Magneto debuted in 1963's X-Men vol 1 #1, at which point he was already an active supervillain trying to take over the world.  And for most of the Silver Age, that's how he stayed.  Magneto only started to get a more elaborate back story in the Claremont era, when he was given a background as a Holocaust survivor (an excellent move), and a history working with Xavier in Israel.  There are also a couple of Classic X-Men back-up strips dealing with him, as well as some material dealing with the recruitment of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants - which, thanks to X-Men vol 2 #-1, now has to be placed before the X-Men debuted.

For a while, the character's real name was established as Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, but that was comprehensively discredited by Joe Kelly.  As matters stand, Magneto's real name is unknown. 

In X-Men Unlimited vol 1 #2, Gabrielle Haller gives a version of Magneto's life which is broadly in line with other accounts, but also accepts his false cover identity of Erik Magnus Lehnsherr.  According to Haller, Magneto was born near Danzig (now Gdansk, Poland) in 1928.  That would be in line with his other appearances.  Haller also claims that Magneto's family were gypsies of Sinte descent.  That's a little more doubtful given his cover identity and the fact that he headed to Israel; however, it's clear enough that his family were persecuted by the Nazis, presumably on ethnic grounds.

NEW MUTANTS vol 1 #49 (flashback)
Spring in World War II (evidently near the beginning, given that he's much older in later WWII flashbacks).  German soldiers line up a group of people in a field next to an open grave.  Among them are the boy who will become Magneto, and his family (his parents and sister).  When the soldiers open fire, Magneto subconsciously uses his powers for the first time, to deflect the bullets.  Then he passes out and falls into the grave.  He claws his way out while it's still being filled in, much to the surprise of the German soldiers.

According to Magneto, the soldiers then decided not to kill him after all, but instead to send him to Auschwitz.

UNCANNY X-MEN #344 (flashback)
Generic scenes of Magneto as a young child in Auschwitz.  (This is a flashback recalled not by Magneto but by Joseph, the Magneto clone.  However, Joseph's memories appeared to match other accounts of Magneto's life, when he could remember anything at all.)

EXCALIBUR vol 3 #7 (flashback) (behind the scenes)
While Magneto is a child in Auschwitz, an albino doctor nicknamed "Nosferatu" takes children for experiments, and kills them while trying to activate the mutant gene.  Cleaning the furnaces, Magneto finds the bodies, which have been disfigured by experiments to activate the mutant gene.  (It's unclear how Magneto knows exactly what the doctor was doing.  However, the strong implication is that the doctor is Mr Sinister, whose involvement with Nazi concentration camps was previous established in Weapon X vol 2 #23, so he's probably right.  This is treated as a "behind the scenes" flashback because, although Magneto narrates the events from first-hand knowledge, he isn't actually seen on panel.)

X-MEN UNLIMITED vol 1 #2, p11pn4 to p12pn2 (flashback)
Film or still photos used by Gabrielle Haller to illustrate her lecture on the life of Magneto.  They show a teenage Magneto in the concentration camps.  This would be consistent with his being born in 1928, in which case he would have been 17 by the end of the war.

CLASSIC X-MEN #12, second story, p2pn3 to p3 (flashback)
1945.  The end of the war is imminent, and the guards at Auschwitz are slaughtering inmates in order to eliminate witnesses.  Teenage Magneto saves a girl called Magda from guards, and they escape Auschwitz together. 

X-FACTOR ANNUAL #4, second story,p7pn3 to p9pn3 (flashback)
More of Magneto and Magda fleeing Auschwitz.

CLASSIC X-MEN #12, second story, pages 4-10 (flashback)
Magneto and Magda make their way to the Carpathian Mountains.  They live there for around 2 years, and have a daughter, Anya.  Subsequently, the family move to Vinnitsa, in the Ukraine.  Magneto, by now in his early twenties, works on a construction site.  When he is threatened by the foreman, Magneto discovers his powers.  He returns home to tell the family, only to find the home on fire (following an arson attack).  He rescues Magda, but the police arrest him for fighting with the foreman and Anya dies in the fire.  Magneto flies into a rage and kills everyone apart from Magda.  She flees in panic.

At the time Magda left Magneto, she was already pregnant with twins, who grow up to become Wanda and Pietro - the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.  This was established in an extremely roundabout fashion.  Wanda and Pietro's relationship to Magda was established in Avengers vol 1 #186.  In X-Men vol 1 #125, it was revealed that Magda was Magneto's first wife, thereby revealing him by implication as Wanda and Pietro's father.  However, Magneto, Wanda and Pietro don't learn of the relationship until Vision & The Scarlet Witch vol 1 #4.  Magda died in childbirth, and Magneto never saw her again after the events described in Classic X-Men #12.

UNCANNY X-MEN #304 (flashback)
Magneto has carried Anya's corpse some 60km west, tailed by Soviet soldiers.  Presumably he is planning to dispose of the body.  He slaughters the soldiers with his powers, and continues on his way.

