Magneto's Entire Backstory Explained

Decades of X-Men stories have developed two distinct views on bringing about a better world for Marvel's maligned mutants. Our heroes and protagonists typically follow the example of Charles Xavier, a believer in non-violence who hopes that humans will come around to the idea of mutants if they see the good that mutant individuals can do. 

This worldview is generally pitted against Magneto's, a villain who believes that mutant liberation can only come via violent overthrow of the world built by humans. Sharp writing is essential to making this conflict work: A reader has to believe that these two men could come to wildly different conclusions about the co-existence of humans and mutants. When it works, it is spectacular. Magneto, when properly written, is a truly terrifying villain — yet one you completely understand, and even sympathize with.

Luckily for fans of the X-Men, decades of writers have put in the work to make Magneto's belief in a mutant uprising entirely plausible. The tragic story of Magneto's life not only makes him a powerful villain — it enriches the story of Marvel's mutants as a whole. This is his story — the long, brutal struggle of one man committed to leaving the world better than he found it, no matter the cost.

Anyone who knows their history can probably guess what happened next. Nazi Germany rose to power on a tide of violence and oppression, and the Eisenhardts found themselves stripped of their rights, jobs, home, and freedoms. Max's uncle was publicly beaten for "shaming a German woman," Jakob's army service was ignored by every authority he attempted to appeal to, and Magda and her mother disappeared from Max's school without a word. After enduring Kristallnacht, the Eisenhardts fled to Poland — only to encounter the Nazis, already there in force. The family was forced into the Warsaw Ghetto, from which they escaped, just before the Ghetto's famous uprising. But the woman on the outside who had promised to spirit them to freedom betrayed them after her mother was taken hostage. The Eisenhardts — Max, his parents, and his little sister — were lined up and executed, falling into a mass grave.

In the world of the X-Men, mutant powers tend to manifest around the time of puberty, often when the teen in question is put into a position of extreme stress. This is how Max survived while the rest of his family perished: Max's powers of magnetism manifested as the Nazi's bullet sped towards him. After the soldiers left, he climbed out of the grave — and into a world in which he was suddenly, devastatingly alone.

Magda and Max escaped into the Carpathian mountains of Eastern Europe under assumed names. They became the Magnus family, and had a daughter named Anya. But Max began to bristle against their quiet life — he'd grown up in the city, and the slow pace of rural life was stultifying. Max also wanted to move to a busier place in order to find work as a carpenter and possibly attend college. Against Magda's wishes, they moved to the Soviet city of Vinnytsia.

His first day in the city brought tragedy. After settling his family down at an inn, Max found work on a construction site. The foreman took note of Max's precarious living situation and lack of connections in the city and attempted to cheat him out of his day's pay. In a fit of rage, Max's magnetic powers resurfaced, and he launched a crowbar at the foreman's head. 

As Erik Lehnsherr, Magneto traveled to the newly founded nation of Israel. It was here that he met a young Charles Xavier, when the both of them were working at a mental hospital. They bonded while caring for a catatonic patient named Gabrielle Haller, arguing as they did about the place that mutants held in the world. Neither man revealed that they had mutant powers, but they staked out their positions of mutant superiority and coexistence and held fast to them. 

Yet another extremely stressful situation forced them to reveal their powers, when an evil organization called HYDRA led by a Nazi named Baron Strucker came to abduct Haller. The location of a cache of ill-gotten Nazi gold had been implanted in Haller's memory, as it turned out.  Charles and Erik had to use their hidden abilities to save Haller.  Shortly after they teamed up for a rescue mission, Erik realized that he could not settle his and Charles' differences of opinion on the future of mutants and he set out on his own. 

Initially, Magneto set up a base of operations off-world. Asteroid M became a home for disillusioned mutants who believed in Magneto's cause. He pitched his plans for a world ruled by mutants – homo superior, as he called them — and found a receptive audience in people who had been persecuted for their in-born powers. His Brotherhood of Evil Mutants carried out attacks on military bases and other installations in the hopes of starting the overthrow of the human order. He was always beaten back, however, by Xavier's dogged team of X-Men. 

Given the themes of bigotry and the fight for civil rights at the heart of the X-Men, it didn't take long for the series to take on the idea of separatism. Magneto attempted to take over the fictional country of Santo Marco, creating a protected mutant homeland. He succeeded in taking the country over, but couldn't hold it against an X-Men-led attack. He booby trapped the country with nuclear weapons, in the hopes of wiping out his only opposition. Because it was only the fourth issue, he failed. But it wasn't the last time he would attempt to put his dream of a mutant homeland into progress.