title: Three Laws of Robotics

text: Asimov himself believed that his Three Laws became the basis for a new view of robots which moved beyond the "Frankenstein complex". His view that robots are more than mechanical monsters eventually spread throughout science fiction. Stories written by other authors have depicted robots as if they obeyed the Three Laws but tradition dictates that only Asimov could quote the Laws explicitly. Asimov believed the Three Laws helped foster the rise of stories in which robots are "lovable" – "Star Wars" being his favorite example. Where the laws are quoted verbatim, such as in the "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" episode "Shgoratchx!", it is not uncommon for Asimov to be mentioned in the same dialogue as can also be seen in the Aaron Stone pilot where an android states that it functions under Asimov's Three Laws. However, the 1960s German TV series "Raumpatrouille – Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion" ("Space Patrol – the Fantastic Adventures of Space Ship Orion") bases episode three titled ""Hüter des Gesetzes"" ("Guardians of the Law") on Asimov's Three Laws without mentioning the source.


title: Three Laws of Robotics

text: References to the Three Laws have appeared in popular music ("Robot" from Hawkwind's 1979 album "PXR5"), cinema ("Repo Man", "Aliens", ""), cartoon series ("The Simpsons"), anime ("Eve no Jikan"), tabletop role-playing games (Paranoia) and webcomics ("Piled Higher and Deeper" and "Freefall").


title: Three Laws of Robotics

text: Robby the Robot in "Forbidden Planet" (1956) has a hierarchical command structure which keeps him from harming humans, even when ordered to do so, as such orders cause a conflict and lock-up very much in the manner of Asimov's robots. Robby is one of the first cinematic depictions of a robot with internal safeguards put in place in this fashion. Asimov was delighted with Robby and noted that Robby appeared to be programmed to follow his Three Laws.


title: Three Laws of Robotics

text: Isaac Asimov's works have been adapted for cinema several times with varying degrees of critical and commercial success. Some of the more notable attempts have involved his "Robot" stories, including the Three Laws.


title: Three Laws of Robotics

text: The film "Bicentennial Man" (1999) features Robin Williams as the Three Laws robot NDR-114 (the serial number is partially a reference to Stanley Kubrick's signature numeral). Williams recites the Three Laws to his employers, the Martin family, aided by a holographic projection. The film only loosely follows the original story.


title: Three Laws of Robotics

text: Harlan Ellison's proposed screenplay for "I, Robot" began by introducing the Three Laws, and issues growing from the Three Laws form a large part of the screenplay's plot development. Due to various complications in the Hollywood moviemaking system, to which Ellison's introduction devotes much invective, his screenplay was never filmed.


title: Three Laws of Robotics

text: In the 1986 movie "Aliens", after the android Bishop accidentally cuts himself. he attempts to reassure Ripley by stating that: "It is impossible for me to harm or by omission of action, allow to be harmed, a human being".


title: Three Laws of Robotics

text: The plot of the film released in 2004 under the name, "I, Robot" is "suggested by" Asimov's robot fiction stories


title: Three Laws of Robotics

text: and advertising for the film included a trailer featuring the Three Laws followed by the aphorism, "Rules were made to be broken". The film opens with a recitation of the Three Laws and explores the implications of the Zeroth Law as a logical extrapolation. The major conflict of the film comes from a computer artificial intelligence reaching the conclusion that humanity is incapable of taking care of itself.


title: Three Laws of Robotics

text: Philosopher James H. Moor says that if applied thoroughly they would produce unexpected results. He gives the example of a robot roaming the world trying to prevent harm from befalling human beings.


title: Three Laws of Robotics

text: Marc Rotenberg, President and Executive Director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and Professor of information privacy law at Georgetown Law, argues that the Laws of Robotics should be expanded to include two new laws:


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto (; birth name: Max Eisenhardt; alias: Erik Lehnsherr and Magnus) is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics, commonly in association with the X-Men. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist/co-writer Jack Kirby, the character first appears in "The X-Men" #1 (cover-dated September 1963) as an adversary of the X-Men.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: The character is a powerful mutant, one of a fictional subspecies of humanity born with superhuman abilities, who has the ability to generate and control magnetic fields. Magneto regards mutants as evolutionarily superior to humans and rejects the possibility of peaceful human-mutant coexistence; he initially aimed to conquer the world to enable mutants, whom he refers to as "homo superior", to replace humans as the dominant species. Writers have since fleshed out his origins and motivations, revealing him to be a Holocaust survivor whose extreme methods and cynical philosophy derive from his determination to protect mutants from suffering a similar fate at the hands of a world that fears and persecutes mutants. He is a friend of Professor X, the leader of the X-Men, but their different philosophies cause a rift in their friendship at times. Magneto's role in comics has progressed from supervillain to antihero to superhero, having served as an occasional ally and member of the X-Men, even leading the New Mutants for a time as headmaster of the Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Writer Chris Claremont, who originated Magneto's backstory, modeled the character on Israeli terrorist-turned-statesman Menachem Begin, with later commentators comparing the character with the American civil rights leader Malcolm X and Jewish Defense League founder Meir Kahane. Magneto opposes the pacifist attitude of Professor X and pushes for a more aggressive approach to achieving civil rights for mutants.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Ian McKellen has portrayed Magneto in various films since X-Men in 2000, while Michael Fassbender has portrayed a younger version of the character in the prequel films since "" in 2011. Both actors portrayed their respective incarnations in "".


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto first appeared in the debut issue of "The X-Men" in 1963. Through the 1960s, Magneto appeared in several issues of the original X-Men comics, including "The Uncanny X-Men", "X-Men", "Astonishing X-Men", "Alpha Flight", "Cable", "Excalibur", "The New Mutants", many X-Men miniseries, and several other Marvel titles. His first solo title was a one-shot special, "Magneto: The Twisting of a Soul" #0 (Sept. 1993), published when the character returned from a brief absence; it reprinted Magneto-based stories from "Classic X-Men" #12 & 19 (Aug. 1987 & March 1988), by writer Chris Claremont and artist John Bolton.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In a 2008 interview, Stan Lee said he "did not think of Magneto as a bad guy. He just wanted to strike back at the people who were so bigoted and racist... he was trying to defend the mutants, and because society was not treating them fairly he was going to teach society a lesson. He was a danger of course... but I never thought of him as a villain." In the same interview, he also revealed that he originally planned for Magneto to be the brother of his nemesis Professor X.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Writer Chris Claremont stated that Menachem Begin was an inspiration for Magneto's development, as David Ben-Gurion was for Professor X. "There's a lot of talk online now that Magneto stands in for Malcolm X and Xavier stands in for Martin Luther King, which is totally valid but for me, being an immigrant white, to make that analogy felt incredibly presumptuous. An equivalent analogy could be made to [Israeli prime minister] Menachem Begin as Magneto, evolving through his life from a terrorist in 1947 to a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 30 years later."


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Asked about the Malcolm X/Martin Luther King Jr. parallels, Claremont also said "It was too close [in the 1970s]. It had only been a few years since the assassinations. In a way, it seemed like that would be too raw. My resonance to Magneto and Xavier was borne more out of the Holocaust. It was coming face to face with evil, and how do you respond to it? In Magneto's case it was violence begets violence. In Xavier's it was the constant attempt to find a better way... As we got distance from the '60s, the Malcolm X-Martin Luther King-Mandela resonance came into things. It just fit."


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto's first original title was the four-issue miniseries "Magneto" (Nov. 1996-Feb. 1997), by writers Peter Milligan and Jorge Gonzalez, and penciller Kelley Jones. In the miniseries, Magneto had been de-aged and suffered from amnesia, calling himself Joseph; it was later revealed that Joseph was a younger clone of Magneto. Later, Magneto became ruler of the nation Genosha. Later, Magneto appeared in two miniseries; "Magneto Rex" (written by Joe Pruett and drawn by Brandon Peterson) and "Magneto: Dark Seduction" (written by Fabian Nicieza and drawn by Roger Cruz).


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: A trade paperback novel detailing Magneto's childhood, "X-Men: Magneto Testament" was written by Greg Pak and released in September 2008. Pak based "Magneto Testament" on accounts from Holocaust survivors. Before the publication of "X-Men: Magneto Testament", Magneto's personal background and history were invented in "The Uncanny X-Men" #150 (Aug. 1981). He was portrayed as a Jewish Holocaust survivor; while searching for his wife Magda, a Sinti, Magneto maintained a cover identity as a Sinti. This created confusion among some readers as to Magneto's heritage, until his Jewish background was confirmed in "Magneto: Testament".


