Magneto in other media

Adaptations of Magneto in other media
Created by	Stan Lee Jack Kirby
Original source	Comics published by Marvel Comics
First appearance	X-Men #1 (September 1963)
Films and television
Film(s)	X-Men (2000) X2 (2003) X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)
Television show(s)	X-Men (1992) X-Men: Evolution (2000) Wolverine and the X-Men (2008)
Games
Video game(s)	X-Men (1992) X-Men Legends (2004)

Magneto is an enemy of the X-Men, and has been included in almost every media adaptation of the X-Men franchise, including film, television, computer and video games.

Television

Magneto appeared in several Marvel cartoons from 1967 to 1991. Strangely, it was some time before he actually appeared on a show with the X-Men.

Spider-Man (1967 TV series)

In the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon, Spider-Man battled a scientist named Dr. Matto Magneto wielding a magnetic gun in "The Revenge of Magneto". The character was (very) loosely based on the Magneto character from the comics, and more closely resembled Albert Einstein instead of Erik Magnus Lehnsherr. His name is mispronounced "Mag-netto" instead of "Mag-neeto."

Fantastic Four (1978 TV series)

In the 1978 Fantastic Four cartoon, Magneto (voiced by John Stephenson) briefly took control of the team in "The Menace Of Magneto". Here, he isn't depicted as a mutant. Instead he is simply an extremely powerful supervillain with typical aspirations for power. Instead of flying, he moves around in a bizarre, car-like device which he moves using his magnetic powers. He was defeated when Reed Richards tricked him with a wooden gun.

Spider-Man (1981 TV series)

The solo Spider-Man cartoon from 1981 featured Magneto in the episode "When Magneto Speaks... People Listen".

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends

Magneto returned in Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends, attempting to free his fellow mutants from prison in "The Prison Plot". He was voiced by Michael Rye. In spite of his Spider-Man television appearances, he has appeared in only two issues of a Spider-Man title.

Pryde of the X-Men

Magneto was the main villain in the animated X-Men pilot X-Men: Pryde of the X-Men - his first actual animated appearance battling the X-Men. He was voiced by Earl Boen.

X-Men (TV series)

Magneto's appearing to an incarcerated Beast in X-Men animated series.

Magneto's voice was provided by David Hemblen in the series X-Men, where he played a prominent role. Curiously, though he began on the show as a villain, his character spent more time as an ally to the X-Men, fighting alongside them against common enemies such as the Sentinels and Mr. Sinister as opposed to the cold-hearted villain he was previously portrayed as in earlier shows like Pryde of the X-Men.

In the series, he briefly appears in the first episode "Night of the Sentinels: Part I" on a television screen Jubilee accidentally turns on with her powers but Magneto makes his true first appearance in the third episode "Enter Magneto", where he attempts to incite a war between humans and mutants by attacking a military base and launching its nuclear armaments, though they are prevented from reaching their targets by the X-Men. He reappears in the next episode "Deadly Reunions", when he attacks a chemical plant in an effort to draw Xavier out to face him. After defeating Cyclops, Rogue and Storm, Xavier meets his challenge and they do battle. Though Magneto gains the upper hand, Xavier tortures him with repressed memories of his childhood during The Holocaust, causing Magneto to flee in agony. In the first season finale, he kidnaps Senator Kelly in order to once again attempt to begin a war, but is thwarted by a group of Sentinels. After Mastermold and the other Sentinels rebel against their creators and become a threat to the entire world, Magneto allies himself with the X-Men and they successfully eliminate the Sentinels, during which he saves Xavier's life.

He appears in nearly every episode in the second season, in which he and Professor Xavier have been depowered and travel throughout the Savage Land. At the end of that season, all of the X-Men save them from Mr. Sinister, and they regain their powers.

In season four, he creates Asteroid M as a safe haven for mutants who feel persecuted on Earth. Though his intentions are noble, a betrayal by his closest servant Fabian Cortez puts into motion a series of events after which he realizes that the world will never again trust him as the leader of the Asteroid, and he allows the base to be destroyed. In the fourth season finale, Magneto teams up with Apocalypse, believing that the immortal will use his powers to resurrect his wife. When he discovers that Apocalypse plans to destroy all reality, Magneto helps the X-Men to defeat him.

Disheartened by the loss of his sanctuary, he does not care about even the impending assimilation of mankind by the Phalanx, until he receives news from the Beast, Forge, Mr. Sinister and Amelia Voght that his son, Quicksilver, has been kidnapped by the Phalanx in the second part of the two-part fifth season premiere. He teams up with them to defeat the Phalanx and save everyone they had captured or assimilated.

