10 Things Marvel Wants You To Forget About The X-Men
9. Xorn/Magneto - Who Is It Really?
Coming off the heels off the X-Men film franchise taking off, Grant Morrison was brought in as a writer for the New X-Men series in 2001. Morrison was looking to use the films to influence the series and shake up the status quo for Marvel’s ‘next step in human evolution’. One example of this was the X-Men costumes were replaced by black leather. However, another idea caused Marvel to retcon it almost immediately.
During the Planet X story arc, the newly introduced character, Xorn, removed his helmet to show he was actually Magneto. Magneto wanted to finally turn the earth into a mutant paradise… by killing almost everyone. Magneto had an addiction to Kick, a mutant-power booster, that was crumbling his sanity.
During Magneto’s rampage, he was involved in the deaths of Jean Grey, Esme and thousands of New Yorkers. Eventually he was decapitated by a berserk Wolverine.
Afterwards, Marvel changed their mind on Magneto being so brutal. They created a convoluted story that it was really a new and different Xorn’s brother that was possessed by an unknown being. Apparently, Xorn’s brother has the same powers as Magneto.
Magneto was on Genosha after the destruction of the mutant island during the beginning of Morrison’s run, so it made for a pretty confusing retcon.