This file created by Jess Nevins, jjnevins@ix.netcom.com. Amalgam Annotations: Magneto and the Magnetic Men #1 (corrections/additions to my errors/omissions are welcome) For those of you not In The Know, Magneto is Marvel's premier anti-hero - the archenemy of the X-Men and a mutant with magnetic powers who seeks, by various means (depending on the writer), to save all mutantkind from the bigotry of normal humans in the Marvel Universe. The "Magnetic Men" - well, I'll explain that soon enough... p 1 "Kokoro" - The Marvel part of Kokoro is Psylocke (Final Round Qualifier in the All-Stupid-Name Tournament), a member of the X-Men who is a ninja with a psychic "blade." The DC half of the character is the Outsider member Katana, who is Japanese and carries a mystical katana. "Mephisto's Apokolips" - Mephisto is Marvel's Ultimate Personification of Evil. It's in character for him to be ruling a hell-pit like Apokolips. However, as we've seen in _Bullets and Bracelets_ #1, Thanoseid rules Apokolips. And if there is such a entity as Mephisto, who is the "Mephisatanus" mentioned in _Dr. StrangeFate_ #1? Again, some editorial collusion here would have been helpful. "The Tyranoids of Latkovia" - the "Tyranoids" is a bit of really obscure Marvel trivia (my compliments to Mark Waid for remembering them); in Marvel Continuity they are a subterranean offshoot of and servant race to the Deviants race, and have been seen among the Subterraneans who have served the both the Mole Man and Tyrannus. Latveria is the home country of Marvel's Doctor Doom, and Markovia, in DC Continuity, is a country where (as several people pointed out when I failed to remember this) Geo-Force of the Outsiders and Terra of the New Teen Titans come from, as well as being an Eastern European country in roughly the same area as Latveria. Sean McDonald further tied it all together by pointing out that Katana, as a member of the Outsiders, had a number of adventures there, just as Kokoro seems to have had adventures in Latkovia. p 2/3Enter the Magnetic Men. Long ago, DC had a group called the Metal Men; an inventor named Will Magnus created a bunch of robots, each made out of a different metal - Gold, Iron, Lead, Mercury, Nameless (who was actually created by fellow robot Tin - thanks to Garrie Burr for correcting me on this), Platinum, and Tin - and each with a different personality. The Magnetic Men are based on these DC characters. Their names - Cobalt, Nickel, Iron, etc - are element names, just like the Metal Men; they also have their element symbols on their foreheads, just like the Metal Men. Significantly, the Amalgam Magnetic Men are drawn to resemble various Marvel characters, which gives us a clue to their identity. The Magnetic Men are based, as we'll soon find out, on the Marvel Continuity Brotherhood Of Evil Mutants: as several folks pointed out, most usefully Scaramanga, Doug Limmer, T. Troy McNemar, and John P. Selegue, the analogues are: Amalgam Antimony - Marvel Scarlet Witch - DC Platinum; Amalgam Bismuth - Marvel Toad - DC Tin (he has Tin's stutter); Amalgam Cobalt - Marvel Mastermind - DC Gold; Amalgam Iron - Marvel Blob - DC Lead; and Amalgam Nickel - Marvel Quicksilver - DC Mercury. Why the Magnetic Men are based on these characters will become clear in a few pages. Both John Selegue and John Jakala see part of the Marvel Continuity character the Vision (a robot hero) in Amalgam's Cobalt - in his speech patterns and the forehead-thing. John Jakala also sees the Marvel Continuity character Unus (an evil mutant, and also a member of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants) in Amalgam Iron, while John Selegue sees some of the DC Continuity robot hero Red Tornado in Cobalt. I think the writer and/or artist intended to put as many of the DC and Marvel hero robots and early mutants in these characters, so any combination of these suggestions seems possible and even likely. As John P. Selegue pointed out, the elemental symbols on the Magnetic Men's foreheads, like the elemental symbols on the Metal Men's foreheads, are not accurate; this is a nice hommage on the writers' parts, I think. "Sentinel" - that's the name for the giant mutant-hunting robots that various mad scientists and the US government use against the X-Men. They never seem to actually _work_, but that's the government for you, I guess... p 4 "Sinistron" - "Sinistron" seems pretty clearly to be a merger of Marvel's Mr. Sinister (one of the X-Men's main enemies) and Marvel's Ultron (the ultimate robot, designed by Hank Pym but since gone rogue, and a deadly enemy to the Avengers for many years). The best guest for the DC half of this character came from Michael Starsnic, who sees the source as being Lord Havoc, an evil robot from another dimension; Sinistron, as Michael points out, does look somewhat like Lord Havoc. Mark Waid, in the Amalgam issue of Wizard, is quoted as saying that Sinistron is a merger of Mr. Sinister and long- time Superman enemy Braniac. I don't really see it myself, but Waid would know. p 6 In