UNCANNY X-MEN #200: The Trial of Magneto!

Magneto on Trial!

Originally Published December 1985

Magneto - the Master of Magnetism who has recently allied himself with his former foes in the X-Men, and is today debuting a new look - has been brought into custody and is scheduled to face a hearing in the world court at the historic Palais de Justice in beautiful Paris, France. There will be no jury, but five judges drawn from the U.N. Security Council nations of France, the U.K., China, USSR and USA.

I would have chosen something more formal, but it's not my trial. 

For the prosecution, England's Jim Jaspers, and for the defense, Israel's Ambassador to Britain -- why, none other than Gabrielle Haller, Magneto's old associate from his days in Israel, assisted by her old flame, American scholar and educator Charles Xavier.

Understandably, the mood around Paris is tense, which is reflected all across the globe, Gabrielle notes, as if it has given people an excuse to vent their anti-mutant frustration.

Elsewhere, on a luxury cruise in the Mediterranean, super-Aryan twins Andrea and Andreas watch coverage of the trial and decide to get involved.

Back in Paris, the X-Men appear, still garbed as Asgardians from their recent adventure there while editor Ann Nocenti vents her frustrations about stories overlapping each other too much (Oh, Annie, just you wait!)

See, Loki said he would return them to "Charles Xavier," not that he would put them right back at the mansion. While the X-Men figure out their next move - stranded in a foreign country with no passports, no money, and dressed like half-naked space-vikings - more trouble is brewing elsewhere in Europe. Out in Poland, we see an army base attacked by mysterious battlesuit-wearing troops who leave a mysterious message:

Oh, it's the X-Men! Definitely the sort of thing they would do. They even signed their names! Helpful.

As the Professor hears a report of this, wondering exactly what the hey is going on, he is stricken by an attack -- a heart attack! As he uses his telepathic powers to ride it out, Cyclops pays a visit (incredibly poor timing, Scott) and while the Professor plays it off as indigestion, even Scott can see the obvious.

Scott is charged by the Professor to find the real culprits who are framing the X-Men for these attacks, while Scott notes he's still not totally comfortable risking his life for the man who tried to bury him in lava. Xavier assures him that Magneto has vowed to accept any judgment of the court, including a death sentence should it come to that, and deserves a fair trial.

At the trial, Sir James delivers a surprisingly cogent opening argument, demonstrating that he is no strawman:

Jaspers' argument is that Magneto has styled himself as an outlaw - killing, robbing and destroying property (oh no, not property!) with impunity - all while demonstrating against a systemic prejudice does not exist - so Jaspers claims.

Now, when I say this is a cogent argument, that is not to say I agree with it. While it is literally true that, as far as we know in the story, it is not illegal to be a mutant anywhere (and certainly not anywhere we have seen Magneto operate) it was, after all, the U.S. Government that repeatedly commissioned the Sentinels, weapons designed only to target the mutant populace and is now preparing to take things further with the Mutant Affairs Control Act. But to the public at large, Jaspers' arguments may ring true, which is why I think this is a strong argument from an objective standpoint. He is "correct" only because of technicalities and weasel-words, not because of the reality of the situation, which makes this an intriguing study in legal debate.

Gaby's argument is twofold, both of which are somewhat specious: the world stage is full of people who have committed atrocities but are welcomed as statesmen by the international community, so what's one more? (Somewhere Henry Kissinger shifts uncomfortably in his seat.) The other, which has little precedent in our real world, is that Magneto was reverted to infancy by Mutant Alpha sometime ago, and his adulthood only relatively recently restored, and along with it, a sort of state of grace prior to which all charges must be considered irrelevant.

This would ring a lot more true if it weren't for the fact that Magneto's actions since returning to adulthood very much fit with his established pattern of behavior in his "prior life," meaning there was no real change, no true rebirth, just an extended capacity to commit atrocity.

Incidentally, in case you were wondering, Gaby notes that because of this, Magneto is now physically a man in his 30s, rather than the late-50's he should be for a man who lived through Auschwitz.

Although Jaspers objects to this "Ship of Theseus" argument, the court finds for the defense, so they limit the charges only to those that Magneto committed in the recent past. (So, you know -- the submarine, the volcano, that stuff.) The crowd is displeased.

Gaby's statement is also interrupted by some Anti-Semitic hecklings. ("Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose," she mutters to herself. "The more things change...")

Elsewhere, the X-Men hunt for their framers, to provide some action for this double-sized procedure-heavy issue. They find their quarries at a military hospital near Paris and do battle, but are unable to ascertain the attackers' identities. 

Worse, witnesses being able to pin the X-Men at the scene of the crime doesn't exactly help their case in the court of public opinion.

Meanwhile, back in the States, Madelyne Pryor is hanging out at the Mansion, just you know, chilling, being pregnant, wondering why her husband hasn't called her even though Ororo has, and Nightcrawler has, and Kitty has almost every day (to be fair, Maddie is looking after Lockheed.)

Gurl, he a scrub.

In a brilliant flash of light, Corsair and Lilandra arrive, looking for Charles. They know he's dying, and want to bring him aboard the Starjammer to save him. Maddie points out that he is, in fact, in Paris, and Lilandra and Corsair are like "Drat, now we have to recalibrate the Stargate for Paris" -- they're in something of a hurry because the Starjammer is under attack by Shi'ar forces and have limited time to go zapping back and forth to Earth.

