Cyclops execute him, to which Scott obliged by disintegrating his head with his optic blast. While this may seem like an extreme escalation in power, it demonstrates the full breadth of Magneto’s abilities—from surgical lethality to near-planetary devastation. Erik isn’t merely an Omega-level mutant; he is a natural force of staggering scale, a being who should never be underestimated.
But in some moments, as rare as they are, Magneto does use that overwhelming power for truly heroic purposes. For this final feat, we’re going to revisit a story I covered in a previous article about Cyclops. In that storyline, Cyclops effectively led the X-Men through the perilous world of Breakworld to stop an alien race from destroying Earth. While they succeeded in destroying the aliens’ weapon, they were too late to stop an Earth-sized bullet from launching. To save the Earth, Kitty Pryde stayed on the projectile and phased it through the Earth, saving countless lives—but she remained trapped on board the bullet ever since. This is where Magneto intervenes. Having recently sought to join the X-Men and prove his intentions, he resolved to rescue Kitty as soon as he learned of her predicament. The challenge was enormous: the bullet was light-years away, moving through space with no clear way to track it. Undeterred, Magneto used his mastery of the electromagnetic spectrum to sense its location, pull it from beyond the Milky Way, and carefully dismantle it—ultimately saving Kitty’s life. While Magneto can manipulate the very forces of Earth itself, this feat demonstrates that he can extend that control to interplanetary scales. If he was once a natural force, he now has the potential to grow into a galactic one. Humanity—and the galaxy—should consider themselves fortunate that Erik focuses his immense power on a single planet rather than countless other worlds.
Conclusion
Magneto is undoubtedly one of the most iconic and morally complicated characters in the X-Men franchise and in Marvel overall. Despite all of the horrible deeds he has done, his traumatic past and somewhat understandable goals provoke sympathy in many fans. And say what you will about the X-Men movies, but no one portrays a character with these traits like Ian McKellan. Not only does this make fans (including myself) excited for “Avengers: Doomsday,” but it’s especially thrilling just imagining the Master of Magnetism going up against the Master of Science and Sorcery.
