There was a discussion thread on rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks about "If
you could design your own X-book, what would it be?" Since mine was
relevant to Magneto, and may spark discussion, and besides, I like it :-),
I'm posting it here.

Note that this was before UXM #350 anbd the revelations within.  I'd have
more detailed plans for "Erik the Red" now.

Alara's x-book: Magneto

I have to confess that I think the last thing the world needs is another
X-book. Nevertheless, there is an idea calling to me, and if I can trash
a sucky book to make room for mine, there's only one idea that I think
really begs for a book: a Magneto solo book.

Magneto is a character who desperately needs a solo book in order to be
portrayed as what I want to see him as: a kick-ass, take-no-prisoners,
intelligent, sympathetic character. For dramatic reasons, every time
Magneto has joined an X-team (whcih, when you do not have a solo book, is
the only way to get any exposure), he has been wussified. Look at him in
his run as headmaster of the New Mutants (where he can't beat the
Avengers, babysits the New Mutants while the X-Men are dying, gets the
crap kicked out of him by a Sentinel in three seconds, etc), AOA (cut to
half power) and today (Joseph-- nuff said.) It doesn't have to be this
way. As an X-Men *ally* but not member, Magneto kicked ass in God Loves,
Man Kills, was formidable in the Savage Land two-parter (yes, Zaladane
kicked his ass, but notice who was left standing at the end of that
story? It wasn't Zaladane), and did credibly in Secret wars (aside from a
rather ludicruous romantic interlude with the Wasp.) Basically, every
time he's been a villain who happens to be working with the good guys,
he's stunning. As a villain, of course, he's usually very talented but
often commits fatal stupidities, because he has to lose in the end.

What's the reason for this? Well, obviously, it's because other members
of the team have to have something to do. Imagine if Magneto had been
allowed to be effective when he was an X-Man. If the Sentinels from
Rachel's future had been Sentinels like the ones in the recent Wolverine:
DOFP, Magneto would have taken them all out in thirty seconds. Doesn't
leave much for Rachel to do. If the X-Men had babysat the New Mutants
while Magneto went alone into the tunnels to take on the Marauders,
Scalphunter and Arclight, at the very least, would have been toast (body
armor), and the only Maurauders who'd have had a prayer at taking him
down would have been Vertigo and Scrambler, and then only if Magneto got
careless. If Joseph had Magneto's skills, it would have been "Phalanx?
What Phalanx?" No virus required. Again, not a lot of room for other
characters to shine.

The obvious solution, then, is to give Magneto a solo book. Or, if he is
in a team, it's one where the other characters complement his powers.
Magneto and Exodus on the same team need to get depowered or a case of
the stupids, or both, before they'd ever lose against anyone short of
Galactus. So "Magneto and the Acolytes" doesn't work, either, unless you
carefully choose your Acolytes.

Here's what I'd do:

1. The guy in Uxm #350 is deluded. Joseph is really Magneto.

2. Joseph comes to the conclusion, in the wake of OZT, that Xavier's
dream does not work, never will work, and he can't live a lie any longer.
He tries to express this opinion to the team. A fight ensues. Joseph ends
up fleeing the X-Men, convinced that Xavier's dream is impossible but not
willing to take the route of violent terrorism, and certainly unwilling
to try to conquer the world or anything. He still doesn't want to be
Magneto, but the X-Men believe his lack of faith in Xavier's dream is
evidenec of reversion.

