When Magneto is written poorly, he is a grandstanding supervillain in the classic sense. He makes drawn-out speeches when he should be completing his plan, he has no real motivation for his dastardly deeds, and he's unequivocally a bad guy. When he's written well, though, it's a different story. This is a man who has dealt with his fair share of persecution in his life, who is hated and feared by everyone, who has no reason to think kindly of the human race. Why wouldn't he try and wipe them out? Stick with us, here. We're certainly not advocating that Magneto make homo sapiens extinct in order to speed up the rise of homo superior, but...well, maybe we are. His whole life, the villain (or anti-hero, depending on who's writing, remember) has got nothing but crap from us. In his more lucid moments he just craves some peace for mutants, but even then his wishes aren't met. Wouldn't you lash out at the people who were constantly trying to kill you? That's not to say he hasn't made some bad decisions - that trail of kids he leaves in his wake and the magenta colourscheme come to mind - just that he's not always as awful as is made out. There's a reason him and Charles Xavier were friends in their younger days, because they do agree on some points. It's just his methods that are a little iffy.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