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto was born "'Max Eisenhardt'" sometime in the late 1920s to a middle-class German Jewish family. Max's father, Jakob Eisenhardt, was a decorated World War I veteran. Surviving discrimination and hardship during the Nazi rise to power, the passing of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, and Kristallnacht, Max and his family fled to Poland where they were captured during the German invasion of Poland and sent to the Warsaw Ghetto. Max and his family escaped the ghetto, only to be betrayed and captured again. His mother, father, and sister were executed and buried in a mass grave, but Max survived, possibly due to the manifestation of his mutant powers. Escaping from the mass grave, he was ultimately captured yet again and sent to Auschwitz, where he eventually became a "Sonderkommando". While at Auschwitz, Eisenhardt reunited with a Romani girl named Magda, whom he had fallen in love with when he was younger, and with whom he would escape the concentration camp during the October 7, 1944 revolt.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Following the war, he and Magda moved to the Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia, and Max adopted the name "Magnus". Magda and Magnus had a daughter named Anya, and lived uneventfully until an angry mob, spurred on by the first manifestation of Magnus' powers, burned down their home with Anya still inside. Magnus was enraged at the mob for preventing him from rescuing Anya, and his powers were unleashed, killing the mob and destroying a part of the city. Magda, terrified at Magnus' power, left him and later gave birth to the mutant twins Pietro and Wanda before she died. Wanted by the authorities for the deaths and destruction in Vinnytsia, and while searching for Magda, Magnus paid a Romanian forger, Georg Odekirk, to create the cover identity of "Erik Lehnsherr, the Sinte gypsy". "Erik" moved to Israel, where he met and befriended Charles Xavier while working at a psychiatric hospital near Haifa, where Gabrielle Haller lived. There, the two debated the consequences humanity faced with the rise of mutants, though neither revealed to the other that they were mutants. However, they were forced to reveal their inherent abilities to one another while facing Baron Strucker and Hydra. After the battle, Erik, realizing that his and Xavier's views were incompatible, left with a cache of hidden Nazi gold, which provided him with the finances to pursue his goals.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto's experiences during the Holocaust (Nazi Germany, Auschwitz, and Vinnytsia) shaped his outlook on the situation that mutants face in the Marvel Universe. Determined to keep such atrocities from ever being committed against mutantkind, he is willing to use deadly force to protect mutants. He believes that mutants (""Homo superior"") will become the dominant life form on the planet and he sets about either creating a homeland on Earth where mutants can live peacefully, or conquering and enslaving humanity in the name of mutantkind.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto's first villainous act is attacking a United States military base called Cape Citadel after bringing down missiles. He is driven off by Charles Xavier's mutant students, the X-Men, in their first mission. He creates Asteroid M, an orbital base of operations in a hollowed-out asteroid. He then gathers a group of angry and disillusioned mutants including his own, albeit at the time unbeknown to him, son and daughter Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, and formed the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants to further his goals. Magneto briefly conquers the South American nation of San Marco in the hopes of establishing a mutant homeland there, but is again foiled by the X-Men. He tries to make the Toad infiltrate the X-Men. When that fails, he captures the Angel and tries to force him to tell the secrets of the X-Men. However, the other X-Men rescue their member and destroy Asteroid M.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto is captured by the Stranger, a powerful alien being, whom he initially thought was another powerful mutant. The Stranger encases Magneto and Toad in a special cocoon and spirits them away to another planet, the Stranger's laboratory world. Back on Earth, Magneto's Brotherhood splinters, and Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch desert him. Magneto escapes to Earth by repairing a spaceship on the Stranger's planet, but leaves the Toad behind. He captures nearly all the X-Men and takes over the Mansion, hoping to use the Angel's parents to create a race of mutants, but is recaptured by the Stranger. Magneto remains on the Stranger's world for a time, but escapes again thanks to the unwitting assistance of scientist Dane Whitman, makes his way back to Earth, and reassembles the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants with the exception of the mutant Mastermind. He then captures the X-Men, but with the help of the Avengers and a rebellious member of the Brotherhood, Toad, Magneto is defeated again.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto then creates the Savage Land Mutates. With the Savage Land Mutates, he clashes with the X-Men and Ka-Zar. Along with Namor, Magneto later attacks New York City. He later fights the Inhumans Royal Family, and battles the Avengers once more.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto later reorganizes the Brotherhood, and fights Professor X and the Defenders. Using ancient and advanced alien technology he found near the core of the earth, Magneto creates the artificial humanoid "Alpha the Ultimate Mutant". Alpha rebels against his creator and reduces him to infancy. Magneto is then placed in the care of Xavier's former love interest, Professor Moira MacTaggert at Muir Island. At Muir Island, MacTaggert discovers that the prolonged and extensive use of Magneto's powers has a disruptive effect on his nervous system and psyche, causing him to become increasingly paranoid and irrational the more he uses them. In an attempt to cure him of this flaw she manipulates the infant Magneto's genetic code, so that when he grows older he will be able to safely use his powers while still remaining rational, in order to prevent him from becoming "evil" in adulthood. However, her genetic tampering soon loses its effect when Magneto reactivates his powers, as the very use of his powers causes his genetic sequence to realign and "reset" to its original state. Magneto is eventually restored to adulthood, but to his physical prime rather than his older, chronological age, by the alien Shi'ar agent Erik the Red.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto later gathers a new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, and with them battles Captain America. He then successfully opposes Doctor Doom's conquest of Earth.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto's first steps towards a change in character begin during an encounter with the X-Men, when he lashes out in anger and nearly kills Kitty Pryde, stopping short when he sees that the X-Man that he attacked is a Jewish child — precisely the kind of person he claimed he was fighting to make a better world for. Realizing that he has come to regard the lives of those who oppose him to be as worthless as the Nazis considered his people to be, Magneto stands down and leaves the scene; though most of the X-Men are dismayed that he escaped, Xavier expresses hope that the encounter might prove a turning point for his former friend.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto later discovers that former Brotherhood members the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are actually his children, simultaneously learning about their recent marriages to the Vision and Crystal. He reveals to Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch that he is their father. He also discovers his granddaughter, Quicksilver's human child Luna Maximoff. Seeing Luna as a bond to the human race he has rejected, Magneto tries to reach out to his children. Angered by his rejection of them and their mother, they push him away and refuse to forgive him.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto finds himself allied with Professor Xavier and the X-Men when a group of heroes and villains are abducted by the Beyonder, a nearly omnipotent alien being. This entity took them to a planet he created called the Battleworld to participate in a personal experiment of his to observe the concept of the battle between good and evil which would later be known as the Secret Wars. The characters were sorted according to their desires; Magneto was placed with the heroes as his desires were based on a wish to help mutants rather than the more selfish drives of the other villains. This surprises many of the other heroes, who still believe him to be a villain, although eventually they come to accept him as an ally. Captain America even speaks in his defense on some occasions, and the Wasp develops a certain affection for him, although it is tempered by her knowledge of his past.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: After the Secret Wars, Magneto is transported back to his base, Asteroid M. The alien Warlock, traveling to Earth, collides into the asteroid, breaking it to pieces. Magneto falls towards Earth and into the Atlantic Ocean, sustaining serious injuries. He is rescued by Lee Forrester, the captain of a fishing trawler. Lee takes him to the same island in the Bermuda Triangle where he'd once held her captive; there she helps him recuperate from his injuries, and the two become lovers.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: After recuperating from his injuries, Magneto is asked to aid the X-Men in battling the returned Beyonder. Magneto stays with the X-Men even after the Beyonder is defeated. His association with the team softens his views on humanity, and Magneto surrenders himself to the law to stand trial for his crimes. A special tribunal dismisses all charges against Magneto from prior to his "rebirth", deeming that this had constituted a figurative death of the old Magneto. However, the tribunal is interrupted by an attack from Fenris, the twin children of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. Professor X, brought to near-death due to the strain of the battle and previously sustained injuries, asks Magneto to take over his school and the X-Men. Magneto agrees and chooses not to return to the courtroom. Instead, he takes over Xavier's school under the assumed identity of Michael Xavier, Charles Xavier's cousin. Seeing him try to reform, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver begin accepting him as their father.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Though Magneto makes a substantial effort as the headmaster of the New Mutants and an ally to the X-Men, his tenure is disastrous. His responsibilities to the school force him to separate from Lee, who he felt would have been a strong guiding hand and emotional support. The Beyonder plagues him yet again, slaying Xavier's current students, the New Mutants, and bringing them back to life soon after. This deeply traumatizes the entire group. Magneto is then manipulated by Emma Frost into battling sanctioned heroes the Avengers and the Supreme Soviets. Magneto submits to a trial once again, but uses mind-control circuitry he salvaged from the wreckage of Asteroid M to alter the opinions of the head justice in charge of the trial. As a result, Magneto is finally absolved of his past crimes but finds that this only fuels hostility towards mutants. Feeling that desperate measures need to be taken after the genocidal massacre in the Morlock tunnels, Magneto and Storm join the Hellfire Club jointly as the White King. He is unable to prevent his students Roberto da Costa and Warlock from running away from the school, or to prevent the death of the young mutant student Douglas Ramsey after the students sneak away yet again to save a friend, and witnesses the apparent death of all of the senior X-Men on national television.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: His relationship with the New Mutants deteriorates even further when they see him and the Hellfire Club negotiating with the demons of the "Inferno" incident. Magneto later ousts longtime Hellfire Club co-chair Sebastian Shaw in order to establish himself as the head of the Hellfire Club. To win the support of the other Club members against Shaw, he claims that his reformation was all a pretense in order to use the X-Men and New Mutants as pawns in a long-term scheme to take over the world. In response, the New Mutants, who had already decided to leave Magneto's tutelage, declare themselves his enemies.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Seeing conditions for mutants grow progressively more perilous, Magneto begins seeking allies to protect mutants from humanity. He participates in the "Acts of Vengeance" alongside such established villains as Doctor Doom, the Wizard, the Mandarin, and the Red Skull. His temporary alliance with the Red Skull — an unrepentant Nazi war criminal — is a highly uneasy one. After confirming that the Skull was the original one who had worked with Hitler, Magneto takes revenge upon him by entombing him alive. When Zaladane is able to appropriate the magnetic powers of Polaris, Magneto works alongside Rogue, Ka-Zar, and the American intelligence agent Nick Fury as well as a number of Russian operatives in order to reestablish peace in the Savage Land. This leads to an altercation with Zaladane, who appropriated the magnetic powers of Magneto in addition to those of Polaris. The conflict ends with Magneto reclaiming his powers and executing Zaladane himself. With her death, Magneto renounces his previous efforts to act as a mentor to the New Mutants and to follow Xavier's beliefs in peaceful co-existence between mutants and normal humans.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Tired of the constant strife, Magneto rebuilds his orbital base and retires to a life of quiet seclusion. At this point, he is a figurehead for the cause of mutantkind and is sought out by a group of mutants calling themselves the Acolytes, who pledge their service and allegiance to him. Under the influence of one of them, Fabian Cortez, he declares Asteroid M a homeland for mutantkind, obtaining nuclear missiles from a Soviet submarine he had previously destroyed and placing them around the Asteroid pointed towards Earth.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto discovers how Moira MacTaggert altered his genetic structure when he was de-aged. Enraged, he kidnaps Moira and subjects her to torture, later forcing her to use the same procedure that was used on him to alter the minds of some of the X-Men. However, when the remaining X-Men attack Asteroid M to rescue Moira and stop Magneto's plans, the Soviets launch a particle beam satellite which destroys Asteroid M and the procedure wears off; Moira had learned long ago that her procedure didn't work as a mutant's natural physiology relied on their bodies operating in a precise manner, with use of their powers restoring them to normal, and so Magneto had genuinely reformed. Betrayed and abandoned by Cortez, who had revealed Moira's actions to him to try and provoke Magneto into bringing mutants together to serve as a martyr for Cortez's own cause. Magneto refuses Xavier's pleas to escape with the X-Men back to Earth. Instead, the Acolyte Chrome encases him in a protective shell, saving him from the subsequent explosion. However, Chrome and the other Acolytes die.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: The United Nations Security Council, in response to a resurgent Magneto, votes to activate the "Magneto Protocols" — a satellite network, in slightly lower orbit than Avalon, which skews the Earth's magnetic field enough to prevent Magneto from using his powers within, preventing him from returning to the planet's surface. In response, Magneto generates an electromagnetic pulse not only destroying the satellites, but deactivating every electric device on Earth within minutes. The X-Men respond by hacking into Avalon's own computer systems to teleport a small team to the station with the aid of Colossus (who joined Magneto's Acolytes moments after his younger sister Illyana's funeral). Magneto, during the battle with the X-Men, rips the adamantium from Wolverine's bones, which enrages Xavier to the point that he wipes his former friend's mind, leaving him in a coma. This action later leads to the creation of Onslaught, an omnipotent being formed from the combination of Xavier and Magneto's own dark sides, the darkness in Magneto's soul latching on to its counterpart in Xavier when he launched such a devastating assault. Magneto remains comatose on Avalon, worshiped by his Acolytes under the leadership of the ancient mutant Exodus, until Avalon itself is destroyed by the arrival of Holocaust from the Age of Apocalypse Earth. During the destruction, Colossus places Magneto in an escape pod sending him back to Earth. This pod is intercepted by Astra, a former ally who now desires his death.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: After cloning Magneto, Astra restores Magneto's memories and powers before attempting to kill him. Instead, Magneto, now fully revived, battles both Astra and his clone. Magneto triumphs over the clone, sending him crashing into a South American barn. However, too weak to continue the battle, the real Magneto goes into hiding, while the now-amnesiac clone becomes known as Joseph (christened as such by the nun who discovered him) and eventually joins the X-Men. Since the world believes Joseph to be the real Magneto, Magneto takes his time to plan. He engages in a pair of brief diversions, first posing as "Erik the Red" and revealing Gambit's past crimes to the X-Men, resulting in Gambit's expulsion from the group. Then he kills George Odekirk, the forger that created his "Erik Lehnsherr" alias, to prevent his true identity from being discovered by Sabra and Gabrielle Haller.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Following this, Magneto constructs a machine to amplify his powers and blackmail the world into creating a mutant nation. The X-Men and Joseph, who had fallen under Astra's control again, oppose him. Magneto's powers are severely depleted from battling Joseph, who sacrifices his life to restore the Earth to normal. However, the United Nations, manipulated by its mutant affairs officer Alda Huxley, cedes to Magneto the island nation of Genosha, which had no recognized government. He rules Genosha for some time with the aid of many who had previously opposed him, including Quicksilver, Polaris, and Fabian Cortez, and engages in a brutal civil war with the island's former human rulers.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Despite the UN's hopes that Genosha's civil war between humans and mutants would destroy or at least occupy him, Magneto crushes all opposition to his rule and rebuilds the nation by forming an army of mutants dedicated to his cause, including mutants coming from all over the world seeking sanctuary. Eventually, Magneto uses the Genegineer's equipment to fully restore his power. Intending to declare war on humanity, he captures Professor X to use as a symbol with which to rally his troops. Jean Grey recruits a new group of X-Men to help Cyclops and Wolverine rescue Xavier; they defeat Magneto when Xavier psychically cuts off his access to his powers. Taking the opportunity for revenge, Wolverine attacks the depowered Magneto, crippling him with serious injuries.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: While Magneto recovers from his injuries, Genosha is attacked by an army of Sentinels sent by Xavier's long lost twin sister Cassandra Nova Xavier. Over 16 million mutants and humans die. The attack comes just after Polaris (one of the survivors) discovered the truth about her biological relationship as Magneto's daughter. Magneto's supposedly last moments are spent revealing to Genosha Polaris' status as his daughter.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Charles Xavier is met on Genosha by Magneto, who apparently survived Cassandra Nova's attack and lived unnoticed within the ruins. Xavier and Magneto put aside their differences to rebuild the island nation, rekindling their friendship in the process.