"You just said yourself right there what separates you from a villain like Magneto."

"Well, unless we didn't get the point after the first billion."

Excellent points, Brad and what you're saying is completely valid. I believe that Magneto is a villain. But I'm also human. Ask me again in case I hit a very late puberty and find out I'm a mutant.

I hate to paraphrase/borrow from Star Wars but many of our truths and beliefs come from our point of view. I don't want to get into a definition of philosophy argument about "What is truth?" but everything is eventually subjective.

I should also clarify about which Magneto I'm talking about. Next to Dr. Doom, no other Marvel Villain has strayed so far, so many times from his original design. My version of Magneto is a combination Lee/Claremont Magneto. Much like Doom, he would be magnanimous and generous to his people but without scruples for the most part when dealing with the rest of the world in wartime. The difference between the two is that Doom ultimately beliefs and acts for himself. Magneto, I believe, would sacrifice himself if it meant the liberation of his people.

On a Magneto side note, I always loved the notion of the unpublished "What If" story that JB wrote where Magneto finally conquers Earth. This new soceity is something of a Golden Age for humanity and mutant alike, for the most part. And then the Silver Surfer shows up, heralding Galactus' arrival and there is no FF to stop him. Wonderful premise. I'd love to see that in print someday.

Magneto: Never! The humans must be our slaves! They are not worthy to share dominion of the Earth with us! You have made your choice -- forevermore we are mortal foes!

Are those the words of someone "defending (his) species"?

A submarine full of crew, Jason...

As for Emma, I consider abduction, torture and unwilling body-switching unredeemable crimes.

Emma's affair with Scott is easily the most disturbing thing in comics the past decade. Shame on Whedon for carrying it on.

QUOTE: What happened to the X-Men is that this foundation from Lee-Kirby was tossed in the garbage.

I just don't understand how anyone thinks keeping a character exactly the same for 45 years or so is going to keep comics interesting.  I mean, Magneto should never be a good guy, but he's much more complicated than just a would-be conqueror.  In fact, I think how he was handled in Secret Wars was perfect: no one understood why he was grouped in with the good guys when the Beyonder divided the heroes and villains, but he was misunderstood as usual and decided to leave.  Aren't the best villains the ones that we feel some sympathy for what they've been through?

By the way, the comparison to real dictators/despots is a good one when considering the early Magneto, but as he was developed in the early 80s he seemed to be more concerned with actual defense and survival than simply destruction of humanity (or people who are different).  Terrorists and Hitler and Stalin, etc, wanted to shape the world to their liking (just as early Magneto wanted) without acting in self-defense or from being mortally threatened.

This is not what Stan and Jack had in mind, when they had the Brotherhood invade that South American nation, bedecked in pseudo-Nazi trappings! Not by accident did two New York Jews cast Magneto and his brood as parallels to the greatest evils of the 20th Century.