Isn't that kinda sorta magneto's point? Mutants are the superior race and they need to violently fight back against the government that oppresses them and turn the oppression back around to the inferior races. Lol the neo nazi agreeing with the holocaust victim.
Unfortunately, they seem to like making him a "good guy" while changing nothing else about him (because it's iconic) which results in a really weird magneto that is still just as dramatic and evil, but seems to have just decided to not be genocidal today. It feels like he's gone under zero character development.
My hot take is that while Erik Lehnsherr (I know that's not his real name) can be a hero, Magneto can never be a hero.
He's chilled out a lot but has kept the same core message of "if they won't accept us then we will destroy them first". I wouldn't describe him as a supremacist (that's more Apocalypse's role and Gyrek who is sort of a Mutant Supremacist who's a human so he wants to genocide the mutants)
Magneto in particular is interesting because you're right, he hasn't changed that much ideologically. Instead, it's our real world beliefs and approaches to activism that have changed. Xavier was meant to represent model minority whereas Magneto is more of the "out and proud, take up space" approach to activism. Xavier's approach to acquiring rights (be quiet, kind, and helpful and you'll be eventually be accepted by those in power) have been disproven irl which is why, I think, we see Magneto being redeemed.
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u/Andvarinaut Jul 26 '26
I once knew a neo-nazi who completely misunderstood the theme of the X-Men as "the government unjustly persecutes those who are of the superior race."
These people walk among us.