Magneto (X-Men Movies)

### Goals

Avenge his mother's death and his torture by killing Sebastian Shaw and other Nazis (succeeded).
Assure mutantkind's survival and supremacy by turning Senator Robert Kelly into a mutant (failed).
Kill William Stryker and all humans via Cerebro (failed on the latter part; succeeded on the former).
Protect his people from the so-called Mutant Cure (succeeded indirectly).
Kill Mystique and Bolivar Trask (failed).
Help Apocalypse take over the world (abandoned).
Aid the X-Men in stopping Apocalypse, as well as Vuk later on (both succeeded).

### Crimes

Murder
Torture
Conspiracy
Kidnapping
Destruction
Attempted genocide

### Type of MB

Redeemed Extremist

**Erik Lehnsherr**, also known as **Magneto**, is the central antagonist of the *X-Men* film series. He is an extremely powerful and ruthless mutant with the ability to manipulate all forms of magnetism and is the former archenemy of the X-Men. He serves as the main antagonist of the first *X-Men* and *The Last Stand*, an anti-hero in *X2*, the main protagonist of *First Class*, a cameo character in *The Wolverine*, the secondary antagonist of *Days of Future Past* and *Apocalypse*, and a major character in *Dark Phoenix*.

His older self was portrayed by Ian McKellen, while his younger self was portrayed by Michael Fassbender.

## What Makes Him Magnificent?

* To call him tragic is an understatement. He was a Holocaust survivor whose mother was killed by Sebastian Shaw before he tortured him, and it gets worse in *Apocalypse* when his wife and young daughter are killed due to his mutant cover being blown while trying to live in peace.
* He's a well-intentioned extremist who wants to protect mutantkind's future. And honestly, given how bad it gets in *Logan* as well as the 2023 timeline in *Days of Future Past*, he's not *entirely* wrong that humans and mutants cannot coexist.
* He deeply cares for Charles and Raven, leaving on good terms with the former more often than not. He even takes visible offense when Pyro says that he wanted to kill Charles in *The Last Stand*, and becomes vengeful when Hank tells him that Jean killed Raven in *Dark Phoenix*.
* He's given a masterful and extremely charismatic performance from both Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender.
* His power to control metal is very cool to say the least, and he always uses it effectively. The best examples being:
	+ In *X2*, he escapes a plastic prison by ripping all the iron out of a security guard's blood. He also reworks Cerebro to trick Charles into nearly wiping out humanity.
	+ In *The Last Stand*, he completely reorients the Golden Gate bridge. Made even more impressive is that he is elderly.
	+ In *Days of Future Past*, he cleverly breaks into government buildings, hijacks a small army of Sentinels, and then literally rips the saferoom right out of the White House from outdoors, nearly killing President Richard Nixon this way.
	+ In *Apocalypse*, he reverses the polarity of the Earth herself. In fact, Apocalypse never enhanced him like the other three, presumably out of fear that he would be creating a Horseman strong enough to supplant his own dominance. He merely tells him to reach into the ground and embrace the full extent of his own arsenal he's always possessed.
* He's a chessmaster both literally and figuratively. In *The Last Stand*, he stops Juggernaut from getting depowered in the first wave while letting the weaker members of his army charge at the humans.
* It's hard to mourn quite a few of his victims due to how immoral they were, which makes him easier to root for. Said victims include Mitchell Laurio, William Stryker, Sebastian Shaw, the Nazis at the bar in *First Class*, and the men who kill his wife and daughter in *Apocalypse*.
* In *Days of Future Past*, his future self atones for his villainy by helping the X-Men fight the Sentinels, rescue Rogue (in the extended cut) and stop Mystique from killing Bolivar Trask.
* In *Apocalypse*, he saves a man from being crushed by a metal contraption at the cost of his own anonymity, and while he wants to kill his coworkers later, it is only because they ungratefully got him fired.
* In *Dark Phoenix*, he saves an entire military squad on Genosha despite his dislike for humans.

## What Makes Him a Baddie?

* He displays hypocrisy at numerous points by trying to kill fellow innocent mutants in order to achieve his goals. Examples are:
	+ Putting Rogue in a machine that will drain her to death. Even Wolverine calls him out on this.
	+ Ordering Juggernaut to kill Leech, a young boy, to eradicate the cure for mutancy.
	+ Attacking and nearly killing Mystique, Wolverine and Beast in *Days of Future Past*, even stabbing and paralyzing Wolverine's entire body with rebars before throwing him far away into the Potamac River where he nearly drowns.
* In *X2*, he manipulates Charles into nearly wiping out every human on the planet.
* In *First Class*, he strangles Moira close to death while blaming her for paralyzing Charles' spine, as she fired the bullet that struck him right after he saved her from getting blown up by an entire barrage of missiles. He also nearly destroys an entire army fleet of both Americans and Soviets (which is just blatant overkill).
* In *Apocalypse*, he destroys large portions of the Earth while affiliating with the titular antagonist in hopes that he’ll "build a better world from the ashes of the old one". Before that, he tried to mass-murder his own coworkers after one of them got him fired.

## External Links

* Magneto at the Villains wiki
* Magneto at the *X-Men Movies* wiki