Like in X-Men: First Class, Magneto is a hunter of mutant-haters in his solo series, an anti-heroic protector of mutantkind doing what he feels has to be done with lethal force. In this second volume, his travels takes him to China where a new strain of MGH (Mutant Growth Hormone which, when injected, gives the user temporary mutant powers) is being produced, before the garbage Marvel event Axis sends him to the fallen mutant city of Genosha where the Red Skull is up to some stereotypical bad guy bullshit.
The first Magneto book was pretty decent - the second is just straight up crap. The Predator X/MGH storyline was ok as it turns out Magneto (whose powers have been limited for a while now) is looking for the guy making it purely to bring him up to full power - tossing aside the false bravado to reveal he’s still utterly selfish is very Magneto! Once things awkwardly switch to Axis though the whole thing falls apart.
Axis looked so horrible and worthless a storyline I didn’t bother reading it - that’s probably why I didn’t understand how Red Skull went from regular-sized when he’s introduced to Sentinel-sized a couple issues later! You can still follow what’s going on anyway as everything’s so blandly generic: Red Skull wants to take over the world, heroes and villains fighting, blah blah blah. Pure superhero schlock!
The art’s a bit sketchy but I kinda liked it. It’s grim and dark for the most part and crazy and loose once Red Skull uses Xavier’s powers to mess with Magneto’s head. That said I am really sick of all the WW2/Nazi/Genosha shit that always gets dredged up with this character - can we not move onto newer subjects, must we always dwell on this misery? It’s not adding anything more to Magneto to keep repeating his history over and over.
I still like the overall concept of the series of Magneto as a lone vigilante but this second book is rubbish, largely because of the superhero crapfest that takes up the latter half of this volume. Once again an intrusive event ruins a perfectly decent series - good job, Marvel!
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