Time in comic books is a malleable thing, but occasionally Marvel encounters massive roadblocks in the form of historical events. Thus, Marvel must acknowledge that the X-Men's greatest foe will soon be a centenarian (and considering that they were once friends in their youth, so will his rival Charles Xavier). But Magneto is as inextricably linked to the Holocaust as Captain America is to World War II in general. But as years turn to decades, Marvel must face a choice: either retcon Magneto's backstory and lock him in suspended animation after the war for decades (similar to Captain America), or abandon his Holocaust backstory entirely. He was once reduced to an infant in an infamous story, and his mutant ability to control magnetic fields can slow down his aging process (exactly how that happens is anyone's guess).
Multiple attempts have been made to regress Magneto's age. Eventually, Marvel must acknowledge Magneto's age. The principle of Marvel's "comic book time" means events are often compressed (a one-month gap between issues in real time doesn't necessarily represent a one-month gap within the story, for example), but one cannot simply make up the years in which the Holocaust occurred any more than one can pretend it didn't happen at all. Even if Magneto was a child during the Holocaust, that would make him roughly 90 years old in the present day. However, Uncanny X-Men #150 was released in 1981, which would make the powerful Magneto in his 50s or 60s at best.
Related: Marvel's Original Magneto Was Retconned Out of Existence
It wasn't until X-Men writer Chris Claremont took over the title that Magneto's backstory was revealed in Uncanny X-Men #150: Max Eisenhart was a Holocaust survivor and the sole survivor of his family at Auschwitz, the most horrific of Hitler's concentration camps. When Stan Lee created Magneto as the X-Men's first villain in Uncanny X-Men #1 in 1963, he was simply a mutant supremacist who believed the Earth belonged to Homo Superior and would oppose anyone who attempted to stand in his way, mutant or otherwise.
0 kommentar(er)
