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Erik M. Lehnsherr, also known as Magneto, (born 1930) is a class 4 mutant who can generate and manipulate magnetic fields.

Once dreaming of the conquest of the human race which was the opposite of Charles Xavier, but after the defeat of En Sabah Nur, Erik changed his mind, and he showed friendly cooperation between him and Charles.

Erik has parted ways with the X-Men and formed a sanctuary for mutants on Genosha.

Biography[]

Early life[]

Erik shared the history of his counterpart, until 1973.

X-Men: Days of Future Past[]

Erik is arrested for the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and is being held in an underground prison beneath the Pentagon. Requiring Erik's help to change the past, to help prevent an apocalyptic future from being brought about by Mystique killing Bolivar Trask, Wolverine, Xavier, and Hank break him out, with the help of Peter Maximoff, a mutant with superhuman speed.

While on a jet to the Paris summit, the tension is still hot between Xavier and Erik, as the former blames the latter for his inability to walk properly, as well as abandoning him. Erik fires back that Xavier abandoned them, as many of their former allies have since been killed by Trask. Erik's rage almost causes the jet to decompress and nearly crash into the ocean, but he calmed down. As the two play chess, Erik tries to assure Xavier that he did not kill JFK, but was trying to save him, since he claims that JFK was a mutant.

On the day of the summit, the mutants make their way into the building to find Mystique, arriving just in time to stop her. Stryker shoots his taser gun at her, but Erik uses his powers to pull the tasers off and throw them back into Stryker.

As Xavier tries to hold her down, Erik realizes that everything can be prevented if he just kills Mystique. He grabs his gun and aims it at her, but she runs out the window. Erik fires a shot and manipulates the bullet to follow Mystique out the window, striking her in the leg.

Outside, the people in the crowd see Mystique as she falls to the ground wounded. She turns into a regular bystander and tries to flee, but Erik can see her limping, and, with the bullet still in her leg, he is able to pull her toward him. He lifts the bullet out and nearly sends it into her head, until Beast attacks Erik and tackles him into a fountain. Erik manipulates the other metal items near him, including cars, to bring them nearer to him, causing the crowd to flee, which allows Mystique to blend in and escape. Beast holds Erik underwater until Erik uses the metal birds in the fountain to grab Beast and pull him off, allowing Erik to escape.

Later, Erik sneaks into Trask Industries and gains access to blueprints for the Sentinels before hopping on the train that is carrying them. He manipulates the train tracks and inserts them into the Sentinels. As he makes it to DC, he infiltrates the Pentagon with two ball bearings to take out the guards and retrieve his helmet.

On the day of the unveiling of the Sentinels, at the White House, Erik, now re-assuming his role as Magneto, comes down into RFK Stadium and lifts the entire place up, heading toward the White House. The Sentinels begin to activate as Magneto is controlling them with the train track metal. The Sentinels rise in the air to the awe of the crowd, until one of them begins to shoot at police cars, sending everyone into a frenzy. As everyone flees, the Secret Service take Nixon, Trask, and Stryker into the safe room in the White House. Magneto drops the stadium down around the White House, leaving one Sentinel within the area to stand guard.

Wolverine and Beast fight off the lone Sentinel. Beast tears into its fuel lines while Wolverine runs after Magneto. Magneto throws what he can at Wolverine, but he fights his way through. Magneto gets a block with re-bars and wraps it through Wolverine's body, allowing him to throw Wolverine into the Potomac River. He then pulls the safe room out of the White House and turns all the live news cameras toward him. He gives a speech to everybody in the nation to listen, but mainly aimed at the mutants in hiding (this is seen by Quicksilver, Ink, and Toad. He encourages them all to come out of hiding and to join his brotherhood, for it is they who are the future.

Mystique, disguised as Nixon, comes out to stop Magneto. The Sentinel runs toward them after passing Hank (he took the serum to revert to his human form), but Magneto pulls it apart. Mystique shoots and grazes him through the neck with a plastic gun, and then knocks his helmet off to take him down. After Mystique was convinced by Xavier to not kill Trask, Xavier briefly controlled Magneto to lift metal wreckage off him, allowing Hank to help him, before letting him escape. Leaving his helmet behind, Magneto left the scene.