By the end of the series, he has gathered up an entire army of rebellious mutants, and is poised to conquer the world, but receives news from Wolverine, Cyclops and Jean Grey that Professor Xavier is dying. Relenting, Magneto uses his power in conjunction with Xavier's in order to contact Lilandra Neramani, who takes Xavier to her planet where there is a suggestion that he may be cured.

As with many television shows, X-Men: The Animated Series has suffered from continuity errors. For one, in the episode where Magneto makes his initial appearance, apply titled "Enter Magneto", the X-Men do not know him, as he is an old acquaintance of Xavier's. However, as the series progresses Magneto is shown fighting the original X-Men in flashbacks.

X-Men: Evolution

Magneto's voice was provided by Christopher Judge in the animated television series X-Men: Evolution. During the show's first season he is a shadowy, mysterious manipulator where the X-Men, except for Professor Xavier, do not know of his existence, until the first X-Man, Wolverine, figures it out, although Magneto becomes a more direct threat from the first season finale. In the first season he uses his agent Mystique to assemble a team of mutants (The Brotherhood), and even recruits his own son Quicksilver to spy on them. In the first season finale, he pits the Brotherhood against the X-Men and brings the winners to Asteroid M in an attempt to convince them to join his cause and to use a genetic enhancer to fully develop their powers as he had. His decision to leave Mystique behind leads her to betray him (although flashbacks indicate that they have been at odds since Magneto separated Mystique from her newborn son Nightcrawler), and their vendetta lasts throughout the second season.

In the second season, Magneto personally recruits a new team, the Acolytes, de-ages himself using the same technology that created Captain America as his genetic enhancements are no longer working, and finally reveals the existence of mutants to the public after the X-Men and Brotherhood fight off a Sentinel which was meant to destroy every mutant known. In this time his daughter Wanda is introduced, who hates Magneto for abandoning her as a child and leaving her in a mental asylum (when asked about what specific event led to Magneto institutionalizing Wanda, X-Men: Evolution's head writer Greg Johnson stated that "There was no specific event. It was just years of him trying to handle a hostile, out of control child whose powers were promising to be very destructive if he didn't get her put away."). She hunts him down relentlessly until he uses the mutant Mastermind to change her memories, painting him in a new light.

In the third and fourth seasons of the show, Magneto dedicates himself to preventing the awakening of the mutant Apocalypse, although all his attempts fail and upon Apocalypse's awakening he is transformed into one of his Four Horsemen after he is thought to have been killed by Apocalypse. He is freed of this enslavement in the finale episode Ascension: Part Two, and is last seen being helped by his two children. In the final moments of the episode, Charles Xavier reveals that he witnessed the future in the mind of Apocalypse, and among the visions he saw was Magneto becoming an ally of the X-Men and training the New Mutants, like he did in the comics.

In this series, Magneto uses a device aboard Asteroid M to advance his evolution, and propelling his abilities to further heights. Evidently, this advancement pushes him onto another plateau of existing as a mutant. A claim that he references when he goes to fight Apocalypse, declaring that it is a battle between 'higher evolutionaries.' This is enforced by Caliban's claim that Magneto is too far advanced for him to locate, but that any other mutant was still within his capabilities.

Wolverine and the X-Men

Magneto appears in Wolverine and the X-Men voiced by Tom Kane in a rendition of Ian McKellen's portrayal of Magneto in the X-Men films. He is shown to rule the island of Genosha, where it appears most mutants are moving to, in light of recent anti-mutant feelings. Despite the government's treatment of mutants, they seem content to allow Magneto to promote Genosha in the United States with assorted poster and commercials. It is later revealed that Magneto found Professor X unconscious on Genosha after the destruction of the X-Mansion and took to caring for him. When the X-Men arrive to 'rescue him' Magneto turns over care to them, stating that they are his family. When Nightcrawler arrived in Genosha, he had his daughter Scarlet Witch give him a tour. During that time, he sends Mystique to the X-Mansion to "check up" on Professor X. Magneto, Scarlet Witch, and the Acolytes attacked Nightcrawler when he discovered Magneto's underground cells. When Nightcrawler did a lot of teleporting to warn the X-Men, Magneto had Mystique intercept him while he prepared a special cell for Nightcrawler. Magneto gave Quicksilver and his Brotherhood of Mutants a mission. During the transmission, Quicksilver tells his father that if they pull this off, he'd better receive a warm welcome back to Genosha. In "Battle Lines", Magneto had a talk with Senator Kelly about holding back the powerful mutants from being sent to Genosha. He later has his Acolytes raid the MRD prisons to free the mutants. In "Hunting Grounds", he finds out that Scarlet Witch and Nightcrawler had been abducted by Mojo. After the rescue, Scarlet Witch persuades Magneto to let Wolverine and Nightcrawler go. In "Backlash", Quicksilver wasn't pleased with Magneto when he cuts Quicksilver's Brotherhood of Mutants loose. After a chat with Quicksilver, he has Scarlet Witch notify the MRD of the Brotherhood's hideout. In "Aces and Eights", Senator Kelly sends Gambit to steal Magneto's helmet. When Gambit gets away without the helmet and Magneto learns of this, he was about to pummel Senator Kelly until intervention by the X-Men prevented this. In the three-part episode "Foresight", Magneto sends Mystique to pose as Senator Kelly to unleash the Sentinels and destroy the controls to them. When the Sentinels attack Genosha, Magneto uses his powers to reprogram them to attack humans. He was knocked off his Sentinel by the Phoenix Force yet was rescued by Quicksilver who takes him back to Genosha. After the Phoenix Force was stopped, Scarlet Witch and Polaris had Blink teleport Magneto and Quicksilver away from Genosha. Though Scarlet Witch tells Quicksilver that he's always welcome in Genosha, she also states that Genosha is no longer Magneto's country therefore banishing her own father.

