I don't care for Magneto being explicitly presented as evil. It really doesn't make much since he's somewhat of a parallel to community leaders like Malcolm X, who is respected by the black community. I know it's a comic book and he's been everything under the sun because of different writers, and I understand that as a kid's comic book series at core, it's going to be moralistic and necessarily biased toward the X-Men. But making him explicitly evil to the point of being Mutant Hitler (because writers think "you are what you hate" is always a clever device and totally never trite and witless), it undermines everything. X-Men can stay a kid's series but that doesn't mean it has to lack complexity or nuance, especially given it draws parallels to serious subject matter in reality.
Magneto ought to be an anti-hero/anti-villain/whatever at his very core, a rival leader to X, the two respecting each other for wanting what's best for their people but having different philosophies. As a human, it's easy to side with X-Men because they're the "nice" option for humans and Magneto is "mean". But if you put yourself in the shoes of a mutant like the ones you're sympathizing with, you have voices that simply can't just be rejected outright because it's limiting your options. One of those would be Magneto.
I don't mind if characters call him evil for things he does. That ought to happen, it'd be bullshit if no one did. Magneto is the kind of guy who makes no bones about the fact he's willing to do whatever he deems necessary. It's when the story has clearly decided Magneto is evil, and there's when you get "The Brotherhood of Evil" and Magneto ironically creating extermination camps for non-mutants. That's an incredibly hamfisted morality tale.
You can't compare the two. Malcolm X never commandeered a nuclear arsenal or tried to wipe out billions of people from the planet. Magneto is a terrorist.
Magneto is like The new black panthers.Not the The black panthers but The new black panthers.
Hudson Wood
Magneto was and is a genocidal maniac who's biggest irony is being a hitler equivalent despite having lived through the concentration camps
Gavin Wilson
>But making him explicitly evil to the point of being Mutant Hitler (because writers think "you are what you hate" is always a clever device and totally never trite and witless) I've always felt this is doubly a hack take because Magneto never STOPPED being persecuted. People regularly murder mutants for being mutants and there have been actual mutant concentration camps and government organizations tasked with wiping out the x Gene. Becoming militant in the face of government sanctioned genocide is not hurr durr but then you're just like Hitler! Its survival and making sure your people aren't wiped from the Earth for a second time (Third if we're counting No More Mutants) Nobody was persecuting Hitler and the Nazis.
Alright /pol/ give me my (You)s
Camden Lewis
I want Quentin to die
Xavier Watson
Magneto the last holocaust survivor. Should magneto who is probably the last holocaust survivor in 616 Marvel universe be a super villain when the last real world one is dead?
Henry Rogers
>Nobody was persecuting Hitler and the Nazis. >Alright /pol/ give me my (You)s BUT WHAT ABOUT WHAT ABOUT BUT WHATABOUT THE WHITE GENOCIDE THERE IS A CARTOON WHERE A FICTIONAL BLACK MAN HOOKS UP WITH A FICTIONAL WHITE WOMAN THIS DRAWING IS KILLING THE WHITE RACE AND YOU'RE JUST SPITTING ON ME YOU FUCKING LIBERAL
Asher Jackson
Magneto real Arch-Enemy is the red skull.
Joseph Davis
>WHITE GENOCIDE What?
Dylan Jones
malcolm x was not a hero, he was a black hero. huge difference.
Juan Long
sort of like modern day isreal.
Adrian Rivera
Thank you
Owen Garcia
this was pathetic, like a flailing deep sea fish out of water all bloated and distended
Colton Johnson
exactly except they didn't live through concentration camps
Noah Butler
The Muslim countries have the Palestinians in the concentration camps.
Cameron Morales
>Malcolm X was a hero. He was a bigot for a lot of his life - most of his time in the public eye. He hated Jews and considered whites devils. He only changed his mind after his pilgrimage to Mecca where he saw Muslims of all races, and he was killed like a year later.
Joshua Cruz
I read the very first X-Men issue and in his first appearance he was trying to use nuclear weapons to cause mass civilian casualties. So yeah, he's a bad guy. But he has a tragic backstory and some legitimate grievances that make him more than a caricature.
Tyler Powell
But muh brain damage retcon
Nathan Scott
>It really doesn't make much since he's somewhat of a parallel to community leaders like Malcolm X, who is respected by the black community.
Oh, well if he's respected by the black community then he must not be evil. Hear that Chris Brown? You're good, please beat more women into comas it's no big deal.
Cooper Wilson
it's saturday rabbi you shouldn't be typing
Zachary Miller
>Oh, well if he's respected by the black community then he must not be evil. Hear that Chris Brown? You're good, please beat more women into comas it's no big deal. Are you a Nazi?
