Enter Magneto - Cultural References

Cultural References

In the opening of the episode, Beast is in his cell, reading Animal Farm, much to the derisive pleasure of his mutant-hating guards. When Magneto comes to break him out of prison, he says "Magneto, I presume," which could be a reference to Henry Morton Stanley's famous quote ""Dr. Livingstone, I presume?". During his bail hearing, the Shakespearean speech Beast paraphrases is Shylock's "I am a Jew" speech from The Merchant of Venice, replacing "Jew" with "mutant". When the judge denies bail, Beast sighs and says "Guess I'll have time to catch up on my Dostoevsky". In the scene where Cyclops, Storm and Wolverine confront Magneto, he quotes Shakespeare, this time quoting Miranda's line from act V, scene i of The Tempest, 'O brave new world, That has such people in't!', then later paraphrasing Emiliano Zapata, saying "Better that we die on our feet than live on our knees!"

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