Erik Lehnsherr

Few Marvel villains — and occasional heroes — have proven as enduring, as morally complex, or as electrifying on the page as Erik Lehnsherr, the Master of Magnetism himself, who first menaced the fledgling mutant team in The X-Men #4 back in 1964, conjured into existence by the legendary partnership of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby at the very dawn of the Silver Age. Over an extraordinary six-decade span, he has haunted and shaped the pages of The Uncanny X-Men and beyond, racking up some 830 catalog appearances and 35 key issues that any serious collector will recognize as essential reading. He moves through Marvel's mutant universe in rarefied company — Cyclops, Wolverine, Ororo Munroe — and his membership in the X-Men themselves speaks to a character whose allegiances and convictions have never been simple. If you want to understand the beating heart of the X-Men saga, Erik Lehnsherr is absolutely where you start.