2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the X-Men, and a new Magneto series promises to better explore the methods, ideologies, and history of one of the franchise's most complex figures.
Writer J.M. DeMatteis and artist Todd Nauck are teaming up for an all-new limited series taking place when Magneto, fulfilling a promise to Professor X, took charge of the Xavier Institute in his friend's absence. Magneto's struggles and triumphs as a teacher to the next generation of mutantkind made this a beloved era and a major turning point in the character’s evolution.
Now, we'll get to experience a never-before-told saga filled with new truths about this time period, including a dark secret from Magneto's villainous past that threatened to disrupt it.
Magneto burst onto the scene as the most diabolical of "Evil Mutants." However, when Professor X had to leave the planet for life-saving treatment, he inherits a new title: teacher! With the New Mutants under his tutelage, how will these young and powerful mutants learn to take orders from a supervillain? And one who tried to kill them and their predecessors?
There are two sides to every story, and this new tale will show how Magneto was right...from a certain point of view. In fact, one mutant, known as Irae, in her first-ever appearance, has taken Magneto's lessons to heart in a way that it's said will upend even the Master of Magnetism’s best strategies.
"Magneto may be the single most complex character in the Marvel Universe: a man of dizzying contradictions who has endured, and caused, extraordinary suffering," DeMatteis says. "Who’s been both villain and hero. Whose long, tangled history invites endless exploration."
"Our new Magneto series allows us to look at all aspects of Erik Lehnsherr’s soul and psyche - at a period when he was trying to put his life as a so-called 'evil' mutant behind him and step, somewhat reluctantly, into Charles Xavier’s shoes, attempting to guide a new generation of mutants."
"We also get to look back at the early days of the X-Men," the writer concludes, "and introduce a new villain, born in the cauldron of Magneto's dark past."
Magneto #1 arrives in comic book stores this August. Below, you can check out Nauck's cover and his design for Irae.