Source Material - "X-Men" at 25 Special - "X-Men Movie Prequel: Magneto" (Marvel, 2000)

The trilogy is complete! In this final entry of Jesse’s solo celebration of X-Men at 25, we crack open the darkest and most compelling of the movie prequel comics—X-Men Movie Prequel: Magneto. Released in August 2000 alongside the Wolverine and Rogue prequels, this issue dives deep into the tragic origin and militant ideology of Erik Lehnsherr, aka Magneto. With a powerful narrative that stretches from the horrors of Auschwitz to mutant rights clashes in the modern era, this comic adds heartbreaking nuance and ominous intent to the man who would challenge both the X-Men and the world.

Listen to Magneto’s painful journey—starting as a traumatized boy in 1944 Poland, to his first encounter and philosophical sparring with Charles Xavier in Israel, all the way to his present-day war of ideology against Senator Kelly’s mutant fear-mongering. We get classic Magneto: haunted, brilliant, calculating, and unflinchingly determined. And let’s not forget a full-on battle between Magneto and Professor X in a prison hallway, a nod to Cerebro’s origin, and yes—Sabretooth sent on a very personal mission of revenge. 

From the chess match that started it all to Magneto’s ultimate “Check, Charles—your move” mic drop, if you’ve been following the Wolverine and Rogue prequel breakdowns, this is the perfect finale to your X-Men rewatch celebration!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good day. Time books around with hero Slash and Philly.
Take time. We're here to dissect the story. He's a
sub material bounty five. All right, let's get into this
final issue. X Men the movie prequel Magneto, released August

(00:22):
of two thousand. Written by Joe Prewitt. Pencils by Mark Tschera,
inked by Jimmy Palmiotti, lettered by Chris Eliopolis. Atomic paintbrush
on the colors again as well. It's time to learn
a little bit about Magneto, and we're going to start
things out back in Poland nineteen forty four, very similar
to the opening scene of the movie. I didn't brag

(00:45):
on the artwork of the other two, but I will
on this because I am a fan of Texas artwork. Here.
So here we have young Eric, shortly after the events
opening the movie. This boy is looking at one of
the furnaces and he knows his parents have died. Young

(01:05):
Eric sees some soldiers and manipulates one of the guns
to make it look like he's opening fire on the
other soldiers. He doesn't kill them, though, he has them
fire at the ground while they jump around, and then
he stops firing it. Looks like one of the officers here.
One of the Nazi officers knows it was Eric that
did this. It's a colonel, and the colonel said it

(01:29):
was the boy. But these other guys are like, ignore
the boy. He has no threat to anyone. He is
but a child. Now we fast forward to the present
where Magneto is walking through what maybe the remains of
the camp that he was at. I don't know. It
looks awful, pristine for it to be the camp. I

(01:50):
feel like this has got to be inside his mind
or something. No, it's legit. He ends up destroying one
of the buildings there and then walks off to his ship,
which has Mystique, Toad, and Sabertooth inside. Sabertooth again getting

(02:11):
a lot of lines here compared to what he had
in the movie. Sabertooth gives him a hard time, gives
Magneto a hard time for going out and destroying the building,
and Magneto proceeds to pick him up in his chair
and throw him across the room with his powers. Mystique
asks them why they were there, and he says, I've

(02:32):
learned it's never wise to face one's future without first
remembering one's past, and Toad's like, I hope that means
it's time to dish out some serious payback. Yes, Toad,
the time has arrived at last. Take us home. And
here we are two months later in the office of
Senator Robert Kelly. He's watching news reports of some mutants

(02:56):
and this one on the TV apparently can grow to
gigantic size. So a lady by the name of Miss
Hutchinson comes in and tells Senator Kelly about a attack
on a New Mexico military complex and they're trying to
figure out what it was that was taken from there,

(03:17):
and they know that it was Magneto. And now we're
flashing back to nineteen ninety two. A couple guys playing
chess and this is an israel I think. This is
where Charles and Eric first meet, kind of foreshadowing what
happens at the end of the film. They both sit
down on a bar and introduce each other and as

(03:39):
they begin to talk, all of a sudden, there's a
huge explosion and Magneto shields him and Xavier from the blast.
So there was a car bomb outside. Charles was trying
to direct some rescue workers while Eric is grieving over
a young lady who was caught in the blast, and well,

(04:00):
the senseless persecution of those who are different never end,
or are we cursed to live every day in fear
for the rest of our lives. It has to stop, Charles,
I will make it stop. Xavier is trying to make
him understand that he needs to be thankful that he's
alive and that it's not his fault, but Eric says,
it wasn't there, Charles wasn't there. The next day, the

(04:24):
two meet up and they're talking about the possibility of
other mutants out there and what mutation means for humanity.
A new stage of evolution is upon us. And if
you want your Magneto was right moment, listen to what
Magneto says. An interesting hypothesis, Charles. But if you say
this is true, then these mutants would become feared and persecuted.

