New Avengers #20
The Collective, Part 5
In the ruins of Genosha sits Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, the man once known as Magneto. He is writing in his journal about his current identity crisis. Stripped of his mutant powers thanks to his children, he is struggling for a reason to go on with his life.[1] Suddenly, his pen lifts right out of his hand and the papers he is writing on are scattered across the room from a sudden wind. Afraid for his life, the once proud mutant terrorist finds himself cowering in the corner of the hovel he has been living in.
Outside, the entity called the Collective — Alaskan postal worker Michael Pointer, who suddenly found himself empowered with the abilities of many depowered mutants — arrives on the decimated island continent.[2] Michael’s arrival has been tracked by SHIELD. Director Maria Hill is then informed by her staff that the mutant energies within Pointer are now spreading across the entire island.
Soon after, the New Avengers — Captain America (Steve Rogers), Iron Man (Tony Stark), Spider-Man (Peter Parker), Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew),[3] Wolverine (Logan), and the Sentry (Bob Reynolds) — and Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers) arrive on the scene. Most of the team doesn’t know why the Collective would have come to Genosha where over million mutants were murdered, but it doesn’t sound good. Logan’s enhanced senses tell him that there is someone living on the island.
Meanwhile, Pointer has located Magneto an the intelligence that has been controlling him this far speaks out for the first time. It tells Erik that it has sought him out because he is the only one who can convince the mutant race to rise up and avenge those who were depowered it has come to give Lehnsherr a gift, restoring his magnetic powers. The entity explains that Michael Pointer was the perfect vessel due to his mutant ability to absorb the essence of mutant abilities. However, Pointer has been fighting the entity every step of the way and could barely contain all the power. As Magneto’s trademark costume forms around him he demands to know who this entity is. It tells him that it had killed 5 million people in his name. Magneto finally realize who he is dealing with, the mutant named Xorn and cries out his name.
Spider-Man recognizes the name Xorn as belonging to the man who recently attacked New York City.[4] Now knowing what the real threat is, Captain America orders the Sentry to make sure nobody leaves the island.[5] Spider-Woman insists that they pull back and let SHIELD wipe the place off the map, but Cap refuses to allow it to come to killing. As they make their way closer, the energies coming from Michael’s body suddenly reanimates the corpses of dead mutants all around them and they begin to rise from the rubble beneath the Avengers feet.[6] The Sentry is then ordered to keep Magneto on the island. When the powerful hero tries to hit the Master of Magnetism head on, he is easily repelled. Bob crash lands next to Michael Pointer, who is now finally free from the Collective’s control and confused by what’s going on.
Meanwhile, aboard the SHIELD Helicarrier, Maria Hill is on the line with the President of the United States. The Commander-in-Chief has met with his Joint Chiefs of Staff and come to the conclusion that the only option is to nuke Genosha right away. While this would kill the Avengers, Hill only considers it for a moment before telling the President that they have one more plan to try out. She then tells the Avengers that Sharon Carter has arrived with Daisy Johnson. Captain America gives orders for Daisy to do to Magneto what she did to Wolverine that one time, but aim for the brain. Daisy explains that she used used her earthquake generating abilities to burst Wolverine’s heart, but isn’t sure if doing the same to Magneto’s mind would kill him or not.[7] Ms. Marvel then gets into position to absorb all the mutant energies when they are unleashed. When the Sentry grabs Magneto, he tells the hero to kill him as he does not want to live like this, which stuns Bob.