The Super Hero Squad Show

Magneto appears in The Super Hero Squad Show episode "Hexed, Vexed, and Perplexed" voiced by Maurice LaMarche. Besides being depicted as an ally of Doctor Doom, this version is shown trying to train his children Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch to follow his legacy. He arrived in Super Hero City with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch in a plot to steal the Infinity Fractals from the Vault for Doctor Doom. He ends up fighting Captain America, Hawkeye, and the Super Hero Squad. When Falcon makes an attack on Magneto, Quicksilver uses his super speed to deflect the attack back at Falcon. Magneto sends his children to infiltrate the Helicarrier to steal the security codes in order to infiltrate the Vault. When the Super Hero Squad attacks, Magneto grabs an Infinity Fractal which gives him the ability to control matter which he uses to stop Falcon in mid-air. Scarlet Witch objects to Magneto hurting him more. Magneto releases them from his control only to take Falcon and Redwing captive as Quicksilver grabs the Infinity Fractals. Magneto then traps the Super Hero Squad in metal. Quicksilver discovers that Magneto had stole the Infinity Fractals all along. Doctor Doom later attacks Magneto blaming him for stealing the Infinity Fractals until Falcon makes off with them. Doctor Doom holds Magneto responsible for his children helping Falcon and knocks him out.

Iron Man: Armored Adventures

Magneto is set to appear in Iron Man: Armored Adventures in season 2, along with Doctor Doom.

Films

Magneto was played by two-time Academy Award-nominee Sir Ian McKellen in the movie X-Men and its sequels, X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand. His alter ego is Eric Lensherr, which at the time was his name in the comics. While in the first and third films, he is the main villain, he is an anti-hero/supporting protagonist in the second film. In all of these films, he wishes for mutant prosperity (or as Cyclops put it, superiority) but only so long as he remains in control of it. In addition to battling the X-Men, Magneto has no qualms about endangering or killing innocents and displays highly megalomaniacal behavior; such as taunting Rogue about nearly killing her in the second film and later sacrificing dozens of his mutant followers in the third film by knowingly sending them against anti-mutant weapons while he remained safely out of range. Throughout the films, Magneto is at odds with Charles Xavier, his old friend, but displays great care towards Xavier, acknowledging Xavier's contributes to mutantkind.

In the X-Men films Magneto's resistance to mental attack does not stem from his own natural powers but is technological in nature; his helmet contains some kind of a psychic shielding component, able to completely negate both the telepathic abilities of Charles Xavier (as shown in X-Men), and also the illusion-casting abilities of Jason in X2. In these films Magneto is credited with helping Xavier to build Cerebro; it would seem that in the process of building a machine designed to amplify telepathy, Magneto learned enough to develop a means of shielding himself from it.

X-Men (film)

At the start of the film, a preteen Magneto was separated from his parents by Nazi soldiers, and it was during this moment that his powers begin to manifest (twisting open a metal fence separating him and his parents). In the present time, Magneto attempts to mutate the world leaders with a high-tech machine powered by his own magnetic energy. As the machine is potentially lethal, he kidnaps Rogue to use her as the power source instead. Unknown to Magneto, the machine would cause humans to be killed by losing their molecular structure (as seen in Senator Robert Kelly). Even when warned of the dangers of the machine by Jean Grey and Storm, Magneto does not believe them. The X-Men foil his plans and he is locked up in a plastic prison.