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: During the "House of M" storyline, Magneto's daughter Wanda suffers a mental breakdown over the loss of her children and starts to warp reality in order to recreate them, until Doctor Strange put her into a coma to stop her. In Genosha, Magneto hears Wanda's psychic cry for help and creates a wormhole, whisking her away before the Avengers are able to stop her. Magneto tends to Wanda, increasingly becoming more withdrawn and angry. He allows only Xavier to visit, in the belief that Xavier can help Wanda. After months of failed attempts, the X-Men and the Avengers meet to decide what should be done. When some of the members suggest killing Wanda, Quicksilver informs Magneto of this development, before convincing Wanda to warp reality into the House of M. In the new reality, where the New Avengers, the X-Men, and the members of Wanda's family all received their 'heart's desires', Magneto was attacked by Sentinels over Manhattan in 1979, and revealed an alleged international anti-mutant conspiracy involving Richard Nixon. This resulted in Magneto being granted sovereignty over Genosha as leader of the world's much larger and much faster growing mutant population. Magneto then turned Genosha into the most powerful, technologically advanced country on Earth, which he used as a base to dominate the world and place mutantkind above humanity.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: A group of heroes is brought together by Wolverine — who alone remembers the way the world is supposed to be because his 'heart's desire' was to regain all the memories stolen from him by the Weapon X Program — and have their own memories of the "real world" restored by Layla Miller. They band together and attack Magneto in Genosha, believing him to be the one responsible. During the battle Layla is able to restore Magneto's memories, and he confronts his son. Enraged that Quicksilver had done all of this in his name, Magneto kills him. Sensing her brother's death, Wanda resurrects him and retaliates with the phrase "No more mutants", changing the world back to its original form and causing ninety-eight percent of the mutant population to lose their powers, including Magneto. Magneto is left a broken man.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the 2006 miniseries "Son of M", which follows up "House of M", when Quicksilver comes to Genosha to restore the mutants' powers with the Inhumans' Terrigen Mists, Magneto condemns his actions, pointing out the disastrous effects the Mists have on non-Inhumans. Quicksilver attacks Magneto with his new powers from the Mists, and savagely beats him until his own daughter Luna stops him.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Marvel's editor in chief at that time, Joe Quesada, elaborated on the issue of Xorn and Magneto, stating that "Kuan-Yin Xorn came under the influence of as-yet-to-be-revealed entity that forced him to assume the identity of Magneto." However, the issue of Xorn and Magneto was ultimately resolved during "The Collective" arc in New Avengers. A powerless Magneto is attacked by Xorn, who has somehow evolved into a being of pure energy and merged with both an energy absorbing mutant named Michael Pointer and free floating mutant power energy that manifested after Scarlet Witch depowered the bulk of the mutant population. Xorn reveals that he, of his own free will, impersonated Magneto in order to rally mutantkind against humanity but failed due to the quality of his impersonation. He possesses Magneto and briefly reactivates his powers before being defeated by the New Avengers and a cadre of heroes, including Magneto's former son-in-law Vision and Inhuman S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Daisy Johnson. Iron Man, Ms. Marvel, and the Sentry combine their powers and send Xorn into the Sun. Michael Pointer and Magneto are freed as a result, though Magneto is arrested and loaded into a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopter. The helicopter, however, explodes upon take-off through unknown means as Magneto uses what was left of the energy provided to him by Xorn to escape.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the 2008 storyline "", Magneto appears, apparently at the behest of Exodus and claiming to be powerless, to help restore the broken psyche of Professor Xavier. Together they revive Xavier before being attacked by Frenzy. Magneto wounds Frenzy by firing a medical laser into one of her eyes. Seeing the injury of a mutant as a crime, Exodus attacks Magneto. Xavier challenges Exodus on the astral plane. After Xavier defeats Exodus, he leaves Magneto and Omega Sentinel to try and rebuild his lost memories.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto, his powers artificially simulated by a suit designed by the High Evolutionary, reactivates Sentinels to attack the X-Men, who had recently relocated to San Francisco. Though he is defeated, Magneto's attack serves its purpose as a distraction so the High Evolutionary can gain an unknown object from the Dreaming Celestial. After extensively examining the Dreaming Celestial, the High Evolutionary subjects Magneto to a dangerous technological procedure, restoring his powers.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the "Nation X" storyline, impressed with the X-Men's efforts in defending and helping mutantkind, Magneto offers to work with them on Utopia, the new mutant homeland created by the X-Men using the remnants of Asteroid M. He aids the X-Men in defending Utopia Island from an attack of Predator X monsters. Now considered a member of the X-Men, Magneto assists them in stabilizing the asteroid from sinking into the Pacific. To that end, he works with Namor and the Atlanteans by constructing a pillar supporting Utopia on the surface that would provide a home for the Atlanteans, which Magneto would later refer to as New Atlantis. However, Cyclops reprimands Magneto for acting on his own authority. Despite Xavier being apologetic and appreciative for what he'd done, Magneto leaves Utopia for nearby Mount Tamalpais in Marin County. In a final bid to gain their trust, Magneto enters a deep meditative catatonic state to focus his powers at an interstellar distance and reverse the path of Breakworld's "Earth-destroyer" Metal Bullet in which Kitty Pryde is trapped. Magneto had encountered the bullet earlier while working to regain his powers with the High Evolutionary, and surmised that Kitty was inside. He had chosen to focus on ways to restore the powers of mutants, but memorized the metals of the bullet allowing him to keep a trace on it. Magneto brings the bullet back to Earth, drawing Kitty out of it and levitating her safely to the ground. However, the strain of using his power at such intensity and duration leaves him comatose.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the "Second Coming" storyline, Magneto comes out of his coma right after Hope is teleported into Utopia by a dying Nightcrawler. With the Nimrods laying siege to Utopia, Magneto stops Hank McCoy from leaving his patients as he prepares to enter battle himself. Magneto holds off a squad of Nimrods, dismembering the robots by pulling shards of iron from the core of Utopia through them.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto learns that the Young Avengers are going to search for the still missing Scarlet Witch, and that the heroes Wiccan and Speed are the reincarnations of Wanda's children. Magneto meets them, stating that he wants Wiccan and Speed to finally know him as their grandfather, and helps them find Wanda. The Avengers attempt to stop Magneto, before Wiccan teleports Magneto and the Young Avengers to Wundagore Mountain. There they encounter Quicksilver, who attempts to kill his father. They discover that this Scarlet Witch is actually a Doombot in disguise.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: With his reputation around the world as a well-known mutant revolutionary/terrorist, Magneto is talked into finding a solution to the problem by Cyclops before it goes public that he is established in Utopia. With an earthquake inbound for San Francisco, Magneto uses his powers to stabilize the city's buildings, structures and metal vehicles, and to smooth the earth movements themselves, thus preventing any major damage and saving many lives. As a result, some of the city favors him, while others are reminded of how potentially dangerous he can be and has been.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the 2012 storyline "Avengers vs. X-Men", Magneto fights Iron Man when the X-Men will not give Hope Summers to the Avengers. During the fight, Magneto senses the destructive force of the coming Phoenix. Iron Man stops the fight in favor of helping in the search for Hope. As he is leaving, Magneto tells him to find his daughter Scarlet Witch. After the battles around the world, Magneto and Psylocke meet Storm and an unconscious Doctor Nemesis at one of their hideouts. Magneto, Storm and Psylocke prepare to go to the Moon to help Cyclops. Magneto later informs Cyclops of Namor's assault on Wakanda. Magneto asks Professor X for his help as the Phoenix Force-powered Emma Frost's rule becomes more tyrannical. Magneto later joins the Avengers, the X-Men, and Hulk in confronting the Phoenix Force-powered Cyclops. Scarlet Witch uses her abilities to keep Magneto from being harmed. Following the defeat of Cyclops, Magneto and the other former members are reported to have gone on the run.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: After finding out that his control of his powers have been lost due to contact with the Phoenix Force, Magneto nonetheless teams up with Cyclops, Emma Frost, and Magik to start a new school for mutants, as new mutants have started appearing again, in the old Weapon X facility. Magneto also pretended to serve as a disgruntled informer for SHIELD but it turned out to be an attempt by him to infiltrate the organization.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In 2014, Magneto starred in his first ongoing series, which was written by Cullen Bunn. Feeling disenfranchised by the state of mutant affairs, Magneto decides to venture off on his own to fight for mutantkind's survival on his own terms. The series has been cancelled with issue #21 being its last issue which saw Magneto failing to stop the Ultimate Marvel Earth from colliding with the 616 Earth and thus resulting in the deaths of Magneto and his daughter Polaris.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: During the 2014 "AXIS" storyline, Magneto enters the island of Genosha to find that it has turned into a concentration camp for mutants. He frees two mutant girls who tell him that Red Skull is responsible and possesses Professor X's brain. Magneto attacks Red Skull, but is quickly stopped by his S-Men. Magneto is captured and mind-tortured by Red Skull. He is given visions of those closest to him suffering while being unable to do anything to stop it. After being freed by Scarlet Witch, Rogue, and Havok, he bites down on a vial beneath his skin of Mutant Growth Hormone, giving himself enough power to fight. When Havok, Rogue, and Scarlet Witch want to leave the island and alert the rest of the Avengers and X-Men of what Red Skull is doing, Magneto says he's going to stay and fight. Before they can do anything, Red Skull appears. Red Skull now has the group mind-controlled. He plans on using Scarlet Witch's power to shape reality in his image. He tells Magneto to bow if he wants his daughter to remain alive, but Magneto performs a sneak attack enough to break Red Skull's control over the others. In a fit of rage over finding mutants being used for freak medical experiments, Magneto kills the entire S-Men team. Magneto then attacks Red Skull, all while Red Skull tells Magneto that Professor X's greatest fear was him leading the X-Men. Magneto kills Red Skull while the others look on in horror. Magneto believes everything is over only for Red Skull to reappear as a giant called Red Onslaught.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In order to combat Red Skull's Red Onslaught form, Magneto forms an unnamed group consisting of Absorbing Man, Carnage, Deadpool, Doctor Doom, Enchantress, Hobgoblin, Jack O'Lantern V, Mystique, and Sabretooth. After the villains were inverted by the spell cast by Scarlet Witch and Doctor Doom, the group was soon named the Astonishing Avengers.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: When Quicksilver and Magneto try to talk the inverted Wanda down, Wanda attacks them with a curse designed to punish her blood relatives, but when only Quicksilver reacts, Wanda realizes that Magneto is not their biological father. After Daniel Drumm's ghost possesses Scarlet Witch and works with Doctor Doom to reverse the inversion spell, Magneto was affected by it and stopped being a threat to mankind.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: When Magneto arrives on Genosha and is confronted by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Magneto surrenders to them.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: During the "Last Days" part of the "Secret Wars" storyline, Magneto had to make a choice during the incursion between Earth-616 and Earth-1610. To save the mutant race, he must attempt to destroy the world colliding with his own. To save the mutant race, he must also protect the humans, who are currently celebrating him as a hero and look on with fascination at what he attempts to do when Earth-1610 throws Sentinels against him. As the energies of Earth-616 and Earth-1610 inched closer to impact cascade and send chaos through the streets, Magneto (aided by his daughter Polaris) are taking the fight to this "other" Earth, battling the parallel Sentinels sent after them. Polaris is shocked to see the energy levels her father is exhibiting, all the while trying to protect the people caught in the crossfire of Magneto and the Sentinels. Magneto clearly has one goal in mind, as he rips a building to pieces to use against the killer robots, not caring much for the collateral damage, or the human lives at risk, as people in the building fall to the ground below. Polaris chides him for so reckless an action as she goes to the rescue while Magneto reminisces the reason he's currently exhibiting this level of power. Magneto and his current right hand Briar worked with a chemist under Magneto's employ to pump him up with a new cocktail of various drugs to amplify his powers, but Magneto needed further assistance. Months before the final Incursion happened, Briar established at least initial contact with several scientists which included Doctor Doom, Mister Fantastic, the High Evolutionary, Mister Sinister, Doctor Nemesis, and Dark Beast. However, Magneto instead picked out of the lineup the Sugar Man. From him, Magneto acquires the means to initiate his plan, and thanks him in true Magneto style where he leaves Sugar Man barely alive. In the present time, Magneto continues to use the very magnetic forces of the planet to aid him, yet that's more power than he could ever channel and very quickly began taking a deadly toll on him. As Polaris tries getting him to take a break because his plan is killing him too quickly, Magneto began thinking that he doesn't believe in resting even for a minute in his eternal war to protect everything he cares about. He recalls picking up the Sugar Man's power amplifiers and his powers go into hyper-drive and he starts having brain aneurysms. Flip to present day, Magneto sees the S.H.I.E.L.D. coming to his aid and grins. Magneto tells Polaris that their help won't be needed for much longer and she says she doesn't understand but quickly figures it out what her father meant as Magneto absorbs her power and says that it is his responsibility alone and that he couldn't let her die alongside him and that she still has something to offer the world. Magneto's powers then go nova as all the powers of the Earth's North and South Magnetic poles and all the bio-electric energies of the Earth are channelled through him and he reflects on his life role.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: As part of the "All-New, All-Different Marvel" branding, Magneto has been returned to life with no memories of his apparent demise. In the wake of the massive anti-mutant uprising, combined with the discovery that the Terrigen Mists that were spread in the atmosphere are harmful to mutants, Magneto has gathered together a team of mutants (consisting of Archangel, M, Psylocke, and Sabretooth) as his own X-Men in order to defend mutants at any cost.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: During the 2016 "Civil War II" storyline an Inhuman named Ulysses emerges who can "foresee the future". This divides the superhero community, including the X-Men, with one faction led by Carol Danvers believing that the perpetrators of future crimes indicated by Ulysses' visions should be arrested to prevent said crimes, while an opposing faction led by Iron Man believes this would violate individual civil liberties. Magneto and some of the X-Men side with Iron Man, while Storm and the other X-Men side with Danvers. After reaching Ulysses, Magneto asks him why he should not kill or capture him, and Ulysses shows him visions that lead to Magneto leaving Ulysses and New Attilan. It is later shown to be a ploy by Medusa to avoid conflict.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Following the 2016 "Inhumans vs. X-Men" storyline, Magneto is killed by Psylocke per their agreement that she do this if he was to ever regress back his previous megalomaniacal approach to protecting mutantkind. Upon being left for dead in the Savage Land, his body was found by Exodus and healed by Elixir. Following the conclusion of the war between Inhumans and X-Men, with Medusa unleashing the device to destroy the Terrigen Cloud permanently, he was temporarily beaten by a maddened Emma, who lied to the rest of the mutants about Cyclops' true death to trigger the war. He is later saved by Medusa and about to best Emma for her traitorous act, but Havok prevents him and Medusa from executing Emma for the sake of his late older brother.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the 2017 "Secret Empire" storyline, it is revealed that Magneto wants to help the time-displaced original X-Men back to their home timeline. Magneto was approached by Captain America whose memories were altered by Red Skull's clone using the powers of Kobik to cause Captain America to think that he was a Hydra sleeper agent. Captain America pitched an idea to Magneto that involved a piece of land in the western United States be granted to the mutants that would be their independent nation with the condition being that no inhabitant there would set foot on US soil. When Hydra takes over the United States, Magneto gives in to Captain America's deal. As a result, New Tian is formed somewhere in California and Magneto fakes his death so that he can hide out in Madripoor. At the time when Emma Frost meets with Hydra Supreme Steve Rogers the same time the resistances are fighting back Hydra, Magneto flies outside the Hydra Helicarrier and uses giant shards of metal to attack it.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: During the "Hunt for Wolverine" storyline, Kitty Pryde leads Domino, Jubilee, Psylocke, Rogue, and Storm to Madripoor when they suspect that Magneto has excavated Wolverine's body. When they meet with Magneto at the King's Impresario Restaurant in Hightown, they discover that Magneto is actually Mindblast in disguise as it was part of an ambush by Viper and the Femme Fatales. Magneto is shown to be a prisoner of Viper and the Femme Fatales where Mindblast and Sapphire Styx put Magneto in a weakened state. When Kitty Pryde destroyed the psychic-enhancement equipment on Mindblast's back, Magneto recovers and starts to take revenge on Mindblast until Kitty suggests he leaves her and helps to stop the rocket that will be sent to Soteira. Due to Magneto still recovering from what Mindblast put him through, Kitty Pryde was able to evacuate Rogue and Storm from the rocket. Then Kitty and Domino persuaded Magneto not to take revenge on Mindblast. Magneto spares Mindblast's life and leaves her as a gift for helping him to escape. While Magneto denied any knowledge of taking Wolverine's body, he works to destroy the launch site and purge Madripoor of Viper's criminal empire while also pursuing Viper.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Working with Charles Xavier and Moira X, Magneto helps establish the new sovereign mutant nation known as Krakoa. He is first seen at the Jerusalem Habitat, welcoming several ambassadors from several countries as the newly appointed Krakoan ambassador. He guides the group through several Habitats, then reveals that he is aware of their true nature of being potential plants within Krakoa. Although he claims that he is not threatening them, he tells them that they "have new gods now."


