Actusally, that was a discussion I had with Claremont once. He was wanting to do something with Mags, but not sure what. this was, I believe, during Dave's first run on the book, when we talked to Chris ofen.
It was my opinion that no "villain" thinks of himself as a "villain". They all have reasons for doing what they are doing. Now, up to that time we had had precious little input on WHY Magneto acted the way he did. OK... in reality, Stan just didn't develop him beyond a maniacial nutball to use as a foil for the kids. and Stan has said publically that he regrets that and has lauded Chris for what Chris did do with the character. But Stan had used him enough that something HAD to be there... so WHAT WAS IT?
What Claremont did was brilliant. He took stuff that was already in canon, built on it, used it to change the character logically. He took the starting point of Magneto being de aged into infancy. After that, Mags disappeared for a long time. So what happened between his deaging and his reaging? the thing that made him change his behavior patterns. Moira tinkered with his genetic structure, removed the blockage that was causing his powers to back up and drive him nutsy every time he used them...and basically opened the floodgates of his power while allowing him to think clearly. With the history Chris gave Mags of being a Holocaust survivor, and wanting a homeland for mutants where they would be safe... which had also already been established...the whole backstory fell into perfect order. It wasn't until Harras and the attempt to take away this brilliant backstory, and make him a Gypsy... which some people will still not let go of as false...that we get a conflict of his motivations and his actions. What happened before the deaging/reaging thing was gone. The really nutsy Magneto was being supplanted by the good man with a problem that had been underneath all along. Remember, that in the early issues, he didn't kill anyone... even though he COULD have. OK.. that was the Code and the writing of the day... but he still DIDN'T kill anyone. in the existing canon.. so his basic underlying honor was intact... well except for the citizens he did kill when his power manifested the first time...after the death of his beloved daughter, Anya... but that we can forgive him for... at least I can. Other heroes have done terrible things when their power first manifested, and been forgiven for it, why not Mags? ...he was provoked. Some asswipes kept me from rescuing my child, I would kill them, too... believe it! then in Uncanny 150, some militaristic nuts throw a NUCLEAR device at him for telling the world to lay down their weapons and act like grownups...Yeah... sink the freakin' sub! Teach the asswipes you mean business. You go into a sub you take the risk that you can be sunk... it ain't a ride at Dinsey World. You pays your money and takes your chances in the armed services of ANY country. If Unka had sunk that sub for lobbing a NUCLEAR device at the US, no one would have said anything... so why is it so awful when Mags did it?
Anyway... Chris built the character logically ...and his complexity generated a inrush of female readers who loved the character and avidly followed the X books waiting for Chris to drop more goodies from the Magneto table on them. Fanfic abounded! Stuff the readers wanted to see happen...and they knew they never would so they wrote it out in fanfic... some of it VERY good stuff, indeed. Better than what is in the books from the boyos these days, that's for sure...
those that we percieve as villains usually have their own agenda. If it is self serving and egocentric, they are truely villainous. If it is not, and has a point beyond self service, greed or egocentricity, then we need to examine what they are saying... because they , while not espousing OUR take on the world, may have valid points that we cannot relate to but someone else can. There is no ONE WAY for everybody... that is a given. Unless the human race is invaded by buggies from outer space and it is US or THEM... humanity will probably never form a worldview. Unless our survival as a species is threatened, the various cultures will never come completely together as humans rather than as either a racial, ethnic or other diverse grouping. they just won't. Traditions and behavioral codes have developed over the centruries and millenia differently and traditionalists in those societies will resist change because it frightens them. Fear is the great motivator in the human ape.
Hitler killed millions of Jews... he thought he was doing the right thing...to himself, his followers and a lot of others, he was not the conssummate villain. To the Jews, Gypsies , gays, and other s he was the devil incarnate. But he needed someone to blame Germany's economic woes on, someone whose moneys he could confiscate. This was a ploy used by people throughout history with a lot of success. Philip the 4th of France did the same thing with the Templars, at once getting rid of powerful entities in his kingdom and enriching himself with their moneys, as well as wiping out, in one fell swoop, the tremendous monetary debt he was into them for.
But were either of these guys RIGHT to do what they did? Absolutely not. Because their motives and methods were self serving and barbaric and inhumane, they are viewed by history as villains. Although there are still some who view them as heroes...go figure...The nazi party is alive and flourishing in America and lots of fallen heroes of WWII ore probably rolling in their graves.
And, in spite of denials, we can see that it is still extant in the attacks on the Jewish heritage Claremont gave Magneto. They continue... they have continued since Harras forced Claremont off the books and Marvel's economic decline began...and they still rage today... believe it.
Magneto's innocence in House of M was established... In Son of M, Luna looked into his soul and told us that he "wasn't a BAD man... he was a SAD man..." So where will the boyos take him now? Back to villainy? totally illogical and a waste of a complex, excellent character a good writer could run with... to the economic enricchment of Marvel! Magneto is extremely popular as a complex character.
If Joey is reading this, pay attention,here kid! The people trying to change Magneto's history may try to introduce the old BYRNE plot of making everything a mental implant. byhowm? Xavier? the historcal GOOD guy of the X books??? YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT CAN OF WORMS??? iT WILLMAKE PLANET X LOOK LIKE IT IS WELL WRITTEN... WHICH IT IS NOT. OK...so what about all of the historical scenes we have seen with Mags and other people interacting BEFORE Xavier ever met Mags in Israel ... in Uncanny 161 ???!!! Ya gonna ignore that too? Maybe you could if the books weren't being reprinted for anyone today to read and understand the forty years of canon Chris and others laid down. But the books keep being reprinted... you cannot DENY the CANON!
Now, Joey has promised that this revision or wiping out of Magneto's history and ethnic identity will NOT happen. Logically it shouldn't. But I do not count on anything logical happening at Marvel these days... they have done so many illogical things that the mind boggles and one looks askance at promises which are continually broken...with an "oh, well...get used to it..."
From the brouhaha with Magneto's ethnic backhistory, to the continued discrimination against minorities and women in the business at large and Marvel in particular...I understand I am not the only one railing at the industry about discrimination...especially against women... the boyos at Marvel better watch their steps... cuz the Angel of Death is watching...
Not me... although I am watching too... I am not the Angel of Death...especially economic death, which Marvelflirts with all the time as a publishing entity...the movies are another matter and are keeping the Marvel venue afloat, for sure... God help Marvel if Avi Arad abscounds further than he already has and they let lesser men call the shots on the movies...does the phrase "down in Flames" mean anything to ya? ... except for my column over at Scream if You Want It..of course...heheheheheeee... I gotta get back to writing that thing...
I just am a ...as a lot of people like to think.. cracy ol' broad. Yeah...right.. but I am watching, too, Joey. Keep your promises. Be the man I think you can be... and you should be. when it comes down to brass tacks, the buck DOES stop with you, buddy...
Paty
[Edited on 21-9-0606 by Paty]