Anyway, all this stress causes a rather adverse reaction in Maddie...

Okay, who left the pregnant lady all alone in a giant mansion by herself, huh? HUH? Call yourselves superheroes? And just think, if Corsair had hung around 3 seconds longer Maddie could have given birth in space, in Sikorsky's super-hospital. As a full-grown person, I am aggravated.

*cleansing breath*

Back at the trial, we hear testimony from Admiral Gregori Mihailovich Suvorov, Vice-Commander of the Soviet Navy, who testifies that Magneto did indeed sink the Leningrad. When Ambassador Haller points out that the submarine was carrying ballistic missiles which it had just fired on Magneto with the intent to kill, the Admiral says "Yes, but we were provoked, it was self-defense!" 

Now, I'm just a small-town X-Men recapper and not a big fancy international warcrimes lawyer, so I don't know what the law is that permits a Russian Sub to fire missiles on you but bars you from doing anything to defend yourself. Seems like once they try to blow you up, anything you do to them is fair play. 

Magneto admits that he did the things, but all under the shadow of the nuclear arms race between the USA and USSR, both of which have the capacity to destroy him at any moment. His defense - a bold one, very precedent-setting if accepted - is that nothing he does can be considered a crime since it all pales in comparison to the nations of the world possessing nuclear armaments.

Okay, that's an over-simplification, but Magneto has smartly pinned his defense to his stated cause of nuclear-disarmament ant its intersectionality with mutant diaspora. But he also takes this opportunity to admit his wrongheadedness in holding the world hostage, and assert that he has seen the error of his ways.

Magneto pivots again, saying that yes, he will accept full responsibility for his actions, as long as that represents the full extent of punishment - that his conviction or acquittal represents the end of humans using him as any kind of scapegoat for the "mutant threat." And furthermore, the question of the emergence of mutants still exists for Homo Sapiens and they must decide how they want to respond - with hate or acceptance.

Meanwhile, the X-Men have used Phoenix's abilities to trace the source of the terrorists false-flagging them. It just so happens they are due to arrive at the Seine any minute, so they go to meet them and a fracas breaks out.

This is all a distraction since the real threat is...

That's right, it's Andrea and Andreas, the freaky white supremacists twins we've been hearing so much about! It turns put that they're not just rich Nazi twins, they're rich Nazi twins with mutant handholding powers! And they really hate Magneto!

While Magneto tries to work out where he's supposed to know these two from, Xavier disrupts their powerflow by forcing them to release each other's hands in what is possibly the most intense round of Red Rover ever played. Once the threat is resolved, the judge notes that Magneto was merciful with his attackers while Jaspers wanted to murder Andrea with a rock. Not so above it after all, are you Sir Jim?

Ah... there's the straw.

The twins are revealed to be the children of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker, who you might remember as the Nazi from whom Magneto and Charles teamed up to rescue Gabrielle many years ago (and from whom Magneto stole a bajillion dollars in Nazi gold.) What a time for a reunion.

Magneto defers to Charles as to how the situation should be handled, but before they can do anything, Fenris busts a hole in the wall of the catacomb where they are fighting and floods it with the Seine.

Magneto pulls Charles to safety, but his friend is clearly breathing his last breaths. They have an honestly very tender moment while Charles tries to convince Magneto to take up his role as headmaster of the school and teach the New Mutants.

Luckily, Lilandra and Corsair arrive, promising that Sikorsky will have him hale and hearty within an hour (if nothing else, we know they can bake him another new body.) He still makes Magneto promise to to take up his cause, should he not return for any reason.

The X-Men deliver the remains of Fenris to the authorities, with Cyclops saying "We've done our jobs, now you do yours." The judge decides to throw out the whole trial as as a result of - I don't know, distraction? - and instead of arranging for a new one she decides that it's with the court of public opinion now. Which seems like a bit of a copout and doesn't resolve anything.

In the end, Magneto declares - quietly to himself - that he will be true to Xavier's dream and that's that.

Further Thoughts:

And that was just one of the many occasions on which Professor Charles Xavier met his death got really sick but didn't die, but did go to outer space.

As with many "milestone" issues, this one follows up on the past, and  ery successfully at that, stitching together both the momentous events of #150 and the revelation of Xavier and Magneto's shared backstory that followed. All of this is done in quite honestly phenomenal payoff, demonstrating a true aptitude for the long game in Chris Claremont's X-Men.

Although I label the resolution, with Fenris and the mistrial something of a copout that provides no concrete resolution to Magneto's crimes in-story, they did successfully achieve an Atticus Finch moment of truly redeeming Magneto in words so as to transition to his new mentorship role with the New Mutants. A well-done culmination of fifty damn issues -- four years of real time -- of building, and that's only sin e the redemption began. By and large, it feels like the world is ready for Good Guy Magneto.

He also gets to shine as a hero by thwarting Fenris, which helps seal the deal.

Elsewhere, Cyclops is clearly going to be torn between his duty and his "happy ending" as this whole "Madelyne and her baby" thing is not going away, inconveniently for him. 

And on top of all that, Kitty needs glasses. What a rough draw this kid has had.