Magneto

Real Name
Unrevealed

Occupation
Conqueror, former ruler, teacher, headmaster, secret agent, orderly

Citizenship
Unrevealed

Place of Birth
Unrevealed

Known Relatives
Unidentified parents (deceased), Magda (wife, presumed deceased), Anya (daughter, deceased), Wanda Maximoff (Scarlet Witch, daughter), Pietro Maximoff (Quicksilver, son), Lorna Dane (Polaris, daughter), Vision (son-in-law), Thomas (grandson), William (Wiccan, grandson), Crystalia Maximoff (Crystal, daughter-in-law), Luna Maximoff (granddaughter), Joseph (clone, deceased)

Group Affiliation
Formerly Genoshan Excalibur, Acolytes (leader), the Twelve, Hellfire Club (Inner Circle), X-Men, New Mutants (headmaster), Savage Land Mutates (founder), Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (founder)

Education
Unrevealed

Height
6’ 2”

Weight
190 lbs.

Eyes
Bluish-grey

Hair
Silver

Powers
Magneto possesses the power to control all forms of magnetism. He can shape and manipulate magnetic fields that exist naturally or artificially. It is unclear, however, whether he must draw magnetic force from outside himself (if so, then he can do so over vast distances), or whether he can also generate magnetic force from within himself. Nor is it clear whether Magneto's power is psionic or purely physiological in nature. Magneto's power is, for all practical purposes, limitless. Moreover, he can use his magnetic powers in more than one way simultaneously. He can completely assemble a complicated machine within seconds through his powers. He can erect magnetic force fields with a high degree of impenetrability around himself for protection.

Although Magneto’s primary power is control over magnetism, he can also project or manipulate any form of energy that is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, including visible light, radio waves, ultraviolet light, gamma rays, and x-rays. However, Magneto almost always uses only magnetism, since it’s more difficult for him to manipulate other forms of energy. Magneto has also exhibited powers of astral projection and telepathy, and has claimed to be able to control the minds of others, though his abilities along these lines appear to be minimal.

Magneto’s ability to wield his superhuman powers effectively is dependent upon his physical condition. When severely injured, his body is unable to withstand the strain of manipulating great amounts of magnetic forces.

Abilities
Magneto has mastered many technological fields, and is an expert on genetic manipulation and engineering, with knowledge far beyond that of contemporary science. He is considered to be a genius in these fields. He can mutate humans in order to give them superhuman powers, or create adult clones of human beings and then manipulate the genetic structures of these clones during their development. He has also learned how to create artificial living beings. Magneto is also an excellent strategist, both in actual battles and games of chess.

Other Info
I bet some of you are wondering, "Wasn't his name Erik Lensherr?" (I know that I was wondering that when I saw that Magneto's real name was "unrevealed.") The explanation is found within...

After witnessing the brutal murder of his family by the Nazis, the man known as Magnus was sent to the Auschwitz death camp where he served in the Sonderkommando, the squad of Jewish men forced to help their Nazi masters operate the gas chambers, ovens, and fire pits of the camp during WWII. While in Auschwitz, Magnus met a gypsy girl named Magda. He and Magda both survived the Holocaust, and later were married and had a daughter together named Anya.

Magnus first consciously used his mutant powers when his family was trapped in a burning house. Unable to rescue his daughter from the blaze due to his inexperience, coupled with interference from a mob of angry humans, he angrily unleashed his powers to vengefully slaughter the humans. Magda was terrified after this and left him, and months later he discovered that she was pregnant. Magda presumably died after giving birth to mutant twins at Wundagore Mountain (The twins would later become the mutants Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch). To shake off his pursuers, Magnus had master forger George Odekirk create the identity of Sinte gypsy “Erik Lehnsherr” for him. (To find out more about Magneto's twin children, or about the Wundagore Mountain--which is a mountain that has a lot of mutant history that I can't really explain briefly, but it's pretty interesting--then click on the links found on each of the highlighted names above.)

Erik Lensherr became friends with Charles Xavier, with whom he shared lengthy debates, hypothesizing what would happen if humanity were to be faced with a race of super-powered beings. The two friends ultimately revealed their true natures to each other when they prevented Nazi war criminal Baron Wolfgang von Strucker from obtaining a large cache of Nazi gold. Causing a cave-in that seemingly killed Strucker, Lensherr realized that his and Xavier’s views on mutant/human relations were incompatible and left with the gold. (To find out more concerning Charles Xavier--Professor X--or about the Nazi war criminal Baron Wolfgang von Strucker--who is kind of a mutant himself--click on their highlighted names above.)

Magnus or Erik gave himself the name of Magneto. He has often expressed the belief that mutants, whom he calls Homo sapiens superior, will eventually be the dominant life form on the planet. Magneto has wavered between different ideas of what he wants with mutant/human relationships: wanting to exist in harmony with humans, wanting a separate homeland for mutants, and wanting to enforce his superiority over all humanity.

Magneto and his different evil groups have faced up against famous groups such as the X-men, Avengers, and Fantastic Four. (I think movie creators could make an awesome movie by combining the Fantastic Four movies and the X-men movies. They could make the movie into one giant awesome mutant battle between good and evil. Now that could be a pretty sweet movie!)

At one point his old friend, Charles Xavier, was almost destroyed and Xavier made Magneto promise to protect their dream and take over as Headmaster of his school. Magneto reluctantly agreed, and came to supervise the fledgling New Mutants team while also joining the X-Men on missions. Later, seeking an alliance with the Hellfire Club against ever-increasing threats to them, Magneto and the X-Men’s leader Storm briefly shared the position of White King within the Club’s Inner Circle before philosophical differences between Magneto and the Club’s Black King, Sebastian Shaw, resulted in Shaw deposed as leader and Magneto assuming the unique position of “Grey King.” (Click on the highlighted links above to learn more about the different characters and mutant groups.)

Magneto's helmet is designed to prevent telepathic intrusion or psionic attacks. Magneto has designed such creations as magnetically-powered craft, complex robots and computers, and magnetically-powered generators.

There is a movie that will be coming out sometime in 2011 entitled, X-men Origins: Magneto. Like X-men Origins: Wolverine, the movie will be a prequel to the X-men movies. There aren't many details about the movie yet, but I have seen interviews and a storyline and I think the movie is going to be about the early life of Magneto and his friendship with Charles Xavier, and how the one-time allies became mortal enemies.

For more information concerning the life of Magneto click on the following link to Marvel.com's bio of Magneto, http://www.marvel.com/universe/Magneto.