The X-Men find themselves trapped in a room with the Master of Magnetism, Magneto.
Of course, they decide to bust out of there. Cyclops orders Nightcrawler to do a reconnaissance and teleport outside while Colossus uses his incredible strength to destroy the wall. Nightcrawler nearly falls to his death as the X-Men find out they are in a flying wagon in near earth orbit - all this because of Magneto's awesome power.
That's just the beginning. Magneto takes them all the way to the Antarctic Circle where he keeps a base underneath boiling magma! Here, the wagon descends into the base, protected from the heat and pressure by a sphere of magnetic energy. Magneto's sheer power is incredible.
Once inside the base, the fight is on! Cyclops, the most powerful of the old X-Men, has first strike. It throws Magneto back but fails to penetrate his shields.
Colossus, still a young mutant, can already lift 70 tons, that means he's in the same strength class as Namor and Luke Cage. But since he's made of metal, he has very little chance against Magneto.
Beast is my favorite X-Man, old or new, but even in this blue furred form where he has matchless agility and can lift 2,000 pounds, the Beast doesn't even get a chance to throw a punch. He is electrocuted. Also, during this story, the beast is an Avenger, not a n X-Man - issue 111 shows how he got involved in this fight.
Anyway, he gets electrocuted and thrown against a wall.
Fortunately he's extremely tough.
Storm lashes out and comes close to harming Magneto but the magnetic powerhouse is just too much for her
Nightcrawler fails to take Magneto by surprise and is easily mastered and thrown against Colossus.
Banshee manages to mount an effective initial defense but his power is turned against him.
During their earliest battle, in X-Men 1, Cyclops managed to breach Magneto's shield with the fill force of his optic blast (although Scott did collapse from the strain).
This time around he is up against a more powerful Magneto, newly regenerated by Eric the Red.
My best hope in this battle lies with Jean Gray, who, as the newly reincarnated Phoenix, has shown in past issues, that she has cosmic-level powers. Surprisingly, she reaches some kind of power limit, giving Magneto the upper hand.
Only one X-Man left, during this time, Wolverine wasn't the superstar he is now, but he was building up to that status. He's supposed to be this awesome killing machine but he makes a rather amateurish mistake here by slashing Magneto's cape rather than the man himself.
Magneto could've sliced Wolverine with his own claws but chooses to knock him out instead.
Game over. Magneto shows why he has a place among Marvel's great villains.
This incredible fight is in Uncanny X-Men 112 and is part of a story arc starting in 111 and ending in 113.
Posted by Pete Albano - October 25, 2011
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