Magneto

__**Erik Lehnsherr / Max Eisenhardt / “Magneto” **__



__**History **__

After witnessing the brutal murder of his family by the Nazis, Max Eisenhardt, was sent to the Auschwitz death camp where he served in the Sonderkommando, the squad of Jewish men forced to helped their Nazi masters operate the gas chambers, ovens, and fire pits of the camp. While in Auschwitz, Max met a gypsy girl named Magda. Max and Magda survived the Holocaust, and later were married. They had a daughter, Anya. Max first consciously used his mutant powers when his family was trapped in a burning house. Unable to rescue his daughter from the blaze due to his inexperience, coupled with interference from a hostile mob, he angrily unleashed his powers to vengefully slaughter the humans. Terrified, Magda left him, and months later discovered that she was pregnant. Magda presumably died after giving birth to mutant twins at Wundagore Mountain.

To shake off his pursuers, Max had master forger George Odekirk create the identity of Sinte gypsy “Erik Magnus Lehnsherr.” Max eventually made his way to Israel where he worked as an orderly in a psychiatric hospital near Haifa. He befriended Charles Xavier, with whom he shared lengthy debates, hypothesizing what would happen if humanity were to be faced with a race of super-powered beings. The pair ultimately revealed their true natures to each other when they prevented Nazi war criminal Baron Wolfgang von Strucker from obtaining a large cache of Nazi gold. Causing a cave-in that seemingly killed Strucker, Max realized that his and Xavier’s views on mutant/human relations were incompatible and left with the gold. Fearing another Holocaust, he took an aggressive and lethal stance against humanity. Max has often expressed the belief that mutants, whom he calls Homo sapiens superior, will eventually be the dominant life form on the planet, and has wavered between wanting to exist in harmony with humans, wanting a separate homeland for mutants, and wanting to enforce his superiority over all humanity.

Calling himself Magneto, Max banded together a group he dubbed the Brotherhood of Mutants, later referred to as “Evil” by the media. Among the assembled members were his children, now the mutants Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. Magneto soon found himself opposed by Xavier and his own group, the X-Men. They battled many times over the years.

Later, the United Nations offered Magneto sovereignty over Genosha in return for some security considerations and a promise never to initiate hostilities against the nations of the world. Magneto accepted, but subsequently discovered that his powers were failing him. Magneto set about consolidating both his mutant and political power, but faced opposition from the renegade Mutate Zealot, his son Quicksilver, and Rogue. After Magneto defeated Zealot’s forces, Rogue left, and he had his Acolyte Voght manipulate Quicksilver into staying as a member of the cabinet, in the hope that he would at last learn to be a loyal son.

Soon after, Magneto was revealed to be a member of the Twelve, a group of mutants supposedly destined to usher in a golden age for mutantkind. He and the others were captured by the eternal mutant Apocalypse, who sought to usurp the power of the Twelve for himself; however, Magneto’s weakness short-circuited the machine. In the ensuing clash, Magneto discovered that he could commandeer the magnetic powers of the mutant heroine Polaris and use them as his own. When Apocalypse was defeated, Magneto returned to Genosha with Polaris, and began teaching her to expand her control, while using her as a front for his own power. Over the next six months, Magneto managed to rebuild much of the war-torn country, but a rebellion in Carrion Cove proved a thorn in his side. The rebels had discovered technology in the city that they felt could not be allowed to fall into Magneto’s hands, namely a genetic manipulation chamber from the process once used to create the Genoshan Mutates which would allow Magneto to restore himself to full power. Though the U.N., rogue Acolytes, Cortez, the Avengers, and Polaris all opposed him, Magneto tore down the city as a distraction to allow him to access the chamber and restore his DNA, making him more powerful than ever before.

With an army of mutants at his disposal following the deadly Legacy Virus being cured, Magneto declared war on mankind. Yet again, Magneto was opposed by the X-Men, and in the ensuing clash he was severely injured by Wolverine. Recuperating, Magneto was powerless to prevent Sentinels controlled by Xavier’s genetic twin Cassandra Nova from decimating the island. Magneto was again believed dead, and after a recording purported to contain his last words was found, mutant supremacist ideals became widespread in the mutant community, with some adoring him as a martyr of the mutant cause. Magneto seemingly returned with a vengeance, infiltrating the Xavier Institute as the mutant healer Xorn, co-opting the Special Class as his new Brotherhood, and launching an attack on Manhattan. Killing Jean Grey before being killed in turn by Wolverine, it was later revealed that this Magneto was an imposter. The true Magneto was still mourning the loss of Genosha.


 * School’s Out / High School Never Ends **

After the seniors take over running Xavier’s school, Mystique sneaks into the mansion to use Cerebro. She is searching for Magneto, who is still missing following the destruction of Genosha. Later, one of the prefects at Xavier’s school, Tiberius, is discovered to be working with Mystique. He reveals that there is a secret Magneto fan club at Xavier’s school. They revere him as a martyr of the mutant cause.


