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

[Ant-manic]

Honestly as easy as it is to understand Magneto's views in light of his Holocaust experience, it's also sort of insulting to Jewish people. I don't know any Jewish people who survived the Holocaust and went on a terrorist killing spree.

it's all hypothetical. how many of them were actually given the power to fight back afterwards? in most cases, the State seeks revenge (like the U.S. after 911).

anyways...

Magneto actually attempted to start a family after narrowly surviving the Holocaust. then his daughter was burned alive, in front of him. then he went to work at a hospital for Holocaust survivors. he was attacked by a nazi. then he started hunting war criminals for the government. they betrayed him/tried to kill him. the death camps are not where he became the villain of the story. he's who he is because of paranoia, post traumatic stress disorder, and a messiah complex. this has nothing to do with the reputation of the jewish people. i sure as hell wouldn't be ashamed of a black mutant who went on to be an anti-human terrorist after surviving slavery; a mutant Django, if you will.

[Torpedo]

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).

The original Union Jack (Lord Montgomery Falsworth), the Phantom Eagle (Karl Kaufman), Iron Fist (Orson Randall), and the other three seen-only-in-flashback Freedom's Five members (Crimson Cavalier, Sir Steel, and the Silver Squire) are all First World War super-heroes / mystery men in the Marvel Universe. Granted, these characters have seen print in probably less than twenty five comic books total, but as a Great War buff (the historical era I'm most fascinated by) I would love to see a limited series utilizing these characters set during the First World War.

In answer to your original topic, I think the inexorable advance of time will eventually move Magneto's origin out of the Holocaust. This being comics, they could keep his origin rooted in the Holocaust if they find a Steve Rogers-esque solution. Perhaps he was experimented on by a Mengele-type doctor trying to find the source of his powers in order to weaponize it. The experiments and his mutant physiology inexplicably put him in an ageless coma / early form of cryofreeze. The experimental lab was in a bunker that was buried / forgotten at war's end. Magneto only awakens and emerges shortly before Xavier founds the X-Men at whatever point in history that happens to fall ala Marvel's shifting time scale. That way Magneto keeps his origin, his friendship / falling out with Charles, and no further de-aging is necessary.

[ScottSummers]

Wow you took what I said and really ran with it in a direction I didn't expect. I'm not to comfy with any kind of political talks so I'll just stick with living memory and how that may affect the character and comics in general if that's cool.

I really wonder once there's no connection to these events, that are so important to a lot these guys, will these characters just get a retcon that will be more relatable to future readers?

It'll be interesting. Captain America I bet won't even have a problem fifty years from now. Even though he allegedly aged a bit, suspended animation as a Natural Cryogenic Freeze could eventually make him futurama Fry age at some point. Plus I could also see writing him get funner with time. Like writing Thomas Jefferson in the modern era.

[king of hybrids]

just make it that Magneto/sabretooth/mystique/xavier (because the best friend angle looses a bit in face of a 40 year age gap) age more slowly as a secondary mutation or as a built in benefit of mutation (the celestials presumably had some form of medium between the eternals and deviants in mind)

[t hedge coke]

it's all hypothetical. how many of them were actually given the power to fight back afterwards? in most cases, the State seeks revenge (like the U.S. after 911).

anyways...

Magneto actually attempted to start a family after narrowly surviving the Holocaust. then his daughter was burned alive, in front of him. then he went to work at a hospital for Holocaust survivors. he was attacked by a nazi. then he started hunting war criminals for the government. they betrayed him/tried to kill him. the death camps are not where he became the villain of the story. he's who he is because of paranoia, post traumatic stress disorder, and a messiah complex. this has nothing to do with the reputation of the jewish people. i sure as hell wouldn't be ashamed of a black mutant who went on to be an anti-human terrorist after surviving slavery; a mutant Django, if you will.

No offense, but that's all pretty dodgy, especially "how many of them were actually given the power..." and history, but of responsibility and action. But, also, more simply, because Django (any Django) didn't go on a race/nation-based terrorism spree. So, historically, it's dangerously misleading, and even in comparison to other entertainment it's at least misleading.

Again, I'm not trying to suggest anything about you or what you mean, I'm just addressing how you're framing it.

[harashkupo]

This thread makes me wonder how long this sliding time scale can actually last. Will they keep finding new ways to make it work or will they move on to creating an actual new marvel with legacy characters taking a back seat for the next generation. Or are they going to take a page out of DC's playbook and reboot.

[ScottSummers]

No offense, but that's all pretty dodgy, especially "how many of them were actually given the power..." and history, but of responsibility and action. But, also, more simply, because Django (any Django) didn't go on a race/nation-based terrorism spree. So, historically, it's dangerously misleading, and even in comparison to other entertainment it's at least misleading.

Again, I'm not trying to suggest anything about you or what you mean, I'm just addressing how you're framing it.

People to me seem a little meek overall. Call me one of those naïve folks that considers people basically good, but seems like a lot of people get pushed around a lot, few retaliate. There's something seedy to me about all revenge fantasies. I enjoy but it is hard for me to take the characters seriously, especially as I get older. I start feeling worse and worse for their victims. It takes a real cynic to justify killing people for existential reasons.

[ScottSummers]

This thread makes me wonder how long this sliding time scale can actually last. Will they keep finding new ways to make it work or will they move on to creating an actual new marvel with legacy characters taking a back seat for the next generation. Or are they going to take a page out of DC's playbook and reboot.

Eventually I think you'll probably see a reboot. I don't think they're in any rush to get there, but I think the sliding timescale can last forever. We may even have a day when people don't even care about thawed out, crotchety World War II heroes, although my guess is Cap could be more fun to write one hundred years from now. The culture shock just being that much more alarming.