Magneto: Not A Hero #1(of 4):
Summary: This issue begins at an anti-mutant rally in Brooklyn. The idiot bigots are screaming their various lame anti-mutant slogans(“If you see a mutie, spit on it!!”) when Magneto enters the room and kills everybody but the ringleader. The ringleader is naturally shocked and horrified since he thought Mags was a good guy now, but alas, that's the last thought that goes through his little brain before Mags kills him as well. From there, Captain America and Iron Man are being yelled at by the president who thought the Magneto problem had been taken care of. The two Avengers agree to deal with the matter and Lord Summers and Magneto head to Avengers Mansion to speak with Cap and IM. Iron Man shows the footage of Magneto's slaughter at the rally(it was caught on the camcorder of one of the dead bigots), and Lord Summers counters that he had video evidence of his own showing that Mags was nowhere near Brooklyn when the massacre took place. IM accuses Lord Summers of making up the footage, showing Lord Summers and Mags a hair that was found at the scene that matched Magneto's DNA 100%. That makes Mags angry, at which time he begins jawing at IM. Ultimately Cap and Lord Summers calm their two hotheads down and Cap gives Lord Summers a few days to get to the bottom of this before the Avengers did for him. Lord Summers agrees to those terms and promises that if he couldn't find a way to vindicate Mags, he'd hand Mags over to the Avengers personally. From there we head to Crazy Mutie Island(Utopia) where Mags enlists the help of Emma Frost in using a machine based on Cerebro that would allow him to search through the magnetosphere and pinpoint just who was capable of using his powers in such a manner. Mags wanders around in his mind(or the magnetosphere, it's rather confusing) and ultimately comes across the person responsible for the attack, his thought-to-be dead clone, Joseph.
Thoughts: The bottom line? This was a very good story that didn't really have any major flaws to it. Yeah, sure I could point at little things and complain about them such as the Avengers letting Mags leave even though they had DNA evidence linking Mags to the crime scene, or Lord Summers letting Mags investigate the case all by himself, but if you can overlook those little quibbles, this was a very solid first issue. The Joseph reveal WOULD have been a huge surprise had it not been spoiled for me in that preview guide, but even though it was spoiled, it was still an interesting twist. Joseph was always a good guy, so I'm intrigued to find out what caused him to snap and go all old school Magneto on the world. I'm glad I added this mini to my pull list, because if the other three issues are this good, I have a good story to look forward to.
Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.
The way Mags was drawn here, just completely disrespectful of the Avengers was really quite perfect.
I guess you could say Mags and Joseph are..polar opposites! Ha! I'll take your praises now.
ReplyDeleteI think Mags really dislikes most Avengers because they were plotting to kill his daughter back at the beginning of the House of M stuff.
ReplyDelete"I guess you could say Mags and Joseph are..polar opposites!" I love that you had to put that here, JT... You are definitely... The Man. :P
ReplyDeleteWithout a doubt, Anonymous. Mags has never had any love for the Avengers prior to that either(he at least had repect for the X-Men from time to time depending on the writer), so I could easily see him being totally dismissive of them. His actions towards Cap and Iron Man here were perfect imo.
Lol thank ya sir, I couldn't resist man, And I was so tempted to pick this up this week but I didn't since I grabbed Grifter instead... maybe I should've in hindsight.
ReplyDeleteWell, since you couldn't even finish Grifter, I'm going to agree with you and say that yes, you probably should have picked up this comic instead! :P
ReplyDeleteHey I was waiting your review in this one... Cuz haven't got idea who was Joshep.
ReplyDeleteI really liked this issue, the Avengers/Mags confrontation was really good. Now I am looking forward to issue 2
And I think that Mags is doing the investigation on his own without Ciclops consent.
I could try to explain Joseph to you, Alien, but it's a REALLY confusing story! The easiest way to think of it is that Joseph is Mags clone. Joseph served on the X-Men for a while and people actually thought Joseph WAS Mags with amnesia. Eventually the real Mags came back, and Joseph had to sacrifice his life to save the planet after Mags threatened it. There was WAY more to it involving bizarre super-villains who were never heard of again, secret cloning and brainwashing, but it's probably best to disregard that for one's sanity!
ReplyDeleteIf Mags is doing all of this without Lord Summers knowledge, then Lord Summers is REALLY stupid! I mean with Mags accused of murder, you'd think Lord Summers would keep a close eye on him. I have to think Lord Summers is aware Mags investigation... Or at least I hope so, or Lord Summers is worse off than I thought!
hahaha with "is his clone" is enough
ReplyDeleteHA! Trust me, that's the best way to go! ;)
ReplyDeleteSee, to me, Magneto came across as a petulant child in this encounter. And really... cars? I'd imagine there are at least a dozen defenses that would have taken care of that problem.
ReplyDeleteOf course, this was an X-book, where any Avenger will be made to be arrogant and incompetent... to the delight of X-fans, of course. ;)
Yes, I'm an Avengers fan, and I'm rooting for Tony to humiliate that murdering fascist in the upcoming battle.
I've seen the Avengers look way worse than they did here in X-related comic books, so the way Tony and Cap were portrayed here didn't bug me that much. Mags DID come across as a petulant child, but if anything, that made HIM look worse, since Cap, Tony and even Lord Summers spoke, while Mags was full of his regular bluster and arrogance.
ReplyDeleteAnd I am 100% behind the Avengers. I want nothing more then to see the X-Men humbled and humiliated, Crazy Mutie Island sunk and yes, IM standing triumphantly over Mags... Because really, Tony has proven that he can counter Mags powers YEARS ago(back in the West Coast Avengers), so if Mags defeats him in ANY way coming up, it'll be a travesty, especially since Tony has had years to improve upon those earlier designs.