X2: X-Men United

In the second film, he escapes from prison with some help from Mystique (who had injected a suspension of iron particles into a security guard) and makes a temporary alliance with the X-Men to defeat William Stryker's plan to kill all the mutants. Stryker has captured Xavier and builds his own version of Cerebro at Alkali Lake. He uses his son Jason to make Xavier focus to kill all the mutants. Magneto foils this plan and instead has Xavier try to kill all the humans before leaving the location in a helicopter. The X-Men intervene in time and prevent Xavier from killing the humans.

X-Men: The Last Stand

In the third film, he has expanded the Brotherhood of Mutants and recruited many mutants to join. After learning that a major company has produced a cure for the mutant gene, he and his Brotherhood attack the facility with the intention of killing the cure's source; a young mutant named Leech. Wolverine and Beast work together and inject Magneto with the "cure," which strips him of his powers. In the final scene, he extends his hand toward a chess piece and is able to move it a tiny bit, suggesting that the cure may not be permanent and/or may not have rendered him completely powerless. At one point in the film, after Xavier's apparent demise, Magneto shows genuine grief over his foe's death, speaking severely to Pyro when the latter states that he would have killed Xavier himself had Magneto asked it of him ("Charles Xavier did more for mutants than you'll ever know. My single greatest regret is that he had to die for our dream to live.").

X-Men: First Class

Michael Fassbender will play the role of the young Eric Lensherr in X-Men: First Class. It will portray his falling out with Charles Xavier and origin into Magneto, since X-Men Origins: Magneto has been shelved.

X-Men Origins: Magneto

A spin-off to the X-Men franchise entitled X-Men Origins: Magneto was announced after X-Men: The Last Stand. Planned for 2009–2010, it was to reveal more about him and how he became Magneto. The movie has been pushed back.

Video games

• Magneto is the final boss of the NES game Marvel's X-Men. However, players could only access his level via a special code input at the level selection screen.

• Magneto was one of the main villains in X-Men: Madness in Murderworld.

• Magneto is the final boss of the X-Men arcade game. He kidnaps Professor X and Kitty Pryde during the first two stages, prompting the heroes to go on a rescue mission.

• Magneto is the final boss of the Sega Genesis game, X-Men. However, after defeating Mojo, players must softly press the reset button on the console to delete a computer virus emitted on Mojo's level before time runs out, in order to face him.

• Magneto appears in X-Men: Children of the Atom. He was the non-playable boss of the game whom the players must defeat at his space station Avalon. His abilities rendered him very difficult to defeat.

• In X-Men 2: Clone Wars, Magneto served both as a boss and, for the first time in X-Men video game history, as a playable character. Upon defeating him in the third level aboard Asteroid M, Magneto joins the X-Men when he discovers that his entire crew had been assimilated by the alien Phalanx invasion.

• In Marvel Super Heroes and X-Men vs. Street Fighter he returns as a playable character, toned down from his appearance in Children of the Atom.

• In the Quake conversion X-Men: The Ravages of Apocalypse, the player played a cyborg created by and working for Magneto.

• In Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, Magneto was a partner assist.

• Magneto is a character in Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes, and usually regarded as one of the game's better fighters due to his extreme mobility and powerful combos. He is a default character in the arcade version, but must be unlocked in the console version.

• Magneto appears as a boss in X2: Wolverine's Revenge voiced by Fred Tatasciore. He is shown as a prisoner of The Void (a mutant prison) until he is released by Sabretooth. He is also shown in a Magnetic Flux Limiter Collar that was placed on him which ended up suppressing his magnetic powers long enough to make him more powerful. Wolverine ends up fighting him at an electrical plant.

• Magneto is the main antagonist in X-Men Legends voiced by Tony Jay. Like the other characters in the game, he appears in his Ultimate costume, though his personality and his relationship with Xavier is more similar to his 616 incarnation. Mystique frees him from the U.S.S. Arbiter and he escapes to Asteroid M where he gives a televised transmission for any mutant who wants to get away from the Genetic Research and Security Organization (GRSO) to head to the Mount. When confronted by the X-Men, he fights them alongside Mystique and Sabretooth. After the defeat, Magneto and his Brotherhood get away.

• A capeless and non-helmeted version of Magneto was a playable character in the game Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects. In story mode, he is the last playable Marvel character in the game's story mode and like many Marvel heroes and villains in the story, is taken down and (possibly) killed (a strange "swooshing" sound is heard as he faints/dies, indicating that he actually indeed dies. By the most powerful Imperfect, Paragon, after she refuses his offer of an alliance (She mistakes him for Niles Van Roekel, the man who kidnapped her, annihilated her village, froze her for several centuries and mutated her). In the PSP version of the game he still has his helmet.

