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New Collecting Guide: Magneto (plus: a list of his key appearances!)

November 27, 2016 by krisis

[Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug][/Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug]Today I get to announce the second villain to join the Crushing Comics pantheon of comic guide pages: Magneto, The Master of Magnetism!

That’s right, night I bring you The Definitive Magneto Collecting Guide and Reading Order. This new guide is available exclusively to CK’s Crushing Comics Club Patrons until January 15th. Want early access? Visit CK on Patreon to learn more.

I’ve long said that of all the Marvel characters who never had their own title (well, until 2014), Magneto’s arc is one of the most consistent and fascinating.

x-men-1991-0001-magneto_variant Stan Lee and Roy Thomas had established the allegory of Xavier’s closed hand approach to leading mutants versus Magneto’s closed fist long before Chris Claremont first penned the character in 1975. Magneto transform from a one-note villain in X-Men #1 in 1963 to a man blinded by the frenzy of needing to defend his own people by either establishing a sovereign nation for them or bending the entire world to his will.

Chris Claremont made Magneto’s seemingly Sisyphean struggle resonate more deeply when he began to gradually reveal that Magneto was the survivor of Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi Germany in a series of references and flashbacks starting in Uncanny X-Men #150 in September of 1981. Suddenly, his fervor over leading mutant-kind was contextualized, though it still could not excuse his acts of violence (as in the same issue, when he drowns an entire Russian submarine full of sailors). His repeated attempts to carve out a sovereign, defensible homeland for mutants were suddenly and tragically recast as a way of recreating Israel prior to the World War II rather than after.

Marvel really loves to say that each of their annual events “will change everything,” but the original Secret Wars did just that for Magneto in 1984. By grouping him with the heroes in the outset of the story, The Beyonder (and, by extension, his author and editor-in-chief Jim Shooter) recognized the layer of nobility that Claremont had so deftly played up in Magneto’s previous appearance.

In turn, that cleared the path for Claremont to begin Magneto’s rehabilitation as soon as he returned from the company’s first line-wide event. He placed Magneto into a sympathetic position, shipwrecked and under the care of Lee Forrester on his own former island base, and then had Xavier personally commission him as the leader of the X-Men in the run-up to Secret Wars II in 1985.

That flawed nobility has never since left the character. Even through several later returns to villainy, Magneto’s focus is never pure evil (or, if in hindsight it seems to be, it’s quickly retconned away). That’s partly due to his relative scarcity through 2010. After “Acts of Vengeance” in 1989-1990, Magneto rarely appeared outside of X-books, and was always promptly mothballed upon his exit – as in his memorable turn in Claremont and Jim Lee’s X-Men, Vol. 2 #1-3 in 1991.

In a March 1999, Alan Davis and Fabian Nicieza finally granted Magneto his wish, with him assuming rule over the island of Genosha off the Southeastern African coast. As with the unending holy war between Palestine and Israel, Magneto’s Genosha was built atop the ruins of a country known not only for discrimination against mutants, but for pressing them into slavery and genetic mutilation.

uncanny-x-men-1963-0516-pg12 It seems that the land is cursed with ill intent, and Magneto couldn’t escape that when a super-sentinel cuts him and his millions of subjects down in cold blood in the shocking opening scenes of Grant Morrison’s New X-Men. Yet, Claremont would find a way to cheat that death (after all, it’s his speciality) in a 2004 iteration of Excalibur, using Magneto as leverage to kick off the House of M event.

The wake of House of M left Magneto without powers or purpose, given than less than 200 mutants remained on the Earth. It was Ed Brubaker and Matt Fraction – hot off their co-authored run on Immortal Iron Fist in 2008 – who set Magneto on a new path that culminated in his becoming one of the anchors of the X-Men books from 2010 to the present day.

Fraction’s run on Uncanny X-Men saw Magneto reclaim his powers and then submit himself to the service of Cyclops, who had been pressed into leading the entire mutant race past its potential extinction due to the events of Messiah Complex.

Kieron Gillen and then Brian Bendis loved the subtext of Magneto’s inability to simply play the right hand man, but it was Cullen Bunn who seized upon it in his unexpectedly riveting Magneto solo series in 2014. There, in the vacuum of positive or negative leadership of the mutant race, Magneto began to silence or subvert elements he found unacceptable all while undermining Cyclops as a revolutionary leader through being a triple-agent with SHIELD.