Connor Williams
Yeah and that's happened to everyone, the question is what is Magneto's end game, you take out the government and take over power what next. Do you start punishing all the normal humans many of whom don't even know this shit happens, are you gonna attack other marginalized groups for being human. The problem with the X-men and Magneto is that there is no endgame and no plans for others they're "I'm gonna get my rights and everyone else can fuck off" type faggots. The mutant allegory would work better as some kind of equalizer for oppressed groups, why would someone suddenly discard years of built up identity when they find out they're a mutant, does a neo-nazi stop being one when he gets fire powers, does a Palestinian stop caring about what happens in Gaza when he finds out he can fly mach speed. There is so much interesting things they can do with mutants but refuse to because you all ways have to go back to the default "mutants are a oppressed monolitich minority"
Xavier Harris
Malcolm X was an idiot. A violent idiot with superpowers is by default a supervillain. That's Magneto, a charismatic, powerful and oblivious hypocrite. How was Malcolm X an idiot? Was it because he was part of the nation of Islam? That should do. Or the fact where he pretended educated and wealthy African americans would want to remove themselves from general society and segregate themselves with the other African americans? Some might say his separatist declarations alone would count him as an idiot. Malcolm X was an idiot disguised as a realist. He sold fairytales of creating another society through violence and the will of Allah.
Magneto is evil. Because he is wrong to begin with, his actions cannot be justified by his motivations. Xavier was always right with coexistence. Its just cool nowadays to be a tribalist or a nationalist.
Dominic Ross
The current set up of the X-men and Mutants just living peacefully alone on an island is all he’s been trying to do for years.
Also comparing Xavier and Magneto to real people is bad for everyone
Matthew Anderson
What?
Parker Ross
Hes been attacking humanity for years too. He's just failed so many times.
Gabriel Diaz
>Yeah and that's happened to everyone, the question is what is Magneto's end game, you take out the government and take over power what next. Do you start punishing all the normal humans many of whom don't even know this shit happens, are you gonna attack other marginalized groups for being human. The problem with the X-men and Magneto is that there is no endgame and no plans for others they're "I'm gonna get my rights and everyone else can fuck off" type faggots. The mutant allegory would work better as some kind of equalizer for oppressed groups, why would someone suddenly discard years of built up identity when they find out they're a mutant, does a neo-nazi stop being one when he gets fire powers, does a Palestinian stop caring about what happens in Gaza when he finds out he can fly mach speed. There is so much interesting things they can do with mutants but refuse to because you all ways have to go back to the default "mutants are a oppressed monolitich minority" Magneto hate the red skull most.
Just because a holocaust survivor hates are real deal dyed in the wool capital N Nazi doesn't mean he suddenly gives a damn about other people and their struggles. Magneto is a selfish short sighted cunt who only gives a damn about himself and his people
Jose Parker
Anons get Malcom X wrong alot, what Malcom said was to stop being a doormat for white people and stop letting them beat and murder your people for free while you just smile in the back thinking the good Ol'boss man is in the right simply because he's white. The reason he hated white people is because they took a way his mother,killed his father because he wanted blacks to go back to the motherland,seperated his brothers and sisters, sent him to jail for 8 years while the white girl that committed the same crime as him got 1 year, the constant terror attacks on black neighborhoods by white men,etc. He hated Jews simoly because he believed they start most of the drama between blacks and whites so white people don't focus on hating them instead. But really he thought coexistent would Rob the black populace of their culture and the "you have to learn how to act white" culture whould push out the African culture.
The problem with your argument is that Magneto started doing that before the mutant concentration camps and government sanctioned actions against mutants. A lot readers, and writers, don't actually bother to get the details and timeline right, so later events are lumped in with earlier ones and nuances are dropped. The first sanctioned government program against mutants was Project Wideawake, which ironically not only used non-lethal methods against mutants and actively recruited mutant agents, was also infiltrated by Mystique, who used it to radicalize mutants to her side, and Sebastian Shaw, who falseflagged mutant attacks so he could sell his Sentinels to the government. Fun fact, about 1/3 of all Sentinel iterations were built by or at the behest of a mutant.
Elijah Thompson
>Anons get Malcom X wrong alot, what Malcom said was to stop being a doormat for white people and stop letting them beat and murder your people for free while you just smile in the back thinking the good Ol'boss man is in the right simply because he's white. The reason he hated white people is because they took a way his mother,killed his father because he wanted blacks to go back to the motherland,seperated his brothers and sisters, sent him to jail for 8 years while the white girl that committed the same crime as him got 1 year, the constant terror attacks on black neighborhoods by white men,etc. So like BLM but but with a anti-Semitic conspiracy theory?
