By Jim Beard
What we have here amounts to a failure to communicate.
No two men have more time, energy, and passion invested in the fate of mutantkind than Charles Xavier and
Magneto. Though they began as friends and colleagues, their relationship has grown strained—to say the least—over the years as their philosophies diverged wildly.
Professor X's past opens wider in X-MEN: ORIGINAL SIN #1, out October 1, and Magneto's in X-MEN: MAGNETO TESTAMENT #2, due October 8, while an alternate reality version of the two's relationship unfolds in CIVIL WAR: HOUSE OF M #2 on October 1.
We now part the veil of history to expose a choice few confrontations between he who would lead Homo superior to dominance and the man who would see them simply live in peace.
X-MEN v1 #1 (1963)
Magneto first made his presence known to the world by single-handedly attacking and capturing Cape Citadel, a U.S. Army missile base. This forced Professor X's hand to reveal his students, the
X-Men, to that same unsuspecting populace. Within 15 minutes of hitting the scene, the mutant teens forced Magneto to retreat and set the stage for many, many skirmishes to come.
DEFENDERS v1 #16 (1974)
Having enlisted the aid of the
Defenders, Prof. X confronted Magneto and his
Brotherhood of Evil Mutants deep below the Earth. There, the magnetic mastermind revealed Alpha, the Ultimate Mutant, and together they proceeded to kidnap the entire United Nations building. Ultimately, Alpha gained nigh-unlimited intelligence and transformed Magneto and his Brotherhood into crying infants.
X-MEN v2 #3 (1991)
Captured and held on Magneto's orbiting "Asteroid M," Xavier fell prey to his foe's revenge for the time Magneto spent in the aforementioned regressed state. The asteroid witnessed a pitched battle between brainwashed X-Men and their comrades arriving to rescue them, all the while targeted by
Russian weapons. In the end, Magneto sacrificed himself after being betrayed by supposed ally, Fabian Cortex, and an emotional Xavier recognized his beleaguered opponent's true, impossible dream for peace among mutants.
X-MEN v2 #25 (1993)
After witnessing the disruption of all electrical power on the face of the Earth courtesy of his rival, Prof. X once again took the fight to Magneto and led an X-Men strikeforce to his enemy's new space station, Avalon. There, Xavier and
Jean Grey attempted to psionically impress Magneto's wrongdoings upon his mind but
Wolverine broke the spell with a berserker attack. Magneto magnetically ripped Logan's adamantium from his skeleton and in turn, Prof. X ripped his old foe's mind from his body.
X-MEN v2 #113 (2001)
Charles Xavier once more found himself held captive by a restored Magneto, this time on the mutant stronghold island of Genosha. An X-Men invasion seemingly resulted in the death of mutant heroine
Dazzler, which enflamed the heroes into a more savage attack. Magneto again attempted to wrest the adamantium from Wolverine's body but a freed Prof. X blocked his mighty magnetic abilities and Logan gutted the villain, leaving him for dead. With a still-alive Dazzler revealing herself, the X-Men surrendered Genosha to its citizens.
Relive the life and times of Magneto on Marvel Digital Comics Unlimited!
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