X-Men: Apocalypse[]

""The world's already begun rebuilding it's arsenals"
"It's human nature, Charles. Why wouldn't they?"
"I still have hope, Erik."
"Ah yes. 'Hope'.
"My faith in Raven proved true. As did my faith in you."
"But what of the rest of the world? Hasn't it ever woke you up in the middle of the night? Knowing that one day they'll come for you? And your children?"
"It does indeed."
"What do you do when you wake up to that?"
"I feel a great swill of pity for the poor soul who comes to my school looking for trouble. Are you sure I can't convince you to stay?"
"You're a psychic, Charles. You could convince me to do anything."
"Goodbye, old friend."
"Good luck, Professor.
"
―Magneto and Professor X part ways[src]

Sometime after 1973, Erik moved to Poland. It was there that he decided to live among non mutants and lived under the alias of Henryk Gurzsky. He met a woman named Magda whom was the only one in Poland he revealed his true identity and powers to. They later married and had a daughter, Nina. Erik worked in a an everyday normal factory in a small Polish country town.

One night, Erik told Nina what happened to his parents. He told her that his parents had been taken away, then showed her the numbers on his arm from the time he spent in Auschwitz. Nina asked if he would be taken from her, but he said he wouldn't, tucked her in and said good night.

After Erik used his powers to save a factory worker, the entire town discovered that he was a mutant and that he had once been Magneto. Policemen armed with bows and arrows, no metal, confronted him. Nina, worried for her fathers safety, manifested her mutant powers. She could control nature and caused swarms of birds to go wild. A policeman had aimed for a bird but accidentally missed and hit Nina instead. The swarms of the birds stopped and Erik grieved for Nina, as well as Magda, who was impaled with the same arrow since she had been holding Nina. Angered, Erik used the locket he gave Nina to kill all of the policemen. He cradled the dead bodies of his wife and daughter, mourning.

After this, Erik went to the factory and planned to kill his co-workers whom had betrayed him. Just as he was about to, En Sabah Nur appeared with his horsemen, Storm, Psylocke and Angel. Surprised, Erik asked him who he was. He also told him not to interfere with him killing the men. En Sabah Nur killed all of the factory workers himself, changing the density of the floor beneath them to make them fall into the concrete before solidifying it again, leaving them to suffocate. He then took the disheartened Erik to Auschwitz, where his powers first manifested. En Sabah Nur strengthened Erik's mutant powers, Erik using his new-found power to destroy Auschwitz. He then joined En Sabah Nur's cause as one of his horsemen of the Apocalypse.

At Raven's behest, Xavier reached Erik with Cerebro, but En Sabah Nur entered Xavier's mind through the connection and hacked Cerebro, using it to disarm the entire world of all nuclear weapons. Wanting to use it to locate other mutants to join his cause, Alex Summers destroyed Cerebro before he could use it for any more of his plans. En Sabah Nur and his horsemen teleported into the mansion, where they abducted Xavier. Alex shot a blast, aiming it at En Sabah Nur, but he vanished and so the blast caused an explosion which destroyed the entire mansion. But Peter Maximoff saved everyone using his superhuman speed, though was not able to save Alex, due to his close proximity to the blast.

Later, Magneto and the other horsemen were in Cairo, Egypt. Magneto used a strong magnetic field to guard the pyramid where Xavier was held in as En Sabah Nur began the ritual where he would transfer into his body, so that he could gain his telepathic powers (as his plan to use Cerebro failed). Mystique, Beast, Scott Summers, Jean Grey, Kurt Wagner, and Peter arrived in Cairo after they had stolen Stryker's jet, which Hank and Moira MacTaggert piloted. Mystique and Peter urged Magneto to stop using the field, with Peter almost revealing his true identity of being Erik's son. Kurt saved Xavier, who had lost his hair in the body transfer process. Angel was defeated and killed in battle.

En Sabah Nur was about to kill Peter, whose leg he had broken, when he was stopped by Mystique disguised as Psylocke. The real Psylocke later fled in the midst of the chaos while Magneto and Storm turned on En Sabah Nur. They, along with Scott, held Apocalypse off until Jean managed to incinerate him, giving a foreshadowing of her phoenix powers.

Following this, Erik helped to rebuild Xavier's Mansion with Jean, as Xavier and Moira rekindled their relationship. Peter decides not to tell Erik that he was his son. Erik is offered to teach at the mansion by Charles, but turns down the offer and bids him farewell, leaving on good terms.

Dark Phoenix[]

"You're always sorry, Charles, and there's always a speech... but nobody cares anymore."
―Magneto[src]

In the year of 1992, Erik has had a change of heart and has given up on his ideas on human extermination after having realized that over the years he had murdered individuals because he was trying to eliminate his pain, but realized that his methods were wrong and changed his mind about humans after finally coming to understand that they weren't all evil, he also becomes the leader of an island where mutants go to live alone called Genosha.