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: During the "Judgment Day" storyline, Magneto was on Arrako when Nightcrawler appeared to inform them about Destiny's vision of a war with the Eternals. Arrako was later attacked by Uranos the Undying where Magneto was one of his victims. It turns out that he was non-lethally impaled by Uranos' fists after briefly using the metal emitted from Lodus Lugos. After Uranos left, Magneto was still alive as he states that the "seat of loss takes command".


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: The primary application of his power is control over magnetism and the manipulation of both ferrous and indirectly nonferrous metal via metal ores they may contain. Magneto is also capable of creating powerful electromagnetic fields capable of moving and manipulating non-metallic objects, as well as levitating them (he can also do this via force fields). He can even perceive tachyons and a variety of antiparticles. While the maximum amount of mass he can manipulate at one time is unknown, he has moved large asteroids several times and effortlessly levitated a 30,000 ton nuclear submarine filled with sea water from the depths of the ocean. His powers extend into the atomic level (insofar as the electromagnetic force is responsible for chemical bonding), allowing him to manipulate chemical structures and rearrange matter, although this is often a strenuous task. He can manipulate a large number of individual objects simultaneously and has assembled complex machinery with his powers. He can also affect non-metallic and non-magnetic objects to a lesser extent. He can also generate electromagnetic pulses of great strength and generate and manipulate electromagnetic energy down to photons. He even uses the electromagnetic energy that surrounds earth to fly. He can turn invisible by warping visible light around his body. Another way in which Magneto frequently uses his power is the projection of force-fields which selectively block out matter and energy. These fields are strong enough to withstand the simultaneous detonation of multiple thermonuclear weapons, hence Magneto is invulnerable to most harm when surrounded by his shield and can survive in deep space thanks to it. He can also channel his powers through his own body to increase his strength and durability far beyond human limits and has a baseline reaction time 15 times faster than those of regular humans. On occasion he has altered the behavior of gravitational fields around him, which has been suggested as evidence of the existence of a unified field which he can manipulate. He has demonstrated the capacity to produce a wormhole and to safely teleport himself and others via the wormhole.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto has been frequently depicted as able to resist all but the strongest or most unexpected of telepathic attacks. A number of explanations have been proposed for his unusually strong resistance to telepathy, among them: (a) technology wired into his helmet (the explanation given in several comic plotlines), (b) some physical aspect of his electromagnetic powers that can interfere with telepathy (he once used the Earth's magnetic field to dampen the powers of all telepaths within his reach), (c) latent telepathic powers of his own or (d) sheer force of will (cf. "X-Men" #2). The theme of latent telepathic powers has been explored in a number of stories, among them the Secret Wars limited series. In some of his earliest appearances, Magneto was depicted as capable of engaging in astral projection. He has used Cerebro to locate mutants at great distances while leading the New Mutants. He has also, on rare occasions, been shown reading others' dreams, issuing telepathic commands, and probing the minds of others. He has demonstrated the ability to shield his mind, while in intense meditation, so completely that even Emma Frost was not able to read his thoughts, despite being directly in front of him and actively attempting to do so.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In addition to his powers, Magneto has many other skills. He is a genius with competence in various fields of advanced science, especially in genetic manipulation, particle physics, engineering, and other fields of technology. He has built advanced weaponry, space stations, superpowered humanoid lifeforms, and devices that generate volcanoes and earthquakes, block telepathy, and nullify all mutant powers across a few miles except for his own. He has promptly reconstructed such computerized devices from memory. He has bio-engineered new species including the Savage Land Mutates, and, using Deviant technology, Alpha the Ultimate Mutant. He is fluent in many human languages and once single-handedly deciphered the unknown language of a lost civilization. He possesses extraordinary skill in "reading" the microexpressions on others' faces and sensing what they are thinking and feeling, whether they are lying, fearful, etc. a skill which he refers to as "taking your enemy's measure". He also is a master strategist and tactician with extensive combat experience, and has often been successful in single-handed combat against entire groups of superhuman adversaries. He also has some military training in hand-to-hand combat and has been shown to be effective with his fists, but he prefers to use his powers when in combat situations.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: David Harth of "CBR.com" called Magneto the "X-Men's most iconic villain," writing, "Tragedy molded Magneto into one of the most well-developed Marvel villains of all time. He's also one of the most popular, which is why he's reformed multiple times in the past. Few villains have had the same effect on the Marvel Universe as Magneto, and he's changed the way fans perceive antagonists." "IGN" asserted, "Magneto has become bigger than his peers and virtually all of his enemies. It's the sign of a great character when his presence dominates a story and his absence creates a vacuum that cannot be filled by any other. Through his legendary role in Marvel Comics over the years as well as fantastic portrayals in film and animation, it's hard to argue that there has ever been a villain more complex, nuanced, sympathetic and yet irrevocably evil."


