Magneto and Genocide

[Thylacine 2000]

In addition to the late '70s storyline of Magneto being de-aged into infancy and then re-aged to his physical peak, he was also killed and resurrected very strong-looking during the Krakoa storyline just this past year. Between that and his ability to control energy, he has an excuse to look 30-ish forever. (In "X-Men: First Class," Sebastian Shaw even mentioned that as a welcome side effect of his own powers.).

And he is not out of place alongside WW2-era Captain America, Red Skull, Winter Soldier, and Sunfire, Vietnam-era Punisher, Civil War-era Wolverine and Sabretooth, and ancient Egyptian Apocalypse, to name a very few....

 

[Destron D-69]

it's almost like it's make-believe... and doesn't actually need to reflect reality so strictly.

"Need a guy to be 100 but look 30? okay which option tree are you going to start with... will you take the science branch that offers about 40 options or the magic one that has a few more? ... or by all means pick a few from both...

magical genetic manipulation by cosmic superbeings is a rather popular sub category all on it's own in Marvel... those dang Celestials."
lol

 

[Caldwin]

You see, that's why I say this...

You see , my worry isn't even so much about "how old must that guy be." When it comes to comics, there are ways around that.

My thing is...well, let me just put it like this.,.

World War II
Big bad guys were the Nazi's. America was happy to stay out of things until Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. Hitler committed suicide in a bunker in 1945...same year we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima.

World War I
Happened. I think there might have been something said briefly in high school...maybe.

How many generations do you suppose until WWII is just as vague and Magneto's back story elicits little more than a shrug of confusion?

 

[Destron D-69]

it's not the comic's job to educate people about why WWII is important to remember. Changing Magneto isn't fixing education.

if you "NEED" to use a more recent event as a hook, make it about a different character.

 

[Caldwin]

Fair point. It was more a rumination about the state of the education system.

 

[Destron D-69]

I just don't understand the circular 'logic' people who advocate for changing Magneto operate within

"Magneto is an important Character so we NEED to update his backstory to be more relatable to modern readers"

no you don't. Leave it alone. Write a good story with a character that already fits the "need" or make one up. The only reason to use magneto is because you worry you can't write a story that's compelling without using an established character.

A good writer will take an established character as is and then write the story so it makes sense to involve that character...you know what we call it when writers take established characters and change them to make them fit into the story they want to tell regardless of how badly it fits.

Fanfic

 

[Caldwin]

Preach!

Yeah, I'm totally not on team "change the back story." My only concern is what I brought up before. But that's really a problem with what's being taught in schools, not so much what should happen to any particular character.

I just find it frightening that wholesale genocide and the dropping of atom bombs can be so easily forgotten.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

A good writer will take an established character as is and then write the story so it makes sense to involve that character...you know what we call it when writers take established characters and change them to make them fit into the story they want to tell regardless of how badly it fits.

Fanfic

Well, that's kind of insulting.

 

[Destron D-69]

to be fair, I am also a fanfic writer, or have been in the past. (even won a sparky) but like... if we're being objective about it the word does tend to carry a negative connotation. I don't think all fanfic is bad... but well ? maybe there's a better word, but I was not really looking to get into semantics.

I apologize though if you were kind of insulted LBD, it wasn't intentional.

 

[LBD "Nytetrayn"]

All good.

It's just, like... there's good fanfic and bad fanfic. Just like there are good movies and bad movies, good comics and bad comics, good TV shows and bad TV shows, good video games and bad video games.

Being fanmade is irrelevant, and the stigma only seems to really stick to fiction for some reason. And I've seen enough incredible fan works of all stripes, some of which even put the original, professionally-made materials to shame. Not to mention that fan works are how a lot of ascended fans got their start in various franchises, the fans of yesterday becoming the creators of tomorrow.

Fans of Transformers should know this quite well, I believe.

Suffice to say, I've developed a distaste for using simply "fanfiction" alone as a derogatory term. Especially as it can be discouraging for someone who might want to express themselves through that sort of outlet to know that whatever they do is automatically going to be labelled as "bad" by proxy.

maybe there's a better word, but I was not really looking to get into semantics.

For what it (my opinion, that is) is worth, I feel like "bad fanfiction" suffices. It feels less derogatory to the form as a whole, gets the same point across better, and is a more positive step on the whole.

 

[LiamA]

I think erasing a longstanding character's innate Jewishness is a really bad idea and sends really bad messages.

Does Magneto have to be Jewish? Lots of ethnic groups were involved in the Holocaust.

 

[LordGigaIce]

Does Magneto have to be Jewish? Lots of ethnic groups were involved in the Holocaust.

Roughly ten million people were killed in the Holocaust, roughly six million were Jews. That's over half. Additionally Nazi propaganda focused heavily on Jews and Jews were disproportionately targeted and victimized by the Nazi state so it's very disingenuous of you to pretend that Jews weren't specifically targeted.
But then again trying to diminish the role of antisemitism in the Holocaust is nothing new from certain types of people. So you know... there's that.

On top of all of that... Magneto has been Jewish ever since it was decided to flesh his character out with actual backstory. Like I said, you could reinvent Black Panther as a Jewish person, or any other ethnic minority with a history of persecution, but why would you? Why strip away Black Panther's Black Africaness?
Same thing here. Yes, other groups- LGBT+ peoples, Jehovah's Witnesses, the mentally and physically disabled, Romani, Slavs- were killed in the Holocaust, but Magneto was specifically given a Jewish background decades ago.

At the very least the question of "does he need to be tied to the Holocaust?" is attempting to solve an issue of time and a sliding timeline. It's an unnecessary change to a problem that's not really a problem, but there is a bit of logic there. But to go "no, no, we're keeping the Holocaust connection... but this character who's been Jewish for decades will no longer be Jewish" is suspect as all hell. You're not even being particularly clever.

 

[NovaSaber]

Does Magneto have to be Jewish? Lots of ethnic groups were involved in the Holocaust.

Making Magneto that old anyway but changing his ethnicity for no particular reason is the least defensible out of all the options.
I don't even see any argument for it at all.

Magneto's story already acknowledges that the Holocaust also affected the Romani. (Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch being the children of Magneto and Magda has been retconned, but I'm pretty sure Magda herself has never been retconned out of existence.)