Contents 1 HistoryEdit 1.1 X-Men: First Class 1.2 X-Men 1.3 X2: X-Men United 1.4 X-Men: The Last Stand 2 Powers and AbilitiesEdit 2.1 Powers 2.2 Abilities 2.3 Strength level 2.4 Weaknesses 3 ParaphernaliaEdit 3.1 Equipment 4 NotesEdit 5 TriviaEdit 6 LinksEdit 6.1 Discover and Discuss 6.2 Footnotes

HistoryEdit

I've been at the mercy of men just following orders. Never again.

-- Erik Lehnsherr  

Erik Lehnsherr was a German mutant with the ability to manipulate metal.

X-Men: First Class

As a boy, Erik was forced to live in a death camp during the Holocaust. When first incarcerated with his family, Erik pulled apart a metal gate as he was separated from his parents. Seeing this, the Nazi collaborator and secret mutant Sebastian Shaw had Erik brought to him. He was fascinated by the boy's potential and attempted to get him to move a German coin. When this failed, he had his mother brought in, threatening to kill her if he couldn't succeed in moving the coin. When it didn't work, he shot the woman, causing Erik to tear apart the lab in horror. Shaw then tortured him over the next several years in an attempt to draw out the boy's mutant powers. Following the conclusion of World War II, Erik spent years trying to find Shaw and exact vengeance, murdering other Nazis along the way and keeping the coin as a reminder of what the man had done to him.

He eventually tracked Shaw down to a small boat off the American coast during the height of the Cold War. His attempt at revenge was cut short when he was pummeled by Shaw's cohorts in his Hellfire Club, outnumbered and outclassed by their mastery of their mutant powers. It was at this point that he met Charles Xavier and Raven Darkholme, who were present as help in a botched CIA attempt to capture Shaw, who was wanted for the murder of an American general.

Together and with CIA support, Xavier and Erik gathered a team of young mutants to battle the Hellfire Club, who were attempting to start a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States as part of a plot to eradicate non-mutant life on the planet and rule over the new world order. Xavier helped mutants master their powers at his mansion, including Erik. During this time, the two become close friends. However, Erik was still filled with hatred for Shaw and feared a mutant holocaust, despite Xavier's attempts to get him to let go of his dark emotions. Erik also motivated Mystique to become proud of her appearance, believing her desire to get rid of her blue skin was wrong. During a mission, Erik and Xavier captured the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, Emma Frost.

Ultimately, the team had to jump into action to prevent the Cuban Missile Crisis from causing World War III. The Hellfire Club was also present; they attempted to repel the CIA-sanctioned mutant team but were defeated. During the encounter, Erik confronted Shaw, who attempted to bring the troubled young man to his side with promises of a new, mutant world order. Although he found he agreed with Shaw's goals, Erik refused to forgive him for what he did to his mother. Despite Xavier's pleas to be the better man, Erik killed Shaw by slowly sending the German coin through his brain.

When the United States and the Soviet Union struck up a quick alliance to destroy the mutants that threatened them, Erik sent their missiles back at the fleet. Xavier tackled him and the two engaged in a fist fight, which distracted Erik long enough to prevent the missiles from killing those at sea. During a subsequent attempt by CIA officer MacTaggert to shoot Erik, one of the bullets he deflected struck Xavier in the lower back, permanently crippling him. Horrified at what had transpired, Erik bid farewell to his close friend, departing with Mystique and the remaining Hellfire Club members with the vow of destroying humankind in order to save mutants.

He later broke Frost out of prison, declared himself Magneto, and established his first Brotherhood of Mutants.

Years later he briefly rejoined Xavier's side to meet Jean Grey, a child with unmatched psychic powers. She agreed to come to the Xavier Institute.

X-Men

Magneto resurfaced at the turn of the new millennium. Seeing the parallels between Senator Kelly's hateful attempt at mutant registration and the early stages of the Holocaust, he kidnapped the senator. He tested a machine called the Mutation Device on Kelly, planning to mutate the leaders at the world summit on Ellis Island. It worked on Kelly, who used his powers to escape, though it later killed him. Magneto was seemingly unaware of its lethality. Since the machine required his magnetic abilities but was fatal to the user, he kidnapped Rogue and transferred his powers to her in an attempt to use her instead. He was stopped by Xavier's X-Men and jailed in a plastic federal prison.