(04:48):
Mankind has little tolerance for that which is different. Oh,
and now they're confronted by the guy that Magneto beaten chess,
and he's mad. He's brought a couple buddies to hurt
Eric's guy points a knife at Magneto, and Magneto of
course bends it and then starts having it go towards
his own neck. Charles is trying to talk him down,

(05:11):
and that's where he uses his power to get inside
Magneto's head. Magneto realizes that Charles is a telepath a
Magneto's upset, he starts to question Xavier about it. Xavier
is like, I would never enter your mind without permission
or unless absolutely necessary. Now they've both found out they
are both mutants and realize they have a lot to

(05:33):
talk about. As they begin to walk, Eric looks off
and he sees the kernel definitely aged. Now we're talking
fifty more years on top of what he was back then,
which looked to be about fifty. He's probably in his
early forties. Maybe he's definitely in his nineties. Now he's
an older man, and Eric looks to make him pay
starts to follow him, but loses him in a crowd.

(05:56):
Eric and Xavier begin to talk more about the possibility
of mutant kind out there. This is the first time
Xavier's met another mutant get to see their philosophies on
humanity versus mutant kind. Eric, of course, believing they are
the next step, the next rung on the evolutionary ladder,

(06:16):
and he can't believe that Xavier hasn't taken over the world.
Xavier explains that he believes we need to understand ourselves
first before we can go telling everybody that we're better
than mankind. Talks about having a dream of a school
for gifted youngsters in order to prepare them, or at
least provide a safe haven from those that hate and

(06:39):
fear them. Xavier preaching tolerance while Magneto's belief is that
that would never work. Xavier offers an invitation to Eric
to come back with him to help him start a school,
and he agrees. And now it's two years later and
we are in Westchester County, New York. Xavier has just
finished building Cerebro, so Xavier's about to take it for

(07:00):
a test run while Eric looks on. At this point,
Charles was still able to walk. That is, so that
makes a little more sense to me. I always had
a problem with the movie and the fact that they
knew exactly how to roll in there, turn the blue
Cerebro juice to black and cause a problem. It always

(07:21):
bugged me. How in the world did they know to
do that? Specifically, Eric was with Xavier the whole time
while this was being built, so he would know the
ins and outs of it. Xavier puts on his rebro
and he is a bit overwhelmed, but he sees a
boy that's being chased and yells at Eric that we
need to leave now in order to save him. He's

(07:42):
only thirty miles away. He also saw it in the
minds of people that were chasing him and knew exactly
what they were going to do. So Xavier and Magneto
arrive try to stop the mob from hurting the boy.
They've now turned their sights on them. Magneto takes one
guy who has a shovel in his hand, uses his
powers to wrap the shovel around the guy. Xavier screaming

(08:04):
at him to let him go, and Magneto spares him.
The kid is injured, and he swears that if the
child dies, he's coming after all them. Looks like we
fast forward a little bit here and it's Exavier sitting
beside the hospital bed with the boy in it, and
he says, good news, Henry. I'm not sure if it's
your mutant metabolism, but aside from a few minor abrasions,

(08:26):
you seem to be healing just fine, and I think
we might know who that is. Xavier's offered him a
spot at the house so he could be safe. He
goes downstairs to talk to Eric, who's watching the news.
Not a good thing. They're watching the speech by Congressman
Robert Kelly at this point, who is, of course, stoking

(08:48):
the fires of fear. What I love is Xavier the
idealism of Professor x here As he points to the
TV screen and he says, aware of Kelly's opinions and convictions,
he's only seeking publicity for himself and his senatorial campaign
by appealing to man's base fears. The next one, no

(09:11):
one takes what he says as the literal truth their opinions,
and that's it. People have a mind to think for themselves.
What do we have evidence to the contrary here in
twenty twenty five. Gosh, man, this deserves to be read.
You're either a full Charles or naive enough to actually
believe the absurdity of what you say. Havn't you learned