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: According to Diamond Comic Distributors, "Magneto" #1 was the 19th best selling comic book in March 2014.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Eric Diaz of "Nerdist" called "Magneto" #1 "tight, disturbing and even managed to be funny at times," asserting, "Of all the classic super villains in the Marvel and DC universes, Magneto is the easiest sell as an ongoing series, simply because on some level we all sympathize with him. You couldn’t really do a Dr. Doom series, or a Joker series (both have been tried, both didn’t really work), and have it connect with an audience in the same way, but Magneto is an entirely different animal. So far, Marvel seems to be off a great start with this one, and this is definitely a book worth checking out." Mat Elfring of "ComicVine" gave "Magneto" #1 a grade of 5 out of 5 stars, saying, " The majority of the time, when a member of the X-Men gets their own solo book, it lacks purpose and direction. It feels like a cash grab, waiting to fizzle out into cancellation. "Magneto" is a book with a purpose and it feels right. This first issue really sticks with the reader because of the tone and it blew me away. This book has a very talented writing and art team behind it. This first issue really grabs you, and while there are a few small problems, like what's going on with Mangeto's powers and it being tough to swallow that Magneto is a bit of a Punisher archetype, the overall book is still fantastic."


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: According to Diamond Comic Distributors, "X-Men Black: Magneto" #1 was the 31st best selling comic book in October 2018.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Jamie Lovett of "Comicbook.com" gave "X-Men Black: Magneto" #1 a grade of 3 out of 5, writing, "Chris Claremont has a talent for filling in every corner of a character's personality, and that talent is on display in X-Men Black: Magneto, where we learn about Magneto's appreciation for speculative fiction, but his actual characterization of Magneto feels all over the place. The current metaplot of the X-Men line has sent Magneto on a fresh villain turn which Claremont seems forced to adhere to. But he seems to be resisting it as well, piling on justifications for every thought and action Magneto takes, painting a picture of Magneto that feels both incomplete and contradictory. The story also has at least one child who talks like a post-graduate thesis too many. Lonnie Nadler and Zac Thompson's backup story centering on Apocalypse is more interesting. As the opening chapter in a story that will continue throughout X-Men Black, it's just enough to whet your appetite, but Nadler and Thompson's take on classic archvillain Apocalypse, Geraldo Borges' artwork, and the hook that reveals itself at the twist at the chapter's end will have readers intrigued." Matt Lune of "CBR.com" said, ""X-Men Black: Magneto" #1 gives us two stories, and each have their merits. In the main story, Claremont and Talajic provide an interesting character focus that, while not necessarily breaking any new ground, reinforces Magneto’s situation and pushes him forward with a new objective and a potential new character or two. Meanwhile, Thompson, Nadler and Borges’ Apocalypse backup puts the villain back on the table in a fresh way that will be interesting to watch moving forward. We may be in a brief limbo with regards to the "X-Men" line, but "X-Men Black" has started in a strong way that shouldn’t be readily dismissed."


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the alternative history of 1602, Magneto is known as Enrique, or the Grand Inquisitor, his true agenda a mystery. Born a Jew in the Venice Ghetto, he was taken in by a Christian priest and baptized. The Christians later refused to let him return to his Jewish family, saying that giving him back to the 'Christ-killers' would damn his soul to Hell.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Being unable to reunite with his family left him psychologically scarred. When he grew up he became the leader of the Spanish Inquisition, and oversaw the Inquisition from Domdaniel. He was ordered to execute the witchbreed, but hid those who could pass off as normal. Enrique's only known followers are his children Petros and Sister Wanda (Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, who are unaware of their parentage. Enrique is, and chooses not to tell them), and his spy in the Vatican, Toad. Enrique uses his position to further his needs and curry favor with influential figures, including King James of Scotland; towards this end, he has all 'witchbreed' killed.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: While Enrique is attempting to have Angel killed, the witchbreed is rescued by Iceman and Cyclops. This does not deter Enrique, who continues on his path until Toad is discovered to be a witchbreed by the Pope's men, and to save his own life he sells out Enrique, Petros and Wanda. The trio are set to be sacrificed, but Enrique escapes and pursues many of the other heroes to America. However, the New World is under the threat of impending doom, and Richard Reed determines that to restore balance, Enrique has to co-operate.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: With the help of Nick Fury and Thor, Enrique participates in the restoring of the world. He then tells his enemy, Carlos Javier, to train Petros and Wanda.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the reality of the Age of Apocalypse, Magneto founded Earth-295's X-Men after the death of his friend Charles Xavier, at the hands of Xavier's own son David who traveled back in time to kill Magneto hoping to fulfill his "father's greatest wish".


