Review by Frank Plowright
Unlike other X-Men related graphic novels published in 2024, this has nothing to do with ongoing events, for which you want The Resurrection of Magneto. Instead J.M. DeMatteis and Todd Nauck deliver a continuity implant from the time when Magneto had just taken over the training of the New Mutants.
Magneto is at a crossroads, bequeathed the training when Charles Xavier was believed dead, aware of his opposing beliefs, yet trusting in an inherent good nature, conflicts of the past notwithstanding. DeMatteis begins extremely efficiently by having a training session in which the New Murtants confront a holographic representation of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants in their first incarnation. Not only does it establish who the individual New Mutants are and what they’re capable of, there’s the irony of the Brotherhood being the team Magneto once led.
DeMatteis always brings a questioning humanist approach to his work, sometimes seeming to be using it to work out answers for himself, and the contradictions of Magneto provide an ideal platform for his techniques. Once a mutant terrorist with no concern for human life, yet forged by the tragedy of a childhood spent in the Nazi concentration camps of World War II. It’s handled poorly in the opening chapter, but Magneto remains quick to anger when challenged, and how will he be when confronted with the errors of his past? The means for this is a new powerful organisation whose views provide the title. They believe Magneto has forgotten the truth, and there’s the parallel of their leader also being forged in tragedy, but one Magneto initiated when younger.
Todd Nauck is a cartoonist by trade, but reins in his excesses for conventional pages still showcasing his strengths. He has an enthusiasm for multiple characters on a page, and for the most part fits them into compositions to challenge lesser talents. His New Mutants are convincing young teens, and when he draws them a second time there’s a real imposing horror to the Brotherhood. His designs for the supporting villains are really powerful, reflecting the idea that someone’s tried to help them, and it’s better than nothing, but they’ve really got it wrong.
Unfortunately, for all the good intentions, Magneto Was Right is overwrought. The person revealed in the opening narrative captions is too easily subsumed into a relatively ordinary superhero story, and for the sake of a plot forcing him to confront the past, he’s too easily overpowered. The choice to view Magneto at that particular point in his history means this is of necessity as much a New Mutants story, and as such it’s a greater success. Their uncertainty is overcome by a need to do what’s right, and their individual views and subsequent teamwork is well handled. All things considered, this would have been better as a New Mutants project with Magneto’s role diminished, but Nauck’s art lifts it above average.
