Magneto + Rogue = true love -- whaaaaa???

Cafe Society
1

I stopped reading the X-Men comics (Uncanny X-Men and New X-Men) around 1993 or '94 or so, and it has recently come to my attention (OK, I overheard this in the movie theatre while seeing X2) that sometime after 1994, there was a story arc that involved Magneto and Rogue, uhhh, getting together :dubious: and possibly having a child. :eek: Let me do that again: :eek: :eek:

Is this true?? Can someone please explain to me how on God’s green earth this transpired?

I understand Magneto became good for a while, possibly due to mind-control and/or amnesia, so I very grudgingly admit (based on my circa '94 conception of the characters) that it could be emotionally possible for the two to fall in love, but, uh, wouldn’t it be physically impossible for the two to conceive a child, what with Rogue’s powers precluding the, ummm, bumping of uglies, if you will?

Could someone please enlighten me? (Could this all be a bad dream that everyone wants to forget? Or is this something that just sounds bad when you overhear it but was actually pretty cool in the comics?)

2

You’re probably thinking of the alternate-universe “Age of Apocalypse” storyline. There, Rogue and Magneto were married and had a son named Charles. The deal was that Magneto was able to create some kind of bio-electric shield around himself that allowed him to touch Rogue without harm.

I’d imagine the kid was bottle-fed.

3

So, it’s not canon and I can relax? Ahhhhhhhh. (Though, wouldn’t Rogue just absorb the electro-magnetic field, since it’s attached to Magneto? I’m so confused…)

Would you happen to know in which series/ issues this freaky “Age of Apocalypse” saga shows up? Now I’d love to read it.

4

Hooboy.

In late 1994, Xavier’s son David (going by the name “Legion”) went back in time 20 years and attempted to kill Magneto. A younger Xavier intervened and, oops, got killed instead. This happened in a very destructive and televised battle that Apocalypse happened to be monitoring, which convinced him that the time of mutants was at hand and led him to attack humanity much, much sooner. This happened around X-Men #41, I believe. The X-Men’s Bishop had followed Legion into the past, and was the sole survivor. And he bumped his head, so he couldn’t remember a darn thing.

So Marvel had fun by temporarily cancelling and replacing ALL the X-Men titles. The following week, we were treated to X-Men: Alpha, which replaced “our” universe. Basically, Apocalypse had conquered North America and killed most of the normal humans living there. He was opposed only by Magneto’s X-Men, which consisted of…lemme see…Rogue, Sabretooth, Blink, Iceman, Storm, Banshee, Nightcrawler and a few others. Magneto found Bishop, learned that the world was screwed up, and hatched a plan to fix history. It spread into the following titles:

Astonishing X-Men: chronicled Rogue’s team and their battle against Apocalypse’s son, Holocaust.
Weapon X: the adventures of Wolverine, who had one hand and was dating Jean Grey.
Factor X: chronicled Mister Sinister and his evil forces: the Beast, Cyclops, Havok, and a bunch of others.
Amazing X-Men: another team of X-Men. Kinda boring.
Generation Next: Bunch of young mutants. Colossus goes looking for his sister, the only time-traveler left.
X-Caliber: Nightcrawler and Mystique go looking for Destiny in the Savage Land. The Juggernaut has a neat death scene.
Gambit and the X-Ternals: Magneto sends Gambit after the M’Kraan crystal.
X-Man: Cable clone. The only AOA title to continue into the modern Marvel universe.
X-Men Chronicles: gives snippets of the Age of Apocalypse history; and…
X-Universe: tells the final fates of Tony Stark, Don Blake, Gwen Stacy, Matt Murdock, Victor von Doom and a bunch of other heroes in this universe.

The whole thing wrapped up in X-Men: Omega. I remember spending hordes of money on these books, which just goes to show you that George Lucas isn’t the only person with a brilliant marketing scheme. There’s paperbacks, but they’re hard to find now.

5

As far as canon goes, Magneto and Rogue did spend some time together in the Savage Land. She was powerless after being flung through the Seige Perilous (long story) and they were trying to stop this psycho hosebeast called Zaladane from stealing 'Neto’s powers. IIRC, they spent most of their time wandering through the jungles in ripped-up-but-still-barely-covering-strategic-areas-clothing and she used to hang all over him and say things like, “Oh, Magnus, whatevah shall we do? Hold me, Magnus!” They’ve had this wierd thing ever since.

In AoA they were married and had a kid named Charles. But that timeline ceased to exist. I certainly hope their relationship doesn’t translate to the movies – imagine Sir Ian McKellen and Anna Paquin making out. Ew!

As a side note, Magneto is the mack daddy pimp of the villains. Besides Rogue, he’s had Emma Frost drooling all over him and Storm made eyes at him for a while. Polaris left the X-Men to hang out with him in Genosha because she was addicted to “merging” with him. There was also that freaky incest thing with the Scarlet Witch, but that’s best forgotten. And in the movie he’s all cozy with Mystique. Not bad for an old dude.

.:Nichol:.