Marvel Continuity Magneto's entire family was lost in the Holocaust. In DC Continuity Will Magnus did have a brother, but he was nothing like Magneto (thanks to Garrie Burr for correcting my initial error here). Making Will and Magneto brothers here is a logical move. Note that Magneto's speech here - "focus all my energy on creating a peaceful haven for mutants" - is the same tired, tedious spiel X-fans have been subjected to ever since Claremont started writing them. It's also an oblique reference to Haven, Magneto's satellite-home-for-mutants, as Scaramanga pointed out. p 7 The Magnetic Airship here is not a part of Magneto's past; he specializes in underground bases and satellites, but not airships. However, as John P. Selegue pointed out, the Silver Age Metal Men did have a hovering magnetic airship. "Cerebro" - In Marvel Continuity Charles Xavier, Professor X, leader of the X-Men, invented a computer to detect, locate and track mutants. The name of this computer was Cerebro. "Mr. X" - we'll discover who he is in JLX #1. For now, though, suffice it to say that he's not a character we should recognize. Magneto makes reference here to having once led a team of living mutants into combat, with ill results. This will become significant on page 8. p 8 Magneto says here that he made the Magnetic Men in the image of his "brotherhood of mutants." Early in Magneto's Marvel Continuity Career, he was a villain, and led a team of criminal mutants known as the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Obviously in the Amalgam universe his early career was on the side of Law and Order, and the members of the Amalgam Brotherhood of Mutants heroes rather than criminals. Moreover, where the Marvel Continuity Brotherhood of Evil Mutants were always squabbling with each other, and serving Magneto out of fear or greed, the Amalgam Continuity Brotherhood of Mutants were quite dear to Magneto. As well, Magneto's clear feelings for Antimony, seemingly modeled on his daughter (the Scarlet Witch, in Marvel Continuity), and her rejection of same, seems an inversion of Platinum's relationship with Will Magnus in DC Continuity and Jocasta's feelings for Will Magnus in Amalgam Continuity. p 10 "Genosha" - in the Marvel Universe Genosha is a small island of the East Coast of Africa, in the vicinity of Madagascar, where the X-Men have had various adventures; first Genosha was enslaving mutants, then it wasn't, then it was a sham...well, you get the point. Thanks to numerous people, including Scaramanga, for correcting my initial error about the Marvel location of Genosha. p 14 We get cameos of five mutants. Who are they? I don't know for sure, but here's my guesses: Mutant #1 (reading from left to right): he's got armor and has smoke coming from his mouth, eyes and ears. Looks somewhat like Marvel's Blob (a mutant who is grossly fat and can't be moved if he doesn't want to be), but crossed with who? Readers of _Speed Demon_ have already seen one Blob; is the concept common enough in the superhero world for there to be two of them? His armor also recalls the Juggernaut, the unstoppable enemy of the X-Men, but it's unlikely that Sinistron could capture the Juggernaut. And the Juggernaut is not a mutant. Mutant #2: Green and plant-like. DC's Jason Woodrue (a failed plant elemental, kinda), and Marvel's Plant-Man, perhaps? Mutant #3: This one, at least, is clear. He's either at least half, if not wholly, the Mimic, a Marvel character and early enemy of the X-Men whose power was to mimic the powers and appearances of other characters. Mutant #4: She's got the pale skin and eye-tattoo of Marvel's Domino (the assassin), but that was Janet Van Dyne's other identity in _X-Patrol_. More likely she is at least partially the now-deceased mutant teleporter Blink. Thanks to Scaramanga for correcting my error regarding her. Mutant #5: I have no idea whatsoever. John P. Selegue tries to make the case that since Magneto's first team were the Brotherhood of Mutants, these five should be analogues for the original X-Men. Which would work, except we've seen analogues for them, and these five don't resemble them much; Mutant #3 is definitely the Mimic - see him on page 15, the resemblance is unmistakable. This does raise the intriguing possibility that the original Amalgam X-Men, though (if there was such a thing, and they didn't join Justice League Avengers) were a set of different mutants... p 17 Antimony mentions that the Magnetic Men were given the minds of mutants "slaughtered by the Sentinels." In Marvel Continuity the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants was formed, then disbanded, before Sentinels were ever invented. Obviously the time-scale has shifted somewhat in the Amalgam Universe. Thanks to Garrie Burr, John Jakala, Thomas Johnston, Doug Limmer, T. Troy McNemar, Sean McDonald, "Scaramanga," John P. Selegue, Michael Starsnic, Dean Velasco, and everyone else whose name I didn't get for corrections and additions. jess This file created by Jess Nevins, jjnevins@ix.netcom.com.