Do we like them?

Do we like Magneto?

A character from The X-Men (1963)

Our score: 4 out of 10. He's right about the danger mutants face, and wrong about how to answer it. We'd listen to him but wouldn't follow him. He's fun to cheer for, but he's a risky friend.

Erik Lehnsherr, who goes by Magneto, is a mutant who can control magnetic fields and anything made of metal. He survived the Holocaust as a child, and that left him sure that people will turn on those who are different. In the X-Men stories, mutants are feared and distrusted, so he sees a lot of evidence for that belief.

He and Charles Xavier start out as friends who share a dream of a safer future for mutants. They disagree on how to get there. Xavier hopes for peace between mutants and humans. Magneto believes mutants must strike first or be wiped out, and that makes him the X-Men's main enemy.

We scored him 4 because his grief and his cause are real, and he's one of the most sympathetic villains in fiction. He's also clever, loyal to his own, and sometimes willing to fight alongside the X-Men against worse threats. But he often goes after humans who have done nothing to him, and the harm he causes is serious. We'd hear him out, but we wouldn't give him our vote.