Erik M. Lehnsherr, also known as Magneto, is the fictional character from the popular X-Men Comic Book series, created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, (the character first appears in The X-Men #1, cover-dated: Sept. 1963), made it's Cinematic debut in 2000 in the first X-Men film which later became an epic film series edition expanding to a much wider series of six full-feature films all together as of 2017 (17 years). Based exclusively on the comic book, the film version of the character is generally portrayed by three different actors to confiscate on the character's looks, age and personality; Sir Ian McKellen being the most famous one as the older and wiser Magneto, portrayed the character in four films of the X-Men film series, while Michael Fassbender is known for portraying the Erik in his prime, a younger version of the character, so far, in three films. (Fassbender will appear again as Magneto in 2018's X-Men: Dark Phoenix). Additionally, Brett Morris and Bill Milner are known for playing the young versions in two of the films in the series.As the series divulges, Erik/Magneto is characterised as one of the world's most powerful mutants and the X-Men's most dangerous foe. In his own words he is Frankenstein's Monster who is looking for his creator. His incredible ability to manipulate magnetic fields allows him to control all forms of metal telekinetically. Once dreaming of the conquest of the human race only to change his mind as he got older and wiser.While Magneto is known to be able to manipulate and generate magnetic fields, as well as control any form of metal telekinetically, the film version of the character cannot generate the entire electromagnetic spectrum like it's comic book counterpart, and has been seen to be able to affect even non-ferrous metallic objects, possibly using his powers to magnetize any metal. Magneto's resistance to mental attack does not stem from his own natural powers but is technological in nature. The helmet he took from Sebastian Shaw contains some kind of a psychic shielding component, able to completely negate both the telepathic abilities of Charles Xavier, and also the illusion-casting abilities of Mastermind. His only notable weakness being, if he is in an area with no metal, he is almost completely helpless. However, this mostly applies to his older self, as his younger self was highly athletic and capable of physically fighting others.Born as Erik Magnus Lehnsherr on January 30th, 1930 in Dusseldorf, Germany, into a middle-class Jewish family of which his father Jakob, a decorated World War I veteran, was patriarch. When the family was put in a struggle against discrimination and hardship during the Nazi's rise to power by age 3, he and his Poland of 1944, Erik was forcibly separated from his parents by Nazi soldiers in the Auschwitz concentration camp in a German-occupied Poland during WWII. Under this stress, Lensherr tried running back to his parents before gates closed. Nazi soldiers began grabbing him to prevent Erik from escaping. He reached his arm out toward a metal gate and his powers began to manifest. Dr. Klaus Schmidt watches outside of his office window being knocked unconscious. Other soldiers look at the gate he bent and immediately report to Schmidt. When Erik wakes up he finds himself inside a medical room where Dr. Schmidt is checking on him. This version was revised somewhat in the movies, but not to a significantly polarizable amount; his first known manifestation of his own powers occurs during his internment at a concentration camp in Nazi-Occupied Poland, where he bends the gates of the camp when he is locked on one side and his parents on the other. Because of his abilities, he is studied and experimented upon by camp doctors . One such experiment involves the doctor shooting Erik's mother when he fails to manipulate a five-reichsmark coin. As well as the expected psychological scarring, the conclusion drawn from that experiment is that Erik's powers manifest when he's angry.After the conclusion of the second World War, Erik spent years trying to find Shaw and exact vengeance, murdering other Nazis and innocent bystanders along the way.The 2011 film and the prequel to the original series X-Men: First Class, shows the true origin of the character at it's best. Set in 1962, a point when Erik was still working on locating Shaw's whereabouts and eventually goes to Argentina looking for him (the film version of the antagonist character is portrayed by Kevin Bacon). He arrives at a bar and sees a picture of two Nazis beside him. When Erik is having a beer, he finds the two Nazis and asks them what brings them to Argentina. One replies he is a pig farmer and the other says he's a tailor. They ask Erik what his parents' names were, he replied that their names were taken away by pig farmers and tailors . He sits down with them and sarcastically toasts them.. When they are drinking they notice the number on his arm, further implying that he was a Jew in Auschwitz.. The pig farmer of the two Nazis tries to stab him with a knife that says Blood and Honor in German. Erik asks which of the two they would like to shed first. The pig farmer says that they were under orders. Erik then says blood, then and then brutally stabs the Nazi's hand. The bartender tells him to freeze, pointing a gun at him, but he uses his powers to make him shoot the tailor Nazi. He magnetically puts the knife through the bartender and back at the pig farmer's hand again. Choked up from tears of pain, the pig farmer asks who is he and Erik responds he's Frankenstein's monster, and that he is looking for his creator. He picks up the gun and shoots the Nazi, killing him.He eventually tracked Shaw down to a small boat off the American coast during the height of the Cold War. His attempt at revenge was cut short when he was pummelled by Shaw's cohorts in his Hellfire Club, being no match for their mutant powers. Erik then jumped into the water and tried to crush Shaw's submarine, but Xavier had him stop. It was at this point that he met Charles Xavier and Raven Darkholme, who were present as help in a botched CIA attempt to capture Shaw, wanted for the