10 Famous Movie Characters You Didn't Know Were Based On Real People
2. Professor X And Magneto Were Based On Martin Luther King Jr. And Malcolm X
The X-Men series has always been one of the more overtly political comic books out there, as it's pretty apparent the mutants are stand-ins for the oppressed citizens of color that dealt with the same types of intolerance and hatred that Wolverine and company endured.
It makes sense then that the two primary leaders of the mutants, Professor X and Magneto, would be modeled after the two biggest leaders of the civil rights movement, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Both of these great men sought to eradicate the injustices inflicted upon the marginalized members of society, though the means by which they fought differed greatly.
Professor X chose to preach education and coexistence to his people - echoing many of the sentiments that Dr. King included in his famous "I Have A Dream" speech - while Magneto went a bit harsher in his tactics, advocating a sort of mutant supremacy, not unlike the black supremacy Malcolm X embraced during his time with the Nation of Islam.
Unsurprisingly, Stan Lee never envisioned Magneto as an outright villain, and that's largely to due to the respect Lee had for the character's real life counterpart.