Magneto In Animation - A Retrospective
Surprisingly enough, Magneto’s first animated appearance came in The Fantastic Four in the late 70’s. The cartoon has been mocked by a lot of fans for it’s inclusion of H.E.R.B.I.E instead of The Human Torch, who’s rights were tied up with a live action TV deal at the time. As another surprise, the episode is written by non other than the creator of both Magneto and The Fantastic Four, Stan ‘The Man’ Lee himself! Now, given the show’s age and how little older cartoons managed to get shown here in the UK, I’ve seen very, very little of this show, but I own this episode on VHS. I remember thinking it was laughably bad, even as a child. 
The episode in question features Magneto becoming leader of The Fantastic Four and yes, they did still call
themselves The Fantastic Four, despite the fact there were 5 of them, and the ending is one of the most
hilariously awful scenes I’ve ever witnessed. After Magneto fails to magnetise Reed’s gun to himself, he demanded
that he be arrested, as he was worthless without his powers. Reed tricked him of course; the gun was made of wood.
Presumably, when placed behind metal bars, Magneto realised his powers had returned and broke out, possibly to embark on a
murderous rampage. I’m kind of glad I didn’t have to suffer through the various cartoons in the 70’s…Aside from an odd episode of 67 Spider-Man in which Spider-Man fought a bitter scientist named Dr. Magneto who had a magnetic gun, Magneto’s next appearance would be a few years later, in the 1981 Spider-Man solo series. Again, Magneto is featured in a typical super villain plot with no sign of his fight for mutant superiority and his motivation is mere greed. The episode is a forgettable encounter for sure. I actually had to look up whether or not he appeared on the show on the 80’s solo site – take that as you will. Nothing laughably bad, like in Fantastic Four, but not something that’ll stick with you for a long time. He would clash with Spider-Man yet again with the X-Men again nowhere in site, as he would appear as a villain in Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends, which meant he didn’t have a whole lot of depth to him by default. The show was too busy being fun to greatly develop villains it never planned on using again, but considering this is Magneto we’re talking about, it does feel like a wasted opportunity. The episode sees Magneto take an island full of Prison Wardens hostage, demanding they release the captured members of his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants (look for cameos by The Blob, Toad and Mastermind). It’s not a great episode, and probably comes across as one of the least entertaining episodes from the season, but given the tone of the show and when it took place, I’m not sure using Magneto was a good idea to begin with. His voice didn’t seem to fit his character too well and his design was a little lacklustre – every copy I’ve seen seems to have the red and the purple so similar you question if the suit isn’t just one colour. The show always had weird little colouring patterns, and Magneto was no exception. 
Save for a small cameo in The Origin Of Iceman, Magneto wouldn’t be animated again until Marvel tried to get
The X-Men their own animated show on TV. Funding an expensive looking pilot in hopes of luring network attention,
Marvel produced Pryde Of The X-Men and who else but Magneto was featured as the chief villain, once again acting as
the leader of The Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants. The ever-popular Malcolm X Magneto isn’t found here, once again, he’s
simply the leader of a group of mutant terrorists. I’ve no idea how they would’ve managed to pull this show off without
the mutant vs. humans dilemma that makes the X-Men as interesting as they air, because this episode
proves one thing for sure – Magneto isn’t interesting as a straight up super villain. He simply doesn’t
work in the role. It’s always worth noting though – the animation in this pilot is far better than anything
that was ever found in X-Men: The Animated Series, and even tops the animation found in the second season of
Spider-Man And His Amazing Friends. If nothing else, Pyrde managed to deliver a very cool looking Magneto. But
as with the pilot itself, Magneto’s portrayal is nothing to write home about. Thankfully, Magneto would become one of the finest supervillains to ever grace animation when X-Men: The Animated Series hit in 1992. Or would he?
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