Resurrection of Magneto #2: The Nightmare’s of Our Own Making

For what is a Magneto? If not a survivor and a menace. Once again, a complex character who cannot simply be relegated to good and evil, hero or villain. Magneto is a character is haunted ridden with grief and regrets. Luciano Vecchio continues to draw readers in with strong, deliberate panels and positions that demonstrate excellent panel work, and illustrate the pain Magneto is facing.  The key is both literal and metaphorical as Magneto has locked himself away in judgement, but holds the key to a potential freedom.

Either way, Magneto lives in regret, in sorrow, in the bitterness of decades of death and suffering he caused. And that is his afterlife? It’s pretty fitting. He lies, fittingly in a sea of judgement. The set up and the realization amidst the sea of names is well executed. The blood spilling tears serve as a great metaphor for the blood magneto spilled, the blood spilled in the name of mutant liberation, and Magneto himself bleeding for a dream, or using that dream to justify his actions.

Major props to Al Ewing, for continuing his stint as an excellent writer for Jewish characters at Marvel. Ewing accurately notes Jewish attitudes towards the afterlife, creating a catalyst for a tortured soul who has turned his back to G-d, and refused to believe in one. And yet, despite Magneto’s rejection of G-d, he implies that his afterlife, is connected to how he lived his life, which includes that rejection as a key piece of his current status. Did Al Ewing read J.M. DeMatteis’ recent Magneto mini. Anything is possible. Remembering not just Magneto’s pain as a survivor, but of the  Jewish teachings he grew up with, adds a layer to understand how he views himself in his current state.

Al Ewing demonstrates why Magneto is not only a massively complex character, but why he remains a fan favorite. In a sea of troubles and regrets, of Krakoa’s faults, of his own mistakes, Magneto is a character who endures and continues to crave forgiveness he does not believe he deserves and it makes the conflict he has with Ororo in this issue, strong. A look back at Magneto’s sordid and violent history as the names of people killed by him or in his name are then used for a weapon against Storm.

The final name he lands on, is a very on-point references to the cost that came with becoming the man that readers have followed and loved and hated for decades. It can be a little predictable. But when the tables turn, and Storm reaches Magneto, the veil of darkness lifts, to craft hope. But Magneto is a character surrounded in darkness, like a never-ending soul crushing villain.