Will Magneto's heritage have to be amended at some point?

[ScottSummers]

I started this discussion in another thread, but I seriously wonder if in 2030 whether World War II will be a feasible birthplace for characters not named Steve Rogers. Natasha, Fury, Magneto and Xavier (who is dead) and Juggernaut are all tied to history that is rapidly fading away.

Magneto became a Holocaust survivor about the time the movies are using him now. When his character was roughly 40-50s. In 2020 the youngest he could possible be without de-aging is 78-77ish and that really robs him of any memory of the camps. Even with the de-aging the timeline is becoming strained. One thing I suppose is you could kill him and bring back the O5 Magneto through time.

I also wonder if future generations will view those eras the same way, or whether they'll be more fascinated by other eras like the tech boom, or something. I liked how Ultimates did their own thing with Magneto. Some hated that, but I liked it.

There are more characters like this as well including the Zemos, Zola, Sabretooth (slow aging I assume), Pietro and Wanda were alleged to be born after the war.

Do you think eventually Marvel will have to move into a more modern era and abandon some past ties. This seems like it'll eventually have to be addressed.

[Carabas]

They have already been doing this. Frank Castle and Toy Stark's origins have been moved to non-defined Middle-Eastern wars.

[Mutant God]

Actually Sabretooth was born at 1900 or before I think

[dragonmp93]

What do you care so much that magneto doesnt look 100 years old like he is supposed to ?.
I hated what they did with Magneto in the ultimate universe, he was just a huge "#$%&/(/&%$ psychopath.

Besides, the 100th (mock-)anniversary issue is supposed to take place in the year 2063, no one looks older than today anyways.
And you should add to that list, Wolverine and Nick Fury.
After all, according to amazing spider-man, to them only 13 years, instead of 52, has passed since peter Parker was bitten by that spider.

[Sutekh]

Mutants have been variously described as being a smidge stronger, healthier, etc. than baseline humans, so there's no reason at all they can't have above-average lifespans. If Magneto, thanks to his mutant nature, is still vigorous and buff (and possibly still sexing up Rogue) at 110 , it's still going to be hundreds of times more believable than him being able to warp the electromagnetic fields of the planet.

It's not like WW2 is ever not going to have relevant messages. Heck, people are still getting blown up in Civil War recreations, and that was just a wee bit earlier...

And then there's 300. Who knew a (wildly fictionalized) account of a skirmish 2500 years ago would be the source of a movie franchise worth a half a billion dollars per film?

WW2's always gonna be more relevant than that.

Sure, it's going to be less and less accessible to an audience that can't read, didn't go to school and doesn't have family, but, that's not really the target audience for, well, anything really, not just comic books...

[dragonmp93]

Mutants have been variously described as being a smidge stronger, healthier, etc. than baseline humans, so there's no reason at all they can't have above-average lifespans. If Magneto, thanks to his mutant nature, is still vigorous and buff (and possibly still sexing up Rogue) at 110 , it's still going to be hundreds of times more believable than him being able to warp the electromagnetic fields of the planet.

It's not like WW2 is ever not going to have relevant messages. Heck, people are still getting blown up in Civil War recreations, and that was just a wee bit earlier...

And then there's 300. Who knew a (wildly fictionalized) account of a skirmish 2500 years ago would be the source of a movie franchise worth a half a billion dollars per film?

WW2's always gonna be more relevant than that.

Sure, it's going to be less and less accessible to an audience that can't read, didn't go to school and doesn't have family, but, that's not really the target audience for, well, anything really, not just comic books...

I wonder if he is talking like if the world is going to become like the one in Idiocracy.

[ScottSummers]

Mutants have been variously described as being a smidge stronger, healthier, etc. than baseline humans, so there's no reason at all they can't have above-average lifespans. If Magneto, thanks to his mutant nature, is still vigorous and buff (and possibly still sexing up Rogue) at 110 , it's still going to be hundreds of times more believable than him being able to warp the electromagnetic fields of the planet.

It's not like WW2 is ever not going to have relevant messages. Heck, people are still getting blown up in Civil War recreations, and that was just a wee bit earlier...

And then there's 300. Who knew a (wildly fictionalized) account of a skirmish 2500 years ago would be the source of a movie franchise worth a half a billion dollars per film?

WW2's always gonna be more relevant than that.

Sure, it's going to be less and less accessible to an audience that can't read, didn't go to school and doesn't have family, but, that's not really the target audience for, well, anything really, not just comic books...

I wonder if he is talking like if the world is going to become like the one in Idiocracy.

No, but the demand for 300 and Civil War fiction is not nearly what it once was, nor are Civil War recreations. There's ONE 300, and there's a few Civil War and Revolutionary War things...but compared to all the Post-911 stuff and Cold War period stuff, there is no contest. I like reading Hemingway era books, and the level of WWI fiction has dropped off tremendously (btw, very underrated war to write about -- surprised we don't have a superhero from there).

It might not not have relevant messages, but to future generations there will be messages that are more relevant.

Like what is pointed out above Tony Stark and Punisher have already been rebranded to fit newer events. It's just that there isn't a second The Holocaust or World War III to move Cap and Magneto to. But there is a sort of Vietnam-like war (Iraq/Afghanistan) or in Tony's case a Korean War-ish equivalent.

