Readthrough: Classic X-Men 12
24 Mar 2019 11:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sheliak posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
x_men_classicThis is one of my favorite X-Men stories. It’s also the darkest one so far, concerning Magneto’s backstory.
Magneto—fresh from his “resurrection” by Erik the Red—finds that his mind and memories have been restored along with his body and powers. As he tries to sleep in a Paris hotel (with a newspaper whose headline tells of his recent escape on the dresser), he is overwhelmed by memories.
He's suppressed these memories for years, the narration tells us--an explanation of sorts for his less complex persona in the Silver Age--and now they're back.
The two survived—barely—and reached a mountain village where they lived for a time. The people there accepted them; they made friends, found work, and Magnus pursued his studies as best he could. They were married, and their daughter Anya born. For a time, they were happy.
But Magnus wanted something more, an education that he couldn’t find in that village. So they left that village, and he sought work in the city of Vinitsa. Anya was curious about everything; Magda was nervous, distrusting the people around them, the way they looked at her family. Magnus promised, again, to protect her. And he swore to himself that he won't allow his daughter to suffer as they once did.
(In the present, he tries to wake, knowing what comes next.)
Magnus’s city employer shortchanged his wages; Magnus lashed out, first verbally and then, unconsciously, with his powers.
When he returned home, the inn where his wife and daughter were staying was on fire.
But some local “officers of the state” grab them both and beat Magnus, preventing either of them from trying to save their daughter. The leader is the boss from earlier.
“… for an obvious enemy of the state.”
Anya's death is obscured, as if Magnus can't bear to remember the moment--and so is what he did in response. By the next page, it's all over.
Anya is dead.
And so is everyone else on the street--the ringleader, his goons, the bystanders who were too indifferent or too afraid of retaliation to help--except for Magnus and Magda.
Magda has seen her husband kill before. But this time is too much. In her eyes, he's become a monster.
Magda runs, and Magnus—too weak to follow now, worn out by this first conscious use of his powers— never finds her.
Magnus attributes Magda’s choice to flee from him to his powers, and not the use he just made of them. But she’s terrified of both. True, it's not the first time she's seen him kill--but there's a difference between killing one person in direct defense of her, and killing many in revenge.
As Magneto wakes from the dream, the background looks like stylized flames. An artistic conceit, one thinks at first.
But across the street, another building is on fire, another woman and her young daughter trapped by flames. He can smell smoke; perhaps that's what triggered his dreams of the past.
Magnus tells himself that they're only human, and none of his concern. But on the next page, he’s gone to help them anyway—in his full supervillain costume, using the same magnetic shield that he instinctively used to save Magda long ago.
The father of the family (waiting below, as Magnus himself did long ago) says that he can never repay Magneto for saving his wife and daughter. And Magneto says that, in fact, he can—by saying that it was indeed Magneto who did this.
I love this story; I've read it several times, and it still makes me cry. It's the single issue that told me who Magneto was, way back when.
I think I'd like to finish this time with the cover (which was originally the back cover, after all):
Tell me about your favorite Magneto stories, and which takes on Magneto you like best?
And, in stories where Anya survives (fanfic, What Ifs), do you prefer her to be a mutant or baseline human?
Next Thursday: Phoenix vs. Firelord
Next Sunday: Jean has a heart-to-heart with Misty Knight.
Magneto—fresh from his “resurrection” by Erik the Red—finds that his mind and memories have been restored along with his body and powers. As he tries to sleep in a Paris hotel (with a newspaper whose headline tells of his recent escape on the dresser), he is overwhelmed by memories.
He's suppressed these memories for years, the narration tells us--an explanation of sorts for his less complex persona in the Silver Age--and now they're back.
The two survived—barely—and reached a mountain village where they lived for a time. The people there accepted them; they made friends, found work, and Magnus pursued his studies as best he could. They were married, and their daughter Anya born. For a time, they were happy.
But Magnus wanted something more, an education that he couldn’t find in that village. So they left that village, and he sought work in the city of Vinitsa. Anya was curious about everything; Magda was nervous, distrusting the people around them, the way they looked at her family. Magnus promised, again, to protect her. And he swore to himself that he won't allow his daughter to suffer as they once did.
(In the present, he tries to wake, knowing what comes next.)
Magnus’s city employer shortchanged his wages; Magnus lashed out, first verbally and then, unconsciously, with his powers.
When he returned home, the inn where his wife and daughter were staying was on fire.
But some local “officers of the state” grab them both and beat Magnus, preventing either of them from trying to save their daughter. The leader is the boss from earlier.
“… for an obvious enemy of the state.”
Anya's death is obscured, as if Magnus can't bear to remember the moment--and so is what he did in response. By the next page, it's all over.
Anya is dead.
And so is everyone else on the street--the ringleader, his goons, the bystanders who were too indifferent or too afraid of retaliation to help--except for Magnus and Magda.
Magda has seen her husband kill before. But this time is too much. In her eyes, he's become a monster.
Magda runs, and Magnus—too weak to follow now, worn out by this first conscious use of his powers— never finds her.
Magnus attributes Magda’s choice to flee from him to his powers, and not the use he just made of them. But she’s terrified of both. True, it's not the first time she's seen him kill--but there's a difference between killing one person in direct defense of her, and killing many in revenge.
As Magneto wakes from the dream, the background looks like stylized flames. An artistic conceit, one thinks at first.
But across the street, another building is on fire, another woman and her young daughter trapped by flames. He can smell smoke; perhaps that's what triggered his dreams of the past.
Magnus tells himself that they're only human, and none of his concern. But on the next page, he’s gone to help them anyway—in his full supervillain costume, using the same magnetic shield that he instinctively used to save Magda long ago.
Would that I had such skill a lifetime ago, little one—to save my own as I do you.
If I had—how much different the world would have been.
The father of the family (waiting below, as Magnus himself did long ago) says that he can never repay Magneto for saving his wife and daughter. And Magneto says that, in fact, he can—by saying that it was indeed Magneto who did this.
Magneto the terrorist, Magneto the super-villain, Magneto the mutant. Remember me always, m’sieu. I could have let them perish—but I chose life!
I love this story; I've read it several times, and it still makes me cry. It's the single issue that told me who Magneto was, way back when.
I think I'd like to finish this time with the cover (which was originally the back cover, after all):
Tell me about your favorite Magneto stories, and which takes on Magneto you like best?
And, in stories where Anya survives (fanfic, What Ifs), do you prefer her to be a mutant or baseline human?
Next Thursday: Phoenix vs. Firelord
Next Sunday: Jean has a heart-to-heart with Misty Knight.
