A long-form essay I've been wanting to work on for years is about how redemption arcs in media. A thing I've discovered this that they are a much more popular device in children's and young adult fiction. This is partially due to the need to provide a morale in stories aimed towards younger audiences but there are two other aspects of that fiction that help those stories thrive there:
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Due to the nature of the media, the villains generally don't cross too hard a line. The intended audience keeps their misdeeds light. In my head I call this The Zuko Principle, after the ATLA character who is generally held up as a great example of a redemption arc... but who doesn't actually do anything truly bad in that show beyond being adversarial.
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The villain never backtracks. Once they are redeemed it is like a flipped switch, they are good now. They have moved wholly into this new state and the story won't show them waver or fall back into their villainous ways. Despite how long or troubled that road to redemption was- there is not going to be any issues now that they've switched sides.
And I've been struggling to figure out some more complicated redemption stories in media. Because as people get older, stories tend to get more puritanical. They have committed x sin- they are forever marked and cannot be changed. Which is, frighteningly enough, mirrored in a lot of people's moralities.
So today, I want to dig deep and discuss a complicated character in comics canon. Let's talk about Max Eisenhardt, the Magneto.
It might actually be best to start with the discourse around this character, because that will cut to the heart of it. I am going to try my best to veer from hyperbole here, but comics are melodramatic medium and everything is done to extremes. So let's break down a few of the more... popular ways Magneto is viewed, shall we?
The first is that he is the Malcolm X to Xavier's MLK. Which... is a really tired comparison? For the most part it just makes me think people haven't read enough about/by either of those men. But the viewpoint breaks down to Xavier and Magneto both fight for mutant rights but one of them is willing to use violence. This is the understanding most people who are aware of the characters but never read a comic would have. And this extends to many different theories because you will also get the people who view violent resistance as good (which it is) and thus think Magneto rules... but look deeper than this core comparison.
Then there is the argument twitter has every few weeks about whether Magneto is the coolest guy who never did anything wrong vs him being as bad as a nazi.
Now before going forward, I want you to know- I am going to engage with that argument. Like I wanna put it to bed, which means I need to discuss it. If you don't wanna get into that at all, that's fine. There is a cool button in the top left that looks like an arrow, have a good one. Because this is where we are going to really start talking about this character.
Is Magneto a Nazi? No, Fuck you. Get fucked.
So Max Eisenhardt is... maybe the most famous jewish comic character. In the culture, when people think of him they are going to think of that haunting intro to the first X-Men when his powers activated at Auschwitz. He is a character that is representative of the pain and rage felt by that community. And comparing him to his oppressors is fucking sick. A lot of people online make this comparison as a gotcha to make people mad and spin them up. However, at the core is a question I do think some people are trying to get to...
Is Magneto a Fascist?
Well... that's a more interesting question. So when we first get introduced to Magneto? I'd say he absolutely is. The second time we see him in the comics he is threatening to blow up a nuclear bomb and discussing how the human lives lost don't matter.
Magneto is absolutely a villain who believes himself to be part of a master race and is willing to engage in genocidal tactics against humanity. Mutants also beautifully fit that paradox fascists so often ascribe to where their chosen people are inherently more powerful but also being oppressed by others despite that. (This is also where the metaphor of mutants for marginalized groups falls apart, because black folk can't shoot laser beams and history would be fucking different if they could) Most people also grew up with examples of Magneto as this fascist type of villain. This was the case in the 97 animated series as well as the original films with Ian McKellan. In particular the first two movies Magneto's plots are:
- Forcefully turn the world's leaders into mutants and immediately place them in control of the world and its policy.
- Just... kill every human. All of them.
And a lot of people take umbrage with these comparisons because as stated before it fucking sucks to compare someone who lived through the holocaust with the types of people who perpetrated it. And that's part of where the rub lies, because Magneto wasn't always jewish.
This is from Uncanny X-Men 150, where Claremont made the retcon of Magneto's past. The character first appeared in issue 1, there were 18 years between these comics. So for nearly 20 years Magneto was known was mutant master race dude who wants to destroy humanity. Then in 81, we found out where he came from and it took... AWHILE for people to really figure out what to do with him. Was he tragically warped by his experience and had become what he hated? Was he heroic but misguided? And this being comics, it meant that have been dozens of different writers doing their take on the character. He has been a headmaster, a terrorist, a father, the mutant's own punisher?
And the thing with comics is that these are all true(except when a clone did it). This is actually one of the strengths of the medium that can upset a lot of fans. People change and grow and have a lot of facets to them. So it's really interesting to me to see all these different takes on a character and how they crystallize into a fictional person. While it can also be frustrating for some when they can find it... outside of character. But that's an essay for another day.
