History
Humanity holds us down because they know the truth, we are the future. Mutants, one and all, deserve our rightful place in the world, and if humanity thinks that they can stop us, they will swiftly learn what it means to be persecuted.
- — Magneto
- — Magneto
Early Years
Born and raised in Germany to a Jewish family, Erik faced persecution from the Nazi regime from an early age, including seeing his father beaten by a group of drunken Nazi's, and when he himself was expelled from school for 'cheating' at a Javelin competition as the Germans believed a Jewish boy could not possibly exceed his German classmates. Erik's father would take his family to Warsaw in Poland to escape from the Nazi's, only to find the city under German occupation following the breakout of World War II. When his family attempted to escape from Warsaw rather than being sent to the Treblinka extermination camp they were captured by Nazi soldiers. As they were about to be executed, Erik's father saved his life by pushing him out of the firing line without anyone noticing, while his father and mother were killed. The corpses and Erik, who had to play dead to survive, were buried in a mass grave. While Erik would escape the grave and go on the run he too was eventually found and sent to the Auschwitz extermination camp.
While at Auschwitz Erik met Magda, a young Romani girl who he formed a close bond with. He began smuggling items around the camp in order to get extra food for Magda. It was while smuggling that Erik witnessed Nathaniel Essex, the man also known as Mister Sinister, working with the geneticist Josef Mengele, discovering some of the horrific experiments being carried out at the camp. A stunned Erik returned to Magda, only to find that she had been taken for the chambers. Erik, enraged, activated his mutant powers, forcing the Nazi's at the camp to turn their guns on themselves and take their own lives. Erik and Magda would escape from the camp into the Carpathian mountain villages, where they lived until the end of the war. At some point following the war however a group of former Nazi soldiers attacked the village they were staying at. Erik would again use his powers to kill the soldiers though Magda, pregnant with twins, would flee into the woods and vanish, despite Erik's best efforts to find her.
Erik would resurface years later, having spent the intervening years hunting down and killing Nazi war criminals. He was approached by Charles Xavier and Moira MacTaggert to discuss the growing mutant phenomenon and how they could protect "their people" and forge a better world side by side with homo sapiens. Erik and Charles would form a close friendship as the trio travelled the world, learning more about the mutant condition. Over time Erik grew more and more cynical, his views more radical, seeing the way humans treated mutants the same way the Nazi's had treated the Jewish population during the war. After traveling to Israel, they discovered a young mutant girl had been killed in the city by a local gang of anti-mutant bigots. Erik would seek vengeance, leading to a confrontation between the two as Charles first tried to convince Erik to leave the bigots to face justice, and then tried to physically stop him from killing them. The ensuing fight led to Charles being paralysed by an errant blow and their friendship was forever left in tatters. Erik would leave, taking on the name of Magneto, and began building towards his own plans of mutant superiority.
At some point after this event Magneto was approached by Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, who revealed that Magneto was their father. Magda had given birth to them but had died during childbirth. Magneto would accept the two into his life.
Brotherhood of Mutants
Magneto would next surface as the leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants, a group consisting of a number of radical mutants, including his own children now known as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Magneto and his Brotherhood's radical, terrorist-like methodology would bring him into direct conflict with his old friend Charles Xavier and his X-Men, who sought to protect homo sapiens from Magneto's violent attacks and stopped his attempt to wipe out the inhabitants of the Savage Land and turn it into a mutant safe haven, much to his chagrin. It was during this assault on the Savage Land that Wanda would turn her back on her father's violent ways, declaring him as no better than the Nazi's he had once fought against.
When Magneto revealed the truth about the actions of Project Wideawake, he launched a direct attack on the White House, planning to massacre the United States government for their actions. He faced Xavier once more in what would turn out to be a defining moment for the pair of old frenemies. Charles, unable to convince Magneto not to carry out his attack, shut down much of Magneto's brain, leaving him in a comatose state. He was whisked away by his son Quicksilver before he could be taken into custody, but it seemed certain that his days as a terrorist were over.
To help his father Quicksilver would seek out the help of a number of prominent telepaths and scientists but ultimately came to the High Evolutionary, who was successful in granting Magneto his mind back, though not his powers. These would come later, when Charles Xavier offered Magneto an opportunity to redeem himself by helping save the world from Apocalypse. Xavier unlocked Magneto's powers on the condition that if he betrayed him then the offer would be rescinded. The combined forces of the X-Men, Brotherhood and Magneto were successful in defeating Apocalypse and Xavier allowed Magneto to walk away. Magneto left without the Brotherhood, his agenda known only to himself.
The Acolyes
Magneto would spend the next several months working alone until he was found by Exodus, an immortal, centuries old mutant who had searched out Magneto believing that he could lead mutants forwards. Together Magneto and Exodus sought other mutants who believed in Magneto's vision for mutantkind's future to form the Acolytes.
Powers and Abilities
Powers
- Magnetism manipulation and generation of magnetic force fields.
- Flight through magnetic fields.
Abilities
- Master tactician.
Strength level
Unknown.
Weaknesses
None known.
Paraphernalia
Equipment:
- Helmet which shields him against telepathic attacks.
Transportation: None known.
Weapons: None known.
Notes
- No special notes.
Trivia
- No trivia.
See Also
- Appearances of Erik Lehnsherr (Earth-762)
- Character Gallery: Erik Lehnsherr (Earth-762)
- Quotations by Erik Lehnsherr (Earth-762)
Discover and Discuss
- Search News for: Magneto · Erik Lehnsherr · Erik Lehnsherr (Earth-762)
Links and References
- None.