When Daisy uses her powers on Magneto, he falls to the ground seemingly dead. This releases the Collective from his body. While Ms. Marvel absorbs the stray energy, the Sentry grabs the ball of energy and quickly throws it into the sun. As the energy burns up, Bob briefly sees a face that screams in agony before disappearing for good.[8]
Back on Earth, the Avengers thank Daisy for her help. Thinking that she is being asked to join the Avengers, she tells them to start calling her Quake. When Cap tells her that they aren’t looking for new member, Johnson is deeply embarrassed by her assumption. Iron Man then checks on Michael Pointer and tries to explain what happened to him. Michael dimly remembers walking in the snow and facing heroes. These were Wolverine’s former allies in Alpha Flight and Logan is furious that they died because of Pointer.[9] Tony reminds Logan that Michael isn’t to blame. Trying to come to terms with the revelation that he is a mutant and now has powers, Michael is at a loss as to what he is to do with himself. The Avengers suggest that he uses them for good and to atone for the lives that were lost. Pointer is soon led away by SHIELD.[10] Magneto is also carried away and Maria Hill is annoyed that she can put him under arrest because he is unconscious. Once the SHIELD transport is in the air, it suddenly explodes.[11]
Later, while watching the recent developments in Congress’ bid to pass the Super Human Registration Act, Maria Hill is given Magneto’s diary which was found at the scene. She pauses for a moment before she begins to read.[12]
Recurring Characters
New Avengers (Captain America, Iron Man, Spider-Man, Luke Cage, “Spider-Woman”, Wolverine, Sentry), Ms. Marvel, the Collective, Magneto, Vision, SHIELD (Maria Hill, Daisy Johnson, Sharon Carter)
Continuity Notes
There is a lot of things here coming off the top that you should know about Magneto and his current situation. So lets break down all the juicy bits of continuity:
First, lets talk about where he is: Genosha. First depicted in Uncanny X-Men #235, Genosha was a former apartheid state where mutants were treated as slaves. It’s former rulers were eventually ousted and it became a mutant nation ruled by Magneto starting in X-Men (vol. 2) #87. More recently the island nation was turned into a charnel house after it was wiped out by Sentinels in New X-Men #115.
Here, Magneto states that his birthname was Erik Magnus Lehnsherr. At the time of this story, this was assumed to be Magneto’s real name since X-Men Unlimited #2. How it was later revealed in X-Men: Magneto Testament #1 that his real name was Max Eisenhardt. Lehnsherr appears to have been an alias he operated under after the war.
He refers to the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver as his children here. This had been the long standing belief since Vision and the Scarlet Witch #4, where Magneto was told that his long lost wife gave birth to the twins at the High Evolutionary’s Citadel of Science. However, Uncanny Avengers (vol. 2) #4-5 reveals that this was apparently a lie and that the children were kidnapped from from their real parents and experimented upon by the High Evolutionary. To cover up his work he made it so the pair registered as mutants. The presumption is that telling them that they were Magneto’s children was to continue selling that lie for whatever reasons. As of this writing (April, 2024) it has yet to be explained what exactly happened to Magda and any children she may have been carrying.
This story happens shortly after House of M #1-8 and Decimation: The House of M - The Day After #1. In that event, the Scarlet Witch altered reality so that mutants were the dominant species and that her “family” (Magneto and her brother Quicksilver) ruled the world. Ultimately, Earth’s heroes convinced Wanda that this was wrong and she set everything back. However, she was convinced that mutants were the problems and eliminated the mutant gene, this depowered nearly all of Earth’s mutants, including Magneto. In light of the recent revelations that Magneto is not Wanda and Pietro’s biological father, one could assume that Wanda altered reality in a way that they were his children because that is what she believed at the time.
Michael Pointer was struck by the energies of these de-powered mutants in New Avengers #16. It was discovered that this energy came from the de-powered mutants in issue #18.
The woman who appears to be Spider-Woman in this story is actually a Skrull spy named Veranke, as will be revealed in Secret Invasion #3. Per New Avengers #42, she took the real Spider-Woman’s place ahead of a Skrull invasion of Earth. She swapped placed with the real Jessica Drew in Giant-Size Spider-Woman #1.
The whole Xorn-as-Magneto thing is a confusing mess. Here are the details, as best as they have been explained:
When Xorn first appeared in New X-Men Annual 2001, he was initially identified as a mutant that was imprisoned by the Chinese government and was invited to the Xavier Institute and eventually became a teacher of the “Special Class”. However, he later revealed himself to be Magneto in New X-Men #146. He then launched an attack on New York and killed Jean Grey before being beheaded by Wolverine in issue #150. This is where things get confusing.