X2: X-Men United

William Stryker built Magneto's plastic prison and used a mind serum -- generated by his mutant son -- on Magneto to find out about Xavier's school and Cerebro. Mystique helped him escape after finding his location on a computer in Stryker's assistant's (Lady Deathstrike's) office. She injected one of the prison guards with liquid iron, and Magneto was able to use it to break out.

He and Mystique teamed up with the X-Men to stop Stryker from using Cerebro to kill all the mutants in the world. Magneto managed to stop it, but then reversed it to kill all humans. Cerebro was then stopped by the X-Men. On his exit, Magneto ran into Stryker and brutally chained him to a wall at the foot of an exploding dam, which later resulted in Stryker's death. He and Mystique also took Xavier's former student Pyro to their side.

X-Men: The Last Stand

Magneto made his Brotherhood into a huge army to wage war on Worthington Labs, the company responsible for creating the cure for mutation. He also discovered that Jean Grey was alive, and confronted her with Xavier at her childhood house. He convinced her that Xavier had been controlling her; this caused Jean to kill the Professor, which visibly horrified Magneto. She then joined Magneto and his Brotherhood.

Magneto traveled to San Francisco, tore the Golden Gate Bridge apart, and used it to connect the mainland with Alcatraz Island, where the source of the cure was being held. A battle ensued between the Brotherhood, the X-Men, and the United States military. When Jean Grey began tearing apart everything around her, Magneto looked up in horror at what he had unleashed. In the end, Magneto was "cured" by Beast and fled the island when Jean began to destroy it.

Later, at a park in San Francisco, he used his hand and managed to slightly move a metal chess piece, suggesting that the cure was not permanent.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Powers

Magneto of the X-Men films seems to only be able to manipulate metal, not the entire electro-magnetic spectrum, and has been seen to be able to affect even non-ferrous metallic objects. Magneto's resistance to mental attack does not stem from his own natural powers but is technological in nature; the helmet he took from Sebastian Shaw contains some kind of a psychic shielding component, able to completely negate both the telepathic abilities of Charles Xavier, and also the illusion-casting abilities of Mastermind. Magnetism: Magneto is capable of mentally affecting magnetic fields, this allows him to perform various and powerful techniques. He is shown in X-Men First Class to be able to easily move small metallic objects, deflecting bullets, and later on being capable of turning a massive satellite, lifting an entire submarine, and redirecting multiple missiles. In the original X-Men films Magneto has been shown to easily catch the X-Jet and in the Third movie he moves a whole bridge. It is revealed in X-Men First Class that prior to meeting and training with Charles Xavier, Eric used anger to utilize his abilities, and thus couldn't perform to his full potential, however, it should be noted he was able to move a massive anchor and take down an entire ship while still using his ability through anger. But once Charles helped Eric realize he still had good memories and his control was better when he was between rage and serenity Eric, and later Magneto, truly began to control his mutant power.

Power Grid
Fan Ratings
Intelligence	5
Strength	2
Speed	2
Durability	2
Energy Projection	4
Fighting Skills	3

Abilities

See Max Eisenhardt (Earth-616)#Abilities

Strength level

Normal human male

Weaknesses

If he is in an area with no metal, Magneto is almost completely helpless

ParaphernaliaEdit

Equipment

Magneto's Helmet protects him from psychic mutants

NotesEdit

• Magneto was played by two-time Academy Award-nominee Sir Ian McKellen in the movie X-Men and its sequels, X2: X-Men United and X-Men: The Last Stand. It was rumored that he would play him in the Magneto spinoff movie with the possibility of the same digital technology used to de-age him in The Last Stand to be used there. A movie entitled Magneto was announced after X-Men: The Last Stand. It would reveal more about him and how he became Magneto. The film was confirmed in 2009 to be cancelled. According to Laura Schuller Donner, the film hasn't been picked up recently or even worked on. For now, it's shelved.

• Magneto appeared as a younger man in X-Men: First Class, where he was portrayed by Michael Fassbender.
  

TriviaEdit

In X2, a computer lists the names of Magneto's children, Wanda and Pietro.

LinksEdit

• 7 Appearances of Erik Lehnsherr (Earth-10005)
• 33 Images featuring Erik Lehnsherr (Earth-10005)
• Quotations by or about Erik Lehnsherr (Earth-10005)
• Character Gallery: Erik Lehnsherr (Earth-10005)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Erik Lehnsherr (Earth-10005) 
• Characters killed by Magneto

Discover and Discuss

• Search this site for: Magneto · Erik Lehnsherr · Erik Lehnsherr (Earth-10005)
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Footnotes