Acceptance
May. 28th, 2012 01:32 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
impy I've been on a bit of a superhero kick as of late. This shouldn't be much of a surprise since summer is the time when the comics try to lure more fans to their books... by completely eradicating everything else they've done all year. Wait! Rant for another time!
I finally sat down and watched X-Men: First Class and we'll discuss the numerous wtf moments sprinkled throughout the movie and my subsequent reeducation in the lives of the X-Men at a later date. (Namely, when I rewatch it.)
For now we're going to take a moment to reflect upon Magneto. Why? Because it's time for Day 8: Magneto. Yes. Magneto. Take a moment to let that sink in and we'll move on.
Doofy helmet aside, Magneto has pretty much been my favorite X-villain ever. I couldn't tell you why if you asked. He wasn't the one I was first acquainted with (the tv series was always more fascinated by Sinister) and honestly, the man has had some amazingly awful what the fresh hell is this?! incarnations. (What's that, Jungle!Magneto? You want to dispute this?)
But if I had to hazard a guess, it'd be the way he frequently mirrors Xavier, and the way this can make you stop and think not just the first time you realize it but how, in the hands of a good writer, the series explores this and it's still interesting each time the two engage in their dance of wills. Erik brings out some of Xavier's best and worst traits and has been painfully right about humanity's capacity for horrific cruelty on more than one occasion. Yet he still somehow seems sad that his oldest friend is disillusioned once again by the very people they fight over/about time and time again.
There's also the fact that I'm a firm believer in the whole "the villain of the piece never thinks of themselves as the villain" school of thought. Magneto does HORRIBLE things (hello, Wolvie) and sometimes this seems to bother him (usually when it involves him doing something awful to another mutant, particularly if he seems to not hate them) but at the end of the day, when Mags shows up, it's usually to fight for mutants to take their rightful place in the world. All mutants, Xavier, not just the pretty ones.
I love a villain who realizes he's flawed but still thinks his way is right. Commitment, people. It's all about commitment.
Still, my absolute favorite bit about Magneto, and the life changer, is a bit of what I suspect was a throwaway. I'm not sure if it's in one of the comics or one of the books, but Erik and Charles are on the astral plane and Charles remarks that usually on the AP people "fix" themselves. Charles can walk, people are thinner/taller/prettier than they are, flaws are erased, wrinkles smoothed but Erik?
Erik is the same. Dude is exactly the same. He's that secure in himself, flaws and all, and sees no need to change one single thing. He knows who he is and even when given the chance to upgrade, no charge, he doesn't see the need. Why should he?
As someone who is painfully shy and definitely even more self conscious than anyone has a right to be (deserved or otherwise), I keep this little throwaway bit in the back of my mind when I manage to work myself into a near fullblown panic attack.
Ultimately Xavier's world view involves serious compromise and anyone unable to pass (or offer a massive contribution to offset their obvious mutation) is left out.*
Magneto's world order? Yeah, eff that noise. We're here, we're the next step in evolution, so get with the program and deal.
You've gotta love that.
Even with that helmet.
And no, you are not allowed to tell me that someone came along later and made it so Magneto is not super secure in his own awesomeness that he feels no need to improve upon his perfection on the AP. LalalalalaCan'tHearYoulalalalala.
* I freely admit I stopped reading the X-books when they started handing out second mutations to people, so for all I know they changed this. Hell, given the way comic books cycle through things, they could have changed this six or seven hundred times by now. But for YEARS, this was how it was. It cropped up more than a few times, with the less than pretty mutants usually pissed as hell at the X-Men for forgetting them again.
I finally sat down and watched X-Men: First Class and we'll discuss the numerous wtf moments sprinkled throughout the movie and my subsequent reeducation in the lives of the X-Men at a later date. (Namely, when I rewatch it.)
For now we're going to take a moment to reflect upon Magneto. Why? Because it's time for Day 8: Magneto. Yes. Magneto. Take a moment to let that sink in and we'll move on.
Doofy helmet aside, Magneto has pretty much been my favorite X-villain ever. I couldn't tell you why if you asked. He wasn't the one I was first acquainted with (the tv series was always more fascinated by Sinister) and honestly, the man has had some amazingly awful what the fresh hell is this?! incarnations. (What's that, Jungle!Magneto? You want to dispute this?)
But if I had to hazard a guess, it'd be the way he frequently mirrors Xavier, and the way this can make you stop and think not just the first time you realize it but how, in the hands of a good writer, the series explores this and it's still interesting each time the two engage in their dance of wills. Erik brings out some of Xavier's best and worst traits and has been painfully right about humanity's capacity for horrific cruelty on more than one occasion. Yet he still somehow seems sad that his oldest friend is disillusioned once again by the very people they fight over/about time and time again.
There's also the fact that I'm a firm believer in the whole "the villain of the piece never thinks of themselves as the villain" school of thought. Magneto does HORRIBLE things (hello, Wolvie) and sometimes this seems to bother him (usually when it involves him doing something awful to another mutant, particularly if he seems to not hate them) but at the end of the day, when Mags shows up, it's usually to fight for mutants to take their rightful place in the world. All mutants, Xavier, not just the pretty ones.
I love a villain who realizes he's flawed but still thinks his way is right. Commitment, people. It's all about commitment.
Still, my absolute favorite bit about Magneto, and the life changer, is a bit of what I suspect was a throwaway. I'm not sure if it's in one of the comics or one of the books, but Erik and Charles are on the astral plane and Charles remarks that usually on the AP people "fix" themselves. Charles can walk, people are thinner/taller/prettier than they are, flaws are erased, wrinkles smoothed but Erik?
Erik is the same. Dude is exactly the same. He's that secure in himself, flaws and all, and sees no need to change one single thing. He knows who he is and even when given the chance to upgrade, no charge, he doesn't see the need. Why should he?
As someone who is painfully shy and definitely even more self conscious than anyone has a right to be (deserved or otherwise), I keep this little throwaway bit in the back of my mind when I manage to work myself into a near fullblown panic attack.
Ultimately Xavier's world view involves serious compromise and anyone unable to pass (or offer a massive contribution to offset their obvious mutation) is left out.*
Magneto's world order? Yeah, eff that noise. We're here, we're the next step in evolution, so get with the program and deal.
You've gotta love that.
Even with that helmet.
And no, you are not allowed to tell me that someone came along later and made it so Magneto is not super secure in his own awesomeness that he feels no need to improve upon his perfection on the AP. LalalalalaCan'tHearYoulalalalala.
* I freely admit I stopped reading the X-books when they started handing out second mutations to people, so for all I know they changed this. Hell, given the way comic books cycle through things, they could have changed this six or seven hundred times by now. But for YEARS, this was how it was. It cropped up more than a few times, with the less than pretty mutants usually pissed as hell at the X-Men for forgetting them again.