But Jean Grey comes to visit him for help as she had a an incident in which she killed a person, when Erik tells her about how he had tried to control his dark side, Lensherr asked her whose blood was on her dress, making Jean nervous and having no response from her.

Suddenly, a group of soldiers came to the island and Erik hid Jean inside, Lensherr tries to convince the soldiers that Jean was not there and to resolve things without violence, but Jean revealed herself and attempted to kill the soldiers with their own helicopter, but Erik saves them and allows them to successfully escape from Jean.

In response, Jean throws Erik on the ground, angrily asking him if he really is someone who protects mutants, but Lensherr answers that he is helping mutants by protecting them from her, then he banishes her from the island for not only trying to kill innocent soldiers, but also risking the inhabitants' lives.

Later, Hank McCoy comes to the island and Erik questions why he was alone and where the other X-Men, especially Charles, were. Hank asks him to help him stop Jean, not for him, but for Raven. When Erik asks him if Raven sent him, Hank revealed to him that she was killed by Jean. Lensherr's shock and devastation turned into anger and sadness for the death of his former love and friend. Erik told Hank that if he found Jean, he will kill her for what she done to Raven and Hank replied that he knew as it was the reason why he asked for his help to avenge Raven.

With Raven's death, Erik also reconciles with Hank, telling him he was sorry for what he did in the past, but notes that they both loved Raven, which Hank agreed. At that moment, the two prepared to go where Jean was and kill her. Lensherr decides to take the helmet he had acquired after killing Sebastian Shaw all those years ago and wear it, accompanied by two of the inhabitants of Genosha, Magneto and Beast arrived in New York where they discovered where Jean was and were prepared to kill her.

There, Magneto was called by his old friend Charles, but he angrily tells him to get out of their way, Xavier tries to reason with him and Hank, telling him that he's sorry for what Jean did in Genosha, but Lensherr replies that Charles was always sorry and there was always a speech accompanying his apologies, but nobody cared anymore, Charles tries to tell them that if they fight each other, people will see them again as monsters and he will lose his home. But Lensherr told him that it will never happen, Xavier pleads with Magneto one more time, but he has firmly made his decision.

A violent fight then started where, during the battle, Magneto makes his way to the palace where Jean is, Scott Summers tries to stop him, but Lensherr defends himself with a block of metal and Beast immobilizes Scott, giving Erik time to arrive inside the palace, There, Magneto tells Jean that he now knows whose blood that was and tries to kill Jean in an attempt to avenge Raven, However, Jean proves she is too powerful now and destroys his helmet and throws Lensherr and the pieces of his destroyed helmet out the window, where he lands on the street unconscious. Charles, Storm, Beast, Scott, Erik, and his two allies are soon taken under arrest from the Mutant Control Unit as they are convinced that they're a threat and outfit them with collars that inhibit their powers.

On the train, Erik awakes and Charles explains to him and Hank that Jean has been manipulated by an alien named Vuk who wants her power to destroy Earth and populate it with her species, Erik suggests that they should let her die, but both him and his allies change their minds when Xavier reveals Vuk's plan to destroy Earth and Scott tells both Erik and Hank that Raven would not want Jean dead. making Erik and Hank understand that Raven's death was indeed an incident, realizing that they had been all manipulated by Vuk into fighting each other so she could rule the world, Erik reconciles with Charles and the X-Men and tries to convince the soldiers to set them free as they are not a threat and can help them fight off aliens who start attacking them right then, despite initially refusing, the soldiers accept and set them free, Together, the X-Men start a battle against the aliens, defeating them with the exception of Vuk, who, having absorbed a fraction of Jean's power, proves to be unstoppable, Erik tells Charles and Scott to go set Jean free as he and the others will give them time.

However, Storm, Beast, Nightcrawler. and the others are all defeated by the powerful alien empress. Fortunately though, when she arrives to the room where Charles, Scott, and Jean are, Erik closes the room with metal and use guns against Vuk sacrificing himself to buy Charles time, despite his defeat by Vuk, he survives and Charles frees Jean, successfully allowing her to knock Vuk away and then taking her declared family to safety.

Jean then uses her powers to fight and kill all the D'Bari. At the end, as she is about to finish off Vuk to ensure her families safety, Jean takes Vuk into space with her and she disappears in an explosion of energy with her, Erik, like his friends, is devastated by Jean's apparent death. After Jean's apparent death and Vuk's permanent defeat, Charles renames the school "Jean's school for Gifted Children", makes Hank the new dean of the school, and retires. Weeks later, Erik visits Charles in Paris and jokingly asks his best friend how his retirement is going. Erik tells him that he is here to repay Charles numerous offers to give him a home by telling him to come to Genosha, which Charles accepts. Finally reconciled, this time for good, they happily start to play chess, unaware that Jean is alive and will come back to Earth when she has learned how to control her powers.

