Morrison's Magneto: Success or Failure?

[dianakingston]

While randomly trawling the Internet, I stumbled onto a blogger who's been analyzing Grant Morrison's run on "New X-Men". I can't seem to find the link now, but what got my attention at the time was a side remark he made during a review of one of the earlier issues: he considers Morrison's Magneto to be the great failure of the run, for obvious

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[ian_karkull]

[...]
And still, Morrison managed to portray Jean not as a completely helpless, dependant, all too human being with far more power than she could handle, but rather as a benevolent goddess, that has come down to Earth, not because she felt guilty for being superior to every other being, but because her love, empathy and compassion for all things living was so endless, that she'd willingly sacrifice all that was hers from the point of her birth, just to see those she loved most to be happy again. This compassion ultimately made her stronger than Scott, for Jean, having battled her own demons and won, realized that Scott could not muster the strength to do the same and finally let him go. Once again, she sacrificed her own happines for those she cared most about. That's why she'll always be my hero(ine).
And as for Magneto: Having read almost all of Morrisons work, I am now certain that he fundamentally opposes the concept of the redeemable, sympathetic villain, that tends to repeat itself throughout the history of the Marvel Universe. Stan Lee said once that the reader has to emphasize with whatever tragedy made a villain turn against society even more so than with the actual hero of the story. I believe that Gran Morrison does not share this opinion. Every major villain he has ever portrayed is an utterly unredeemable monstrosity, who's actions can not be rationalized against any background of prior tragedy. Since Marvel heroes tend to being flawed and failable, it's villains tend to be (almost) equally sympathetic, coming from an equally tragically background that tends to blur the lines between good and evil. Prime examples for this seem to be Dr. Doom (uncurably scarred by an accident, wants to rescue his dead mother from hell) and Magneto (victim of prosecution and oppression). Morrison clearly does not believe that the ends justifies the means, that, for example, ensuring a safe and prosecution-free future, do not justify mass murder. For all his sympathetic and redeeming qualities, for Morrison as a writer and plotter, there can be no doubt that theoretically high goals of harmony and equality (which, by the way, never has been what Magneto was aiming at. In his rigirous pursiut of enslaving the human race, Magnus has become more like his former jailors than he'd ever freely admit!) can not and will never justify the slaying of innocent people in the multitudes, that had little or nothing to do with the subject at hand. As much as we want to welcome our lost sons back into the flocks, there are indeed crimes that can never be forgiven, and organized genocide is one of them. And this has been one of Magneto's objectives from the very start. He has tried to either eradicate or or enslave the human race on numerous occasions and even for the most patient and forgiving example of the human race, a point is reached, when forgiveness can no longer be distributed and retribution must be payed. When you consider the rogue's gallery created or redesigned by Grant, I think you'll find not one single example where this wasn't the case (Mr. Quimper, Cassandra Nova, Maggedon, Darkseid, Queen Gloriana, Gorilla Grodd in JLA Classified, Vandal Savage in DC One Million, Sublime and eventually Magneto). I can see why people would want to side with Magneto and obsolve him of his crimes (since I've felt so too, being first introduced to the X-Men during his trail, where he seemed to show true remorse), but you can only show sympathy with the devil for so long. I for one wholeheartedly approve of the return of the unrelentingly evil villain as shown by Grant Morrison, for I feel that it is more earnest and realistic than absolving each and every villain of his or her crimes because of some imagined, traumatic childhood. If there is no retribution for your actions, how can you ever take full responsibility?
Now, I'm not saying that every minor offense is to be punishable by death (far from it!), but some criminals deserve to die. As much as I holde sympathy for Magneto, eventually, every hero has to draw a line in the sand, or else the "neverending battle" becomes (even more) meaningless.