Since his Marvel Comics debut, Magneto has held onto a dream that he deemed worthy of fighting, and even dying for–but X-Men’s darkest era proves that dream is an absolute nightmare.
Erik Magnus Lehnsherr aka Magneto is a mutant with the power to manipulate magnetic fields and control metal. As a boy, Erik suffered through the atrocities that were committed at Auschwitz by the Nazis during World War II–an unparalleled trauma that reshaped his worldview. Erik became convinced that the same thing he experienced would happen again, except this time, it would happen to mutants. So, Magneto made deliberate efforts to weaken humanity as a preliminary strike, giving mutants an edge in the war that he was sure was on the horizon. Magneto’s dream was for mutant supremacy, as he believed wholeheartedly that the alternative was mutant extermination.
In X-Men Chronicles #1 by Howard Mackie and Terry Dodson, readers are shown exactly how Apocalypse took over the world within the newly-formed timeline of the Age of Apocalypse. In the days leading up to En Sabah Nur’s ultimate strike against humanity, Magneto sees the signs of unrest in the world and realizes it is Apocalypse’s doing, as the villain is laying the groundwork for his hostile takeover. As Magneto speaks through this comic’s narration boxes, he conveys a feeling of dread and fear at the idea of a powerful mutant usurping humanity’s grip on the world and claiming the planet in the name of mutant supremacy. In other words, Magneto has become terrified of his own dream.
Magneto Doesn’t Actually Want Mutant Supremacy
For his entire life, Magneto has been driven by the desire to stay alive in a world that constantly wants to kill him for who he is. This made him hostile and angry–but he was also powerful. Magneto realized he didn’t have to sit back and let the world trample him and his kind, he could hit back, and he could hit back harder. But, when Xavier died and left behind only a half-remembered dream of peace and harmony in the world, Magneto softened and realized that community was better than domination. Mutants didn’t need to rule the world to live in peace, and they certainly didn’t need to kill humans. Magneto discovered this in the Age of Apocalypse timeline, just as he later discovered it in the prime timeline of Earth-616, but Apocalypse didn’t. Apocalypse is obsessed with survival of the fittest, and he is convinced that no one is more fit than he, therefore it is his duty to decide who is worthy to live beneath him while still being strong enough in their own right to be worthy of life in general–and Apocalypse has decided that mutants may survive in his world, and humans are to be exterminated. This is exactly what Magneto wanted upon his Marvel Comics debut, but when it actually happens under Apocalypse’s rule, he learns just how nightmarish that dream really is.
It is made abundantly clear throughout this entire X-Men issue that Magneto is genuinely terrified of what will happen if a powerful mutant rose up and disturbed the status quo of human superiority–a fact that confirms Magneto’s dream is a nightmare, not just for him, but for the entire world.
