Leader: Xorn I / “Magneto”
Membership: Angel, Basilisk, Beak, Esme Cuckoo, No-Girl, Toad, Xorn I/”Magneto”
First appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #146
Last appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #150 [disbanded after their leader was killed and some members turned against the team]
Before
- Cassandra Nova, the evil twin-sister to Professor X, re-activates the Sentinels and has them destroy the mutant island of Genosha, to which approximately 16 million mutants are killed. For a time, it is also believed Magneto was killed in the massacre.
- Cassandra later takes over Xavier’s body and, in his identity, reveals that his school was the headquarters for the outlaw X-Men to the entire world.
- Public exposure causes a mass enrollment of new mutants students. The X-Men begin acting as teachers but, due to so many students enrolling, they can’t always be sure who they are and where they came from.
- While on a mission in China, Cyclops and Emma Frost rescue a mysterious, imprisoned mutant known only as Xorn. After he saves the Professor’s life during an attack by Cassandra, he is allowed to join the team.
- Xorn is given a class to teach, which consists of misfit mutant students that can’t fit in anywhere else. Given free rein, Xorn teaches them how to survive and philosophy.
- Xorn later on begins acting strangely and shows hostile attitude and actions towards humans, though most of his actions go unnoticed.
Chronology
| New X-Men (1st series) #146: | With most of the X-Men away on missions, Xorn reveals his true identity and plans to his students. All agree to join, except for the relatively new student called Dust, who flees to warn the rest of the school. Xorn pursues and, as he captures her in a jar, convinces Xavier that she had run amok. Afterward, the two go to talk in Xorn’s classroom, where Xavier first notices something amiss with Xorn, as his classroom contains pro-Magneto posters, claiming “He was right.” His trap sprung, Xorn attacks Xavier using his powers, once again crippling him. Xorn then takes off his mask and is revealed to be none other than… Magneto?! |
| New X-Men (1st series) #147: | After revealing his identity to Xavier, Magneto destroys the entire school and takes over the isle of Manhattan, turning one of its highest skyscrapers into his headquarters. From there, flanked by his new Brotherhood of Mutants team, consisting of his former students and Toad, he calls to the mutant population below to join him. However, due to his reported death, the mutant below are unsure it is really Magneto. So, in demonstration, Magneto, augmented by the drug called “Kick,” lays waste to attacking fighter jets and then demolished all bridges leading to the island. |
| New X-Men (1st series) #148: | Magneto’s hold over the situation in Manhattan, now renamed New Genosha, is almost non-existent. Rather than elucidating a plan, Magneto speaks to them in a grandiose and vague fashion, which they do not understand. Worse, Magneto continues to imbibe Kick, worsening his reasoning. At a Brotherhood meeting, Magneto puts Esme in charge of locating any surviving X-Men and places Beak in charge, much to his horror, of the next day’s mass extermination of all remaining humans in “New Genosha.” |
| New X-Men (1st series) #149: | In Central Park, Magneto and his Brotherhood have rounded humans into pens, preparing to herd them into a crematoria. However, misgivings by the Beak and Angel give rise to anger from Magneto, culminating in his rage against Basilisk’s constant juvenile humor by snapping his neck. Though the incident was an accident, it causes Beak to revolt, leading others following Magneto to try to kill him, along with the humans. However, Beak manages to escape, only to be found by Fantomex’s sentient spacecraft, EVA. Beak is then led to an anti-Magneto resistance group, run by Cyclops and Fantomex. Meanwhile, back at his tower headquarters, Magneto continues to alienate his followers, this time Esme, who had fallen in love with him and expected to rule by his side. Though now alone, Magneto continues to hear voices, though he cannot tell if it is a result of using Kick – or something else… |
| New X-Men (1st series) #150: | Magneto continues to bide his time, building strength to enact his plan of reversing the planet’s magnetic poles. However, both his actions and lack thereof have resulted in rebellion by the remaining members of his Brotherhood – Angel, Ernst, Martha Johansson and Esme. They are joined by the returning Beak, claiming that the X-Men have returned to stop him. Magneto is incredulous, though the situation changes with the arrival of Fantomex, who frees Xavier from captivity, and Cyclops, who ferociously presses his attack of optic blasts. The forces against Magneto are even joined by Esme, whom Magneto kills in retaliation. The situation turns worse for Magneto with the arrival of Wolverine and Jean Grey, the latter having just accepted her role as host to the Phoenix Force. Now confronted by a recovered Xavier and surrounded by his enemies and former followers, Magneto feigns surrender long enough to fatally injure Jean. In response, Magneto is decapitated by an enraged Wolverine, ending Magneto and his latest Brotherhood. |
Afterwards
- The X-Men rebuild their school, now with Emma Frost taking Jean’s place as co-headmaster with Cyclops.
