WW Philly: Pak talks "Magneto: Testament"

[CBR News]

In September’s “Magneto Testament,” writer Greg Pak and artist Carmine Di Giandomenico chronicle the horrors Magneto faced growing up in Hitler’s Germany. CBR News spoke with Pak about the Marvel Knights miniseries.

http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16615

[_Jayme_]

Should have known it was an origins story. Hm..I don't really want it that much anymore, even though the art looks nice.

[KiplingKat]

In September’s “Magneto Testament,” writer Greg Pak and artist Carmine Di Giandomenico chronicle the horrors Magneto faced growing up in Hitler’s Germany. CBR News spoke with Pak about the Marvel Knights miniseries.

http://comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=16615

I am looking forward to this project with a couple caveats...

They focus too much on Magnus' rage and "vengence" rather than the more complex motivations that Claremont and others have given him over time.

Claremont made clear that survivors guilt is actually the biggest motivator in Magneto's character in Uncanny #274/275. That he does what he does to make some sense of both the fact of his survival and what he was forced to do to survive.

“I wear red, the color of blood, in tribute to their lost lives. And the harder I try to cast it aside, to find the gentler path, the more irresistibly I am drawn back. I should have died myself with those that I loved. Instead I carted the bodies by the hundreds, by the thousands, from the death house to the crematorium, and the ashes to the burial ground. Asking myself now what I could not then—Why was I spared?” ~Uncanny X-Men #274

(Further examination of Magneto's character can be found here: http://www.magnetowasright.com/pages...in-the-616.php )

If Pak and Marvel can include these more complex motivations in this character examination, I will be happy.

While I can't see any logical or historical problem in that fact that Magneto has a German father, though I can't see any reason to make him something other than Polish other than the try and include the already retconned-as-a-forgery "Lehnsherr" name. I do hope this is not the case.

There is also the problem of showing what the character went through in the Holocaust in a normal (meaning non-MAX title) Marvel comic while remaining respectful to the subject matter and not downplaying the heinous violence and disgusting thing the prisoners went through. For example: If Magnus was involved in the process of removing bodies from the gas chamber and moving them to the crematoria as he said above, he would have had to search the bodies for hidden valuables. Which means cavity searches of dead bodies that the real life sonderkomanndo had to do. That not something you would put in a title that can be picked up by a kid.

Pak and Marvel have really given themselves a challenge in this project to show Auschwitz, relate it's horror to it's fullest, most realistic extent to properly convey it's impact on the character and respect for the subject matter, yet still make it readable for an all ages audience.

Also 1935 to 1945 is a heck of a long period of time, and a lot of events to cover, to cover in five issues as well.

Lastly, we have already seen the moment Magneto powers first emerged in New Mutants #49, and I'm not seeing any mention of his older sister.

And P.S: T total nit pick, but...the only place where young Magneto has been shown to have black hair in in New Mutants #49, all the other time we have seen him as a child, including when he was reduced to infancy, his hair was white. Which makes sense for two reasons: A. If his hair was turned white during the Holocaust (as is common in cases of starvation) it would have reverted to it's natural color, especially after he was reduced to infancy and re-aged to adulthood.And B. His son's hair (Quicksilver) was always white.

Other than those things, I am looking forward to the project. Magnus' pre-holocaust experiences is a complete blank slate that no writer has yet tackled so this is a real treat for me.

Though I think that putting an origins story in the context of a "coming to terms with M-Day and finding a new purpose and direction to go in" story would be more appealing for a wider audience.

[Rivka]

I'm very happy with this announcement.

Some other articles and interviews:

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=158611

http://www.wizarduniverse.com/053108wwphpak.html

http://comics.ign.com/articles/878/878199p1.html

Reading the above interviews makes me feel that all involved in this project are going to do their best to tell Magneto's story according to the history already revealed in the books, and above all, with careful attention to historical accuracy.

The art is especially beautiful. Such a project needs a fine artists, and the art on any graphic presentation of the Holocaust can make or break the story. But I'm very excited by those examples of Carmine Di Giandomenico's concepts for the series. Okay, more than excited. I now know what Magnus' father looked like. I wonder what kind of equipment he's using, in one of those pictures? Is he a doctor or a scientist?

Anyway, thank you, thank you, thank you, is all I can say, to Marvel, to Joe Q., to Warren Simons and Greg Pak and all concerned. (Matt Hollingsworth will be doing the colors, as he just announced on his blog.) Right from the start, they've affirmed that Magneto is Jewish, and this will be about him and his family, and their struggle to survive.