murder of an American colonel.Together and with CIA support, Xavier and Erik gathered a team of mutant teenagers to battle the Hellfire Club, who were attempting to start a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States as part of a plot to eradicate non-mutant life on the planet and rule over the new world order. Xavier helped the teens master their powers at his mansion, including Erik. During this time, the two become close friends. However, Erik was still filled with hatred for Shaw and feared a mutant holocaust, despite Xavier's attempts to get him to let go of his hatred. Erik also motivated Mystique to become proud of her appearance, believing her desire to get rid of her blue appearance was wrong. During a mission to Russia, Erik and Xavier captured the White Queen of the Hellfire Club, Emma Frost.Ultimately, the team had to jump into action to prevent the Cuban Missile Crisis from causing World War III. The Hellfire Club was also present and attempted to stop the CIA-sanctioned mutant team, but was defeated. During the encounter, Erik confronted Shaw, who attempted to bring Erik to his side with promises of a new, mutant world order. Although he found he agreed with Shaw's goals, Erik refused to forgive him for what he did to his mother. Despite Xavier's pleas to be the better man, Erik killed Shaw by slowly sending a coin through his brain.When the United States and the Soviet Union struck up a quick alliance to destroy the mutants that threatened them, Magneto sent their missiles back at the fleet. Xavier tackled him and the two engaged in a fist fight, which distracted Erik long enough to prevent the missiles from killing those at sea. During a subsequent attempt by a CIA officer to shoot Erik, one of the bullets he deflected struck Xavier in the lower back, permanently crippling him. Horrified at what had transpired, Erik bid farewell to his close friend, departing with Mystique and the remaining Hellfire Club members with the vow of destroying humankind in order to save mutants. He later broke Frost out of prison, declaring himself Magneto and establishing his first Brotherhood of Mutants.Erik's personality develops throughout the film series. In X-Men; First Class, as a child, he was shown to be very loving towards his mother, since his emotional trauma was enough to first install his magnetic powers. During his experimentation at the hands of Sebastian Shaw, he was nervous and withdrawn and frightened of the man, and genuinely found it difficult to use his powers. Throughout Sebastian's manipulations, he begged to see his mother. When his mother was held at gunpoint, he genuinely tried to use his powers out of desperation, but when he couldn't and her mother was executed, his powers were unleashed with incredible violence out of complete and utter rage. Over the next few years of his life, Erik would become intensely obsessed with killing Sebastian.This obsession led to unspeakable lengths; he would become sadistic, ruthless, dark and murderous towards others when he couldn't get the information he wanted. He was convinced that his powers were utilized by anger, and this only incensed his obsession and threatened his life on a myriad of occasions, especially when he actually met Sebastian and failed to kill him. When he met Charles Xavier, he reacted with shock at not being the only mutant alive. Throughout the film, although he cooperated with what became known as the X Men, he did so with a single-minded determination to come close to Sebastian and kill him. He repeatedly instilled aggressive thoughts in the members' heads, but he grew very close to Raven Darkholme - Mystique - and convinced her that it was alright to look different.During the battle in Cuba, with his powers fully discovered, Erik - now Magneto - finally took the chance to fight Sebastian. When the two mutants dueled, Magneto went to immense lengths to stay in the fight, when Sebastian managed to convince him that mutants were the superior stage of human evolution - however, even though he believed Sebastian, he still killed the man in a similar fashion to how his mother was killed. After murdering Shaw, Erik became a full-scale vigilante, working to combat all of mankind and set up mutants as the supreme beings of Earth. This idealism set him apart from Charles' beliefs.However, the two men remained extremely close in their own right, always trying to contradict each others ideas and movements in an epic war. Erik was recognized for being extremely calm and sophisticated, even in brutal or violent situations. He had a delusional belief that human extinction and mutant advancement was necessary, since they racially discriminated mutants on a daily basis. He was also a fully-fledged genius - he was extremely intelligent and unpredictable, and capable of creating extremely elaborate and complicated plans to elude and defeat his enemies. He was also somewhat misanthropic - he treated humans cruelly, like Senator Kelly and William Stryker. He had a very sarcastic wit, which he used infrequently in certain situations. When he captured the X-Jet with his powers, holding it in midair, he remarked When will these people learn how to fly? .Erik was abundantly capable of sacrificing thousands of human lives if it meant achieving his goals in the end. Despite his ruthless and callous disregard for others, he had an extremely mutual respect for certain individuals. Despite Charles being his arch-nemesis, he respected and admired his best friend for his intelligence, level of power, charisma, and his shared compassion for mutants. When Charles was killed by Jean Grey, he reacted with utter horror, but also intrigue at the power that Jean had shown in the process. He came extremely close to violence when Charles was scorned, responding by saying that the man had done more for mutants than could be measured, and that his death was truly tragic.The original Comic book story as well as the 2017 film X-Men: Apocalypse states that after the defeat of En Sabah Nur, the age-old friendly cooperation between him and Charles re-established while he has parted ways with the X-Men and his whereabouts are to be, unknown. Show less «