Uncanny X-Men #150 (Oct 81): I, Magneto...Creative Team: Chris Claremont, writer; Dave Cockrum, Josef Rubenstein, and Bob Wiacek, artists; Tom Orzechowski, letterer; Glynis Wein, colorist; Louis Jones, editor; Jim Shooter, editor-in-chief
Starting Line Up: Storm, Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Colossus, Sprite
Guest Stars: Cyclops, Carol Danvers
Some background info: In between this issue and last, the X-Men were guest staring in Avengers Annual #10. The story there was Ms Marvel, a former Avenger, was found by Spider-Woman without memory or powers. SW takes her to Xavier for treatment. We find out that Mystique, and her new recuit, Rogue, wanted to break the Brotherhood out of prison, so Rogue steals Ms. Marvels powers. Normally Rogue only takes power temporarily, but Mystique forces her to hold on for so long she took all of Ms. Marvel's powers permanently as well as all of her memories. So this Carol Danvers, who now hangs out with the X-Men, is a powerless amnesiac. Rogue pops up in X-Men soon :)
Synopsis: Magneto is making an ultimatum to all the nations of the Earth: give him total political control or he will exterminate human life. He will no longer stand by while his people are killed for no other reason than they are different. He demands all nations disarm themselves of nuclear weapons. He doesn't care if humans kill themselves, but he will not take the risk of any mutant being killed. Any nation which doesn't comply will be destroyed. Cyclops and Magneto have a debate over the issue. Magento wishes to usher in a golden age of civilaztion. Cyclops argues it will never work. He asks why Cyclops is with Lee Forrester and not Jean Grey. Cyclops explains her death. Magneto is genuinely saddened and tells Cyclops of the tradgedies he's seen in his life time (allusion to holocaust). The island is attacked by a Soviet (they were around back then) sub. Magneto easily destroys the missles, and then the sub. He then causes a volcano to errupt in Russia, albeit slow enough to give people a chance to evacuate. The X-Men are out searching for Cyclops. When they near the island, the Blackbird goes haywire and crash lands in the ocean. At the same time, Xavier is aboard Dr. Peter Corbeau's ship with Moira and Danvers, also looking for Cyclops. Xavier senses something has gone wrong. The X-Men done breathing masks and swim towards the island, having spotted it in the air. Colossus doesn't use one as he doesn't breath in armored form. But as he draws closer to the island, he no longer has his powers and reverts to human form, drowning. Lee goes for a walk at night, but is surprised by the arrival of the X-Men. Kitty performs mouth to mouth on Colossus and Wolverine CPR. Colossus comes around. With no powers, Cyclops easily sneaks up on Wolverine (although his claws still work). Cyclops explains everything: why the have no powers, Magento's plan, and his devices on the island. Despite their lack of powers, they have to stop him. Cyclops takes Nightcrawler, Wolverine, and Colossus to Magneto's massive machine he's been using to manipulate the Earth's crust. Meanwhile, Storm, Kitty, and Lee go in search of Magneto's computer. Kitty's finds his codebook, but it's not in English. Storm looks around and finds Magneto sleeping in his chambers. She considers killing him then and there, ending their greatest foe. Back to the men, Wolverine uses his claws and begins to cut the supports holding the machine aloft. Storm sees a knife beside Magneto's bedside. She picks it up and considers. She cannot. Magneto wakes up at that moment and blasts her clear out the window, many stories up. Realising the X-Men are on his island, Magneto springs into action, believing it will be easy to defeat them without powers. But Xavier, safely away from the island, mentally attacks Magneto. During their mental duel, Magneto reaches out across the great distance and pulls Xavier to him. The men finally finish cutting the supports to the machine, but Magneto arrives, with Xavier, Kitty, and Lee his prisoners, and simply repairs it. He then binds them all. But much to Magneto's belief, Storm isn't dead, and she makes her way back through the window. She goes back to Magneto's computer and starts smashing it. The X-Men get their powers back. Cyclops waits until Magneto is in position, and then blasts him. The rest of team, joined by Storm, spring into action and hit Magneto as fast and hard as they can. They actually do well and it's a close, back and forth battle. Cyclops sends Kitty to find and destroy the rest of Magneto's computers so he'll be unable to use anything of the devices on the island. Kitty finds them and starts phasing through them, erasing all their memory. Magneto senses it and takes off towars her. He's so enraged at the deletion of his life's work that he sends a lethal dose of electricity through Kitty. He's suddenly realises what he's done - slay a child. He just stops and refuses to fight. It finally hits him that in his fight for mutant rights, his fight to save innocent people from evil, he has become evil. He came face to face with himself and couldn't stand the sight. He then confirms that he was the sole survivor of his family, all sent to Auschwitz. He knows he's too old to change his ways, but he knows all this time he has been wrong. Kitty's not dead, though. She was half phased when electrocutes her, so she's hurt but will live. In their worry about Kitty, Magneto gets away. But no one really believes he'll be much of a threat anymore. To end on a lighthearted note, Kitty uses "the Force" to raise the Blackbird out of the water, much to everyone's amazment... until it turns out to be Colossus carrying it on his back. She gets dunked.
Yeah, but is it good? Wow. I don't think my review can do justice the ending of this story. It's not like Magneto just stopped and said "oh I'm good now". There was a real shock and awakening in him. This is the Magneto that everyone loves and continued to use. He's not the rantic generic supervillain of the 60s, or the revenge driven murderer of the early part of Claremont run. He's a humanitarian. He's looking out for his people. And he will do whatever it takes to protect them. He's the Malcolm X to Xavier's Martin Luther King Jr. This is why he was the perfect villain for the X-Men. Their goals are exactly the same, but throug radically different means. And this causes the X-Men to evaluate their beliefs. None of that's done here, but this Magneto, the holocaust survivor who wishes no one to see through the agony he did, will cause bring about these topics in the future. The fight with Magneto was well done as well. For once the X-Men wern't getting their asses handed to them by Magneto, and yet there still wasn't a definate winner. Can the new X-Men defeat Magneto or not? Some of the other action seemed like filler, though. The men trying to destroy the big device seemed like a waste, and it was since Magneto instantly repaired it. There was also a bit about Storm having killing someone once before, and she vowed never to do it again. It's a charcter trait that shows up now and again. Despite a couple of minor bugs, this is just a great issue. Maybe not quite up there will the death of Phoenix, but close.
Significata: Double sized issue, sold for 75 cents. Magneto threatens all the nations of the world. He destroys a Soviet sub. These plot points come up later. Magneto finally becomes a caring individual, grieving for Phoenix and Kitty, and fighting for mutant protection, no longer his own gain. His past as a Holocaust survivor is revealed and gives his character a huge amount more depth. He seems to give up his evil ways in the end if he can. Carol Danvers starts hanging out with the X-Men. Storm reveals she killed someone once, long ago, and has vowed never to do it again. Cyclops essentially rejoins the team. And the X-Men essential inherit Magneto's island.
