Honourable Mention:
House of M - Magneto loses his powers
This doesn't make the list because I don't like seeing my beloved Mags sad. But it does get a honourable mention, because check out these purple pj's. Also you know, it's deep and stuff.
10. House of M, The Pulse - Sentinel statue / Xavier memorial
Ok so Magneto isn't technically in this one, but his words here tell you all you need to know about what a great leader he is, so I'm including it. The shithead on the left is resurrected Avenger Hawkeye, famous for his technologically irrelevant powers. Hawkeye heroically died during the Avengers Disassembled event, in one of the most unintentionally hilarious panels ever (I actually read "NO, NOT LIKE THAT" in Nicolas Cage's voice). He then returns to life only to discover that Magneto is now mutant overlord extraordinaire and as you can see by his bitch-face, this information doesn't sit well with him. But who gives a fuck about Hawkeye, check out that Sentinel-head statue. You can say what you want about Magneto but dude has great taste. Combining the remnant of the mutant-killing robot with his profound, hopeful yet sapien-intimidating words, he created a beautiful symbol of the triumph of mutants over humans and gave me a major case of feels. Unfortunately Hawkeye blows the statue up in the next panel, since it's part of his job as the most annoying person in the Marvel Universe. Fuck you Hawkeye.
Second entry in our Magneto-memorial-appreciation spot. It's Mutant Triumph day and Magneto is hanging out in his palace, wearing an awesome royal robe, when Lorna shows up to tell him that his guests are about to arrive. Also she calls him "daddy", which, really Lorna? You're at least 30, just call him "dad". Anyway, Mags is lost in his thoughts so Lorna asks him if he's alright and tells him to cheer up because it's his day, to which he replies with "just give me a moment" and leaves. We then see him standing sadly over a large stone which turns out to be Xavier's grave in the memorial garden he built for him. The grave reads "He died so Genosha could live". Stop giving me the feels with your thoughtful memorials, Mags.
9. Fatal Attractions - Magneto rips the adamantium out of Wolverine's bones
During the Fatal Attractions event Magneto finally had enough of Wolvies' shit and showed him who really is "the best there is". (hint: his name starts with M and ends in -agneto). Now, 9 may seem low for such an iconic moment but this list is primarily about the art, and let's get real, Wolvie being adamantium-ripped looks like something you'd find in a hentai. However, it does make the list because a) I can't stand Wolverine b) check out Magneto's batmanesque cape and almost bored expression as he fucking rips metal out of someones bones. Bitch is cold.
8. Avengers Vs X-Men, Consequences - Magneto breaks Cyclops out of prison
Ugh, I can't with this, Magneto is just the best. After Avengers vs X-Men ended everyone hated Cyclops because he did some pretty bad things during his Phoenix crazies, like killing Professor X and introducing us to Hope, mutant messiah and worst character ever. So after defeating him, the other heroes threw him in jail and forced him to wear really unflattering glasses. Things looked really bad for Cyclops (pun intended), until Magneto, Magik and Danger put together the most do-we-look-like-we-give-a-fuck escape plan ever, showed up in a force field and destroyed the prison with some giant demon hands Magik summoned from Hell. Their plan succeeded (because ain't no one fucks with Magnus) and Cyclops was once again a free mutant, immediately replacing his glasses (good call) and teaming up with our beloved Mags to fight for mutant rights. Meanwhile Wolverine and the Avengers are super pissed about the escape, considering it a dick move on Cyclop's part (seriously Wolverine, like you're one to talk about dick moves). In the previous issue Magneto is talking with Storm and has a great quote that kinda explains his motives for helping Cyclops (apart from mutant solidarity): Storm tells him that he's not a villain and he's like "thank you, but our roles are nothing more than how the times choose to cast us" and it's like damn, that's deep bro. It's also a sick burn on all the goodie-goodies like Ororo and other self-righteous buzzkills, who shall remain nameless (looking at you, Avengers).
7. House of M - Magneto and his awesome jacket ready to beat the crap out of everyone
Let's ask ourselves a serious question here: is there an outfit that Magneto can't pull off? No, no there isn't. Bitch manages to look badass in red and purple, imagine what he'd look like if he was actually trying. Well we don't have to imagine anymore, cause the answer is the above panel, which shows Magneto on his way to throw robot parts at his son, Quicksilver, furious about his handling of the whole Wanda situation, which, with apologies to Quicksilver, was poor at best and an epic fail at worse. But let's focus on Magneto here. Look at him walking on the air (which could easily be a catwalk), wearing the hell out of his royal jacket, while metallic crap flies around him. He looks fucking amazing, even the whole high waisted pants thing is totally working on him. I can't think of another character in the Marvel Universe who could look this refined and badass at the same time. Is there anything you're not great at, Magneto? (Except parenting, which you suck at).
6. Ruins - Everything is terrible and Magneto dies
Ruins is the beautifully drawn and extremely dark parody of the popular Marvels series, and seeks to merge the Marvel Universe with Murphy's law. So the basic premise of Ruins is "what if everything had gone completely wrong?" When I say wrong I don't mean "the Avengers are having financial troubles" kind of wrong, I mean the "Jean Gray is a prostitute who gets shot by Nick Fury who then also kills himself" kind of wrong. So you know, very wrong. Other examples include all the Krees slowly dying of cancer in a concentration camp, Kitty, Quicksilver, Cyclops and Nightcrawler imprisoned and mutilated, 3 of the Fantastic Four dead, and Professor X as the tyrannical President X. Worst of all, Magneto is a hippie protester who dies in the most un-Magneto way possible: a government agent accidentally smashes the device he uses to suppress his powers, so he uncontrollably attracts all the metal crap around him, including part of an air plane, and is of course killed. Many others are also killed, either by the flying crap or by the iron being removed from their blood, which would be very cool if he had done it on purpose but now it's just sad. Still, the gorgeous art and the fact we get to see Mags as a hippie deserve a spot on the list.
