While Professor Xavier seeks to prevent violent conflict between mutants and non-powered humans, his one-time friend Eric Magnus Lehnsherr welcomes it. After surviving extreme persecution as a child, the embittered mutant called Magneto came to believe that his species were the rightful inheritors of the Earth. His mastery over the forces of magnetism makes him a rousing leader to the mutant nation of Genosha and a formidable foe for Wolverine and the X-Men.