 * Welcome to Paradise / Hotel California **

The eXalts discover that there is another mutant school on the west coast called “Academy M.” After this discovery, Magneto appears at Academy X to recruit students to his school. Several mutants transfer to his school. Later, in a battle against the Brotherhood of Mutants, Bast discovers that Magneto was actually Mystique in disguise, using Magneto’s mutant growth hormone to fake his powers. Mystique was once again looking for Magneto by reading the memories of Dagan (who is from the future). Mystique is not successful. The real Magneto is still in hiding following the destruction of Genosha.

At Academy X’s Halloween party, Cassandra Nova frees herself from the mind of Hisako (“Armor”). Cassandra, in the possession of a new body, takes possession of a deactivated Sentinel at the school and flies off to kill Xavier (who is still in Genosha). The eXalts use Dagan’s knowledge to find Magneto (who was on an island near Genosha). Magneto agrees to help Xavier and destroys the Sentinel and Nova’s new body. Xavier traps Cassandra within his own mind. Following this encounter, both Xavier and Magneto leave Genosha.

The eXalts ask Magneto for a favor when Dagan due to being infected by killer nanites sent from a futuristic Sentinel called The Monitor. The eXalts ask Magneto to help them defeat The Monitor before Dagan is killed. Magneto traces the nanites to a military base and helps the eXalts defeat The Monitor and his Sentinel army.


 * Valley of Lost Souls / Empire of the Damned **

Max leads the Brotherhood of Mutants during the Necrosha event and helps stop Selene. Following this, Magneto surprises everyone by joining the X-Men! At Nightcrawler’s funeral, Magneto tells David that he knew David’s mother during the early days of his first Brotherhood of Mutants. David wonders if Magneto could be his father. Jess performs a genetic test on DNA from David’s father and says that he, not Magneto, is his father. Later Jess reveals that she lied: David’s father is not the man who raised him. It could be Magneto. David says he doesn’t want to know.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Bloodlines **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To gain the X-Men's trust, Magneto pushed his powers to the limit and was left in a coma after rescuing Kitty Pryde from within Breakworld's "Earth-Destroyer" giant bullet which had been traveling through outer space away from Earth. He was severely weakened after this and spent time recovering at Xavier’s school.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Age of X **

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Magneto is the leader of the New United States, formerly the east coast from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River.

__**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Powers and Abilities **__

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Magnetokinesis//: Magneto has a near-limitless control of all forms of magnetism, whether natural or artificial, to manipulate any metal. Magneto has harnessed magnetism to stop armies, raise islands from ocean floors, move mountains, change the course of rivers, and threaten to devastate the world with apocalyptic floods and continent shaking earthquakes. Magneto once blanketed the entire globe with a self-generated electromagnetic pulse that caused widespread devastation. Moreover, he can use his magnetic powers in more than one way simultaneously.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Magnetic Force-Fields//: Magneto usually protects himself with a personal force field that he can quickly expand to protect large areas. His force field has withstood the effects of multiple nuclear weapons, volcanic eruptions, the depths of space and attacks from multiple Avengers or X-Men, including Phoenix, Thor, and even Galactus. Magneto can also use his force fields to hit or trap an enemy.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Magnetic Flight//: Magneto is also capable of sustaining flight for very long distances and at varying speeds. He apparently has several means by which he achieves flight, one of which is by gliding along the planet's natural magnetic lines of force, another by simply creating a repulsive force between himself and the planet, propelling himself thus.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Electromagnetic Sight//: By concentrating, Magneto can perceive the world around himself as patterns of magnetic and electrical energy. He can perceive the natural magnetic auras surrounding living beings.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Electromagnetic Spectrum Manipulation//: Although Magneto's primary power is magnetism, he can also project or manipulate any form of energy within the electromagnetic spectrum. He can fire and absorb bolts of electricity and magnetic force, reverse lasers and other forms of radiation or energy, create enough intense heat as infrared radiation to level a city, manipulate gravity, and become invisible by deflecting visible light around his body. Infrared radiation is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which also includes visible light, radio waves, ultraviolet light, gamma rays, and x-rays -- Magneto can project any of these.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Telepathic Resistance//: Magneto has trained himself extensively for fighting telepaths, and is resistant to telepathic attack. This training is similar to that given to the X-Men and New Mutants by Professor X, although the effects are further augmented with the aid of his helmet.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Genius-level Intellect//: A mastermind, Magneto is a genius in various scientific fields. He is an expert on genetic engineering and mutation, with knowledge far beyond that of contemporary science.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Military Training//: Magneto is a skilled strategist and has more than a rudimentary knowledge of hand-to-hand combat.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Excellent Strategist//: Magneto is an excellent strategist, tactician, and skilled leader.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//Multilingual//: Magneto is fluent in many languages.