The Magneto comic books definitive issue-by-issue collecting guide and trade reading order for omnibus, hardcover, and trade paperback collections. Find every issue and appearance! Part of Crushing Krisis’s Crushing Comics. Last updated October 2024 with titles scheduled for release through December 2024.
Magneto. He’s the X-Men’s most legendary foe and also one of their greatest allies.
He is also one of the most nuanced villains in all of comics thanks to an origin tied to World War II, an old friendship with Charles Xavier, and a persistent goal of protecting mutants from harm.
Magneto was a sparsely-used villain in the 20 years from his debut in X-Men #1 in 1963 through 1984. He regularly appeared once every year or so in X-Men, plus had a few exploits with the Avengers and his former recruits, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.
What changed in 1984 was one major implication of the original Secret Wars, written by then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter. In the mini-series, an all-powerful, all-knowing force named The Beyonder chooses Earth’s most-prominent heroes and villains to fight on his Battleworld. He selects his cast of characters based not on their actions, but upon their intent … and he groups Magneto amongst the heroes.
That idea – that Magneto has a noble intent and feels those ends justify his means – has never since worn off the character. After Secret Wars, Chris Claremont had Xavier tap him as a replacement headmaster for the Xavier School. Claremont would eventually turn him against the X-Men again, but his goal was now explicitly creating a safe and sovereign space for mutantkind. Though he would have several more villainous turns, none were pure mustache-twirling – every time it would be grounded in his compassion for fellow mutants.
Magneto has suffered many apparent deaths over the course of his career, a tradition stretching back to his earliest appearances and referenced not once but twice by Grant Morrison in his 2001-2003 New X-Men run. He also has a theme of flickering power levels and genetic instability that have played out repeatedly and as recently as Brian Bendis’s run with the character in 2013.
Finally, in 2010, the inevitable happened – X-Men’s situation had grown so desperate and Cyclops’s tactics so necessarily ruthless that Magneto joined the team without any need to alter or water down his own ideology. That lead to his longest sustained run as a regular character, as well as his first ongoing series – a character study of surprising depth that elevated Cullen Bunn to writing the Uncanny X-Men flagship with Magneto as its lead character.
Due to Magneto’s career as a villain and frequent guest star, this guide is not a straightforward list of issues from runs of singles title. Instead, it tracks every single appearance he’s made from 1963 to present, including flashbacks to his early life.
That’s overwhelming even for a longtime X-fans like me, so I also made you a “Best Of” list of Magneto’s most important stories. If you’re just trying to read his greatest hits and get up to speed, that’s where to start. [Read more…] about Magneto – Collecting Guide and Reading Order
No matter what I say about the lumpy scripting on this book, it’s definitely in the upper half of good looking WildStorm ongoings as Stormwatch wobbles through multiple artists and Deathblow switches away from Tim Sale.
This run finds Stormwatch disintegrating without Battalion as the glue to hold it together. No one seems especially interested in obeying Synergy unless it suits them, and Diva has only marginally better luck. That lends an extra layer to Timespan’s egging Battalion on to his death – maybe the real goal was to destroy Stormwatch, and the only way to do it was to convince Battalion that he was fated to die?
While Grifter eventually getting his own title was fait accompli, at this point it feels like Warblade is the least deserving of all the WildCATs who merited their own sideline series. At least Maul has the dichotomy of being a modern art loving nerd by day and a massive purple hulk on the battlefield. Maybe that’s why Warblade needed his own series so badly – because his narrative arc had been treading water ever since Killer Instinct.
It feels like the team takes a backseat in these issues, although they do finally get some character development off the battle field. While I’ve finally got all of their names straight (Dane, Grail, Claymore, Jester, Pilgrim, and Dozer back at base), it’s hard to care about any of them aside from the team’s advance scout, Pilgrim. Coincidentally (or not?), Pilgrim gets two of the biggest scenes in the run that generate more questions than answers.