Magneto #4: Will The Real Magento Please Kick Butt

Character defining indeed. In case anyone needed a reminder of how to write Magento, this is it. Those piching X-men scripts for the MCU please take note. Actually, I take it back. Have J.M.D write the script. Cause then it’ll be good.

After the explosive revelation of Irae’s origin is Magento doomed to be a villain again? Is there any nope for the master of Magnetism?

Magneto’s internal text flows like a fine wine out of the glass of epic storytelling. The way the story transitions, the way Magneto’s mind works is well illustrated, literarily speaking. J.M. is not only writing Magneto, but its like he’s also channeling him. He’s gotten into his head and he’s laying it all out there for us. Even now, despite Magneto being fueled by the anger Irae amplified, the contradiction of Magneto’s inner thoughts is seamlessly bound together. Magneto’s dialogue and characterization is impeccable. Magneto’s voice, even the timbre of it can be felt and heard on the page. Read some of Magneto’s dialogue out loud.  Do it!

And just when you think all hope is lost and Irae’s rage turns friend and against friend, there in is that twist of Magneto’s past rearing its head, the wound that will never heal. At the heart of this comic is the question of who is Magneto? Mutant terrorist? Mutant liberator? Monster of Savior? The way the story unfolds is careful, and well-plotted and cements itself amongst the best of X-men and Magneto comics. Artistically everything is carefully chosen from Magneto’s attire as a civilian, the good Magneto vs the pure hate version Magneto, are seeping in every inch of X-men history.

But there’s this subtlety about atonement that is woven in. But it’s not so much about facing one’s inner demons. It is about wrestling with oneself to understand who you are as a person beneath the veneer and the mask you wear. And its core, deep down, is the real Magneto.

DeMatteis never wavered from the heart of the story about Magneto and who he is and how he seems himself. This comic is about not letting your mistakes and your fears control you, while understanding your own mistakes and shortcomings and not forgetting about them. But moving on from them and doing better. The story is about accepting one’s history, and learning to live who you truly are, not clinging to the façade Magneto created that was so bombastic that even he he believed that’s who he really was. For Magneto, his trauma literally speaks for itself. What motivates him to protect mutant kind and so ultimately the truth is Magneto is a complicated man trying to do what is best, sometimes in bad ways. But sometimes in good ways.  And he doesn’t let his anger be his only source of fuel, even if he let it for far too long.

it almost makes me sad to see it end because it leaves the reader wanting to know more about so many things. But the most important being, where does Magneto go from here? For that we’ll have to revisit some good ol New Mutants comics.