6

Yep, Magneto’s always been my favorite character. Charismatic dark-grey-on-the-scale-of-evil villains are chick magnets, what can I say?

Nichol, I had forgotten all about the Savage Land business…I think that was before my time. I need to find out if my brother still has his Uncanny X-Men collection, so I can catch up. (Wait…what incest thing with the Scarlet Witch? I want to know about that!)

Res, thank you so much for that detailed explanation and series break down. Man, it looks like I would have to drop half a paycheck on all those titles to get the whole picture, but maybe I can pick and choose which series to pursue…

7

Didn’t the evil Age of Apocalypse Beast escape to the regular X-Men world? What ever came of that?

8

I’m sure neither of them relishes that idea either, but I doubt we’d see it. It’s only been one movie since he almost killed her, and he DID make fun of her hair. :wink:
It’s my understanding that in the comics, Rogue isn’t so young, right?

9

Ah, yes. The Age of Apocalypse incarnations of Cable, the Beast, Holocaust and the Sugar Man (don’t ask) all escaped into the proper Marvel U. X-Man died, IIRC. I don’t know what happened to the others. They just sort of went “poof.”

10

As long as we’re chronicling Rogue/Mags involvement don’t forget the whole Joseph thing.

Rogue’s actually pretty darn old, although around the early 90’s they essentially transformed her into a totally different character. Back in the 80’s she was real butch, then suddenly and for no apparent reason they transmogrified her into this sex symbol.

The movie was very liberal with continuity from the books, especially with regard to character background (hello Pyro), and shouldn’t be taken as anything approaching canon.

11

Not only did he “become good” (relatively speaking, I guess) but Xavier had him take his spot at the school, and be the chapperone for the New Mutants*. I’m not sure of the specifics off-hand, but I think Magneto had been captured by the Soviets (or the Avengers?) after destroying a fully-manned nuclear sub, and somehow Xavier got him off if he turned from the Dark Side. I think this lasted through the Mutant Massacre, but that, or something else, cause him to go rogue (cue groans).
*Ahh, the New Mutants. The pool of levity when all around was gloomy X-Man death and destruction. It’s a shame that the “coming to terms with one’s tremendous powers while still trying to be normal” comics failed so, when that is one of the original drawing powers of Spider-Man. Tsk-tsk…

12

Yeah, some time in the 80’s I think it was several artists decided to turn Magneto into a handsome stud-daddy irresistible to women & gay men everywhere. That’s not the magneto portrayed in the movie. I think he’s more like the original Magneto type.

13

Well, long before they knew about their family relationship, the Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) and her brother Quicksilver joined Magneto’s mutant terrorist group. Being the only (and especially attractive) female in the bunch, Wanda got a lot of (especially unwanted) attention from the males (especially Toad). Magneto was very protective of her, to the point of flinging Toad around in a jealous rage when he put the moves on Wanda. While they never actually did anything, there was definitely some sparks between Wanda and Erik.

Fast-forward a few years. Magneto is in one of his cackling super-villain “Look at me, I eat kittens!” phases, and he decides to kidnap Wanda, who is now an Avenger. He takes her off to his hideaway, mind-controls her, and… ick… makes her dance for him. And I’m not talking about the Hokey Pokey. Wanda was doing moves Christina Aguilera would be proud of. At the time, Magneto was just being a sleazy villain, but then a couple of years later we (and they) found out that he was actually Wanda’s FATHER. Brings up all sorts of interesting Freudian issues, especially considering Wanda’s resemblance to her dead mother, whom Mags had loved deeply.

Then, of course, we found out Wanda was also knocking boots with her twin brother, but that’s another story.

.:Nichol:.

14

Didn’t the AoA Rogue permanently absorb Polaris’ powers?

15

While we’re asking X-Men questions, I have one.

I remember a miniseries from long, long ago, possibly a “what-if” or imaginary series, where Kitty Pryde was a grown-up, had been transformed into an anthropomorphic cat (or maybe more of an ailuromorphic woman) and was the unwilling sexual slave of whoever had transformed her.

Am I out of my mind, or was there such a story?

16

You are correct it was a “what if”. What if the X-men stayed in the Hell-realm of Belasco. They Lose…badly. Everybody dies.

In the ‘real’ storyline, they run for it. Colouss’ sister, slips out of someone’s hand for a second and because of the time difference ages about 8 years.

She later dies from the “Legacy Virus”.
hope this helps…ijust the basics, t’s a long and winding tale.

17

or it might have been the “Magik” miniseries…i’m leaning towards that.

It’s been awhile

18

That’s probably what Ian thinks!

Now, bring in Jimmy Fallon… L

especially an old gay dude!

19

I don’t know, Ian McKellen’s pretty charismatic… :wink:

20

Incidentally, an alternate-reality (Or perhaps, alter-alternate-reality? Lousy confusing Omniverse) version of Magneto and Rogue’s son (This one named “Magnus,” as I recall) appeared in the “Exiles” series for a while, before gittin’ his’sef kilt.