What I love best about this series is that it will follow the family as they become enveloped in the hatred and prejudice and then violence. We will see how Germany turned from the most advanced and open-minded country in history, into a world of evil-doers, victims, and bystanders who looked the other way. This of course can happen to any country, at any time. That's the lesson.

Okay, sorry, I didn't mean to go off on a tangent.

We will see atrocities, and camps, and the death-factory, and the crematoria and gas chambers, but we will see it all in the context of the entire rise of the Nazi state. From the point of a view of a boy, a particular boy. From reading Greg Pak's assessment of Magneto's personnality as a boy, I am confident that he understands the character.

Marvel Knights, by the way, is a more mature line. And this will be a Marvel Knights book. The Marvel Knights titles are rated T+, Parental Advisory, and Parental Supervision, so I don't think Marvel is aiming this series at kids. In any case, my gosh, if my son were still a kid, I wouldn't let him read some of Marvel's books they do market to the general pre-teen audience. Like WOLVERINE and X-FORCE. Speaking of gratuitous violence.

I think Carmine Di Giandomenico is an incredible artist. I think he's going to do a good job. We don't need to see every detail of the Sonderkommando, to understand how horrible it was working as a member of the SK.

Here's a link to information about the Sonderkommando and Magneto:

The Sonderkommando and Magnus

Anyway, I have more to add, but will do it in the Magnus Family Appreciation Thread, I guess.

I am presuming that Greg Pak will show Magneto's time in Auschwitz from before he entered the Sonderkommando, and during his time in the SK. Some of the events and references are very specific historically speaking, like the day that Magnus and Magda escaped the camp.

The "Erik Lehnsherr" forged name situation is apparently going to be solved as well. I can only hope and pray (yeah, literally) that the creative team remembers the name Lehnsherr is forged and false and will not only make it clear that Magneto was born Jewish, but what his name actually is.

Much I could be nervous about, but everything I've read so far is very very cool, and I am feeling very positive and excited. I am very much looking forward to this limited series.

[La Fea]

I like this!

Hopefully they do one for other villains so we can have a modern-day villain with as great and tragic an origin as Magneto's was!

[KiplingKat]

I thought Marvel Knights was an "outside of continuity" line?

[sneakydub]

Wasn't Magneto specifically retconned to being Roma (gypsy) and not Jewish?

[KiplingKat]

Wasn't Magneto specifically retconned to being Roma (gypsy) and not Jewish?

Magneto has never come out and said "I'm Jewish", but for many years he repeatedly identified with the Jews of the Holocaust, not any other group that was caught up in it.

Most importantly Magnus’ tattoo number (both of them, the number was originally "214782" in Uncanny #161, then changed to "24005" in Excalibur Vol. 3 #2 in order to adjust put Magnus in one of the first groups of Jews in Auschwitz) has no “Z” designation that was used for the Gypsies in Auschwitz. There is also what he did to survive, becoming a sonderkommando as revealed in Uncanny X-Men #274. All sonderkommando in Auschwitz were Jews. Then there is the fact that after he gave up the search for his wife, he emigrated to Israel.

In Uncanny #199, he takes Kitty Pryde (who is also Jewish) and Lee Forrester to a Jewish Holocaust memorial gathering. He speaks with great affection with the Shulmans and also says he knew Kitty’s great aunt Chava Rosanoff (nee’ Prydeman). All of these are Jewish names of Jewish ex-prisoners. The Gypsies were kept in a separate camp from the Jewish population.

When informed of the mutant massacre taking place in the Morlock Tunnels in Uncanny X-Men #211, Magneto responds, “No! The horrors of my childhood, born again. Only this time, mutants are the victims instead of Jews." When Magneto learns of Doug Ramsey’s death in New Mutants #61, he says, “They are registering mutants like they once registered my people in Poland! Who knows what horrors await us." Only Jews were registered in Poland.

These are the most obvious clues, though there are many hints and references to Magneto's holocaust experiences in Marvel Comics since Uncanny #150.

Then, in 1993 someone got a burr in their saddle that having one of Marvel’s greatest villains be Jewish was a slur on Jewish people. In a move that came completely out of left field, they had Gabrielle Haller announce that she had found Magneto’s secret identity and that he was a “Sinite Gypsy” from Danzig named “Erik Lehnsherr” in X-Men Unlimited #2 (which is othewise a great issue).

Why Marvel didn’t think the Gypsies would protest not just having one, but two of Marvel biggest villains being Gypsies (for Dr. Doom is as well) as a slur is beyond me. Maybe their lobby just isn’t big enough.

In any case, the fanbase responded.

