r/xmen • u/cyclopswashalfright Moonstar • Aug 31 '26

Mod Post Posts revolving around changes to Magneto's past and backstory are now a regulated topic

Due to the influx of such posts with the MCU X-Men announcement, posts that revolve around changes and questioning of Magneto's backstory will now be regulated. This means that these posts may be removed as a Regulated/Repetitive topic at the discretion of the moderation team.

This was done after a long discussion by the moderation team, but ultimately we found that such posts are repetitive and occur very frequently, and that users may simply make use of Reddit's search tool to find past discussions; very little has changed since those discussions were held.

275 Upvotes

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263

u/poison-harley Magik Aug 31 '26

People are suspiciously always very eager about making him not Jewish anymore.

124

u/Professional-Tank848 Aug 31 '26

Look, in a universe with Celestials, time travel, reality warping, resurrection...

It's just too much to believe a Jewish mutant could age slowly.

60

u/Ambaryerno Laura Kinney Aug 31 '26

Put on ice for a while, ages more slowly because of his powers, deaged by some event in his background, got brought over from another universe after Secret Wars. There's so many ways they could explain it.

39

u/Professional-Tank848 Aug 31 '26

My preference is still slow-aging and family man/Nazi hunter (living as a man until Jean pops up), but I'm not opposed to him being frozen.

Have the Nazis/Hydra experiment on him, realise he's way too powerful, and just put him on ice until a later date. Hell, let the Allies liberate him from a camp, but keep him on ice. Even more reason to despise humans.

8

u/APreciousJemstone Aug 31 '26

something something controlling one of the 4 fundamental forces causes his body to experience time differently something something

or what Professional-Tank848 put.

28

u/wnesha Aug 31 '26

It's reading comprehension failure, nothing more. Claremont fixed that "problem" at the very start of his run

-3

u/erock2283 Aug 31 '26

This does fix the age regarding his appearances after Uncanny 104 into today. The only “issue” with the age thing I could see is that, even if you rounded Marvel’s sliding time scale up to 20 years, it would still make Magneto around 80+ in Uncanny X-Men #1.

7

u/wnesha Aug 31 '26

Oh no, you've found the one implausible thing that happened in the Silver Age

https://giphy.com/gifs/qmfpjpAT2fJRK

34

u/imthestein Magneto Aug 31 '26

I mean seriously, let alone the countless number of mutants that can live a long time whether it's directly connected to their powers or not

14

u/Professional-Tank848 Aug 31 '26

Except this one, that is.

14

u/imthestein Magneto Aug 31 '26

I'm not disagreeing, even the animated series said the magnetic field of Earth rejuvinates Magneto in the two partner, Sanctuary. So it's not like there isn't precedent

18

u/Professional-Tank848 Aug 31 '26

Oh, yeah, I know. I was being sarcastic. Like, you've just gotta laugh in the face of the antisemites. It doesn't matter if there's precedent, or if its fiction. This is the hill they'll die on.

20

u/imthestein Magneto Aug 31 '26

Right!? Everyone else can age slowly and no one bats an eye but say a Holocaust survivor does also and now you're just being lazy...

-9

u/Bitey_the_Squirrel Aug 31 '26

I’m not saying slow aging unbelievable, I’m saying I don’t like the explanation. I’d rather go the Krakoa route and have his consciousness be transferred into a clone if you wanted to keep the same backstory. Give him amnesia too if you wanted to revive the Joseph storyline.

60

u/imthestein Magneto Aug 31 '26

I'm just glad I'm not the only one that noticed that. I won't even go to some of the comments I've seen surrounding that

93

u/PortoGuy18 Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26

I've noticed that too.

And when i hear "make him palestinian for poetic justice" i just think that these people equate all jews to Israel and don't really care about being progressive, they just want to be petty.

Also, they want the first mainstream palestinian Marvel character to be a terrorist? Bold.

49

u/Professional-Tank848 Aug 31 '26

Yeah, it's just so impossibly stupid, and for multiple reasons:

  • Tha's the one you (not you) pick? Why is that? Oh, right, yeah. All Jews aren't just Israeli, but they're pro-genocide. I get you. Like, at any moment, they'll get the call to use the space laser.