(09:33):
from history? Who really expected the Nazis to succeed in
the near genocide of an entire race? Millions died, yet
no one chose to believe it could happen until it
was too late. Do you truly think mutants will be
any different? Xavier fires back with the world has learned
from its past mistakes, it would never allow Oh my gosh, yeah,

(09:55):
and Magneto hits them right back with a bunch of
other atrocies that have happened since that. Plenty of people
have allowed to happen. But the TV cuts through here Brooklyn,
New York, where a notorious Nazi war criminal, Hans von Shank,
was apprehended today. The cops go on to list the
laundry list of all the bad things that this Hans

(10:15):
von Shank did, and he awaits extradition to Israel. This
is the man that Eric remembers, the colonel from the
prison camp, the butcher that slaughtered his family. Xavier immediately
knows he's going to go after him, and he's trying
to talk Eric down, and Eric's not having it. This

(10:38):
looks to be the separation here because Xavier is explaining
to him like, hey, this isn't how we do things.
You can't just go off and take the law into
your own hands. And Eric looks back at him and says,
then perhaps I no longer belong here and slams the
door shut. We head over to Brooklyn, where Hans is
waiting in a cell and Eric appears in his cell

(10:59):
and like, I watched you do these things. Hans is like,
you're right, I did. I followed orders, but then it
became my obsession. Eric reveals himself as the boy that
had control of the gun with his powers, and he
is back to finish the job. He's got the bars

(11:22):
of the cell broke off and wrapped around Hans's neck,
but there's Professor x He's come in just in time
to tell him to stop. Magneto does have his helmet
on here, but Xavier uses his power to get into
his head, and he says, you've become too familiar with

(11:42):
speaking inside my head, Charles. I'll have to see that
it doesn't happen again. Magneto calls him out for walking
into the prison. Surely he had to have used his
powers to get past the guards. Xavier's begging for him
to release Hans, and he won't do it, and Magneto
is stunned and flown backwards as Xavier uses his powers

(12:06):
against him on the hallway of this prison. We now
have professor x versus Magneto and the cops show up
with guns drawn, and Magneto takes care of that pretty quickly.
As he's distracted, Xavier makes his attack and finally grabs
the mattress and some bars, wraps them around Xavier and
is now heading after Hans. Some good dialogue here, I

(12:30):
should thank you. It was your influence upon my life
that molded me into the man you see now before you,
a man capable of escaping the morality that plagues the
common man, a man who is prepared to lose his
own humanity for the greater good of his people. I
am your abandoned child, Hans von Schank, You are my creator. Thanks. Xavier,

(12:51):
still talking here, trying to get him to realize you're
going to turn to the person you hate. You're going
to turn into that type of person. Eric is about
to do it, and then he Xavier hits the floor
and Magneto says, I'm going to give you this one,
but next time, pretty much tells Xavier do not get
in his way when they meet again. And now we

(13:13):
flash forward to the present where we've got the classic
villain sitting in a room full of TVs that surround him, which,
by the way, it looks like there's the flintstones are
on one. We got THEE the entertainment channel. There's a
slim gym commercial going on on one TV. I believe

(13:35):
that is Bart Simpson over there. Magneto sees another news conference,
this time with Senator Kelly preaching about the epidemic of mutants.
He has Sabertooth come in and starts talking to him
by himself, and it turns out Magneto sent Sabretooth to

(13:56):
deal with Hans. Took my time with him like you asked,
had him begging for mercy. But he watches the news
report on the death of Hans von Schank, who had
been teared apart what appeared to be by a savage beast,
and Magneto grabs a chest piece and he moves the

(14:17):
king and says, check Charles, your move. Well there it is,
ladies and gentlemen. We finished our celebration of the twenty
fifth year since X Men the movie debuted in two thousand.
If you haven't already, make sure to go back and
listen to our discussion of the prequel comics that include

(14:38):
Wolverine and Rogue, and if you get the opportunity sometime
this week or whenever you listen to this pop in
X Men. Definitely check out the commentary that myself, Chris Armstrong,
and Evin Bevans had on Small Screeners. Watch it along
with the movie. We had a good time. With that
being said, we're getting out of here. Thanks for joining me.

(14:59):
I'll talk you soon, Bye bye. Thanks for joining us.
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