41 – MAGNETO
29 Apr
Subject: Magneto
Real Name: Unrevealed; goes by “Magnus”
Height: 6’2″ Weight: 190 lbs.
Group Affiliation: None
First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #1, September 1963
Power Ratings:
- Energy Projection: 6/7
- Mental Powers: 2/7
- Strength: 2/7
- Fighting Ability: 4/7
- Intelligence: 5/7
I mentioned once that I’ve been trying to convince my fiancee to name our first born son (if/whenever he may show up) Erik Magnus Hamilton Bautista, after this guy (ironically at the time “Erik Lensherr” hadn’t been revealed as a name, only “Magnus,” only to have both names be retconned as aliases even later on for “Max Eisenhardt”).
Lee’s tenure on X-Men was about the peak of Magneto’s character, who spent the 60′s and 70′s as a typical raging villain, and the 80′s as a reformed baddie who even spent some time as the New Mutants‘ headmaster. When Lee launched X-Men vol 2, they brought him back to villainy without sacrificing his redeeming qualities, this time reinventing him as a weary man who just wants to carve a piece of land (in his case, an asteroid) for the use of himself and other loyal mutants. And decided to steal Russian nukes to protect himself. cough.
Lee’s art is the standard Magneto pose, powerful, regal, and intimidating, but this particular rendering is a little too loose for the character; I would have loved to see more of his face and eyes. It also doesn’t help that his bottom half is significantly larger than his top half. The Side-B portrait fares only slightly better, again giving him a scowl that doesn’t make him look more than just pissed off.
At least his Power Ratings give him a decent amount of glory, rating him high on Energy Projection especially. I’m incredulous at a 5/7 rating for Intelligence though, putting him at a tie with Professor X and Beast. Seeing as how few characters so far have rated as high as 3, giving him a 4 would have been plenty impressive without stepping on other characters’ toes.
tags:
As I said before, I know Magneto is one of your favorites, but we will not be naming any of our children Erik Magnus Lensherr etc. unless the following things happens:
1. It is revealed that Magneto’s real name IS Erik Magnus not Max Eisenwhatever.
2. You direct a big budget Magneto movie for a major studio (so, not a YouTube video).
3. We become some rich and famous Hollywood couple that can afford to give their kids ridiculous names.
I still love you though…oh and I promise we won’t make any kids hyphenate their last names…Hamilton Bautista is sooo long…think of how hard it would be to bubble that in on a test.
This is one of those examples of too much meddling and retconning actually ruining something that was cool – Erik Magnus Lensherr is way cooler than Max Eisenhardt.
Maybe the proportions look messed up because of the high-waisted belt he wears?
I guess they changed the name because the meaning fit Magneto better.
Eisenhardt-
1) German: from the Middle High German personal name Isenhard, composed of the elements īsen ‘iron’ + hard ‘hardy’, ‘brave’, ‘strong’.
2) Jewish (Ashkenazic): ornamental name from modern German eisenhart ‘as strong as iron’.
I highly doubt they decided to retcon the name just because they found a German Jewish name that fit his name better (not that that would surprise me).
Besides, if that was the case, they would’ve retconned Colossus’ name from Rasputin to Stalin, since Stalin is Russian for Steel.
Boo unnecessary retconning. Yay bombastic names for children.
I vote for Billy Batson Hamiltista.