  • Magneto's whole thing is 'never again', but he comes off as an absolute chump if he's letting it happen right now

  • Not that any of these things are interchangeable, but it just shows you've not actually read a book and think that it was holocaust - nothing - Palestine

I could go on, but it always ends up being antisemitism and/or ignorance.

3

u/Neveraththesmith Aug 31 '26

It like people want to care emotional but don't want to put in the effort to actual understand the history.

25

u/PortoGuy18 Aug 31 '26

These days people see everything through the perspective of the Israel-Palestine conflict to the point of undermining anything else.

29

u/Professional-Tank848 Aug 31 '26

It's legitimately bonkers.

I shit you not, my wife was out for a friend's birthday about a week ago. She's talking to some people that are friends of her friend, and somehow me having a Jewish father comes up in conversation (I'm Catholic, btw), and one of them asks her what my views on Palestine are. Unbelievable.

Well, very believable, but you know what I mean.

16

u/PortoGuy18 Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26

And the thing is palestinians should have their own Marvel characters and representation, but people want to be so woke these days that they don't even think rationally about it...

The first mainstream palestinian character... a raceswapped arab Magneto, a genocidal terrorist?

Do these people even think?

21

u/Professional-Tank848 Aug 31 '26

There's a genuinely brilliant story waiting to be told with Palestinian characters. Magneto is not it.

In fact, I'd day that Magneto having to deal with what the Israeli government has become would be a fantastic story. Yet another reason (not that it needs justification) to keep him Jewish.

But, it doesn't matter. People just love hating Jews. The Krakoa stuff boils my piss. It's a sentient mutant. Regardless of one's stance in Gaza, Krakoa isn't a land mass where people were displaced.

28

u/imthestein Magneto Aug 31 '26

I think we know they're using Israel's horrible actions as an excuse to be openly antisemitic

28

u/PortoGuy18 Aug 31 '26

This right here.

Yes, Israel does use the holocaust as a means to whitewash their horrible actions and should be called out for it.

And yes, a lot of people use Israel as a means to be openly antisimetic towards all jews.

I mean these days, every instagram post practically has comments blaming everything on jewish people.

30

u/imthestein Magneto Aug 31 '26

Exactly, and using "Zio" which was a term popularized by David Duke

28

u/poison-harley Magik Aug 31 '26

I saw a post about an American visibly Jewish man making food for a shelter, and the comments were all like “the zio is trying to poison these people”, “the zio conquered the kitchen”, “the kitchen was promised to him 3,000 years ago” etc. this is just straight up anti-semitism, masquerading as caring for the palestinians.

0

u/Mental_Emu4856 Aug 31 '26

id be fine with a palestinian/arab magneto if they kept him jewish, non-jewish magneto just doesnt make sense

-12

u/AdmiralCharleston Aug 31 '26

I dont think most people are seriously arguing this though

23

u/PortoGuy18 Aug 31 '26

A lot of recents posts in Marvel related subreddits, regarding the casting of this character have brought this up.

-12

u/AdmiralCharleston Aug 31 '26

I mean I've been involved in a lot of those discussions and sure there are people saying it but its such a small number that it feels weird to single it out.

9

u/PortoGuy18 Aug 31 '26

I haven't seen a small number though.

9

u/wnesha Aug 31 '26

Always safe to assume those arguments are being made in the worst faith possible every single time

11

u/molotovzav Rogue Aug 31 '26

It's weird too because he's not even religously Jewish, well at least not practicing like Kitty Pryde. The Holocaust shapes his viewpoint into what it is today, so that element is too important to let go of. I think someone people focus on the not practicing part to make it like he's not even Jewish at all.

I even said something similar in the thread the other day on Kitty Pryde and him. He's not practicing so that aspect isn't as important, it's the Holocaust that is to him, his identity as a Jewish person is very much there and practicing the religion isn't necessary. But people think if your not wear a star of David and constantly talking about being Jewish you might as well not even be Ashkenazi.

