10 Things You Didn't Know About Magneto

6. He's Older Than He Looks

We all know that characters don't age in comic books like they do in real life. Characters like Spider-Man and original X-Men, first introduced as teenagers in the 60's, are only just reaching their mid-thirties today. Bruce Wayne has been roughly the same age since Batman first appeared. And Spider-Man might no longer be a teenager, but he's looking pretty good for a man who should be in his mid-sixties by now.

Like so many characters, Magneto's appearance has changed very little in the fifty plus years since his creation. However, unlike the other characters, there has been no real effort to update his origin story. This is because, whereas the accidents that created the Flash or Spider-man could occur at any point in time, Magneto is one of the few characters whose origin is tied to a specific historical event. Like many European Jews, Max Eisenhardt was a victim of the Nazi's in the early Twentieth Century, and spent much of his early life in a concentration camp. In fact, he only survived because of his latent mutant abilities.

And, seeing a parallel between the persecution of the Jews and anti-Mutant sentiment, it was the suffering that Max experienced under the Nazi regime which inspired him to fight for mutant freedom later in life. Because this is such a formative part of the character, Marvel have decided to sidestep his age issue (Eric would approaching his 100th Birthday). In 1980? Magneto was reduced to an infant state by a short-lived character name Alpha, the Ultimate Mutant. His eventual restoration resulting in a younger, and stronger, villain for the X-Men to face. Since then, Magneto has continued to age normally, while appearing at least two decades younger than his actual age.