Every X-Men Team Led by Magneto, Ranked

Since their introduction over sixty years ago, the X-Men‘s mutant heroeshave inspired generations of readers with their thrilling tales and explosive exploits. Along the way, the X-Men have faced off against nearly every threat imaginable across nearly every landscape that the Marvel Universe has to offer. The X-Men have also experienced their fair share of roster and leadership shakeups.

One of the greatest leaders the X-Men ever had was none other than their original nemesis himself – Magneto. Even more surprising, perhaps, is that, beyond the X-Men themselves, there are a myriad of such lineups that Magneto has led to varying degrees of success. Not all of them have been created equal, but each deserves the time they had in the spotlight, no matter how short-lived it may have been.

8 The Savage Land Mutates Were Magneto’s Least Capable “Team”

Some of Magneto’s Earliest Creations Were Barely a Team at All

Early in his career as a supervillain, Max Eisenhardt, better known as Magneto, established a secret base for himself in the wilds of the Savage Land. There, Magneto gathered together members of the various tribes indigenous to the Savage Land so that he could experiment on them as humankind had experimented on mutants so many times before.

Through a series of procedures, Magneto, then calling himself the Creator, gave rise to an army of superhumans whose physical prowess exceeded that of any ordinary person. While some Savage Land Mutates, such as Brainchild, exhibited superhuman intelligence on top of their other unusual attributes, most were imbued with some mutant power ranging from rudimentary telekinesis to light generation. That being said, none of them have made any great name for themselves, even if they have continued to have a presence in their homeland.

7 Magneto’s Genoshan Cabinet Was a Political Powerhouse

Magneto Proved That X-Genes Weren’t the Only Power of Note with His Genoshan Cabinet

Not long after Magneto took over the small island nation of Genosha in the name of mutant sovereignty, he opened its borders to any who wished to call it their home. As Magneto had the full support of the United Nations, there was never any issue regarding the development of Genosha. However, there was a question of who would see that development through. Like every other world leader, Magneto could not oversee Genosha alone or ensure its safety single-handedly.

To that end, he enlisted the help of other powerful mutants and closely held confidants ranging from Fabian Cortez to Jenny Ransome and Amelia Voght, each of whom had something of value to offer in the hallowed halls of Genosha’s parliament just as they did on the battlefield. Tragically, Genosha and its populace were destined to suffer a brutal fate in an attack by the Wild Sentinels. However, the work the nation’s leaders put in up through that point still stands as a testament to their legacies.

6 Magneto and Xavier’s Excalibur Redefined the Team Entirely

Marvel’s Other Excalibur Was Nothing Like the Original

Although the Genoshan Cabinet was well equipped to protect their newfound homeland from various threats, none of them were prepared for the attack by Cassandra Nova’s Wild Sentinels. After these towering monstrosities laid waste to Genosha and the millions who called the island their home, a new team was formed to safeguard any who remained, all while taking some much-needed revenge for those who had fallen.

At its inception, this team consisted of Magneto, Professor Xavier, Callisto, Freakshow, and Wicked, each of whom had lost countless loved ones in the Wild Sentinel’s onslaught. Soon, other mutant survivors, such as Book, Broadband, and even the Dark Beast, joined the cause. Despite only staying together for barely a year, the Genoshan Excalibur team made some truly astonishing changes under Magneto’s leadership, namely through Freakshow clearing much of the debris left in the wake of the Wild Sentinel’s attack and transforming entire swathes of the island into a viable landscape once more.

5 The House of Magnus Gave Magneto Another Shot at a Happy Ending

Magneto’s House of M Empire Made Him the Happiest He Had Ever Been

Marvel’s House of M reality is one of the most infamous of all time, and for good reason. Created by the Scarlet Witch at the request of her brother Quicksilver, this reality gave each of her closest loved ones everything they could have asked for at the expense of the world as it once stood in its entirety. In the world of the House of M, King Erik Magnus reigned as supreme as any version of him ever would, while his adoring family remained relatively happy, healthy, and, more importantly, safe.