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: He and the X-Men fight against the forces of this world's Apocalypse who, having been wakened early by the battle between David and Magneto, was able to take over North America in the absence of Xavier's interference. Holocaust, Sinister, Mikhail Rasputin and Abyss are Apocalypse's horsemen, and while Magneto's team is composed not only of X-Men but also of standard "evil" mutants from traditional timelines, including mutants such as Sabretooth, other individuals who are "heroes" in Earth-616 serve Apocalypse in this timeline.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In this timeline, Magneto is married to his former protégé Rogue, and being able to touch due to his magnetic mastery over his own bio-aura, are able to have a son together who they name Charles, in honor of Xavier. Magneto and Charles are later personally captured by Apocalypse himself, though they are rescued by Rogue and the other X-Men, including Nate Grey, who raid Apocalypse's citadel in a desperate final attempt to save all of reality from M'Kraan crystallization.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: As the X-Men use the M'Kraan Crystal to send Bishop back in time to return the timeline to its proper course, Magneto and Nate Grey square off in one last fight against Apocalypse and Holocaust. Nate Grey jams the original fragment of the M'Kraan Crystal into Holocaust, crystallizing them both, while the battle between Magneto and Apocalypse ends with Magneto using his control of magnetism to rip the techno-organic Apocalypse in half. Following this, Manhattan Island and most of North America are enveloped in nuclear bombs.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: It is later revealed that the day was saved by Jean Grey, who manifested the Phoenix Force at the point of near-death.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: However, nobody realizes this, and everyone assumes it is Magneto, who immediately becomes a reluctant hero to a grateful humanity. The X-Men then help rebuild America in record time, and Magneto is made Federal Director of Mutant Affairs of the government of the newly restored United States of America, with the X-Men deputized as a mutant police force sanctioned to bring to justice the remaining survivors of Apocalypse's regime. Just as the burden of maintaining the deception eventually begins to take its toll on an extremely stressed Magneto, he is secretly visited by Mister Sinister (who everyone has assumed to have been killed by X-Man), who reveals to him just what really happened when the bombs fell. Sinister offers his silence in exchange for Magneto's promises not to go looking for him and to let him have the body of Jean Grey, who is actually still alive. Magneto is forced to accept for the sake of preserving the current fragile peace of global mutant-human relations, which had improved primarily due to the general public's mistaken assumption that he had personally saved the world by singlehandedly stopping nuclear armageddon. A subsequent scheme of revenge orchestrated by an embittered former X-Man later forces Magneto to confess the truth to the rest of the shocked team of X-Men. He is nearly killed by an enraged Weapon X, but is saved by the intervention of his wife. The X-Men then proceed to stop Sinister from conquering the world using his own version of the Sinister Six (which consisted of brainwashed mutants, including this world's version of Dark Phoenix) in a violent confrontation filled with many deaths, including those of both Gambit and Quicksilver. Grief-stricken and guilt-ridden, Magneto then voluntarily goes into U.S. government custody as penance for his deception. While in jail awaiting trial, Magneto appoints a restored Jean Grey as the new leader of the X-Men in his absence.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the Amalgam Comics universe, Erik Magnus is a heroic defender of Metamutants, leading his Brotherhood to save and protect them. After Sentinels created by Magneto's villainous brother Will slaughter his Brotherhood, the heartbroken Erik uses Will's own technology (combined with his power over magnetism) to create a team of "Magnetic Men", each one formed from a different metal, and imbued with the personalities of his fallen comrades.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In this possible future, when Sentinels rule North America, Magneto is in a wheelchair and, like the rest of the surviving X-Men save Wolverine, held in a mutant concentration camp, his powers suppressed by an inhibitor collar. It is implied but never stated that he devised the X-Men's plan to escape from the camp and send Kate Pryde's spirit back through time. When Franklin Richards is able to disable the inhibitors and the other X-Men flee the camp, Magneto stays behind to cover their escape and is presumably killed by the Sentinels.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto and his Brotherhood of Mutants allied with Doctor Doom, Hulk, Namor, Red Skull, and Ultron in a plot to take over Manhattan. Magneto was defeated by Mockingbird.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In Earth X, Magneto resides in Sentinel City, a city he constructed after drawing all the Sentinels to the Savage Land and using the extra forces there, destroying all the sentinels and turning them into a city. He rules there with Toad.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: After the Celestial is removed from the Earth, the resulting shifts due to the removal of the vibranium within the Earth shifts the magnetic poles such that Magneto is depowered and Toad is given all of Magneto's powers. Toad forces Magneto to constantly dance and humiliates him at every opportunity by forcing him to become a Jester. When the vibranium is restored, Magneto's powers are restored as well. Magneto then joins the other heroes in the fight against Creel.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the "Exiles" comics, an alternative good version of Magneto living on Earth-27 falls in love with Rogue. Magneto uses his powers to alter Rogue's DNA so they can touch and kiss. They have a child together, a son whom they name Magnus, who has both his magnetic powers and a white streak in his auburn hair. Magnus quickly shows the potential to be an even more powerful master of magnetism than his father. Unfortunately, during his teens, Magnus develops his second mutation, which turns anyone touched by his skin into immobile steel, never dying. Like his mother he cannot touch anyone. Magnus lives a lonely life, and is eventually forced to join the Exiles, a group of alternative reality mutants forced to repair broken realities. The Exiles first mission involves a reality where all superpowered individuals have been either exterminated or imprisoned. They are instructed to save the one individual who can save this broken reality. They mistakenly release a totally evil and depraved version of Professor Xavier who uses his mental powers without remorse or mercy. Magnus dies on the team's mission after giving his life to stop a bomb set by the leader of high security prison. Later the Exiles learn that Magnus' corpse is trapped inside the Crystal Palace. They free it and return it to his homeworld, where Magnus is buried by his parents.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the reality of Marvel Zombies, Magneto and his Acolytes were a few of the survivors following a plague that caused an undead-like effect in "super-powered beings". It is revealed in that he and Fabian Cortez made a deal with an unknown entity from another universe to damage the Earth to let mutants become the dominant force. Though they believe it is the zombie Sentry, the zombified Reed Richards later hypothesizes that it was with an entirely different universe unrelated to the zombie plague and that Sentry's arrival was a coincidence misleading Magneto into believing he had led to the Earth' ruin. Regretful that he has doomed the entire planet and his Acolytes either dead or having retreated to Asteroid M, Magneto returns to earth to help any non-infected beings left. He eventually hides out with a small group of human survivors, a female cop, a lone father and his daughter. He saves Reed Richards of the Ultimate Universe from the Zombies and brings him to their hideout, a subway station. Magneto acknowledges the irony of working with normal humans, but believing that "Beggars can't be choosers when you're down to the last few people alive". Magneto learns the zombified Fantastic Four of his reality had tricked Reed, in a plan to allow the zombies to cross to Reed's universe for more victims. Reed and Magneto work together, first getting diabetic medicine for the young girl, then taking the civilians back to the dimensional teleporter that Reed had emerged from, although they require the aid of the rest of the Fantastic Four to do so (Magneto is the first person outside of the team to explicitly refer to the Ultimate Universe's Fantastic Four as 'superheroes'). After Richards escapes with all three of the civilian survivors and his teammates, Magneto stays behind, not wanting to die but acknowledging that he is the only one capable of destroying Richards' dimensional transporter so that the zombies won't infect Earth-1610.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto destroys the device and flees from the zombies. He is contacted by the Acolytes in Asteroid M, who offer to send a shuttle down; Magneto, however, refuses to let them risk infection, and says that he will find a way up to them somehow. As the battle with the zombies takes place, Magneto decapitates the zombie Hawkeye with Colonel America's shield. He attempts to decapitate the Colonel as well but only succeeds in slicing off the top half of Colonel America's brain. The latter becomes very annoyed at this, demanding double rations when Magneto is caught. Magneto is soon confronted by more zombie hordes, whom he only destroys but with little success as result of them being undead, and prepares for a final showdown. He drops many of them with a rain of metallic debris, but is swiftly bitten by the zombie Wasp. Magneto is pounced upon and devoured before turning, his last words being ""I hope you choke on me"!" just as Thor and Hulk tear him in two as the rest of the group descends upon him.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In Marvel Zombies 2, a group known as the "Acolytes" established a cult to Magneto in New Wakanda. In Marvel Zombies vs. Age of Ultron Magneto is revealed to have become a zombie. Magneto is transformed into a robot zombie hybrid.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the Mutant X universe, Magneto is leader of the X-Men, just as he was for a time in the mainstream Earth-616 universe. Several of the X-Men, however, feel that he has strayed from Professor X's dream and split off to form a separate mutant team, the Six.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: On Earth-807128 during the "Old Man Logan" storyline, Magneto was among the villains that united to take down each of the superheroes. Hawkeye later mentioned to Old Man Logan that he and Absorbing Man killed Thor. He ruled a section of the Western United States until was weakened by old age enough to be killed by the new Kingpin. A flashback revealed that he took down Hawkeye's group of Avengers with help from the Thunderbolts who were coerced by Baron Helmut Zemo. After reluctantly killing Scarlet Witch, Magneto covered this up to Baron Zemo by stating that he did not kill Scarlet Witch.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In "Powerless" (which takes place in a world without superpowers), Magneto appears as a middle-aged American senator named Eric Magnus. He is involved with a shadowy government conspiracy involving mentally conditioned assassins, and is ultimately killed by Logan after arranging the death of Charles Xavier.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Warren Ellis's "Ruins" is a two-part parody of "Marvels" where the circumstances that gave the normal Marvel Universe's heroes their powers instead led to more realistic effects causing horrific deformities and deaths. The version of Magneto seen in "Ruins" is shown as a demonstrator protesting the corrupt regime of President Charles Xavier. His powers are uncontrollable, causing him to wear a magnetic-dampening harness around his chest. When a government agent pushes him aside and breaks the device, Magneto unwillingly brings destruction to an airport and kills the agent with a massive neural hemorrhage brought on by intense electromagnets. He meets his end when a plane gets magnetised towards him, killing many in the process.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the Ultimate Marvel comics, Magneto, a.k.a. Erik Lehnsherr's background differs greatly from his mainstream history. He has given contradictory accounts of his past; he once told Cyclops how his entire family had died in a large scale genocide (this could indicate a similar origin as the main continuity Magneto, only that he was a descendant of Shoah survivors, not a Shoah survivor himself), but he also claimed to come from a rich family with whom he no longer spoke; although it is possible the family he mentioned at that point was an adopted family, rather than his true family. In "Ultimate Origins" #3, it is revealed that his parents were Weapon X agents, and that he was responsible for their deaths. His wife's name was Isabelle (whom he still possibly loves), and is aware from the beginning of his familial relationship with Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. It is also noted that he verbally mistreats them, hinting that he regards them as a living reminder of having an inter-species relationship. An arrogant fantasist who gradually sank deeper and deeper into his self-proclaimed role as Mutant Messiah, Erik Lehnsherr eventually reinvented himself as Magneto, the leader of the Brotherhood of Mutants and a ruthless terrorist who is willing to kill hundreds in the name of mutant supremacy. Additionally, he was the one to cripple Professor X.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In addition, Magneto helped Xavier to create the Savage Land, using his knowledge of technology and genetics. He created an artificial language called Epsilon-Omega, based on Esperanto and featuring its own script, for mutants to use in the Savage Land, as a rejection of human languages. They even have plays, poetry and songs in this language.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: This version of Magneto is significantly darker and more cynical than the mainstream version, regarding all humans with utter and unwavering disdain and likening them to "insects". On several occasions, he has attempted to implement unflinchingly genocidal plans for humanity. More than once, dialogue refers to him actually consuming the flesh of human beings as he literally considers them to be animals. He commands a noticeably larger Brotherhood than his mainstream counterpart and has displayed enough power to defeat the Ultimates (even Thor, a literal god, on two occasions by taking his hammer). However, Magneto does believe that humanity has done some good things as is shown in his appreciation for art, especially that of René Magritte. Magneto was imprisoned in a special plastic cell in the Triskelion following the events of "Return of the King", the sixth arc in the series. Aside from a brief mention in the "Ultimate Six" arc of Ultimate Spider-Man, he was then unseen until "Magnetic North", the 12th arc and the final run for writer Brian K. Vaughan. Magneto was found to have hatched a scheme to escape, utilizing the willing cooperation of Forge and Mystique as well as the unknowing but amicable aid of Longshot's mutation for luck.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Magneto escapes by the end of the arc, leaving Mystique in his cell to impersonate him. He and Longshot then exit the Triskelion unharassed and Magneto makes it clear to Longshot that he has something different planned than any of his more typical world-domination schemes.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Most recently, Magneto has shown up in the "Aftermath", following the death of Charles Xavier. Magneto has apparently freed Forge from prison and there are signs that he is building something. Exactly where he is hiding is still unknown, but with Charles Xavier's death he now believes it's time to speed up his plan. He takes pleasure knowing his former friend is dead (unaware that he is in fact alive and was simply transported into the future). He has a close relationship with Mystique, and arranged for her to be freed from the Triskelion by having Mastermind take her place. He has also apparently established a mutant commune. He appears in Ultimates 3 along with the Brotherhood members Mystique, Blob, Sabretooth, Lorelei, and Multiple Man). They attack the Ultimates Mansion so he can talk to Quicksilver about re-joining the Brotherhood and retrieve Wanda's body. Magneto appeared in "Ultimate Spider-Man" and revealed that the Blob is Liz Allan's father. He tried to recruit her into the Brotherhood.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the crossover event "Ultimatum", Magneto uses Thor's hammer with his magnetic powers to cause worldwide devastation, flooding New York, freezing Doctor Doom's country and a portion of Europe, causing eruptions of volcanoes and earthquakes in other locations. He also uses an army of suicide bombers composed of Jamie Madrox duplicates, mind-controlled by Lorelei. His army blows up the Academy of Tomorrow, including everyone inside, and the European Defense League. The suicide bombers also try to blow the Triskelion. Thanks to the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, Carol Danvers, and Iron Man, as well as timely assistance by Clint Barton and Hank Pym's sacrifice, they fail to blow up the SH.I.E.L.D. base.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Because of Magneto's actions the surviving Ultimates (Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Valkyrie, and Hulk) and some of the X-Men (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Storm, Wolverine, and Colossus) travel to Magneto's floating home and after a fight. Angel is killed by Sabretooth and Wolverine is killed when Magneto removed the adamantium from his body after controlling Cyclops' visors and Iron Man's lasers to shoot him. Then soon after, Nick Fury arrives. Due to Jean Grey's abilities to connect minds together, Magneto learns the truth about mutants: they were created accidentally by some scientific experiments and not by God's wish. Upon learning of this truth, Magneto pleads mercy from Cyclops, stating that Xavier would have done so, but Cyclops disintegrates Magneto's head with an optic blast. Following the worldwide devastation caused by Magneto, the American government brings in new anti-mutant laws.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Recently, Magneto has resurfaced in Egypt alive where he is being worshipped as a God. Whilst doing this, he is instructing Wanda how best to ensure the protection of mutants. However, they are revealed to be illusions by Mister Sinister and Apocalypse.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: In the second issue of the "X-Men: Fairy Tales" limited series, based on the African story The Friendship of the Tortoise and the Eagle, Magneto appears as the eagle, alongside Professor X as the tortoise. Magneto/eagle has witnessed his family's slaughter when he was young, and had to teach himself to fly and survive. He has many 'demons' of his past that continue to haunt him, although while he is with his friend, Professor X/tortoise, they fade. When they come back to haunt him, he no longer believes in the friendship, thinking himself a danger to those around him.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: He also appears in the Japanese story of The little peach boy in which he and his children are demons who have taken over a town. They are defeated by the peach boy (Cyclops) and animals that resemble other X-Men: Beast, Angel, and Iceman.