2. In a long story arc-- maybe twelve issues-- Joseph seeks to learn who
Magneto really was, as he's come to the conclusion the X-Men have been,
shall we say, a trifle biased. he goes on a quest to various places of
importance in Magneto's life. In the process:
        a. he starts hallucinating that Magneto is giving him advice,
particularly in combat when he is losing badly, but sometimes just at
quiet moments too
        b. we, the readers, learn a lot about Magneto's past history. No
more of this "man of mystery" crap. There is too much pointless mystery
in X-books. Magneto is firmly established as a Jew who turned his back on
his heritage because he stopped thinking of himself as human or belonging
to any human subgroup. We learn the names of his family members, like his
sister; we learn bits about his past from in between the parts we know
about; and so forth.
        c. Joseph is forced to use all his wits and power to stay alive
against any number of opponents who want to take Magneto down (since they
are geared up for Magneto, and Joseph is less experienced than Magneto,
he frequently barely makes it out with his life.) Such may include the
X-Men themselves, the returned heroes, the US government, anti-mutant
groups, and so on. Joseph also finds himself getting into fights with
Hydra, just because they're Nazis. (in fact, once the returned heroes are
fairly well etablished as back, it might be amusing to do a story where
Joseph ends up working together with Captain America! Who will likely try
to take him in at the end of the story, but, well, good luck.)

3.      At the end of the arc, Joseph finds himself in conflict with
Magneto's Acolytes. Through a plot device, Milan is brought back from the
dead, because I like him and he'll be useful later. Most of the Acolytes
are psychos, though, and Joseph finds himself unwilling to tolerate their
behavior. In the end he takes back the mantle of Magneto, having
remembered a lot (though not all) of his past life, and makes the new
rules clear. He wishes to fight those who oppress the innocent,
particularly humans oppressing mutans, but also humans oppressing other
humans, mutants opporessing other mutants, and mutants oppressing humans.
The real enemy is not, and never has been, humans; the real enemy Magneto
should have dedicated his life to fighting in the first place is the
forces of bigotry and hatred that caused things like the Holocaust,
ethnic cleansing, and Operation: Zero Tolerance. Any such oppression is
fair game. This means any mutant who hates and attacks humans is
Magneto's enemy. A *lot* of the Acolytes, including Exodus, have big
problems with this. Exodus decides that Charles Xavier brainwashed
Magneto and he must kill him to "save" him. Magneto kicks his butt. A
heartbroken Exodus takes most of the Acolytes with him and swears to
restore his lord's proper mind to him or kill the impostor currently
occupying his body, or die trying.

The Acolytes that remain with Magneto are Milan, Amelia Voght, and
Scanner, and maybe one or two others if they have the right kind of
powers. That is, I want people with powers that apply well to covert ops
and the kind of things Magneto *can't* do. We have a teleporter, a
telepath and a cyberpath (that's why I wanted Milan-- information
resource/master hacker type.)

The book then follows Magneto and his very small band of followers in
their quest to terrorize bigots. This is still Magneto we're talking
about-- if he believes it will accomplish his purpose best to kill, he'll
kill. if he needs to kidnap world leaders, threaten to destroy Peking or
Washington, or kick superhero butt for interfering with him, he will. He
and his group will cross over with other, more traditional hero books
fairly frequently, and who wins will depend on whose book it is (that is,
in his own book he'll tend to beat the Avengers, in their book they'll
beat him). he will be involved in real-world politics (instead of solely
whining about the oppression of mutants, he'll probably wade into
conflicts where one ethnicity is trying to kill the other, and end up
making matters worse because you can't solve problems like that with
superheroics, but he'll try.) His "followers" will recognize him as
slightly more human than he usually came across to them, since he's still
missing a lot of his memories and while he's ditched the name Joseph,
very often he still feels like a kid pretending to be his dad, or
something, because of the missing memories. He will, mostly, be
relatively sane, with a potential to wig out if placed under too much
stress. He will probably try to patch up ties with the X-Men, beause even
if he and they can't agree he really doesn't want to fight them, and
still rather likes them and wishes them well. That would depend on
whether the writer(s) of X-Men and Uncanny wanted him to be a villain or
an occasional ally.

Villains would include Exodus and the former Acolytes, people like
Bastion or other anti-mutant organization leaders, Hydra, Fenris (grown
up now), governmental agencies, and mutants or superpowered beings
working for organziations that oppress other people. Also, any superhero
group might show up as "villains", and Magneto is likely to get involved
as an ally in any multi-book crossover where the villain is thretening
all reality, or mutantkind, or anything like that.