- Beak, Angel, their kids and Dust are forgiven for having joined Magneto and are allowed to remain at the school.
- What became of Ernst and No-Girl is unknown, but presumably they are still residing at the school.
- During a later mission, the X-Men discover another Xorn, who is revealed to be the original Xorn’s brother. Apparently Magneto’s taken identity had lived for a time but was now gone. Shen Xorn was allowed to join the X-Men for a while, but after they got attacked by yet another new incarnation of the Brotherhood, he mysteriously left to unknown parts. For more explanation, check the XORN EXPLAINED article elsewhere on the site.
(Douglas please place link to this article once put online)
Members
Xorn I / “Magneto” (Kuan-Yin Xorn)
First appearance: New X-Men (1st series) Annual 2001
First Brotherhood IV appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #146
All Brotherhood IV appearances: New X-Men (1st series) #146-150
Powers: microscopic star in his brain
Angel IV (Angel Salvatore)
First appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #118
First Brotherhood IV appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #146
All Brotherhood IV appearances: New X-Men (1st series) #146-150
Powers: insect mutation gives her wings extending from her backside that enable her to fly or produce ultrasonic vibrations by flapping her wings at high speeds, and can spew a biological acid from her saliva glands that is highly corrosive to the touch
Notes: Angel was depowered on M-Day.
Basilisk
First appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #135
First Brotherhood IV appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #146
Last appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #149
All Brotherhood IV appearances: New X-Men (1st series) #146-149
Powers: produces narrow-band photonic energy from his single eye, controlled by a mechanical implant to produce strobe pulses of light that temporarily paralyze anyone caught in its glare
Beak (Barnell Bohusk)
First appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #117
First Brotherhood IV appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #146
All Brotherhood IV appearances: New X-Men (1st series) #146-149
Powers: bird-like mutation gives him heightened vision and agility, a pointed beak, and feathered wings that folded up along his forearms or extended to allow limited flight
Notes: Beak was depowered on M-Day.
Stepford Cuckoo (Esme)
First appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #118
First Brotherhood IV appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #146
Last appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #150
All Brotherhood IV appearances: New X-Men (1st series) #146-150
Powers: part of a quintuplet hive mind of telepaths, which allows her to read the minds of others, project her thoughts psionically, manipulate perceptions of reality, assume control of another person’s actions and thoughts, and work together with her sisters to magnify their total telepathic energies
Ernst
First appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #135
First Brotherhood IV appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #146
All Brotherhood IV appearances: New X-Men (1st series) #146-150
Powers: diminutive body that houses superhuman strength
Facts: While some people believe she may be a new identity of Cassandra Nova, she has been depicted as separate and distinct in both the pages of New X-Men and Astonishing X-Men (3rd series).
No-Girl (Martha Johansson)
First appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #118
First Brotherhood IV appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #147
All Brotherhood IV appearances: New X-Men (1st series) #147-150
Powers: reduced to nothing more than a sentient, animated brain in a bottle, which possesses telepathic abilities allowing her to influence the thoughts and actions of others
Facts: While Martha first appeared in New X-Men #118, the concept of “No-Girl” didn’t appear until New X-Men (1st series) #135. While students teased that both Martha and No-Girl were one and the same, the identities weren’t officially attached to each other until New X-Men (1st series) #154.
Toad (Mortimer Toynbee)
First appearance: Uncanny X-Men #4
First Brotherhood IV appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #147
All Brotherhood IV appearances: New X-Men (1st series) #147-150
Powers: amphibian genomes give him superhuman strength, agility, and leaping powers, the power to puff like a blowfish to release a gust of compressed air, an elastic tongue that can stretch and lash out at will, and the ability to release enzymes and pheromones from his fingers or tongue that can sap the will power of others, paralyze their movements, and work as a temporary adhesive so that he can cling to solid objects
Facts: Toad is an original Brotherhood member, so this was probably the reason why he was included in this newest version.
Brotherhood of Mutants IV “Allies”
Dust II (Sooraya Qadir)
First appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #133
First Brotherhood IV appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #146
All Brotherhood IV appearances: New X-Men (1st series) #146
Powers: transmorph into a highly-compact mass of dust molecules and expel her scattered matter at high velocity to score and tear into any objects in her vicinity, then recollect her body into human state
Angel IV’s & Beak’s children (Axel, Kara, Tito and others)
First appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #141
First Brotherhood IV appearance: New X-Men (1st series) #146
All Brotherhood IV appearances: New X-Men (1st series) #146-150