Though Magnus’ reach only extended so far, leaving his beloved mother, Edie, and daughter, Anya, to suffer tragic fates, most of the House of Magnus continued to stand proud in their self-made empire. Along with his daughters Lorna and Wanda, son Pietro, and wife Magda, King Magnus worked tirelessly to maintain the peace and prosperity his family had enjoyed for so many years and which they had fought so hard for over decades.

4 The Acolytes Were Magneto’s Next Best Shot at Supervillain Success

Magneto’s Other Early Team of Villains Rivaled His Brotherhood in Every Way

Of all the supervillain teams in the Marvel Universe, only a handful claim a membership composed entirely of mutants. And, of those that do, few have reached the same heights of infamy as Magneto’s Acolytes. Formed of mutants dedicated to Magneto’s cause and willing to see it move forward by any means necessary, the Acolytes have consistently been some of the deadliest mutant villains in the entire Marvel Universe.

At their outset, the Acolytes were led by Fabian Cortez, who led his team in stealing away a government space shuttle to join Magneto on Asteroid M. This show of dedication immediately won Magneto over, and he opened his arms and space station to them in no time at all. Over the years that followed, the Acolytes’ members and leadership have shifted, yet their overall mission has remained the same no matter who was in charge.

3 The Astonishing Avengers Were Magneto’s Least Expected Super Team

Magneto Turned Villains Into Heroes With His Astonishing Avengers

2014’s AXIS event was one of the strangest that the Marvel Universe has ever seen, yet its origins lie in one of the most simple concepts of all time. After the Red Skull rebuilt Genosha into a series of concentration camps, transformed into the Red Onslaught, and unleashed a global wave of weaponized hatred, the world’s heroes were at a loss regarding what to do with the villain. This coincided with Doctor Doom and the Scarlet Witch’s attempt to cast an inversion spell, which, in theory, would have reversed the lasting damage done by the Red Onslaught in an instant.

Instead, the inversion spell completely reversed the moral compasses of those in attendance at the final battle against Red Onslaught. This meant that the Earth’s Mightiest Heroes were now abject villains, while characters like Carnage, Doctor Doom, and Magneto were suddenly the most capable heroes. Led by the Master of Magnetism, these Astonishing Avengers were everything their name implied. The team’s mutant members proved that even the worst villains of all time had something good to offer somewhere beneath their cold-blooded exteriors.

2 Magneto’s Uncanny X-Men Made a Lasting Impact on the Team’s Legacy

Magneto Helped Usher in a Whole New Kind of X-Men With a Brand New Kind of Team

In 2013, the threat of Thanos drove the Inhuman king Black Bolt to unleash Terrigen Mists all across the planet to empower every single living person who had any traces of Inhuman heritage. Unsurprisingly, this drastic measure had equally disastrous consequences, particularly for the mutants of the world who discovered that the Terrigen Mists had formed a toxic compound. This kicked off the M-Pox crisis, which, if not for the tireless work of countless heroes, could have easily wiped mutantkind from the face of the Earth.

At that time, Magneto lost faith not just in the world at large but in his personally held beliefs. It wasn’t until the mutant hero Archangel fell from the sky before him and begged Magneto to save their mutant brethren that the former villain felt any semblance of ambition once more. With it, he formed a team of X-Men who would help reclaim everything ripped away from them. Unfortunately, the team was beset by a series of personal tragedies that ultimately forced them to disband piece by piece, yet that wasn’t enough to diminish the unexpected aura of hope they exuded over the two years Magneto’s X-Men lasted.

1 The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants Will Always Be Magneto’s Greatest Legacy

Magneto’s Original Team is One That His Legacy Will Never Escape

The X-Men might be the best-known mutant team in the Marvel Universe, but another one stands as their equal in every regard – The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Formed by Magneto years ago, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants was the Master of Magnetism’s attempt to see his own vision of the future come to fruition. They were also the living anathema to Professor Xavier’s X-Men, and the countless battles between the two proved as much time and time again.

As some of the X-Men’s earliest enemies, the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants has a legacy that rivals nearly every comparable team that has ever called the Marvel Universe their home. And, while the moniker has been adjusted on occasion and the roster has changed in demonstrable ways over the years, Magneto’s original concept continues to return every so often. This is largely due to the iconic nature of the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants as abject antagonists. Yet, it is just as much because of the legacy the team has made for itself as a force for mutant liberation.