Writer Grant Morrison intended for Xorn to be Magneto however, Marvel liked the character and wanted him separate from Magneto. Writer Chuck Austin was then tapped to explain how that was. The gist was that Marvel didn’t like the idea of Magneto senselessly murdering New Yorkers (this was shortly after 9/11, after all) and wanted to separate the two characters. That’s the “Inside Baseball” behind it all, now that you understand that, lets get back into the in continuity explanations.
In Excalibur (vol. 3) #1, the real Magneto was revealed to be alive and well. While in X-Men (vol. 2) #157, the X-Men encountered the twin brother of the original Xorn, who claimed that his brother was tricked into thinking he was Magneto due to the influence of a drug called Kick. Which, still did not make a whole lot of sense.
Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: X-Men 2005 went on to suggest that Xorn was perhaps manipulated by the Scarlet Witch who was altering reality well before Avengers Disassembled and House of M. This is all but confirmed in the Xorn profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #13.
Some more Inside Baseball: Long time Marvel editor Tom Brevort has gone on record saying that he’s not a fan of this explanation. However, Marvel has not bothered trying to give a better explanation time of this writing in April, 2024. As such, the explanation provided in A-Z #13 should be accepted as the explanation until such a time someone revisits this in universe and offers a better explanation, but don’t hold your breath.
When hearing Xorn speaking out telepathically, the Sentry asks if everyone else can hear him. The reason why is because the Sentry has struggled with his mental health which has manifested as the Void, his dark half which has often terrorized him. See Sentry #1-5 Sentry/The Void #1, New Avengers #7-10 and Sentry (vol. 2) #1-8 for all the details.
Fans have tried identifying some of the zombies. uncannyxmen.net , for example suggests that Rem-Ram was among the deceased. This was of course copied without any research at the Garbage Database. This, I assume, is based on the fact that one of the zombies is wearing a headset that looks similar to that worn by Rem-Ram. Here’s why that’s incorrect:
First of all, if we’re basing this on appearances, a lot of Magneto’s Acolytes wore headsets that are very similar to this. This goes back to their earliest appearance in X-Men (vol. 2) #1.
If we were basing characters on tangential resemblance, there is another zombie that has his face covered with a wrap around scarf. Which looks a hell of a lot like Suvik Senyaka, who was one of the few Acolytes who survived M-Day, as seen in Cable & Deadpool #42.
But the real icing on the cake here is the entry for this issue in Official Index to the Marvel Universe: Avengers, which does not identify any of the zombies by names. More over, the Acolytes profile in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #1, doesn’t specify if Rem-Ram was dead or not.
To date, Rem-Ram has only appeared once in Magneto: Manifest Destiny #1 and has no confirmed appearances after the fact. Just because the character hasn’t appeared anywhere doesn’t automatically mean he is dead. Do better research.
Daisy indeed use her powers to blow up Wolverine’s heart, as seen in Secret War #5.
Xorn is indeed killed here, as we’ll see his soul in Hell when Wolverine finds himself trapped there in Wolverine (vol. 4) #2. However, death isn’t always forever in the Marvel Universe and Xorn is no exception. He will be one of the many mutants resurrected on Krakoa as seen in House of X #1.
Early on during his possession, Michael Pointer was confronted by Alpha Flight and seemingly killed the entire team, as seen in New Avengers #16. It’s later revealed in Civil War: The Initiative #1 that Sasquatch was the lone survivor. Most of his teammates killed in this encounter will later be resurrected in Chaos War: Alpha Flight #1.
Following the Civil War event, Pointer will be recruited into Omega Flight, a team of superheroes formed on behalf of the Canadian and US governments to locate and apprehend fugitives who have fled to Canada to avoid the American Super Human Registration Act. See Civil War: The Initiative #1 and Omega Flight #1-5.
Magneto isn’t killed here, and he’ll turn up alive again in Uncanny X-Men #489.
The Super Human Registration Act is a law that would force superheroes to register with the government. This legislation has been in the works since Amazing Spider-Man #529-531. It will come into law in Civil War #1 after the Stamford Disaster, a superhuman battle that killed hundreds of innocent people. This law will remain on the books until Siege #1-4.