X-MEN UNLIMITED vol 1 #2, page 12 panel 3 (flashback)
A shot of Magnus, in a trenchcoat, standing on a hill and looking at a group of people.  The accompanying narration from Gabrielle Haller concerns Magda leaving, and the relevance of this scene is thoroughly unclear.  However, presumably this takes place at around the same time.  Possibly the idea is that Magnus is watching Anya's funeral from a distance.

X-MEN UNLIMITED vol 1 #2, page 12 panel 4 (flashback)
Magnus, now using his "Erik Magnus Lehnsherr" identity (if he wasn't using it already), works at Daniel Shomron's hospital in Haifa, Israel.  This is a generic panel of him going about his duties.

UNCANNY X-MEN #161, page 5 panel 2 to page 9 (flashback)
"Twenty years ago."  Charles Xavier arrives in Haifa.  Magnus meets him for the first time.  On his firs day there, Charles uses his telepathic powers to wake Gabrielle Haller from her catatonic state.

UNCANNY X-MEN #161, page 10 panels 1-3 (flashback)
Montage sequence.  "Over the weeks that follow", Xavier and Magnus tend to Gabrielle's recovery.  Xavier and Magnus become friends, and discuss their views on human/mutant relations.

UNCANNY X-MEN #309 (flashback)
Magnus watches while Xavier assists Gabrielle Haller with some sort of exercise.

X-MEN vol 2 #40
LegionQuest.  Charles has now been at the hospital for several weeks.  The time-travelling Legion has arrived in the hospital as an amnesiac patient, and Magnus treats him.

UNCANNY X-MEN #321
More LegionQuest.  Magnus and Xavier get into a bar fight together.  Later, they are attacked by Legion.

X-MEN vol 2 #41
Legion battles the time-travelling X-Men, and accidentally kills Xavier while aiming for Magnus.  This creates the divergent timeline which becomes the Age of Apocalypse.

X-MEN OMEGA
Legion is defeated and the true timeline is restored.  The end of X-Men vol 2 #41 is erased from history (and possibly all the events involving Legion).  Magnus and Xavier are left with no memory of what has happened.

UNCANNY X-MEN #161, p10pn4 to p20pn5 (flashback)
Baron Strucker and HYDRA attack the hospital, hoping to learn the location of hidden Nazi gold.  Xavier and Magnus join forces to defeat them.  Magnus absconds with the gold, ending his association with Xavier (which only lasted a few weeks).

CLASSIC X-MEN #19, second story
Magnus is working as a Nazi-hunter, under the guidance of western intelligence agencies.  They have given him the codename Magneto, though he doesn't yet have a costume.  Magneto goes to South America in search of war criminal Hans Richter.  He trails Richter to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, only to be confronted by his own superior, "Control."  Control protects Richter, who is a valued double agent, and tries to kill Magneto for disobeying orders.  Magneto kills Control.  Afterwards, he realises that he can trust nobody, and decides that it is his destiny to rule the world and to lead mutantkind to glory.

GENERATION X #10, flashback
Magneto anonymously visits Sean Cassidy (still an Interpol agent at this point), and gives him information that will help track down Omega Red.  According to Sean, Magneto has been visiting him "for weeks now."

Somewhere in this gap, Magneto designs his costume and begins to recruit the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.  Astra is either his first or his second recruit (depending on when he recruited Mastermind - that's never been shown on panel).

X-MEN FOREVER #3
Magneto saves the Toad from a mob, and invites him to join the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants.

X-MEN FOREVER #4
Magneto takes the Toad back to his headquarters.  Astra returns from a trip gathering extraterrestrial technology for use by the Brotherhood.  She is irritated that Magneto's plans do not seem to involve personal wealth for the Brotherhood, and walks out.  (However, she must return later, because X-Men vol 2 #86 establishes that Astra was a member at the same time as Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch, and as of X-Men Forever #4, they are still under observation prior to approaching them.)

AVENGERS vol 1 #47 (flashback)
Magneto goes to the Transian village where Wanda and Pietro live, and sees them being hounded by locals who think that Wanda has the evil eye.  Pietro is overcome by the mob, and Magneto intervenes to disarm the crowd.  (Narrating this flashback, Magneto suggests that he simply happened to be in the area when he found Wanda and Pietro.  That is clearly contradicted by X-Men Forever #4, which says that they were under observation in advance.  However, the timing of Magneto's visit might be genuinely coincidental.)

X-MEN vol 1 #4 (flashback)
As Magneto holds back the crowd, Wanda says that she owes him her life.  (This is the original flashback, greatly elaborated on in Avengers vol 1 #47.)

AVENGERS vol 1 #47 (flashback)
The mob flee.  Magneto holds Wanda and Pietro to the idea that they owe him their lives.  He conscripts them into the Brotherhood.

X-MEN vol 2 #-1
Magneto, Wanda and Pietro (who haven't got costumes yet) meet Professor X and Amelia Voght in an abandoned concentration camp, and have an inconclusive conversation.

UNCANNY X-MEN #300 (flashback, behind the scenes)
Word reaches Professor X and Moira MacTaggert that Magneto is planning an attack on Cape Citadel.

X-MEN vol 1 #1
Magneto makes his public debut when he attacks Cape Citadel and is defeated by the X-Men.  First published appearance of Magneto.

Last revised: 10 December 2004