Magneto as a playable character in the video game X-Men Legends II.

• In X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse, Magneto (voiced by Richard Green) was made the main playable character as part of the game's Brotherhood. He and his Brotherhood of Mutants sided with the X-Men when Apocalypse kidnapped Quicksilver when rescuing Professor X and fighting the forces of Apocalypse. He has special dialogue with Zealot.

• Magneto also appeared in X-Men: The Official Game voiced by Dwight Schultz. Magneto is only playable in the DS version of the game. In this game (which is set between the X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand films), Magneto teams up with the X-Men to battle the Sentinels, and also sends Sabretooth in the Master Mold to retrieve Jason Stryker to make him a member of his Brotherhood. His plan was foiled by Wolverine.

• Originally, Magneto made a brief appearance in a cutscene in Marvel: Ultimate Alliance lying on the floor next to Professor X, both having been defeated by Doctor Doom. However, the new Xbox 360 downloadable content features him (with his classic costume, 80's costume, Ultimate costume, and Xorn as alternate costumes) as a playable character with Richard Green reprising his role. Magneto has special dialogue with Professor X and Fin Fang Foom.

• Magneto appears in the Wii, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, and PlayStation Portable versions of Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2. He and Quicksilver have become victims of The Fold and will fight the heroes within a Repeater Tower in Reykjavík, Iceland. After he and Quicksilver are defeated and cured, Magneto uses his magnetism to help the heroes get to the top of the Repeater Tower. He appears as downloadable content for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions. The DLC also includes an extra mission where the player fights Magneto.

• Magneto appears in the Marvel Super Hero Squad video game voiced by Tom Kane. The players fight him on Asteroid M.

• Magneto once again appears as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds.

• Magneto appears in the Marvel Super Hero Squad: The Infinity Gauntlet video game voiced by Maurice LaMarche. Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver appear on Asteroid M in order to talk to their father. They managed to confront Magneto who mentions that the being attacked message they got is for them to contain the Space Infinity Stone which had been shattered following an attack by Doombots. When Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver reassemble it, Doctor Doom arrives revealing that his attack on Magneto was just a ploy so that Doctor Doom can get the Space Infinity Gem. When Doctor Doom ends up defeated, he tricks Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch enough to swipe back the Space Infinity Gem. Doctor Doom's attacks on Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch causes Magneto to use his magnetic abilities on Doctor Doom who revealed that he had placed Asteroid M on self-destruct. Magneto sends Doctor Doom flying where the Space Infinity Gem transports Doctor Doom to a cage. Magneto then gives his children the Space Infinity Stone. After Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver leave, Magneto claps off the self-destruct sequence.

References in music

• The album Venus and Mars by Wings includes a song about superheroes called "Magneto and Titanium Man". Paul McCartney was said in the Bullpen Bulletins to have toured the Marvel offices soon after the album came out, and it was claimed that he was a fan of Marvel Comics. The song references the names of two other Marvel villains (Titanium Man and the Crimson Dynamo). In the song, the three supervillains try to convince the singer/narrator that a woman police officer trying to halt a bank robbery (which he is apparently in love with) is in fact the bank robber herself.

• Another song to mention Magneto is the Tearjerkers' "Comic Book Heroes" from the various artists compilation Through the Back Door, in which some of the lyrics are "Doc Ock, Von Doom and Magneto, don't wanna be like them."

• "Magneto" is a song by the post-hardcore band Brigade, fronted by Charlie Simpson's brother, Will.

• In the song "Space Game" by MC Lars, Magneto is mentioned alongside a long list of other fictional characters who 'can't stop him'.

• In the song "Physical Stamina" off Jeru the Damaja's Wrath of the Math, rapper Afu-Ra states that he is "strong like the Juggernaut, electric like Magneto."

• In the song "Secret Wars" by rapper/producer the Last Emperor, in which rappers fight Marvel characters, Magneto battles Ras Kass.

Toys

• Magneto has appeared in the Marvel Legends toy line in Series 3 and in the X-Men Legends box set.
• Toy Biz produced a Magneto figure for their X-Men toy line in 2006.
• Magneto is the fifth figurine in the Classic Marvel Figurine Collection.
• A Magneto action figure based on his Wolverine and the X-Men appearance was released.
• A mighty mugg version of Magneto is supposed to be released sometime in 2010-2011 along with Iceman as Target exclusives.