Connor Green
Malcom X was a serial Lieutenant. He'd hop cause to cause (remember, Malcom X was a drug dealer and pimp for much of his early life), boss to boss, until eventually they'd have to make some pragmatic decision that shattered whatever romantic idealism Malcom X had for them. With gangs, it was when they weren't tough enough; his conversion to Islam happened when he went to fucking prison (For armed robbery) and realized that despite the whole gangsta thug nigga tough guy act fucking no one was going to save him and no one cared that he went to the clink; he ditched the NOI when Elijah Muhammed made the smart decision of not sending every single NOI man to their graves trying to murder two cops for arresting some NOI rabble rousers at a riot. Had he not been murdered by the NOI, he would have eventually ditched the Saudis for some new cause.
The entire setup of the X-men as anything other than >weirdos born with strange powers taken in to fight crime is inherently retarded. There is absolutely nothing to make them sympathetic (the fact that they let psychics, every last one of whom is demonstrated to be a psychopath who is constantly brainwashing everyone around them walk freely, is in itself a damning offense) given that even the "good guys" are genocidal maniacs.
Not to mention their whole "standing for minority-of-the-week" thing is just dumb. Blacks, at worst, can commit crime at slightly higher rates than Whites and are slightly less intelligent. Cyclops can murder an entire city by taking his glasses off and spinning in a circle.
Asher Myers
He is still an idiot. African americans have an american culture. It is intrinsically american. To everyone else in the world, they are demonstrably American, act american and behave like americans. Their original culture was already stolen from them through generations of reprosucing in the americas, forced originally by european countries. African americans are a young culture and people who are still developing, like the rest of the USA. He was militant and ignored the contemporary successes peaceful movements achieved. He is based solely on pride, and this would be admirable if this pride were not based on farrakhan's propaganda and the erroneous concept of being a separate people from the rest of americans. African American culture isnt even the same all throughout the USA.
Brody Hernandez
The parallels are superficial. Superhero comics are brainlet-friendly and don't seriously tackle anything.
Leo Nelson
>Nobody was persecuting Hitler and the Nazis
Except that Weimar Germsny was full of socialist black block gangs that broke up conservative rallies that the brownshirts were a reaction to. Different story when they got into power I suppose.
Luis Jenkins
>Except that Weimar Germsny was full of socialist black block gangs that broke up conservative rallies that the brownshirts were a reaction to. Different story when they got into power I suppose. What?
Jordan Fisher
>Malcom X was a hero He tried to start a racewar and wanted violence. >But he felt sorry at the end! Doesn’t excuse his past deeds and behavior.
Malcom X was a fucking douche.
Adam Butler
This
Logan Scott
Magneto himself named his own group the Brotherhood of EVIL Mutants.
Kevin Nelson
>He tried to start a racewar When?
Thomas Russell
This thread sure attracted a bunch of white libtards who have no clue what they're talking about.
Parker White
And Nazis.
Isaiah Phillips
In the end, all that matters is that, at the very least, you found a way to feel better than everyone else.
I'm pretty sure it's from Questionable Content, or at least it sounds like it would fit in there.
Connor Morris
Why the fuck do people like Quentin Quire?
Thomas Nguyen
first of all, Malcolm X never "wanted" violence actively, he just saw it as a suitable means of action to ensure the life and liberty of American blacks (victims of state violence themselves). big difference there. more importantly "feeling sorry at the end" DOES impact how we should read X's past deeds and behavior. it's predictable that many black leaders experience/d a reactionary period as they come to terms with their own positions because of the context they're coming from. the fact that so many of them grow to think deeply beyond that reactionary phase (look at amiri baraka) IS in itself heroic. it's impossible to tell how Malcolm X would've addressed and adapted his black nationalist views with his post-hajj pan-africanism if he was never assassinated (ie become a victim of violence himself), but it stands to reason that coming from that having come from that framework is what put him in the position to adapt beyond it and reach newer, rarer, more vital understandings
Isn't the whole "X-men are the SCLC, Brotherhood are the NOI" meme that started with Claremont trying to make Magneto more sympathetic then Lee was more than willing to gobble up credit and say "yes it was about civil rights from the very start"?
Jason Morris
a couple of niggers learning about critical thinking isn't heroic, that's just acquiring basic human behavior. it's about time.
Austin Carter
A thief is a thief, even in his grave.
Justin Howard
A retard conspiracy theory.
Austin Wright
>it's another "muh X-Men are allegories n sheeeei" thread Fucking Hell you people, it's literally a sci-fi book that got derailed by retards such as yourselves.
David Thompson
He honestly wasn't. Even he himself knew he was an asshat compared to MLK.
Sebastian Brooks
lol, try again. creating an ideology and enacting it through your life and work isn't "learning" about critical thinking, it's applying it to a degree that few people who ever live do. especially when the explicit goals of that ideology are to rouse critical thinking and action in others
Robert Walker
Malcolm X was integral to pushing public support for MLK. Mostly by being the explicitly worse option.
Adam Howard
The public are whites, of course they don't like a black man with attitude. MLK wasn't unconditionally loved by blacks, plenty were disgruntled with his approach.
