The Importance of Retaining Magneto's Origin

Ever since the success of the first Avengers film, I have dreamed of the day where Fox would relinquish the rights of X men, where I would get to see the characters that cultivated my love for comics through the 90s animated series come to life the same way they brought Iron Man and Captain America. I thought Marvel's Cinematic Universe was the home they deserved, a home where I'd get the characters I loved, in the costumes that made them iconic the way I always argued they should. However, Here'ns the thing, there are rumors circulating that Marvel plans to race swap Professor Xavier, and Magneto to be black, and this just won't do. Not for me.

I am all for inclusion, I am for a diverse cast of characters and realize that for comic books to continue being the mythology it is, we need more representation. However, that being said, I am SICK of people who haven't spent a single damn moment of their lives appreciating these characters promoting race swaps as if it's the genuine article. First of all, it's not, it's lazy writing and POCs deserve better, Second of all, you don't get a say when you haven't devoted the time and love that both the creators and fans alike have put in over the past 60 years plus. However, that's not really what's the heart of the matter, it's just the beginning of the problem. While a race swap would not necessarily affect Charles Xavier much (despite the fact that he's meant to be kind of a member of the British Gentry), it does create a tremendous issue for the story of Erik Lenscher, Max Eisenhardt, or his more popular name, Magneto. 

For those of you who have lived under a rock for the past 20 years or so, Magneto's probably most defining trait is his place as a holocaust survivor. Erik's experience as a holocaust survivor is one of the driving forces to his belief center, that humanity cannot be trusted with peaceful coexistence. He has experienced the worst mankind has to offer. He has experienced the hate of the Nazi's first hand, but almost equally as bad he has born witness to "good people" becoming complicit to hate, and following it. In addition to those lessons, he saw what good comes from the inaction of the persecuted, and he learned it all before he was a man. These lessons of cruelty were dealt on a boy in his formative years, leaving him with a very harsh and dark outlook on the world. The moment he found something that allowed him to separate himself from humanity, that made him "superior," he couldn't have been more relieved, and frankly, peace was never an option in his mind. He had been a lamb for the slaughter once, and he would never let it happen again. 

Now these faux fans that demand diversity where they are too blind to see it will argue semantics: "Well the holocaust was so long ago, how could he possibly be alive enough to be a threat?" or "Why not just use one of the more recent African Genocide, or have him be a victim of American hate crimes in the south?" To these bullshit responses, I have this to say: 1. It's a comic book movie, it's fantasy and it's not a hard line to say that Magneto's power rejuvenates his cellular structure. If we could figure out how to make Cap work, we can probably do the same with Magneto. 2. There have been many acts of genocide and cruelty since the Holocaust, hell some of them have made the numbers dead from the final solution look minuscule by comparison. However, there is an importance in making sure that Magneto stays relevant, and that his origin not be changed that goes far beyond the mere convenience of time. That reason is that sadly, people are starting to forget, or worse yet, people are denying it ever happened. 

I was raised Jewish. I went to a Jewish temple in the Falls Church area called Temple Rodef Shalom, which was founded by an amazing man, Rabbi Berkowitz, a holocaust survivor himself. During my time growing up, I was fortunate to have met some of the amazing people that survived that terrible time. However, even then as a boy, they were few. Now, that already thin number is dwindling. Their voices are becoming fewer each day and each year. Soon there will be no more of them to remind the world of what was done to them in broad daylight with the whole world knowing, and doing nothing. However, that is sadly a result of time. Generations come and go, but the lessons they gave should not. Sadly this is not the case. We have members in congress and foreign leaders who are Holocaust deniers, nations in Europe that had been under Nazi rule, that had been complicit in aiding the Nazis round up these people and murder them, are rewriting their history to cover up their involvement, so you ask me why I am pissed at the very thought of this? Because Magneto is the fury of a people who were almost wiped from the earth but persevered. Taking his heritage, his story away from him takes him away from a generation that soon will have no voice to defend itself. There aren't people who deny that the genocides in Rwanda and Darfur ever happened. Those people are still very much alive and have a voice. If you want to make a character that endured those travesties, fine, I am all for it, and should some ass holes years from now try to change their race to be a convenience for their agenda, I'll fight for that character too. But you don't get to take Magneto, he's their voice, back the fuck off.

This has been another edition of Heren's the thing, and if some Marvel exec sees this and the rumors are true, make them untrue. You may have the rights to these characters, but that doesn't mean you tarnish the legacy they were created to have.