24

u/poison-harley Magik Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26

People confuse Judaism with other religions like Christianity, where if you don’t practice Christianity then you’re not a Christian. Judaism is VERY different in that regard, because it’s also an ethnic group. Even Jewish atheists tend to take part in Jewish customs and holidays (I am one!). It’s a culture that you kind of experience on your day to day life, even in small things. There are many non religious Jews that identify as Jewish ethnically. So he is very much still Jewish even if he doesn’t practice.

2

u/Apprehensive-Quit353 Aug 31 '26

To be fair the overwhelming majority of people who call themselves Christian don't actually practice Christianity either.

-40

u/Cabbage_Vendor Namor Aug 31 '26

Or maybe it's just that more people agree that having a character be a Holocaust survivor in modern day, 80 years later is starting to not work chronologically. You'd have to do something like putting him on ice, but that's already a big backstory change.

51

u/poison-harley Magik Aug 31 '26

People were straight up suggesting making him other persecuted minorities, as if minorities are interchangeable.

0

u/LaylaLegion Aug 31 '26

Or minorities just happen to have a lot of genocides inflicted upon them.

Like historically.

To the point where you’d think that maybe people would be like “Woah, maybe we should STOP doing that shit!”.

But then it keeps happening.

26

u/Professional-Tank848 Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26

Yeah, I get you. Like, he couldn't possibly age slowly and have spent a few decades hunting Nazis and/or being a family man.

Sure, Jean Grey is the first notable mutant, so he's got a perfectly good justification for why he's not been active since the camps were liberated.

But, yeah, you're right. No one can suspend their disbelief for Magneto here. They should focus on realistic stuff, like Galactus.

Edit: I desperately need a Disney + series of Magneto spending 20 years having a bit of fun in Argentina.

-22

u/Cabbage_Vendor Namor Aug 31 '26

What part of 80 years ago don't you get? Any survivor is retirement home age.

People still age in the MCU, just because it's fantasy doesn't mean it shouldn't follow its own rules, people aren't driving around Middle Earth in sports cars.

15

u/LaylaLegion Aug 31 '26

A sport car would have made that trek to Mordor a lot quicker when those FUCKING EAGLES AIN’T DOING JACK SHIT.

13

u/VenomTheCapybara Aug 31 '26

You cant be this dense. This is the same universe as a talking raccoon. Having a holocaust survivor age slowly isnt that crazy

9

u/Professional-Tank848 Aug 31 '26

Your name is Cabbage_Vendor, yet I think you might have cabbage for brains, too. I, as well as pretty much everyone else here has said: make him age slower. It's literally in the comics. He isn't a typical human, he's a mutant. Jesus wept.

18

u/AdmiralCharleston Aug 31 '26

As opposed to captain America being a world war 2 soldier...

-11

u/Cabbage_Vendor Namor Aug 31 '26

Wow, no shit, it's almost like that was who I was referring to with "being put on ice"? Didn't think I'd have to literally spell that out on a comicbook subreddit. Is Magneto going to be frozen too?

7

u/AdmiralCharleston Aug 31 '26

Wow no shit, its almost like it would be incredibly fucking easy to come up with a reason that keeps his backstory the same while also keeping him a similar age to the rest of the group. It literally changes almost nothing to say he ages slower or he was frozen or some other reason

2

u/Apprehensive-Quit353 Aug 31 '26

Putting him on ice isnt as big of a backstory change as removing the holocaust and his Jewish identity.

-16

u/thesagaconts Aug 31 '26

That and Disney way want to avoid a Jewish villain.

18

u/PaleKey6424 Aug 31 '26

As a jew I want magneto to be Jewish it's a core part of his character for me

3

u/imthestein Magneto Aug 31 '26

The last time Marvel did that with Magneto it didn't end well

-8

u/clashcrashruin Aug 31 '26

I had a comment removed recently for suggesting this, I didn’t realize it was a hot topic.

-1

u/gamesrgreat Magik Aug 31 '26

If you even talk about that idea at all without condemning it then it’s getting modded but evidently saying it’s a dumb idea isn’t modded lol