The arc of Magneto’s ascendence was so strong that after the line-wide reset of Secret Wars, it was Bunn who was tasked with writing the always-popular flagship of Uncanny X-Men – with Magneto at the helm.

That’s a lot of story over the course of over fifty years of Magneto’s publishing life. The Magneto Guide walks you through every issue in reading order, often proving context and major story beats to help orient you to each tale.

That adds up to hundreds of comics from dozens of different titles. What if you’re not interested in all of that, but just in the spine of the story I’ve described in this post? Don’t worry – I’ve got you covered…

Magneto – Collecting Guide and Reading Order

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.

uncanny-x-men-1963-0516-textless 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

35-for-35: 2010 – “Dancing On My Own” by Robyn

November 27, 2016 by krisis

[Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug][/Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug]I went through a period in the late 00s where all I wanted was singer/songwriter dance music. For a while, the closest thing was Justin Timberlake or indie-rock pop like hellogoodbye, but neither quite scratched the itch I had. I wanted straight up, cotton candy, 80s style pop music with an auteur behind it and more texture than the typical radio tune.

And, of course, I wanted to hear women doing it.

Luckily, Lady Gaga arrived in 2008 with The Fame and rubbed my itch raw, but I would argue that if we’re talking about dance-pop auteurs we cannot even have the conversation without talking about Robyn.

Five years ago I would have had to follow that statement with “Yes, my 90s friends, the same Robyn of ‘Show Me Love.'” That’s not the case anymore, with “Dancing On My Own” in the credits of TV’s Girls and “Call Your Girlfriend” reaching surprising ubiquity in the year’s since its release.

I didn’t have that context in 2010, though. All I had was this queer record called Body Talk, Part 1 from the woman who sang “Show Me Love.” I had completely missed the “Konichiwa Bitches” years of Robyn’s second breakthrough because at the time I didn’t swim in those pop circles (because, I’d argue, she and Gaga revived those pop circles in the US).

I even wrote about my discovery process of Body Talk, Part 1, and how I was cool to “Dancing On My Own” on first listen but floored by the EP as a whole.

With hindsight, I’m also floored by “Dancing On My Own.” Despite the busy synth bass, the song has an uncluttered sonic aesthetic, adding in just one element at a time as in my 1994 pick “Closer.” (Note that the original version of this cut does not include the higher synth line that can now be heard in the video.)

“Dancing On My Own” has more than that common with that profane NIN cut. Each song is the perfect evocation of a near-universal human experience. Yes, “Closer” is more base and primary, but watching the person you want be with someone else while you sway on your own is something everyone has experienced at least once – from the most popular jock to the most ridiculed nerd.

Robyn turns that dejected feeling into something empowering – a chorus you are proud to shout along to on the dancefloor. It’s just an excuse to dance on your own.

From The Beginning: WildStorm Universe – Backlash #6-7

November 26, 2016 by krisis

[Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug][/Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug]When we last saw our heroes this book was a chauvinist wreck being scripted by man-children. I wonder what will happen next!

backlash_v1_06 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.

While Brett Booth is a large part of that, so is a set of DC-esque vibrant colors from Martin Jimenez. Together, they make what could be a spy book feel like a superhero adventure. That lends a lot of implied joy to the proceedings that the script isn’t bringing to the table. Even spitting the three chapters of issue #7 between Melvin Rubi, Booth, and Dan Norton doesn’t change that – each of them delivers, especially Rubi on the intro.

Plotwise, the trio of scripters continue to be hapless. Issue #6 neatly ties up the book’s raison d’être in a neat little bow, with the VR device leading Backlash right to S’Ryn and having him neatly resolve her broken psyche with the help of Voodoo. That story probably deserved more than just one issue.

I’m not sure what the point of the title will be after WildStorm Rising, but luckily that’s not my problem this month!

Then, issue #7 finds the quickest possible route to dispose of that new status quo, while pitting a still unsympathetic Taboo against a term of mercs who I was rooting for 100%.

