Forum: scifi.stackexchange.com
Tags: <marvel><x-men>
Title: Is Magneto's power magnetism or can he manipulate all metals?
Question: I just watched the third movie and humanity ends up using plastic to counter Magneto.   That made me wonder why they didn't use non magnetic metals?  Is he able to manipulate non magnetic metals and has this been used against him?  Similar to how Storm can make mist or sunny weather, but being called 'Weather' would be less strong sounding than 'Storm'.

Answers:
sents: text: Magneto controls magnetic fields to a ludicrous degree .
text: In the comics, this has been extended to the point of knocking people unconscious by slowing/stopping the flow of iron to their brains.
text: He cannot control non-ferrous (non-magnetic) metals.
text: This HAS been used against him, notably in the construction of the later-stage Sentinels, which were made of non-ferrous metal and plastic.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/656/Jeff
score: 51
sents: text: Most of the common metals used today, are magnetic to some degree.
text: Iron, Aluminum, Copper, Titanium, Chromium, you name it.
text: So having magnetic powers does give you power over most of metal-based objects.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/947/apoorv020
score: 15
sents: text: Yes!
text: In the original X-Men comics Magneto was able to throw lightning bolts!
text: In the sixth X-Men comic Magneto made a mental version of himself out of pure magnetic energy.
text: Just like how Professor X can create a mental version of himself with his mind.
text: Magneto's power is to control electromagnetic energy, not metal.
text: In the first movie when Storm said she was going to fry him, instead of using his brain he could have just put a magnetic field around himself.
text: In the second movie, when Magneto was in that room made without metal, he could have just blasted that plastic gate open with electromagnetic force.
text: And in the third movie he could have just crushed those plastic cure guns by putting a magnetic field around the guns and crushing them.
text: I know that because I read the X-Men comics from 1963 written by Stan Lee and illustrated by Jack Kirby.
text: You should do the same if you want to know about Magneto.
text: But I do think the guy who played Magneto in the movies was great.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/2587/cosmos
score: 6
sents: text: Magneto has control/power over both magnetic fields and metal.
text: Toward the end of the first half hour of X-Men (released in 2000), as Charles Xavier is talking to Logan about what the school is, Xavier reveals his history with Magneto thus : When I was seventeen I met a young man named Erik Lehnsherr.
text: He, too, had an unusual power.
text: He could create magnetic fields and control metal.
text: Believing that humanity would never accept us, he...
text: he grew angry and vengeful.
text: He became Magneto.
text: This at least is his explained power set in the X-Men Movie Universe.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/383/Eight Days of Malaise
score: 3
sents: text: I think being called "The Master of Magnetism" is pretty clear.
text: Magnetism has been extended to all electromagnetism, so he should be able to throw lightning bolts too if he wanted to(ie.
text: his electrical looking shield he uses sometimes).
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/2556/aVeRTRAC
score: 1
sents: text: Well I believe his power is defined as being able to create magnetic fields.
text: But in both the movies and the comics, there are moments when he is able to manipulate metals that are questionable as to being magnetic or not.
text: So I don't really know, maybe he has the power to magnetise non-magnetic metals so that he can manipulate them with the magnetic fields.
answer_details: author: scifi.stackexchange.com/users/8948/Anders Q.
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
Magneto's power is to control electromagnetic energy, not metal and he was even able to throw lightning bolts in the original comics. However, he cannot control non-ferrous (non-magnetic) metals and this has been used against him, notably in the construction of the later-stage Sentinels, which were made of non-ferrous metal and plastic.
Magneto's power is to control magnetic fields. Although this means he cannot control non-ferrous metals, most metals are magnetic to some extent and hence his powers are amazing.