title: Magneto (Marvel Comics)

text: Eric Magnus is a Chief of Detectives in the New York City Homicide Department, a firm believer in eugenics, and leader of the secret society that rules over most organized crime in the city, the Brotherhood. His son, Peter, a former track star, has just joined Homicide, and his daughter, Wanda, is a local socialite who started a relationship with reporter Tom Calloway. Magnus appears to owe most of his success to Sebastian Shaw, the latter stating that the months of practice it took Magnus to lose his eastern European accent is the only thing that Magnus didn't get from him. Magnus's last name is revealed to be Magnisky, which the Ellis Island agent misheard as Magnus. He is currently seeking out Anna-Marie Rankin on behalf of Shaw so that they may use her against "Unus the Untouchable", a crime boss and enemy of Shaw and Magnus.


title: Mesoamerica

text: Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica. Within this region pre-Columbian societies flourished for more than 3,000 years before the Spanish colonization of the Americas. Mesoamerica was the site of two of the most profound historical transformations in world history: primary urban generation, and the formation of New World cultures out of the long encounters among indigenous, European, African and Asian cultures.


title: Mesoamerica

text: In the 16th century, Eurasian diseases such as smallpox and measles, which were endemic among the colonists but new to North America, caused the deaths of upwards of 90% of the indigenous people, resulting in great losses to their societies and cultures. Mesoamerica is one of the five areas in the world where ancient civilization arose independently (see cradle of civilization), and the second in the Americas. Norte Chico (Caral-Supe) in present-day Peru, arose as an independent civilization in the northern coastal region.


title: Mesoamerica

text: As a cultural area, Mesoamerica is defined by a mosaic of cultural traits developed and shared by its indigenous cultures. Beginning as early as 7000 BCE, the domestication of cacao, maize, beans, tomato, avocado, vanilla, squash and chili, as well as the turkey and dog, resulted in a transition from paleo-Indian hunter-gatherer tribal groupings to the organization of sedentary agricultural villages. In the subsequent Formative period, agriculture and cultural traits such as a complex mythological and religious tradition, a vigesimal numeric system, a complex calendric system, a tradition of ball playing, and a distinct architectural style, were diffused through the area. Also in this period, villages began to become socially stratified and develop into chiefdoms. Large ceremonial centers were built, interconnected by a network of trade routes for the exchange of luxury goods, such as obsidian, jade, cacao, cinnabar, "Spondylus" shells, hematite, and ceramics. While Mesoamerican civilization knew of the wheel and basic metallurgy, neither of these became technologically relevant.


title: Mesoamerica

text: Among the earliest complex civilizations was the Olmec culture, which inhabited the Gulf Coast of Mexico and extended inland and southwards across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Frequent contact and cultural interchange between the early Olmec and other cultures in Chiapas, Oaxaca and Guatemala laid the basis for the Mesoamerican cultural area. All this was facilitated by considerable regional communications in ancient Mesoamerica, especially along the Pacific coast.


title: Mesoamerica

text: During this formative period distinct religious and symbolic traditions spread, as well as the development of artistic and architectural complexes. In the subsequent Preclassic period, complex urban polities began to develop among the Maya, with the rise of centers such as Aguada fénix and Calakmul in Mexico; El Mirador, and Tikal in Guatemala, and the Zapotec at Monte Albán. During this period, the first true Mesoamerican writing systems were developed in the Epi-Olmec and the Zapotec cultures. The Mesoamerican writing tradition reached its height in the Classic Maya logosyllabic script.


