Marvel Reveals Shock Origin of Magneto’s Anti-Psychic Helmet
Magneto #Magneto
Warning! This article contains spoilers for Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1 X-Men fans everywhere are familiar with Magneto and his iconic helmet, which he wears to protect himself from psychic attacks, but what they may not know is the shocking inspiration behind the helmet.
Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto first debuted his anti-psychic helmet in X-Men #1, and since then it’s been a mainstay for his character. Not only does it convey dark intimidation while more often than not blanketing his face in shadow, but its function is unparalleled, especially given his arch nemesis. Professor Charles Xavier is one of the most powerful telepaths in history, and he has committed himself and his mutant militant team known as the X-Men to monitoring Magneto and everything he does, given Erik’s penchant for deadly mutant extremism. And that is what makes the origin of Magneto’s helmet so shockingly ironic. To contend with his ultimate nemesis, Magneto is using an idea he got from Charles’ own brother: Cain Marko aka the Juggernaut.
In Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1 by Kieron Gillen, Paco Medina, and Lucas Werneck, readers are thrown one thousand years into the future where the entire Marvel Universe has been ravaged by Sinister clones (or, resurrected mutants whose DNA was genetically altered with the introduction of Sinsiter’s genes, becoming life forms known as Chimeras). Now, one thousand years after Sinister began his universe-conquering crusade, he’s battling Jon Ironfire. Given Jon’s power to turn his own blood into different objects or substances, Sinister is getting pummeled to a pulp. During the beat-down, Sinister notices that Ironfire is wearing a helmet reminiscent of Magneto’s, since Jon is currently in the future’s version of the Brotherhood of Mutants (a team Magneto founded over a millennium ago). Sinister then comments on the helmet, saying, “Ah, Magneto’s old trick. Lifted from Juggernaut, of course, but a good trick”.
The comment made by Mr. Sinister about Magneto’s helmet indicates that Erik stole the idea from Juggernaut, and while that may seem strange at first, it actually makes a lot of sense. Cain Marko became the Juggernaut while he and Charles served together in the Korean War, which means Erik would have known about Cain during his friendship with Charles. Part of the Juggernaut’s mystical suit of armor is the anti-psychic helmet, as a telepathic attack is the only reliable way to take him down, which means he had one from the very beginning of his transformation–ie, since Erik and Charles were still friends. So, when Erik made the villainous transition to Magneto, he remembered how Juggernaut’s helmet made him immune to Xavier’s telepathic abilities, and applied it to his helmet to achieve the same immunity, since Charles became his sworn enemy.
Magneto may predate the Juggernaut in terms of real-world publication dates, but within X-Men continuity, Juggernaut was a villain long before Erik, and he unwittingly inspired Magneto’s iconic anti-psychic helmet.
Sins of Sinister: Dominion #1 by Marvel Comics is available now.