5. Acts of Vengeance - Magneto locks Red Skull in a crypt
The Acts of Vengeance crossover featured one of the best Magneto moments ever: Magneto, a Holocaust survivor, finally takes revenge on the Red Skull, who worked for Hitler during WWII. To make this even more satisfying, not only is Red Skull a Nazi but he's anti-mutant as well. (Seriously Red Skull, could you be more disgusting?) So when Magneto finally catches him, instead of killing him he locks him up in a crypt and leaves him there to die a slow and agonising death, all while giving one of his trademark speeches. It's a deeply affecting story of well-deserved revenge as well as an iconic moment of triumph for Magneto, whose suffering during the Holocaust shaped his worldview and urged him to fight for mutant freedom.
4. Planet X - Magneto reveals he's Xorn
Sneaky, sneaky Mags posed as Chinese mutant Xorn (note the shape of the mask's eyes, Marvel: 1 - racial sensitivity: 0), got the X-Men to rescue him from a fake chinese prison and then got himself a job teaching at the Xavier Institute. After setting a trap for the X-Men in space, making Dust attack Professor X and re-crippling him while giving a badass speech, he takes off his mask and reveals that it's been him all along. The fact that he does this in front of a "Magneto was right poster" increases the bitch-is-cold factor even more.
3. House of M - Magneto destroys a sentinel mid-air
The X-Men have never been more annoying than in House of M. Everything was going great, everyone had what they've always wanted but nooo, freaking X-Men have to crash Mag's party with a Sentinel, as part of their idiotic effort to restore the previous, completely shitty reality. They were also trying to find Professor X for some reason, like anyone actually gives a fuck about him. The few times I'm happy to see Professor X are when Magneto fucks him up with his awesome speeches. Anyway, Mags and Lorna stop the Sentinel right before it hits the palace, like the badasses they are. Let's not think about the fact that this is followed by the appearance of X-Men and Avengers from inside the Sentinel because I've honestly had enough of their shit.
2. Planet X - Magneto is tripping balls, destroys New York to prove a point
If there's one thing I love more than Magneto, it's Magneto on drugs. Normal Magneto is pretty cold in his own right, but junkie Magneto seriously doesn't give a fuck. Throughout the Planet X storyline, Mags is hooked on Kick, a drug that enhances his mutant abilities but, as most drugs do, also makes him kinda crazy. In this issue Magneto is giving a speech to the people of New York, unsuccessfully trying to inspire and terrify them, but the crowd isn't really reacting (which, can we blame them? New Yorkers have seen every possible alien invasion/superhuman battle/natural disaster in the Marvel Universe, it's a wonder there are still actual people living there). Mags is having none of that shit and asks Toad what's wrong with the crowd, to which Toad replies that with Magneto having been declared dead about a million times, the crowd doesn't really believe it's him. Magneto is like "Did no one tell them my name? Magneto? Master of fucking magnetism?" and then he destroys four air planes, because he's Magneto and you're not. He then leaves to take some more Kick, leaving Toad to handle the crowd, which Mags, really? I know you're all drugged up but you didn't have anyone better at your disposal than Toad? Anyway, the mutants in the crowd are like "give us Magneto", "prove there's a revolution coming" and so on, at which point he returns, commits some mass murder while talking about the millions of mutants that were exterminated in Genosha (his speech is seriously so, so good. If I was a mutant in that crowd I would start murdering humans too) and then he says that while Xavier and X-Men wanted to build bridges between mutants and humans, mutants can fly and swim and leap, so they have no need for bridges. He drives his point home by doing this:
Very subtle metaphor there, Mags. Eventually the X-Men show up and stop him, like the proper party poopers they are, but not before he calls them morons and kills Jean Grey. He then asks to die and Wolverine, enraged by Jean's death, decapitates him. (Wolverine, I understand you love her and all, but overreaction much? She isn't known as Phoenix for nothing, bitch can't be killed).
1. Magneto: Not A Hero - Better think twice before throwing an anti-mutant convention
This is it. This is my favourite Magneto moment ever, even though it's not actually Magneto in that costume, it's his clone, Joseph, but we're going to ignore that because a) it looks amazing b) this is something that Mags has done about a million times c) it's his freaking clone, so whatever, it counts. This moment makes the top of the list because it really has everything. We have Magneto in all his glory, doing what he does best: murdering anti-mutant morons and mocking them at the same time. We have that ironic "I'm so very good" which really captures how much of an awesome bastard he is. And check out that sexy entrance and the freaking screws flying around the anti-mutant guy's head. There's no other character who could have pulled this kind of stylish massacre off. It was such a great moment I was actually expecting the X-Men to show up and ruin it. Thankfully the writers showed mercy and didn't get the X-Men involved, instead Magneto himself killed Joseph in an epic Mags vs Mags battle:
Wolverine has built his whole reputation on that berserker rage thing while there are two Magnetos just throwing trains at each other. I seriously can't stress enough how much I hate Wolverine. Anyway, this concludes this first list. I'll probably make another one since our Mags finally has his own ongoing series. (You really took your sweet time with that one, Marvel.) And one last thing, in case anyone is still wondering:
