“Magneto Was Right.” X-Men '97 Enters New Era, Introducing This Slogan with a Story
The action in X-Men '97 isn’t slowing down. Alliances change all the time, as does the outlook on reality. We look at the slogan “Magneto was right.”.
Warning! Below are spoilers from X-Men '97.
As previously announced, episode 8 of X-Men '97 is a sort of beginning of the end, opening the 3-part finale of the animated series. And as expected, a lot really happened in it, and for some of the characters it was another moment when they realized that “Magneto was right.”
Magneto has been advocating for years that it is impossible for humans and mutants to live in harmony, because humans will never accept them, so he encourages those with supernatural powers to fight and strive for supremacy.
And after Bastion's actions led to the deaths and imprisonment of many mutants over the past few episodes, those with supernatural powers began to see that while Professor X's philosophy of seeking coexistence between humans and mutants was more appealing to them before, he may be wrong and it was “Magneto who was right.”
This was interestingly explained by Dr. Valerie Cooper in episode 8 of X-Men '97, who told Bastion: “You know, in Genosha, I felt a lot of things: pain, grief, admiration for those who fought despite the odds. But you know what the oddest thing was? No one seemed shocked or surprised — not even me. Yes, I was scared, but really I just had the most profound sense of déja vu, as if past, present, and future didn't matter and never had, because we always end up in the same ugly place. Thing is, Magneto knows us better than Charles ever did, knows we know better, that most of us experience tragedies like Genosha as a bit of déja vu before getting on with our day. But the scariest thing about Genosha wasn't the death or the chaos. It was a thought, the only sane thought you can have when being chased by giant robots that were built to crush you: Magneto was right.”
All indications are that Magneto's greatest fears have been realized in the future, which in episode 8, Tolerance Is Extinction - Part 1, was confirmed by Cable, describing that in it Bastion created a utopian world for humans who had been turned into his hybrids, where all mutants who managed to survive were locked in camps and forced into manual labor. The heroes of the series will try to prevent this version of the future, and Magneto, freed from captivity, has also taken to action.
And Professor X, who has finally returned to Earth, is also sure to join the fight. Also, he will counterbalance Magneto and his increasingly widely espoused ideology, creating an interesting conflict on the topic of with what approach mutants should move forward with.
This isn’t the first time in Marvel's history that the slogan “Magneto was right” has been used. It was popularized in Grant Morrison's 2003 comic book New X-Men. There, a young mutant, Quentin Quire, appeared at the Charles Xavier School wearing a red t-shirt with Magneto's likeness along with the caption “Magneto was right.” Real t-shirts and many other fan gadgets with this slogan appeared in shops, and this slogan also sparked various memes.
The events of the series took place shortly after Magneto's death during Cassanda Nova's attack on Genosha, during which many other mutants were also killed. A similar theme took place in episode 5 of X-Men '97, so it isn’t surprising that the phrase “Magneto was right” is also now popping up in the minds of many of the TV series' characters, who are beginning to understand how much of a threat humans pose to mutants.
The concept that Magneto was right was continued in the 2023 comics, which depict events similar to those of X-Men '97, so they may have provided some inspiration for the TV show's creators. The series in question is from J.M. DeMatteis and Todd Nauck, with the subtitle “Magneto was right.”
And now it will be developed more deeply in X-Men '97, adding another voice to the debate over whether Professor X or Magneto is right. Certainly, however, we're in for a new era in the history of TV series’ mutants, whose outlook on their own situation and that of humans changes dramatically.