But a thing I really like about Magneto as with my beloved Moon Knight is that while they are both characters whose Jewish heritage has become vital to their stories... they are both characters who have turned their back on their faiths for something else. Moon Knight serving a crazed, Egyptian moon god and Magneto's faith fully going into his fellow mutants.
It's a core aspect of the character that even as he has grown more heroic and is willing to protect humans, he hasn't been able to forgive a god that allowed what happened.
But as for the actual redemption, how did it happen? Over a very long period of time with a lot of waffling. He took over the school for Xavier for awhile. He died a LOT. He came back as a full on villain. He joined Cyclops in a run where the writers signaled they were totally gonna be extremist villains and then panicked and had them throw a peace rally instead. To be fair, nobody really seemed to know what do with the X-Men for a LONG time.
Then we got the Krakoan age of comics where they put every mutant on the same side and suddenly Magneto might as well have been the messiah. A wall behind which every mutant can stand as he keeps a world that hates them back. And a thing I love is that he is still Magneto, he plots and schemes. He does some villainous shit for the greater good. But now they've created a community where he is a hero. Which I think reflects the change in the audience. I mentioned this earlier but we now have people who know that sometimes you need to resist violently. To them Magneto is a hero, but they also tend to vehemently ignore his past. To the point where bringing up his misdeeds is seen as aggression. You've been on social media, you know how it is- only its comics fans so there's also a lot more death threats.
No, the moment I want to talk about here is from a comic that came out today. The Resurrection of Magneto. Max died awhile back saving mutantkind, the kind of death that in itself serves as a redemption in many stories. And yet in this series we find him crawling through flames and surrounded by the names of everyone he has killed. Whether intentionally or not, whether by his hand or in his name. Storm finds him down there, to pull him out and is able to show him the other side of things
He is overwhelmed by the sight of all the people he has saved. That they aren't enough to make up for the dead. But even one saved is too many to turn his back on. That if he gets up again and stops focusing on the damage he is done- look at how many he could help. Even if it's one more.
When I talked to my friends about wanting to do a series on redemption arcs and my frustration with people willingness to just cast people away after crossing some lines. To me it was a matter of, if you do a bad thing and there is no hope of ever coming back then why not just kill yourself... of if there's not hope of redemption why not simply continuing to do bad- it doesn't matter. And one of my friends replied "Ah yeah that's the Christianity, isn't it?" Or as the X-Men would put it... God Loves, Man Kills. I live in America, its so deeply rooted in christian morals, that I don't think someone can truly escape them fully. And part of that doctrine is forgiveness... but God forgives, it's not asked of us to forgive each other. And the thing with Resurrection of Magneto, why it's a perfect synthesis of redemption... is because the bad things done don't matter in the face of the good things you can do. To me, if you stand up and do better, that is redemption. That is all that can be asked.
And to be clear to people, no that doesn't mean that people are owed forgiveness either. If you hurt someone, they don't need to forgive you or be part of your life. But you don't need their forgiveness to do better, you don't need their permission to keep going. I don't think people should give up or lose their lives for their worst days when they are willing to try.
A character I think about a lot is Soldier from Moon Knight. A character who doesn't seem to even think he's worth a name anymore. When we meet him he's living with his mom and trying to stay out of everyone's lives. He is covered in blacked out tattoos, and we find out a few issues later that he used to be HYDRA. He was an actual nazi, a dumb kid who got recruited and felt like he was being given a place to belong. I really appreciate the author showing actual far-right recruitment techniques in the character's past. He is someone who made mistakes and is trying to gain distance and do better. But something I wonder about a lot is how would the audience have taken to him if we hadn't met him after he had already left HYDRA, what if the first time we saw him he was still happily serving. Would he ever be granted the grace of redemption in their eyes? If we focused in on his past and saw some of the awful shit he did, would people still like his character? And these are questions the author is deliberately setting up because our main character is Marc fucking Spector. We all love Moon Knight, but Marc used to be a mercenary, and before that he was a CIA operative. My guy did bad, horrible shit- he has done horrifying things since putting on the cowl. But his story is about trying to be better.
So, this has been long-winded and rambling. But earlier today I read a comic and cried. Because a character chose to keep trying despite the pain he caused because maybe he might help one more person. And it was like someone finally saw the thing I've been trying to express. I don't know what's in store for Magneto. Maybe he will continue on his path and never waver. More than likely he will return to being a villain at some point. But if he does, I hope that whoever is writing him remembers that redemption can simply be as simple as standing up and taking the first step.
