Magneto’s Dreams: A New Symbol for Youth Autonomy

By carla joy bergman and Zach Bergman

(full essay in pdf below)

Our goal is to weave together a different kind of story about youth autonomy

through our interpretation of X-Men and a couple of the characters who pop-

ulate the long-running series. We focus primarily on the character of Magneto

in order to discuss the nuances involved in the many forms of youth liberation

movements. The X-Men story arc was centered around saving youth and pro-

tecting them from oppressive forces that seek to demean their existence, or so

it seems on the surface. Of course, protecting and helping youth is wonderful,

but we aim to unravel some hidden threads, perhaps even some that were in

plain sight throughout X-Men, by presenting a case for Magneto as the actual

symbol of liberation. Our interest in Magneto is based on the potentiality in

his character, and the various symbols that were in the X-Men comics, though

with less focus on the events and content in the series directly.