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Ian McKellan as Magneto in "X-Men". (20th Century Fox)
Last update - 10:00 12/06/2008
X-Men mutant survives the Holocaust in new Marvel Comics miniseries
By Mordechai Shinefeld, The Forward
Tags: Holocaust, Jewish, X-Men 

Though the Shoah seems out of place amid the bright colors, tights and capes of comic books, graphic novels have a long history of depicting the Holocaust. Art Spiegelman started writing the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Maus" in 1972, and the mutant known as Wolverine was given a history in the Nazi extermination camp Sobibor. Last week, in Philadelphia, Marvel Comics announced that Greg Pak, best known for writing such characters as Iron Man and the Incredible Hulk, would be penning a new miniseries in September called "Magneto: Testament."

The miniseries, according to Pak, "follows a Jewish boy and his family through Germany and Poland from 1935 to 1945." The character is probably best known as the magnetism-controlling supervillain played by Ian McKellen in the X-Men films. In fact, though Magneto was created in 1963, it wasn't until the mid-'80s that writer Chris Claremont gave him sympathetic origins as a Jewish child during the Holocaust.

To prepare for the admittedly difficult task of telling a Holocaust story in a comic book, Pak has read multiple survivor narratives and histories of the Third Reich and the Final Solution, watched documentaries, and gone back to graphic novels like "Maus." The Magneto of "Testament," Pak emphasized, will be not a tragic anti-hero (the Forward once compared him to extreme right winger Rabbi Meir Kahane, the Israeli activist) but a "three-dimensional human being."
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"This isn't a fantasy about a costumed superhero changing the course of history," Pak told The Shmooze. "This is the story of a Jewish boy and his family struggling to survive."

"Part of the goal of this story is to explore religious identity, and history, through fiction," said Warren Simmons, "Testament" editor. "I'd say [Magneto] is one of the single richest and most intriguing characters in our medium. I think to Jewish kids, he's a very important, complex character. I know that he was to me."

