Namor can fly with very small wings, has super-strength, invulnerable skin and is 600 years old, he's also confirmed a mutant. Mutants have different powers, one of Magneto's powers is to age slowly, done.
When you start creating new powers for characters in order to make an origin story from 60 years ago still work that's probably a sign that you need to tweak the origin story.
Now he has dedicated his whole life to help people who were part of the holocaust and finds a new purpose in protecting mutants when the Mutant persecution starts.
Writing class 101: Keep things simple, don't overexplain it, don't overthink it.
So....asspull every problem you encounter, just like in shitty anime where the characters always conveniently get some kind of powerup right when they're about to lose.
You're talking about two different things entirely, solving an in-story conflict by powering them up (aka, solving a problem with a coincidence) is bad writing. Giving a character a reason for their origin to make sense, is a completely different thing, and making him age slowly is something that makes sense in a universe where supers exist and you have like 5 people older than Magneto running around, looking even younger.
No, you just don't want to admit that your solution to this issue is an asspull.
You are just solving an in-story conflict by powering up the character. The character's timeline says he should be 100 years old, senile, decrepit, and probably just dead. Your solution to this, rather than coming up with a new origin, is to just give him a powerup.
It's lazy and you know it but you won't admit it because that's just the type of person you are.
Is not a power up if you make it one of his powers from the beggining, is It?
Bucky is 120 years old, you can accept It, audiences accept it. They had a out of universe problem, they solved it.
The job of a writer is to solve these problems while making sense and being respectful to the character's identities. Let a writer solve the problem instead of saying "No, I don't want that." Let them make their work and use their imagination to explain it. It is easier and lazier to say "let's change his story," to actually try to find a solution.
Say his control of electromagnetism has prevented his telomeres from shortening, blessing him with slowed aging. It doesn't even need to be a new power, just a byproduct of his existing one.
In Anime it is rather common for a character to get a convenient powerup in order to overcome an obstacle or plot hole. These types of powerups tend to be referred to as "asspulls" and are generally looked down upon as lazy/bad writing.
Magneto's age has been a major topic in comic book circles for years precisely because of the timeline no longer making sense. Marvel has addressed it with handwaves, ambiguous timelines, and asspulls (like killing him off and then resurrecting him in a younger body). Would a fresh take really be so bad?
I think the major problem with changing his origin rather than giving him, ostensibly, a new power of long life is that the holocaust is such a big part of Erik’s reasoning for how he acts. There’s probably similar tragedies that have happened since that could get him close to the same weighty origin…but the holocaust is easily the most readable and impactful way of doing it. Essentially you’re trying to limit harm to the character, giving him slow aging seems like the less harmful option to preserve his identity even if it comes off as lazy or an “asspull.” Maybe it’s not the ideal option but there really isn’t an ideal one.
But the question is are they more recent? Would switching him to these other, potentially equivalent, atrocities or holocaust like situations alter his character even further? The extended life is the simplest explanation with the least amount of rewrites to his character. And again, like I pointed out, it’s also a matter of quick understanding and readability…think of it like the design concept of a character’s silhouette, it needs to read like the character right away, without much thought. Magneto’s holocaust origin is a similar thing, it’s almost universally understood, explains his motivations, gives him context…all without any additional information or research. Again…I’m not saying the extended life is a good choice, just the best one out of a myriad of more complicated or convoluted ones.
I think there's definitely harm, and that isn't a slight change. The magnitude of the atrocity's place in history shapes the character and the audience's relationship with him. Using a different tragedy will make audiences think his origin is less impactful. I'm not trying to compare atrocities and this is only a movie after all.
His powers all make 100% sense in the context of the character, though.
He has claws and a supercharged healing factor. Those are his only 2 powers. The healing factor is what keeps him young because it significantly slows his aging. It's also the only reason he's able to have the metal skeleton, which was forcefully bonded to his actual skeleton as part of the weapon-x program. The metal skeleton isn't one of his powers.
He also has heightened smelling and hearing, and minor super strength depending on the writer. These plus the healing and claws all come in the package of feral/animalistic powers so it works
Or you can just acknowledge that time passes, and that humans have done enough evil shit that you can still make Magneto be Magneto without it being the Holocaust that caused it, and instead have it be one of the other dozen or so ethnic cleansings since then. And then people get to learn more history in the process, similar to people learning about the Tulsa massacre in the Watchmen.
Not really in the books anymore since they introduced the concept of omega level mutants. Instead of having to retcon anything they can just increase abilities and say "he's an omega" and no other explanation is needed. Slow aging is part of being an omega.
"but wolverines powers".... Wolverines "power" isn't even 'regeneration' or superstrength or anything like that. It's the claws and some other weird shit like superhuman sense of smell.
The 'regeneration' and superhuman physique is part of his "X-factor" which all mutants have (it is the thing literally required to be a mutant, if you're born with an active x-factor you are a mutant, if you somehow activate or acquire an x-factor later in life like spiderman, you are a mutate but you still get the benefits of said x-factor). Wolverines is generally considered to be the strongest anyone has seen in that particular area, but all mutants have that. Its how they survive the whole getting thrown through buildings, punched in the faces by gods and the occasional random stabbing. Therefor all mutants if the story required could age considerably slower.
Holocause happened 80 years ago? Well gee, Magneto for some reason seems to have stopped aging at like 45.
You think that if Magneto lost his parents during a random mugging in an alley like Batman, it would make him protective of his minority group (mutants) and distrustful of humans?
Do you think your comparison of Bruce’s parents being shot in an alley to the holocaust is engaging with me in good faith? No, you will have to do better.
You literally said any tragedy will do. They gave an example from one of the most famous superheroes that is marked by a tragedy setting them on their course and it shows how NOT just any tragedy will do.
A debate in good faith doesn't try to twist what someone says to catch them in a contradiction, but instead tries to interpret their argument from a position of charity. It's literally called the Principle of Charity.
So, do you think, in the context of this discussion, that the guy talking about major global tragedies is referring to personal tragedies when he said that line? If not, then what do you think is gained by being obstinate like the other guy is on insisting on arguing about the personal tragedy that inspired Batman?
Because being a holocaust survivor isn’t an inextricable part of Magneto, while being near immortal would have to be. It would also complicate his relationship with Charles as a peer, which actually is an inextricable part of his character
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u/Lord_Parbr 9h ago
You just make him live longer. He’s a fuckin mutant