title: Mesoamerica

text: Mesoamerica is one of only six regions of the world where writing is known to have independently developed (the others being ancient Egypt, Peru, India, Sumer, and China). In Central Mexico, the city of Teotihuacan ascended at the height of the Classic period; it formed a military and commercial empire whose political influence stretched south into the Maya area and northward. Upon the collapse of Teotihuacán around 600 AD, competition between several important political centers in central Mexico, such as Xochicalco and Cholula, ensued. At this time during the Epi-Classic period, the Nahua peoples began moving south into Mesoamerica from the North, and became politically and culturally dominant in central Mexico, as they displaced speakers of Oto-Manguean languages.


title: Mesoamerica

text: During the early post-Classic period, Central Mexico was dominated by the Toltec culture, and Oaxaca by the Mixtec. The lowland Maya area had important centers at Chichén Itzá and Mayapán. Towards the end of the post-Classic period, the Aztecs of Central Mexico built a tributary empire covering most of central Mesoamerica.


title: Mesoamerica

text: The distinct Mesoamerican cultural tradition ended with the Spanish conquest in the 16th century. Over the next centuries, Mesoamerican indigenous cultures were gradually subjected to Spanish colonial rule. Aspects of the Mesoamerican cultural heritage still survive among the indigenous peoples who inhabit Mesoamerica. Many continue to speak their ancestral languages, and maintain many practices harking back to their Mesoamerican roots.


title: Mesoamerica

text: The term "Mesoamerica" literally means "middle America" in Greek. Middle America often refers to a larger area in the Americas, but it has also previously been used more narrowly to refer to Mesoamerica. An example is the title of the 16 volumes of "The Handbook of Middle American Indians". "Mesoamerica" is broadly defined as the area that is home to the Mesoamerican civilization, which comprises a group of peoples with close cultural and historical ties. The exact geographic extent of Mesoamerica has varied through time, as the civilization extended North and South from its heartland in southern Mexico.


title: Mesoamerica

text: The term was first used by the German ethnologist Paul Kirchhoff, who noted that similarities existed among the various pre-Columbian cultures within the region that included southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, western Honduras, and the Pacific lowlands of Nicaragua and northwestern Costa Rica. In the tradition of cultural history, the prevalent archaeological theory of the early to middle 20th century, Kirchhoff defined this zone as a cultural area based on a suite of interrelated cultural similarities brought about by millennia of inter- and intra-regional interaction (i.e., diffusion). Mesoamerica is recognized as a near-prototypical cultural area. This term is now fully integrated in the standard terminology of pre-Columbian anthropological studies. Conversely, the sister terms Aridoamerica and Oasisamerica, which refer to northern Mexico and the western United States, respectively, have not entered into widespread usage.


title: Mesoamerica

text: Located on the Middle American isthmus joining North and South America between "ca." 10° and 22° northern latitude, Mesoamerica possesses a complex combination of ecological systems, topographic zones, and environmental contexts. These different niches are classified into two broad categories: the lowlands (those areas between sea level and 1000 meters) and the "altiplanos", or highlands (situated between 1,000 and 2,000 meters above sea level). In the low-lying regions, sub-tropical and tropical climates are most common, as is true for most of the coastline along the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. The highlands show much more climatic diversity, ranging from dry tropical to cold mountainous climates; the dominant climate is temperate with warm temperatures and moderate rainfall. The rainfall varies from the dry Oaxaca and north Yucatán to the humid southern Pacific and Caribbean lowlands.


title: Mesoamerica

text: Several distinct sub-regions within Mesoamerica are defined by a convergence of geographic and cultural attributes. These sub-regions are more conceptual than culturally meaningful, and the demarcation of their limits is not rigid. The Maya area, for example, can be divided into two general groups: the lowlands and highlands. The lowlands are further divided into the southern and northern Maya lowlands. The southern Maya lowlands are generally regarded as encompassing northern Guatemala, southern Campeche and Quintana Roo in Mexico, and Belize. The northern lowlands cover the remainder of the northern portion of the Yucatán Peninsula. Other areas include Central Mexico, West Mexico, the Gulf Coast Lowlands, Oaxaca, the Southern Pacific Lowlands, and Southeast Mesoamerica (including northern Honduras).


title: Mesoamerica

text: There is extensive topographic variation in Mesoamerica, ranging from the high peaks circumscribing the Valley of Mexico and within the central Sierra Madre mountains to the low flatlands of the northern Yucatán Peninsula. The tallest mountain in Mesoamerica is Pico de Orizaba, a dormant volcano located on the border of Puebla and Veracruz. Its peak elevation is 5,636 m (18,490 ft).


title: Mesoamerica

text: The Sierra Madre mountains, which consist of several smaller ranges, run from northern Mesoamerica south through Costa Rica. The chain is historically volcanic. In central and southern Mexico, a portion of the Sierra Madre chain is known as the Eje Volcánico Transversal, or the Trans-Mexican volcanic belt. There are 83 inactive and active volcanoes within the Sierra Madre range, including 11 in Mexico, 37 in Guatemala, 23 in El Salvador, 25 in Nicaragua, and 3 in northwestern Costa Rica. According to the Michigan Technological University, 16 of these are still active. The tallest active volcano is Popocatépetl at 5,452 m (17,887 ft). This volcano, which retains its Nahuatl name, is located 70 km (43 mi) southeast of Mexico City. Other volcanoes of note include Tacana on the Mexico–Guatemala border, Tajumulco and Santamaría in Guatemala, Izalco in El Salvador, Arenal in Costa Rica, and Concepción and Maderas on Ometepe, which is an island formed by both volcanoes rising out of Lake Cocibolca in Nicaragua.


title: Mesoamerica

text: One important topographic feature is the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a low plateau that breaks up the Sierra Madre chain between the Sierra Madre del Sur to the north and the Sierra Madre de Chiapas to the south. At its highest point, the Isthmus is 224 m (735 ft) above mean sea level. This area also represents the shortest distance between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean in Mexico. The distance between the two coasts is roughly 200 km (120 mi). The northern side of the Isthmus is swampy and covered in dense jungle—but the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, as the lowest and most level point within the Sierra Madre mountain chain, was nonetheless a main transportation, communication, and economic route within Mesoamerica.


title: Mesoamerica

text: Outside of the northern Maya lowlands, rivers are common throughout Mesoamerica. Some of the more important ones served as loci of human occupation in the area. The longest river in Mesoamerica is the Usumacinta, which forms in Guatemala at the convergence of the Salinas or Chixoy and La Pasion River and runs north for 970 km (600 mi)—480 km (300 mi) of which are navigable—eventually draining into the Gulf of Mexico. Other rivers of note include the Rio Grande de Santiago, the Grijalva River, the Motagua River, the Ulúa River, and the Hondo River. The northern Maya lowlands, especially the northern portion of the Yucatán peninsula, are notable for their nearly complete lack of rivers (largely due to the absolute lack of topographic variation). Additionally, no lakes exist in the northern peninsula. The main source of water in this area is aquifers that are accessed through natural surface openings called cenotes.


title: Mesoamerica

text: With an area of 8,264 km (3,191 sq mi), Lake Nicaragua is the largest lake in Mesoamerica. Lake Chapala is Mexico's largest freshwater lake, but Lake Texcoco is perhaps most well known as the location upon which Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire, was founded. Lake Petén Itzá, in northern Guatemala, is notable as where the last independent Maya city, Tayasal (or Noh Petén), held out against the Spanish until 1697. Other large lakes include Lake Atitlán, Lake Izabal, Lake Güija, Lemoa, and Lake Managua.


title: Mesoamerica

text: Almost all ecosystems are present in Mesoamerica; the more well known are the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, the second largest in the world, and La Mosquitia (consisting of the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, Tawahka Asangni, Patuca National Park, and Bosawas Biosphere Reserve) a rainforest second in size in the Americas only to the Amazonas. The highlands present mixed and coniferous forest. The biodiversity is among the richest in the world, though the number of species in the red list of the IUCN grows every year.


title: Mesoamerica

text: The history of human occupation in Mesoamerica is divided into stages or periods. These are known, with slight variation depending on region, as the Paleo-Indian, the Archaic, the Preclassic (or Formative), the Classic, and the Postclassic. The last three periods, representing the core of Mesoamerican cultural fluorescence, are further divided into two or three sub-phases. Most of the time following the arrival of the Spanish in the 16th century is classified as the Colonial period.


title: Mesoamerica

text: The differentiation of early periods (i.e., up through the end of the Late Preclassic) generally reflects different configurations of socio-cultural organization that are characterized by increasing socio-political complexity, the adoption of new and different subsistence strategies, and changes in economic organization (including increased interregional interaction). The Classic period through the Postclassic are differentiated by the cyclical crystallization and fragmentation of the various political entities throughout Mesoamerica.


title: Mesoamerica

text: The Mesoamerican Paleo-Indian period precedes the advent of agriculture and is characterized by a nomadic hunting and gathering subsistence strategy. Big-game hunting, similar to that seen in contemporaneous North America, was a large component of the subsistence strategy of the Mesoamerican Paleo-Indian. These sites had obsidian blades and Clovis-style fluted projectile points.


title: Mesoamerica

text: The Archaic period (8000–2000 BCE) is characterized by the rise of incipient agriculture in Mesoamerica. The initial phases of the Archaic involved the cultivation of wild plants, transitioning into informal domestication and culminating with sedentism and agricultural production by the close of the period. Transformations of natural environments have been a common feature at least since the mid Holocene. Archaic sites include "Sipacate" in Escuintla, Guatemala, where maize pollen samples date to c. 3500 BCE.


title: Mesoamerica

text: The first complex civilization to develop in Mesoamerica was that of the Olmec, who inhabited the gulf coast region of Veracruz throughout the Preclassic period. The main sites of the Olmec include San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, La Venta, and Tres Zapotes. Specific dates vary, but these sites were occupied from roughly 1200 to 400 BCE. Remains of other early cultures interacting with the Olmec have been found at Takalik Abaj, Izapa, and Teopantecuanitlan, and as far south as in Honduras. Research in the Pacific Lowlands of Chiapas and Guatemala suggest that Izapa and the Monte Alto Culture may have preceded the Olmec. Radiocarbon samples associated with various sculptures found at the Late Preclassic site of Izapa suggest a date of between 1800 and 1500 BCE.