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      1.   Woverine & Ironman, Ironhead welcomes you to Knesset Ironhead. 13:46  |  The Archives 07/06/08
      2.   Indicative of Haaretz & Forward`s mental level 14:50  |  Rowan 07/06/08
      3.   OH ROWAN, I`M NOT SO SURE... 15:14  |  Brant 07/06/08
      4.   X-straordinary characters... 20:43  |  Akiva P 07/06/08
      5.   How Did This Escape My Attention? 21:21  |  Yosemite 08/06/08
      6.   Polish extermination camp Sobibor 04:03  |  Konrad 09/06/08
      7.   magneto, the villain, is a jew? 14:32  |  Manolo peaceful man 09/06/08
      8.   Yehova was not the first 14:48  |  Manolo peaceful man 09/06/08
      9.   Magneto and Xavier 18:51  |  David 10/06/08
      10.   manolo: you need to actually read the comic 20:59  |  moskovskaya 10/06/08
      11.   Sobibor was a German extermination camp, not Polish. 22:04  |  Jozef 10/06/08
      12.   Glad to hear it! 14:27  |  KiplingKat 11/06/08
      13.   German not Polish camp 19:27  |  Rafal 11/06/08
      14.   Polish concentration camp 20:02  |  Dbone 11/06/08
      15.   Polish concentration camp ?!!! 20:30  |  G from USA 11/06/08
      16.   Polish concentration camp 20:34  |  Kozel 11/06/08
      17.   Sobibor was a German extermination camp, not Polish. 20:45  |  Sigalit 11/06/08
      18.   Here we go again 20:45  |  Greg 11/06/08
      19.   Sobibor is not Polish extermination camp 20:47  |  Z-man 11/06/08
      20.   Polish extermination camp ? 20:48  |  Jakub 11/06/08
      21.   Polish extermination camp? 20:49  |  Pawel 11/06/08
      22.   German extermination camp 20:59  |  mario 11/06/08
      23.   Sobibor 21:01  |  mario 11/06/08
      24.   Polish extermination camp 21:02  |  Szymon 11/06/08
      25.   Concentration camps were Nazi - German 21:07  |  AnnaTG 11/06/08
      26.   Polish Camp????!!!!! 21:09  |  Martin 11/06/08
      27.   ! 21:26  |  archimedes 11/06/08
      28.   Learn history! 21:28  |  Mrozek 11/06/08
      29.   Sobior was a Nazi German concentration camp 21:31  |  Pawel 11/06/08
      30.   SOBIBOR was NAZi-GERMAN camp in occupied Poland! 21:32  |  Aleksander Masny 11/06/08
      31.   Polish Camp 21:32  |  mcy 11/06/08
      32.   NOT Polish but Nazi German camp 21:33  |  Tomasz Wozniak Weisz 11/06/08
      33.   GERMAN camp Sobibor 21:34  |  Mikolaj 11/06/08
      34.   rewriting the history of the Holocaust? Intentional or sloppy? 21:42  |  Tomas 11/06/08
      35.   "Polish extermination camp"? This is bullshit. 21:45  |  Darek 11/06/08
      36.   "Polish extermination camp Sobibor" 21:47  |  Michael 11/06/08
      37.   "Polish extermination camp Sobibor"????? 21:57  |  Michal 11/06/08
      38.   Shame on You, Dear Author 22:01  |  Michael 11/06/08
      39.   Av 22:05  |  Av 11/06/08
      40.   When some Jew or Jewish newspaper writes "Polish camp" 22:07  |  no Polish camps! 11/06/08
      41.   New history 22:11  |  Shalimar 11/06/08
      42.   Please learn history 22:22  |  Agnieszka 11/06/08
      43.   Polish newspaper wrote about this text 22:24  |  X 11/06/08
      44.   Why You write not true !?!?!?! 22:25  |  marcin 11/06/08
      45.   Polish extermination camp Sobibor 22:28  |  Tomek Wolski 11/06/08
      46.   German Nazis` camp 22:44  |  aver 11/06/08
      47.   Shame on you! It was nazi German camp in OCCUPIED Poland 22:59  |  adam 11/06/08
      48.   Of course it was Polish camp 23:01  |  Jakub 11/06/08
      49.   Sobibor was nazi extermination death camp 23:07  |  Zsófia 11/06/08
      50.   Facio 23:10  |  Gizo 11/06/08
      51.   busza we-cherpa 23:15  |  ARU_Sprawiedliwy 11/06/08
      52.   POLISH CAMPS??????? 23:17  |  Robert_SM 11/06/08
      53.   Polish? 23:17  |  Jan 11/06/08
      54.   POLISH??????????????????????????? 23:22  |  Piter 11/06/08
      55.   Polish Camp??? 23:30  |  Ern 11/06/08
      56.   X-man 23:33  |  spit 11/06/08
      57.   Dear Sir 23:40  |  Dr J Rubinstein 11/06/08
      58.   Shame on you!!! Not Polish but Nasi extermination camp 23:42  |  Artur 11/06/08
      59.   Camp 23:43  |  Wlodek 11/06/08
      60.   To a liar who wrote this article 00:15  |  Dawid 12/06/08
      61.   To Mordechai Shinefeld 00:21  |  Marcin 12/06/08
      62.   polish ? extermination camp 00:21  |  Edward Malinowski 12/06/08
      63.   To the author of this article 00:27  |  Dave 12/06/08
      64.   Polish concentration camp ?!!! 00:32  |  Inka 12/06/08
      65.   Polish extermination camp? 00:38  |  Tom 12/06/08
      66.   Mordechai Shinefeld you are IGNORANT 00:39  |  IK 12/06/08
      67.   Ignorants 00:53  |  Jacak 12/06/08
      68.   shame, shame, shame.... 01:17  |  dana rothschild 12/06/08
      69.   GERMAN concentracion camp!!!!!!! 01:24  |  winn 12/06/08
      70.   Everybody knows you won`t correct the lies in the text. 01:24  |  P 12/06/08
      71.   German extermination camp... 01:51  |  ps