Also not getting the same relevance from past events isn't idiocy. It's just what happens. When Magneto and Cap were created those events were still pretty fresh in everyone's minds (in Cap's case actively happening). You had readers and writers who probably remembered them vividly. By the time 2040 rolls around it will be different. They won't have Grandparents who "lived through the Great Depression" or "lived through the war" (or I should say THAT economic collapse and THAT war). Being 100 years removed from something to the point where not only are the witnesses all dead, but so are most of the people who met them will make it a lot harder to find as large of an audience for that stuff.

[ScottSummers]

They have already been doing this. Frank Castle and Toy Stark's origins have been moved to non-defined Middle-Eastern wars.

I feel like this is probably the easiest move. I've been wanting Frank to be a middle east vet for a while. Lets face it; life isn't pretty there either. It perfectly fits his character.

I feel like there's a chance most of these characters will survive long enough that most will need rebrandings. I can't imagine Cap's birthplace will ever change, but he will wake up later and later.

[t hedge coke]

It's worth noting, I think, that like Magneto's "good guy" period, the introduction of the Holocaust into his backstory was fairly late in the game. Unlike the good guy thing, it's lasted, though it's been contested and altered on occasion. It's not built into the foundations of the character, it's an added, and useful, element.

When it ceases to be useful, in a specific story, it just doesn't need to be referenced. When it is detrimental overall, it just needs to be phased out.

[ScottSummers]

It's worth noting, I think, that like Magneto's "good guy" period, the introduction of the Holocaust into his backstory was fairly late in the game. Unlike the good guy thing, it's lasted, though it's been contested and altered on occasion. It's not built into the foundations of the character, it's an added, and useful, element.

When it ceases to be useful, in a specific story, it just doesn't need to be referenced. When it is detrimental overall, it just needs to be phased out.

This is a good point. Stan Lee had originally intended for him to be Xavier's biological brother, and he existed as a dime-store Doctor Doom for a while, and just a persecute gypsy, which still goes on today. My guess is they could keep the backstory reasonably intact; because being a Jewish Gypsy would still make life hard for him in certain places even now.

Actually if you watch the cartoon (sadly the scene is unintentionally hilarious) he has a flashback to an unreferenced "war" in which he was "oppressed" (or at least that's what the cartoonish moaning and wonky flashback seemed to be implying). So, like you say, even there it was sort of glossed over just to make a point, and wasn't the foundation of his character.

[JackalsIII]

I was thinking about this just the other day. At what point is WWII too far away to still justify Magneto being a survivor of the concentration camps. Like Captain America, he can't really shake that part of his back story - unless Marvel just stops referencing it.

Probably wouldn't be a problem but then they try to pair him up with Rogue, romantically and then it becomes weird because he is like 100 years old and she's barely in her late twenties. That's really the only time I think about his age.

[The Observer]

People read comics where stuff like mutant powers, radioactive spider bites, gamma-induced mutation, time travel, pantheons of gods, aliens, cloning, returning from the dead and so on are all real things, and still find time to complain that Magneto (or Captain America) are too far removed from WWII? I mean, come on, Cap, the super serum, retcon when he was thawed out etc, Magneto, he has been deaged at least once. Modern audiences don't find WWII relevant any more? Well, what if it had been a fictional war, but the characters were around as long as they have been? Would that be more or less relevant?
I'd argue that, even today, the Nazis and Hitler are still convenient shorthand for all that is evil and base in human nature, what happens when a whole civilised country is run by those intent on unprecedented evil in a way that no modern regime has (thankfully) quite matched in its breadth or scope. I think WWII humanises Cap and Magneto (well, human mutant), and adds much that would be lost if their backgrounds were retconned. Iron Man, not having been involved in as iconic a war, can be moved around to some generic desert conflict without equivalent damage to his backstory. In my opinion, of course. Yours may differ.

[JackalsIII]

I don't have a problem with Cap's WWII connection at all and he has the whole 'block of ice' thing going for him that helps with the sliding time line. Magneto has been alive and well since WWII and at one point, it is going to be one hundred years from it and without another deaging or something else to explain why he isn't crippled over - it becomes odd.

But like I typed before, I usually don't think of his origins that much - its just when Rogneto comes up is when I realize she is dating a much older man.

[jmc247]

If people can believe that Wolverine is over 100 and that Magneto's powers actually increase his metabolic rate 300 percent along with being able to shield him from any harmful EM rays that effect the rest along with him being de-aged and re-aged later I don't see the problem. One can just argue for Silver Age Magneto his powers allow him to age physically slower then the normal person and on paper they should.

[BlitheringToot]

I think like Cap, Magneto should always be tied to WWII. Whether that means he was de-aged along the way or his force-of-nature powers keep him young-ish, that matters not. I can deal with Frank Castle being a Gulf or Iraq war vet, for example, because there will always be horrendous wars that scar their veterans mentally as well as physically. But, God willing, there will only be one Holocaust (this is not, of course, to downplay any of the atrocities that have happened in Sudan, Rwanda or North Korea, but the Holocaust, in all its horror, is still burned into our collective human consciousness).