BIOGRAPHY - Page 7
The threat of Magneto seemed to be over. However, a few weeks later, the remains of Asteroid M were found in Kuwait. Inside the main chamber, there were the deceased bodies of the Acolytes, all in a genuflecting position and coated with chrome. However, in the center spot, there was only an empty metallic husk in the image of Magneto’s costume. Apparently, Magneto had survived, thanks to the Acolyte Chrome sacrificing himself. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #299] Already having been injured before the crash of Asteroid M, Magneto needed some time to recover. He spent the next months in his secluded Antarctic base, only leaving it to gather equipment from the nearby Savage Land. When the X-Men’s Blackbird was shot out of the sky and crash-landed in Antarctica, Magneto secretly aided his old friend, Xavier, by providing him with food and shelter in his hidden refuge - without letting himself be seen. [X-Men Unlimited (1st series) #1, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #309]
Eventually, Magneto worked on recreating his mutant nation in Earth’s orbit. Acquiring a huge portion of Graymalkin (a space station that formerly belonged to Cable), Magus rebuilt the station 
into a fortress in the sky. He intended Avalon - his new name for the station - to be a haven for mutants and a safe refuge from the Legacy Virus that was beginning to spread among the mutants living on Earth. To communicate this intention, Magneto sent his newly acquired herald, the mutant known as Exodus, to the Earth to recruit citizens. Among his first choices were members of X-Force who had formerly been members of the New Mutants - Sunspot and Cannonball. Magneto and Exodus had decided that it would be justice to lure Xavier’s followers over to Magneto’s cause. Once X-Force had been transported to Avalon, Magneto showed his good faith by curing Rusty Collins and Skids from their brainwashing they had suffered at the hands of Stryfe. While these two thankfully joined Magneto, X-Force themselves elected not to stay, especially after Magneto fought Cable over the teenagers. [X-Force (1st series) #24-25]
In the meantime, Fabian Cortez had gathered new Acolytes who were performing terrorist acts against humanity. However, as soon as they learned of Cortez’ treachery, they abandoned their leader and joined Magneto and Exodus. Magneto then directly confronted the X-Men, tackily enough during the first Legacy victim’s Illyana Rasputin funeral, extending his offer of salvation to them. Magneto arrived with his Acolytes… and his new space station, which he lowered to just above the X-Men’s heads, hovering ominously. However, Magneto’s intent was one of persuasion and not malice. After one of Xavier’s number accepted Magneto’s invitation - the disillusioned Colossus, brother of the now-buried Illyana - Magneto and the Acolytes took their leave. The X-Men attacked Magneto, but Xavier lacked the will to kill him and Magneto got away unharmed. [Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #304]
From his control room in Avalon, Magneto witnessed the activation, by the world’s governments, of the Magneto Protocols, a satellite network which created an electromagnetic mesh beneath which Magneto’s powers could not function. Angered by this provocation, Magneto unleashed a 
worldwide electromagnetic pulse, which fried all active electrical devices over the globe, resulting in a global blackout and the deaths of thousands. Xavier decided that it was time to end his eternal conflict with Magneto and launched an attack on Avalon with a handpicked group of X-Men, among them also Magneto’s son, Quicksilver. Things escalated during the fight and, when Magneto was about to kill Quicksilver, Wolverine attacked him brutally, only further angering the master of magnetism. To hurt the feral X-Man as much as he had him, Magneto destabilizes the adamantium bonded to Wolverine’s bones on a molecular level, causing the metal to ooze out of his pores. Acting on instinct of retribution, Xavier used his powers against Magneto as he never had before, intending to rid the world of his old foe permanently, by mentally removing that which made Magneto a threat - his hatred and ego itself. Their mission complete and needing to tend to the severely wounded Wolverine, the X-Men returned to Earth, leaving the vegetative Magneto in the care of Colossus. [X-Men (2nd series) #25]
Exodus assumed command over the Acolytes and the master of magnetism might have shuddered about some of the terrorist acts that his followers committed in his name. However, there was no change in Magneto’s condition and he remained in his catatonic state for longs weeks. Eventually, Avalon was destroyed during a battle between Exodus and Holocaust, and Colossus put Magneto into a lifepod and sent him to Earth. [X-Men (2nd series) #43]
The escape pod was found by Magneto’s old compatriot Astra, who considered this the perfect 
chance to get revenge for the way he had treated her during the days of the original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Killing Magneto would have been far too easy, Astra wanted to humiliate him. In order to do so, she used alien technology to heal Magneto, restore his mind and create Joseph, a clone of him at a younger age, without the self-imposed limits he had placed on his powers. Astra then pitted her creation against the newly restored Magneto, laughing out loud as Magneto, unable to best his younger self in combat, was forced to flee. Believing to have seen enough, Astra ordered her creation to fulfill the task he had already started, while she teleported away to space. The clone caught up with Magneto over Central America and, in order to survive, Magneto was forced to resort to trickery. He struck Joseph the back of the head with a piece of debris, sending him falling to Earth. [X-Men (2nd series) #86] As he would later learn, the hit to the head had rendered the clone amnesiac, neither recalling his origin nor their battle.
