James Macavoy talked recently about reprising his role as Professor Xavier in X-Men First Class 2, given the second installment gets the greenlight. While highly critically acclaimed, X-Men First Class pulled in an underwhelming box-office sum, living in the wake of a dwindling X-men franchise (X3, X-men origins:Wolverine). Hence the studios hesitance. While ‘X-men’ is of course the intellectual property of Marvel, they had licensed the property rights to 20th Century Fox long ago. Though First Class only hauled in a meager box-office return, many think that the ‘prequel reboot’ is definitely a step in the right direction for the X-men franchise, and director Matthew Vaughn says he will continue to incorporate historical American events into the stories in order to bring a sense of realism.
Some think that the studio is waiting to see how well Wolverine 2 (which HAS been greenlit) will pan out. Meanwhile, First Class director Matthew Vaughn has stated “We will only have one more new character [in an X-Men: First Class sequel]. I won’t say who he…I won’t say who he or she is! …As Professor X is in a wheelchair, Magneto needs to have a nemesis he can fight with. Someone that will be his equal. I know who it is. It would be nice if I could say something, but I can’t.” Given such delightfully encouraging news let’s hope for the best and proceed with analyzing the temperament of the Master of Magnetism.
A German Jewish holocaust survivor, Max Eisenhardt spent a good deal of his childhood as a Sonderkommando: the squad of Jewish men who were forced to help their Nazi masters run the gas chambers, ovens, and fire pits. The only member of his extended family to survive the holocaust, Max witnessed first hand the atrocities that humanity was capable of, and how brutally they treat those that are deemed ‘different’. After discovering his mutant powers, Eisenhardt developed an aggressive superiority complex, and vowed to never again be at the mercy of humans. As the conflict between Mutants and Humans escalated: Magneto founded the Brotherhood of Mutants in order to advance his cause. Powerfully commanding, strategically brilliant, decisively resolute, and an extremely efficient mobilizer: Magneto is undoubtedly a Fieldmarshal Rational. Indeed Magneto has a very ‘directive character‘, and has an uncanny ability to ‘commandeer whatever human (or mutant) capabilities and material resources are available and use them to execute a complex strategy‘. Magneto’s ‘complex strategy’ of course, becomes the subordination of the human race. With a sense of tragic irony, Magneto ultimately matures into exactly the kind of thing that took his family away from him. Hoping X-Men First Class 2 will get the go-ahead, we will soon see Michael Fassbender portray the supreme villain‘s ascension into madness.
The X-Men … The Avengers … and soon the world — All WITHIN MY GRASP!
- —Max Eisenhardt (Earth-616)
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