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Ever since I wrote an article claiming that Magneto is not the Malcolm X of the Marvel universe, I've been informed by plenty of people that what the late Malcolm Little preached while under the tutelage of Elijah Muhammad is similar to the preachings of Magneto. While It has made me reconsider my knowledge  of Malcolm X's life (as limited as it is) I still say that the Malcolm X/Magneto comparison is kind of ,well,wrong.

Why is this? Simple: there's a difference, in my mind, to preaching violence and racism and committing open acts of terrorism and attempted genocide.

Now, I know that words can be a powerful thing, and words said by a charismatic man or woman can lead to great things. But they're still just words to be interpreted and/or followed by the listeners. Declaring war on humanity, killing countless people and generally wanting to set yourself up as the king of the world is far different and worse than preaching  hatred. For a man can choose to ignore the words of others, but his actions will always speak volumes of him. (Nice bastardization of a famous saying there, ya fool.)

So, yeah, I still say that Magneto is not Malcolm. There words are similar, sure, but I'd like to know at what point did Malcolm try to conquer the world  and declare himself its emperor?

[Originally posted on http://obsessive-geek.blogspot.com]

"Humans, your time has come... "

I've been thinking about this for the past couple of weeks, this comparison with Magneto and Malcolm X. And to be quite honest, it seems both fairly presumptuous and kind of uncomfortable to compare the Marvel supervillain  with one of the more famous civil rights leaders. Let me explain:

• Magneto, while having a sympathetic backstory, Doesn't exactly get my sympathy after all he has done
• Malcolm, while a radical angered by the decades of discrimination, never went to the extremes that Magneto has since the X-Men's debut.
• Lastly: Malcolm wanted freedom and justice by any means necessary. Magneto wants the subjugation of all humanity.

The last part really drive it home for me: whereas the man known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz truly wanted freedom and equality, Erik Lensherr wants to outright rule and dictate over humanity, no matter who they are. That's what disturbs me, as a black man, about the comparison.

"We declare our right on this earth...to be a human being, to be respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being in this society, on this earth, in this day, which we intend to bring into existence by any means necessary."