CBR: X-POSITION: Greg Pak

[CBR News]

Writer Greg Pak answers your questions about revisiting Magneto's origin
while combining historical facts from one of history's grimmest events in the five-
issue Marvel Knights mini "X-Men: Magneto Testament."


Full article here.

[CaptainCanada]

I'll be interested to see how this story is structured, since there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of room for a dramatic climax; obviously, Magneto can't do much of anything. He and Magda escape with their lives, and head off to parts unknown in 1945 (thus sidestepping such troubling questions as 'why are Pietro and Wanda not 60+').

[cgar]

Paul Cornell is the next exposition. Everyone ask him since Psylockes coming back to 616. Is he privy to use her since her brother is a main character in the book. Come on help me out. My questions never get picked.

oh yah good interview. i like how he's doing all the research. very interesting

[ThreeDays]

(thus sidestepping such troubling questions as 'why are Pietro and Wanda not 60+').

Wasn't it said in some Avengers book that the High Evolutionary kept those two in suspended animation for a few decades?


Anyway, this was a really interesting X-Position. Interesting questions were selected, and Pak gave interesting — and encouraging — responses. It seems like he really put some heart into this story.

He also seems like the kind of writer who wants to get people excited about the story because he's genuinely excited to see what they think of it. He seems rather down-to-earth.

[CaptainCanada]

Wasn't it said in some Avengers book that the High Evolutionary kept those two in suspended animation for a few decades?

That was a handwave in a handbook, I believe.

[Leirus]

I am amazed that people still think that someone who experienced the holocaust would find hard to misstreat other people.There is a big, glaring example against that idea.

When someone, or by extension some people is hurt and damaged very hard, the normal mental process does not make them think "ohh, this is bad, this is not going to happen anyone anymore" but "ohh this is bad, this is not going to happen TO ME and MY PEOPLE anymore" and usually they will be ready to do whatever it takes to ensure this. Even if it means hurt and damage badly other people. That is sad, but it is also usually true.

It is also very significative that the first time we see Magnus repenting over what he has become, is when he hurts a jewish girl, thus someone who belonged to his original people, and also to his choosen one (the mutants)

[Rivka]

Very moving and serious interview. Good questions and better responses.

The art from X-MEN: MAGNETO TESTAMENT #2 hints that the next issue is going to be historically accurate, true to the comic book continuity, and full of deep emotion. This is a remarkable achievement. I really don't remember when I last read anything like this series from Marvel. I don't know how editor Simons came to choose Carmine Di Giandomenico for the art, but it was an inspired choice. And Matt Hollingsworth's colors are superb.

Greg Pak though, has done an excellent job so far. He has brought his cinematic sensibilities to this story. I think on some of his other Marvel work, he's been a comic book writer who happens to be an award-winning film maker; he's left his film-maker-hat at home. With MAGNETO TESTAMENT, Mr. Pak is a film maker who is writing a graphic novel told as a 5-part series. In my opinion, he has successfully integrated his entire creative background for this project.

[Rivka]

I am amazed that people still think that someone who experienced the holocaust would find hard to misstreat other people.There is a big, glaring example against that idea.

When someone, or by extension some people is hurt and damaged very hard, the normal mental process does not make them think "ohh, this is bad, this is not going to happen anyone anymore" but "ohh this is bad, this is not going to happen TO ME and MY PEOPLE anymore" and usually they will be ready to do whatever it takes to ensure this. Even if it means hurt and damage badly other people. That is sad, but it is also usually true.

It is also very significative that the first time we see Magnus repenting over what he has become, is when he hurts a jewish girl, thus someone who belonged to his original people, and also to his choosen one (the mutants)

Well said. I agree.

And considering what comic book canon says Max went through at Auschwitz, at such a young age serving in the Sonderkommando, the "crematoria ravens," one can only be amazed that Magneto tried so hard for so many years to stay on the path of sanity and righteousness.

Once his overwhelming electromagnetic-spectrum powers emerged full-blown, given everything he had gone through, given his personality, given the types of anxiety issues and abandonment issues he has, given the level of his unprocessed rage and pain, given his battered self-esteem, given his discovery (via Xavier) that he IS a mutant, and now there was a whole new playing field, again, I am amazed at how long he resisted the role of mutant messiah.

He knew little about "mutants" or whether or not he was one, until he met Xavier in Israel some 25 years ago Marvel time. It was Xavier who first used the term "Homo superior," not Erik Magnus (as he was calling himself at the time). Magnus looked at Xavier as the genetics expert. And while Xavier suspected how damaged his new friend was, soon after they first met, Charles had no idea how Magnus would be affected by the designation "Homo superior." It seems Charles used the term loosely, and didn't realize this simple nomenclature would fill such a deep void for Magnus, or that Magnus would use the term to help navigate his new life-course.

Oh, and Pietro and Wanda being put in stasis by the High Evolutionary is mentioned in two or three entries in the most recent hardcover handbook, including that of the High Evolutionary. It isn't a "hand wave" in my opinion. The last updated entries for the Scarlet Witch, for example, are in the "AVENGERS 2004" and "WOMEN OF MARVEL 2005" handbooks. The "WOMEN OF MARVEL 2005" book says that the twins were "eventually put in the care" of the Maximoffs, which doesn't contradict anything we now know. Wanda's entry will most likely be updated when the hardcover Handbook gets to the "Ss" I guess early next year.