X-MEN #85: A Tale of Two Mutants

Magneto tests humankind

Originally Published February 1999

This ain't no disco, this ain't no country club neither. This is L.A., and all Magneto wants to do is have some fun, testing humanity's worthiness to be spared from extinction.

He says his name is Magnus but I'm sure it's Erik or Max or Joseph. 

Specifically, he has used his fearsome magnetic powers to upend the Center for Humanitarian Excellence -- a building about four stories in height -- on its end. Now, posing as a member of "the board," he has a few questions for construction worker Bill Jones, concerning his feelings about homo superior. He indicates that Bill's answers may determine the fate of the human race.

Meanwhile, in Manhattan, the X-Men pitch in to help evacuate a burning hospital, allegedly the fifth such case in the past month (no indication is given whether this includes Pyro's recent stay at Mother of Mercy in the Bronx.)

The Professor watches on, narrating with ambivalence as the heroes do their bit for a typically un-grateful public

Back in LA, "Magnus" begins his examination of Bill. He says that it looks like that was the work of a filthy mutie, and he suspects that said mutie is one of Bill's crew, and would Bill like to help Magnus identify that monster?

But Blue-Collar Bill, who represents the Average American, is just like "Hm, nah, brah." He's not into this "Race War" thing.

Maybe I should have tried this in North Carolina 

Meanwhile, at the Magnetic North Pole, Magneto's funny robot guy Ferris is not exactly having a day off.

 In New York, things are going rather the opposite direction of Magnus' conversation as tensions rise over the presence of mutants at the burning hospital.

On the other coast, Bill goes on to say that no, it's not totally radical that some mutant dude can just upend a whole gnarly building like that, but, you know, there are worse problems on Earth (like LA traffic.) Magneto is moderately surprised about this open-mindedness.

Undaunted, he presses on: what about those mutants who can just kill you with a mere thought? wouldn't it be safer to just kill them first?

Mister, anybody in this country can already kill anybody else with a mere thought -- it's called the second amendment.

Magneto finds a surprising rhetorical sparring partner in Bill the Builder. Bill turns it around with the classic hypothetical: if you could kill baby Hitler, would you?

It's a... somewhat touchy subject for Mr. Neto.

At the North Pole, Ferris completes his work, proving to be an even better construction manager than Bill. And in New York, the X-Men have succeeded in rescuing the babies from the burning maternity ward, which will surely earn them some credit with the law enforcement.

Er... or not.

Storm manages to talk some sense into the SWAT team.

In the Pacific Timezone, Magnus has had it with Bill's lack of deference. If Bill isn't going to answer correctly, it's time for the Master of Magnetism to up his game and don his all-conquering colors:

Yes, you fool! I am Magneto, and I want to kill you! Now, do you hate me or not?

Magneto continues to torment and harass Bill until he finally gets him to say the magic words.

Satisfied, Magneto takes his leave even as Bill protests that the line of questioning was slightly leading.

In New York, the X-Men and the cops come to an understanding...

While Charles watches on, satisfied that his dream is kindled anew.

Unbeknownst to him, at his new North Pole base, Magneto plots his next move, feeling Bill's performance in the questionnaire has given him the green light to proceed with the eradication of mankind.

Further Thoughts:

Kind of weird to see the X-Men doing Superhero Rescue stuff -- for a long time that's simply not been their remit, mostly spending time on offense or defense against their own enemies, but it comes up every so often and serves this issue's point about trying to cultivate their public image, contrasted with a very different flashpoint of human-mutant relations elsewhere.

It's great to see Alan Davis lend his pencil to the team, as he's a true pro who can depict just about anything with aplomb. I don't know that his name on an issue feels sufficiently zeitgeisty for the late 90's, but looking back from 2025 it's welcome. There have been a lot of great individual artists pitching in on X-Men over the last several years, but I think the problem is finding someone, or a rotation of someones, that can provide a consistent feel that is both current and quality. With so much of this issue being taken up by a walk-and-talk, he's working more in normie mode than the fairy tale whimsy that he's often assigned to work, but he can do either.

I want to go on record as saying I enjoyed this issue and found it refreshing -- I thought it was a smart and interesting approach, especially to highlight prejudices being created on one side and alleviated on another -- but there are caveats.

As much as I enjoy the idea of Magneto choosing a supposedly random person and examining them to see what hatred spills out, the debate was perhaps not as nuanced as it could have been. I thought it was rather rash of Magneto to revert into a raving bogeyman the moment things weren't going his way, but perhaps that's the point -- that Magneto doesn't want to hear about peace and harmony, and will do whatever it takes, lash out however he sees fit, to provoke his hoped-for result. That's fine to a point, that Magneto is really just looking to justify his actions by any means and that there was really no winning for Bill. I get that. He doesn't want to be convinced, he just wants to beat up a strawman -- an all too familiar tendancy in our modern era.

All the same, the X-Men premise is, as we know, an imperfect one -- we all agree that it more or less represents any number of real-world prejudices and conflicts, but in most of those the oppressed people don't come equipped with optic blasts or knife-hands or psychic lobotomy powers. We give clemency to the X-Men because they are, after all, our heroes, but if this were a real world issue it would at least engender some debate. That said, I really do like the idea of Bill honestly having no opinion until it truly affects him, at which point, yes, if you're going to murder me, I don't like that.

It's not the most sophisticated examination of the issues at hand, but perhaps it's not supposed to be. I get that and I can allow that, but another barrier to enjoying this issue -- especially for modern-day readers -- is the aversion to seeing Magneto revert, yet again, to that state of raving villainy. We followers of the X-Men's X-Ploits may be used to seeing him comport himself with some dignity and to have some measure of ideological credibility ("Magneto was right") but at this point, Magnus is yoked, yet again, back to the conception of him as a black hat bad guy whose beliefs and actions have gone far beyond what could be justified. In a way, it's cartoonishly over-the-top, the way he wants to use his powers to eliminate humankind in a pre-emptive strike.

This depiction of Magneto may have felt out-of-date already by 1999. Not only had he been fleshed out and given nuance nearly two decades earlier (beginning in 1981's Uncanny X-Men #150 and coming fully into being by #200), but by 1999, a very sympathetic if still complicated depiction of Magneto would occasionally become a veritable ally of the X-Men on their animated series beginning in 1992. It wasn't as though comic writers were not aware of the general desire to cheer for Magneto -- they examined it in the Age of Apocalypse and in the character of Joseph (where is that guy, anyway?) but I think certain forces still wanted to do Raving Lunatic Magneto and keep him in the villain column -- as his depiction on the page up through Fatal Attractions would indicate.

Personally, I don't hate Lunatic Magneto in a vacuum. Extremism exists. Not all mutants can be saints. Some people are honestly just evil and broken and corrupt beyond redemption. And the X-Men have to fight somebody. But there are too many contradictions and complications in place for that to be his depiction after a certain point. This will be a sticking point for many years going forward in a lot of different stories for a long time after 1999, so we might as well buckle in and let it be. It's called Magneto War after all.