Character traits[]

In X-Men: Apocalypse, after the events in Washington D.C, Erik had become understanding and tolerant of humans, even marrying a human woman and having a child, and family with her, but the death of his wife and daughter quickly drove Erik back to his murderous and vengeful ways as he worked with Apocalypse to end all human life on the entire planet, however, despite this, Erik still proved that his love for his friends and surrogate family, in Charles Xavier and Raven Darkholme trumped over his hate for humans and he came to their aide once again, by 1992, Erik had seemed to fully abandon his extremist and terroristic ways, finding the mutant homeland of Genosha where mutants can come and live in relative peace.

In Dark Phoenix, when Erik learned from Hank McCoy that Jean Grey had killed Raven, he once again took up his violent ways determined to kill her in revenge for Raven (regardless whether or not she was in control of her actions at the time) but it wasn't, until Charles reminded Erik that Raven would not want him to do this that he again stood by the X-Men to protect Jean from the D'Bari aliens.

Powers and Abilities[]

Powers[]

  • Mutant Physiology: Magneto is an extremely powerful mutant who can generate and manipulate magnetic fields, as well as manipulate metal objects. Magneto is one of the most powerful mutants on the entire planet.
    • Magnetogenesis: Magneto can generate, create and project magnetic fields from both of his hands or his entire body.
    • Magnetokinesis: Magneto can manipulate magnetic fields. In X-Men: Apocalypse, due to Apocalypse's enhancement, he is now able to control metal within the earth itself. His new powers allow him to control the earth's magnetic poles and rip the metallic particles from the earth, which made him capable of destroying all parts of the planet.
    • Ferrokinesis: Magneto can manipulate all forms of metal, even non ferrous ones, seemingly by using his powers to make any metal magnetic.
    • Flyrogenesis: Magneto can generate, create and project force fields around himself. He can generate force fields that are so powerful, that nothing can penetrate them, even Quicksilver, a mutant, who is capable of moving at supersonic speeds, is incapable of penetrating his force fields.
    • Superhuman Senses: Magneto is able to sense the presence of metal over small or vast distances.
      • Flight: Magneto is able to fly, by projecting magnetic fields around himself.

Abilities[]

  • Genius-Level Intellect: Erik is a highly intelligent individual. He is very sophisticated in general and is well-read on many topics.
  • Master Tactician: Magneto is a highly skilled tactician. He spent years tracking down and ultimately managed to successfully find Sebastian Shaw; the very individual responsible for his mother's death, as well as for torturing him as a child. He is always two steps ahead of his opponents. During Magneto's final confrontation against Shaw, he was able to trick him into letting his guard down, which gave him the opportunity to remove his telepathy-resistant helmet allowing Professor X to take control of Shaw's mind and freeze him.
  • Master Hand-To-Hand Combatant/Martial Artist: Magneto is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant and martial artist. He was able to best Hank McCoy and Professor X in combat. However, once Beast was completely transformed into his bestial form, he was forced to use metal ornaments from a fountain to restrain him, proving that Magneto only uses his magnetic powers as a last resort against opponents that he cannot overpower with his combat skills alone. Magneto's combat skills combined with his magnetic powers make him a formidable opponent alone in single combat.
  • Multilingualism: Erik's native tongue is German and he can speak English, Hebrew, French, Polish and Spanish fluently.

Weaknesses[]

  • Limitations: Although Magneto is incredibly powerful, he does have his limits. He is unable to match Apocalypse and Phoenix in terms of raw power, albeit only when the latter is accessing the power of the Phoenix Force.
  • Non-Metallic Objects: If Magneto is in an area with no metal, his powers are rendered useless. However, despite this, he is still highly athletic and capable of physically fighting others.

Relationships[]

Appearances/Actors[]

Behind the scenes[]

  • Michael Fassbender took inspiration for Magneto's way of moving and speaking from Sir Ian McKellen's performances in the original trilogy.

Trivia[]

  • In the comics, Xavier and Magneto chose different paths after a fight with Wolfgang Von Strucker, in which Xavier prevents Magneto from killing Strucker. In the movie, Strucker is replaced by Sebastian Shaw because Wolfgang Von Strucker's film rights belong to Marvel Studios. In Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron Strucker is responsible for the powers of Quicksilver, Magneto's son and his sister.

Gallery[]

X-Men: Days of Future Past[]

X-Men: Apocalypse[]

Dark Phoenix[]

To be added

See Also[]

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