Once again, Magneto returned to his Antarctica base to properly recover. The existence of Joseph came to be a blessing for Magnus, as the X-Men took in his clone, believing him to be a mysteriously de-aged Magneto. This left Magneto with enough time to safely plot his next schemes, for as long as the X-Men believed him amidst their ranks, they wouldn’t come looking for him. His plans were endangered though, when a team of X-Men, including Joseph, crash-landed near his base. To make sure that his enemies wouldn’t bother too much about the base being inhabited and fully operational, Magnus quickly assumed the identity of Erik the Red, and staged a mock trial against Gambit, revealing the X-Men’s former association with the Marauders. Magneto’s plan to maintain his cover and at the same time cause dissent in his enemies’ ranks worked quite well; the X-Men left the base without further investigating it and they even expelled Gambit from their group, the one member who questioned Joseph’s identity the most. [Gambit Annual ’99, Uncanny X-Men (1st series) #350]
When the Mossad, Israel’s secret service, uncovered evidence that the identity of Erik Lehnsherr was faked, Magneto tracked down and slew Odekirk, the forger who had created that alias for 
him, before he could be further questioned by Israel’s agents. Because of that, Magneto’s real name remains a mystery to the present day. [X-Men (2nd series) #72]
Before he set his ultimate plan in motion, Magneto decided to let the fate of humanity rest on the shoulders of an ordinary human by finding out whether he was prejudiced towards mutants or not. However, Magneto just needed to convince himself that he was doing the right thing and, when the construction worker he questioned actually proved to be a quite open-minded and tolerant person, Magneto deliberately scared him so that he couldn’t help but give an anti-mutant answer. [X-Men (2nd series) #85]
Having proven himself correct, Magneto gathered the most loyal Acolytes and had them distract the X-Men long enough for him to erect another base at the magnetic North pole. Once activated, Magnus was able to manipulate Earth’s entire electro-magnetic field and, after momentarily disrupting electric systems all over the world, he blackmailed the United Nations, demanding from 
them the means to create a mutant sanctuary on Earth. Otherwise, he would have a pulse wave disable mankind’s civilization. Astra interfered, though, forcing Joseph into battling Magneto another time. The energy output of their battle threatened Earth’s atmosphere until Joseph eventually sacrificed himself to restore the planet’s magnetic field. Fearing Magneto’s reaction, Astra fled and Magneto threatened that he would pull the same stunt once he had rebuilt his base. At that moment, Dr. Alda Huxley arrived with an offer. For reasons her own, she had convinced the United Nations to give Magneto what he had asked for, a sanctuary for mutants should he want to make it so - the civil war ridden island of Genosha. Magneto accepted. However, he found another problem: due to the battle with Joseph, his powers were beginning to fail him. [Magneto War crossover]
Upon his arrival on Genosha, Magneto learned that not everyone welcomed him with open arms. Many humans fled the island as soon as they learned of his imminent arrival, and some factions of the native rebels didn’t want an outsider ruling them. Magneto barely survived an attack on his life, 
and he realized that he needed to recruit Fabian Cortez. In exchange for him providing Magneto with regular power-upgrades, Cortez received a seat in Magneto’s newly formed Genoshan cabinet. Other members were Alda Huxley, now Genosha's appointed voice in the UN, and most surprisingly Quicksilver, who believed that he could act as a voice of conscience, guiding his father towards actually bettering the Genoshans’ way of life. Still, Genosha’s problems were quite many - a raging civil war between various factions, an imminent famine due no other nation wanting to make deals with Genosha, hundreds of mutates carrying the Legacy Virus residing in death camps and, not in the least, the varying interests of the cabinet members. [Magneto Rex #1-3, X-Men Unlimited (1st series) #24]
A few weeks later, the X-Men uncovered a list containing the names of the legendary Twelve, and 
Magneto was among them. Rumored to lead mutantkind into a glorious future, the entire concept of the Twelve was actually a ruse by Apocalypse, trying to lure these particular twelve mutants together, as he wanted to combine their energies to gain omnipotent power. Polaris and Magneto represented the opposing magnetic poles in Apocalypse’s plan. Eventually, though, Magneto’s diminished powers caused Apocalypse’s siphoning device to malfunction, allowing the twelve mutants to break free. During the encounter, Magneto discovered that he could use Lorna to tap into the Earth’s magnetic field with incredible force, effectively hiding his current reduced-power state. After Apocalypse was defeated, Magneto asked Polaris to accompany him to Genosha, so that he was no longer dependent on Cortez’ power boost. Just like Quicksilver, she believed that she might be able to influence Magneto's rule of the island nation and she also received further education in the use of her powers. Additionally, Magneto promised to help her unlock the full potential of her magnetic powers and, making use of holographic technology, she would even stand in for him at times. [The Twelve crossover, Uncanny X-Men #(1st series) 379-380]
When the United Nations had handed over Genosha to Magneto, they had hoped that he would wear himself out trying to fix the country’s many problems. However, quite on the contrary, over the course of six months, Magneto turned Genosha into a flourishing nation, and the people were expecting the first good harvest in years. Ruling with an iron fist, Magneto had brought the entire 
island under his control except for a small village, Carrion Cove. At this place, there were the secret laboratories formerly used to create the country’s many mutate slaves. Not wanting this technology to fall into Magneto’s hands, the United Nations provided Fabian Cortez and a group of former Acolytes with the means to keep Magneto‘s troops at bay. When they failed, the UN even sent in the Avengers, but they couldn’t stop Magneto from restoring his full power either. Demonstrating his might, Magnus killed Cortez for his treachery, before forcing the intruders to leave Genosha. As they had sided with the Avengers during the conflict, Polaris and Quicksilver were exiled as well, though secretly slipped back in to join the rebels opposing Magneto. [Magneto: Dark Seduction #1-4]