(The letters columns in #7 include a cascade of praise for the one-note evil sexbot Taboo. I’d ask what book they were reading, but then I remembered some stuff about teenage boys and just shook my head.)

Also, there are some intractable continuity problems here – Backlash visits the WildCATs headquarters with a recovered Voodoo in Backlash #6, placing it after WildCATs #18. Then Backlash #7 begins with two weeks elapsing. The trouble is that WildCATs #19 happens just seconds after #18 and immediate moves into the start of WildStorm Rising, which puts Backlash #8 way into the crossover (but not really, since Backlash’s #8 is one of the chapters).

These issues needed some kind of reshuffling to extend the story in #7 – perhaps by inserting the disconnected Australian Outback in #8 to displace the big finalé with S’Ryn into #8, leaving Slayton and Diane’s sudden breakup to end this pair of books.

Want the recap? Keep reading for the details of this pair of issues. Here’s the schedule for the rest of this month’s WildStorm re-read. Tomorrow brings us a new arc sans Tim Sale on Deathblow #13-15, followed by the start of new Union and Gen13 ongoings on Monday.

Need the issues? You’ll need to purchase single issues – try eBay (#6-7) or Amazon (#6, 7). [Read more…] about From The Beginning: WildStorm Universe – Backlash #6-7

35-for-35: 2009 – “Love Of Our Lives” by Indigo Girls

November 26, 2016 by krisis

indigo-girls-poseidon-and-the-bitter-bug [Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug][/Patreon-Nov16-Post-Bug]You don’t stop being an artist.

I haven’t written a new song in a few months, but that doesn’t mean I’ve stopped being a songwriter. I never stopped being a blogger in the months this page lay dormant. You might not write as frequently as you did when you were 20, and you might draw inspiration from different things, but that doesn’t stop you from being an artist.

Being an artist has other implications in the commercial world, partially because there are costs associated with artistry. You may be a songwriter, but are you writing enough material to release full-length albums regularly enough that you won’t be forgotten? And, even when you do, will a likely-dwindling audience of tens of thousands of people like it enough to pay for it?

I don’t know how mainstream artists contend with all of those questions and still find the courage to make the art that drives them. I suppose that’s why you surround yourself with a team of managers and lawyers (although that’s a catch-22, since you have to keep making the art to pay for them to enable you to make the art!).

Somehow, despite all those odds, The Indigo Girls have continued to release some of their most vital, engaging work over the course of four studio LPs and a live album in the past decade. The live LP, Staring Down The Brilliant Dream, takes it name from this song, “Love Of Our Lives.”

(This acoustic version is from three years after the LP, but I think being able to see Emily and Amy trading the often unison octave vocals adds a lot to your listen.)

E taught me songs like “Least Complicated” and “Power of Two” note by note from her memory of many prior sing-throughs on long card rides back and forth in her little Corolla from her parents houses in New Jersey, young and in love.

We’ve been wanting to be helped by binding ties
We’ve been fighting for the love of our lives

This song flips that oft-told harmony-singing narrative on its head. We first heard “Love Of Our Lives” together in 2009, newly married (to the tune of “Least Complicated”!) and driving in our own car back on that same route with one window down and the wind whipping through our hair. We were equals as partners and singers, each naturally taking our accustomed parts (E with Emily, me with Amy Ray) and getting tangled up in each other as the two vocal lines merge back into a unison melody.

Fire and water, oxygen
Scotch and soda, or any combination
Starts the reaction.

Is there no mastermind of modern day
Who can blueprint a plan to make love stay
Steady and weatherproof usher in a new revolution?

I don’t know how are these two women writing such stunning statements of words and melody over 20 years into their careers, but I’m incredibly thankful that they are. I have so many favorite songs that remind me of the early milestones of our relationships, but this one will always remind me of the strength of us together.

After trying more, the hopeful ones still try.
How can we help it when we’re fighting for the love of our live?

(Also, a fun fact: “Love of Our Lives” include both of my favorite little marks of songwriting, the word “communication” and a reference to chemistry. They’re like the sigils of my and Gina’s respective houses, and also map onto Nathan and Martina in my novel. In fact, I’d say this song is specific inspiration for it, but to explain that much further would be a spoiler ;)