Magneto (comics)

Magneto (comics)

Magneto (born Max Eisenhardt, also known as Magnus and Erik Lehnsherr or Lensherr) is a fictional character who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. He has most often been the central villain of the X-Men comics, as well as the TV shows and the films, although in the comics he has been an ally and even member of the X-Men at times. The character first appears in X-Men #1 (September 1963), and was created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby. A powerful mutant with the ability to generate and control magnetic fields, Max desired mutants to eventually dominate the human race as he viewed humans as an outdated species that no longer deserves its continual domination over the world. However, writers have since fleshed out his character and origin, revealing him to be a Jewish Holocaust survivor whose actions are driven by the purpose of protecting the mutant race from suffering a similar fate. His role in comics has varied from supervillain to antihero to superhero. His character's early history has been compared with the civil rights leader Malcolm X and Jewish ultranationalist Meir Kahane.

Sir Ian McKellen has portrayed Magneto through the X-Men film series, while Michael Fassbender plays a younger version of the character in the film X-Men: First Class. Magneto was ranked number 1 by IGN's Top 100 Comic Book Villains list, was listed number 17 in Wizard's Top 100 Greatest Villains Ever list, and was ranked as the 9th Greatest Comic Book Character Ever in Wizard's list of the 200 Greatest Comic Book Characters of All Time, the second highest villain on that list.