“Whubuhhuh?”

The confusion and protests kept up for a few years until Marvel mercifully stetconned the retcon in X-Men #72 (1998) by revealing the Erik Lehnsherr I.D. as a forgery. As he kills the forger to prevent any one from tracking down his real identity, Magneto says, “I was willing to deny who I was, everything that my family died for, so that I could find one woman, so that I would not be caged again.” Obviously, identifying himself as something other than Jewish else came at some cost to Magnus' pride.

So Magneto is Jewish, and his name is not Erik Lehnsherr.

[Rivka]

I thought Marvel Knights was an "outside of continuity" line?

Don't scare me. I'm so pessimistic after all these years; I half-expect there to be some catch, because this series sounds too good to be true!

Anyway, Marvel Knights has both "in-continuity" and "outside-continuity" books. I looked at the Wiki definition, and it's wrong, I think. What Marvel itself says:

The Marvel Knights category includes characters only from the main Marvel Universe (Earth-616) to prevent an overload of all the various characters' incarnations from alternate universe stories. If they are from an alternate universe or dimension, but they have spent most of their adventures of interest in the Marvel Universe or interacting with the Marvel Universe (e.g. characters like Longshot and Bishop would be in the X-Men category), include them here. Just as the X-Men Category includes both the X-Men and their friends and enemies, this category should be for the Knights themselves, and the characters they've commonly interacted with during the course of their stories under the Marvel Knights imprint. The main Marvel Knights are Daredevil, the Punisher, Black Panther, Elektra, Blade, Ghost Rider, Black Widow, Shang-Chi, Moon Knight, Cloak and Dagger, Iron Fist, Luke Cage, and Spider-Man. Others include Bishop, Crystal, Medusa, Shanna, and Wolverine. Just because Spider-Man was "knighted" doesn't mean every Spider-Man character belongs in this category. For a good sense of what characters are appropriate for this category, check out the Marvel Knights Encyclopedia (Marvel Encyclopedia Vol. 5), and the Offiical Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Marvel Knights 2005.

In any case, ANGEL:REVELATIONS is in-continuity. The ARES series is in-continuity. In fact, all of the recent limited series from Marvel Knights are in-continuity.

But I can just see the reactionaries inside Marvel and those who will be hired in the future, drooling at the chance to undo everything that this series will accomplish.

From everything I understand, and have read, the creative team of this series are working inside continuity. This is Magneto's origin story, just as the ANGEL: REVELATIONS series by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is THE origin story of Warren Worthington, aka Angel aka Archangel.

It's considered the darker, grittier corner of the Marvel Universe, suitable for older teens and young adults, but not as adult as the Max line of books.

[Will.S]

Why do they keep giving Greg Pak X-Men assignments?

None of them were particularly memorable and Warsong was horrible.

[HeckBoy]

So it's an origins thing. I think I'll pass. Except for certain favorite characters, I generally don't care for stories set in the past b/c you already know what'll happen to the character in the present. At this point, some of the only characters I'd consider reading a "past story" about would be WWII Cap, any of the past Iron Fists, High School Spidey, and the current Angel origins book.

[worstblogever]

Could be a good way of building hype for the Magneto origin movie... assuming they ever get around to casting someone to play the young Magneto...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499519/

As of now, we're one year away, and don't have anything but a director/screenwriter on that project. Will this comic be what we get instead?

[KiplingKat]

Could be a good way of building hype for the Magneto origin movie... assuming they ever get around to casting someone to play the young Magneto...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499519/

As of now, we're one year away, and don't have anything but a director/screenwriter on that project. Will this comic be what we get instead?

Given the amount of utter crap (lousy, character altering, script treatments, crappy screenwriter, even crappier director, the inclusion of a tailed Beast) I have heard coming out of that project, I'd be completely happy with that.

As things stand now under Goyer's direction and the script treatment (in which he seems to think he is remaking a combo of Hannibal Rising and Revenge of the Sith) I will not see the Magneto: Origins film. I will not even rent it from Netflix. It would be far better if the film were never made than it be churned out with such little care and consideration for the character beyond his being a cash cow for a summer-spectacle flick.

So if this comic book is all we get, I am completely satisfied with that.

Even better if the film never gets made as it will keep the comic book Magneto and the Movie Magneto two separate entities. I understand the reason they made the creative choices they did for the X-Men films, I enjoyed the first two. But I have no interest in seeing that colder, more murderous Magneto change the characterization of the more three dimensional, sympathetic, complex, and realistic comic book Magneto who had 37 years of comic book history before the first film ever came out.