X-Men: The Trial of Magneto #5

X-Men: The Trial of Magneto

by Leah Williams, Valerio Schiti (Cover Art), Lucas Werneck (Artist)

JUSTICE IS SERVED. The mystery surrounding Magneto and Scarlet Witch is resolved. The guilty will be judged, the innocent absolved, the victims avenged…and all shall endure their own trials.

Genres: Comics, Marvel, X Men, Graphic Novels Comics, Superheroes

25 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 22, 2021

About the author

Leah Williams is an American writer originally from Oxford, Mississippi. She has written comics for Marvel, BOOM! Studios, Vault Comics, and is working on more. Her debut novel was a YA Fantasy book titled The Alchemy of Being Fourteen and she is currently writing its sequel, The Divinity of Hitting Fifteen. Leah has nonfiction articles and essays published in The Atlantic, Oprah Magazine, and Salon.

Reviews

[Tanabrus · Rating 2 out of 5]

Finalmente questa... cosa... è finita.
Una storia dove tre quarti di quanto avvenuto non c'entravano niente con l'omicidio, dove scopriamo che era tutto premeditato da Scarlet stessa, che Magneto aveva agito per aiutarla.
Tutto per poter fare un upgrade della Resurrezione.


Sfugge il perché non potesse parlarne con gli altri capi, sfugge anche il perché sia stato incastrato Toad che se ne è volentieri assunto la colpa, pur consapevole della pena.

Alla fine è stato solo un grande, enorme Mah.

[Scratch · Rating 1 out of 5]

*rubs temples* What the fuck did I just read?

This issue had too much happen too quickly. We veered way off the path with this issue, which suddenly turned the entire "Wanda was murdered" thing into a staged event as part of some magic plan. I need to go into a bunch of criticisms, but they're all spoilery. So, here goes:

1) Wanda just casually talks about how she can "always" find her way around death? And she is over such trivial things? What sane person can speak so casually about coming back from the dead without at least one previous experience to be sure you're capable of doing it? This was ludicrous. I know it was meant to illustrate how powerful Wanda is, but that was just upsetting in its stupidity and vainglory. Also, writers have always had trouble with quantifying Wanda's powers, but we have just completely abandoned the whole probability thing, haven't we? In this issue Wanda stages ritual spells and resurrects herself and conjures a piece of uru, but she doesn't do anything remotely similar to her old "probability" shtick. Writers have also abandoned any pretense at saying that Wanda's powers are anything else other than magic. This is all the more ludicrous given how writers have abandoned any pretense at showing Wanda learning magic. A recent comic referred to Agatha Harkness as Wanda's old magic teacher, which is true; but that was a very long time ago. Back in the 90s, Morgan le Fay mocked Wanda for only having a few "half-forgotten magic lessons." Since the 90s, Wanda's powers have been attributed more to magic, but we have not seen much of Wanda actually learning any magic. ... I do not care for this.

2) Wanda continues to refer to Magneto as "father" and Polaris as "sister" (despite the fact Wanda and Lorna rarely interacted that much even when they were both supposedly Magneto's daughters; Lorna had more interaction with Quicksilver through X-Factor). But, this miniseries didn't go back and undo the retcon saying that Wanda isn't Magneto's biological daughter anymore. ... At this point, what is the point of maintaining that garbage retcon that no true comic fan can even tolerate? If you're going to maintain the familial relationship anyway, there is nothing gained from retroactively trying to say the relationship has no biological basis. Just reveal that Wanda --consciously or unconsciously-- warped reality to say that Magneto wasn't her father. It's a really easy fix.

3) Was that Toad who got consumed by Krakoa the real Mortimer Toynbee? Or was he a fake construct Wanda made? Because if he were the real deal, omg, that is commitment. I know Toad used to be fanatically devoted to Magneto and in love with Wanda, but I can't imagine volunteering to hang out in that dank hole with just Sabretooth, Orphan-maker, and Nanny. What did Wanda say to get him to agree to be their scapegoat? Is there a plan in place to get him out of the hole now that they've revealed their plan to create "The Waiting Room"? And is it now just Sabretooth hanging out with the others' corpses, because they died of starvation? Or are all mutants stuck in the hole getting preserved and sucked on a la the O5 X-Men?

4) The "Waiting Room" they ended up creating with this issue solved a problem that previously hadn't been articulated for fans. This issue is the first we have heard that mutants who died before puberty weren't already part of the resurrection protocols. You could argue that this idea was implicit in the dumpster fire that was "Fallen Angels." There was all this drama from the reveal that Kwannon had a daughter who died years ago, and there was some hope dangled in the "Fallen Angels" miniseries, and then once again in Hellions, that someone could try to resurrect her. This seemed like a ludicrous problem in the time of Krakoa, because Kwannon's daughter should have been younger than Xavier and therefore already available to be resurrected. I guess now we are given to understand that everyone already knew that Cerebro had this limitation? Regardless, these new rules sound a little preposterous. Any mutant across ALL of time is now able to be resurrected? Wouldn't that mean that they could start cranking out mutants from the future? Not just Rachel Summers; why don't they start resurrecting Hyperstorm and some other mutants' great-grandchildren right now in the present?

I mean, I just can't even.

[heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars, I guess? I mean I like that Scarlet Witch's name is redeemed among the mutants, and oh that she's Magneto's daughter again although not genetically his but in the ways that count when it comes to magic on the Astral plane or whatever. BUUUUUT getting from point A to this point B has been… weird and implausible.

The twist / reveal of what truly transpired the night of Wanda's death was good when you read it the first time. But afterwards when you think about the plot holes it falls apart. Who even looks at freaking Toad and thinks, “Oh yeah that's totally a guy who could take down a powerful woman who manipulates reality!”??

There's absolutely no way that there's not one person on Krakoa who questioned the conclusion of this… *gestures at everything* murder investigation.

[Hanieh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay, this is my idea on the entire series as one. I try to go as spoiler free as possible.


The entire series had so many ups and downs. I liked the ending. It was definitely a try to fix the scarlet witch retcon? I think. The whole thing with the killer was also a tad confusing. Because was he framed? Was he making a sacrifice? Did he messed up a plan by making his own move?
Lots of characters were lost in between because there was just too many of them. And then there was the last resurrection, which i believe was supposed to be very important but got side looked.



But what I liked about it. The Scarlet witch redemption was spot on. I don't like northstar as a superhero but i love him as a person and i was so happy for them. The plot might have been a mess here and there but i liked where it led. The relationship between Erik and Wanda... I absolutely loved it. The graphics we're also spot on.


All in all I was expecting more from this. Like an actual tiral? Or a little less messy? It was worth reading but it could have done better

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not sure if I'm being overly generous because the rest of the mini series was a dumpster fire but ho hum.

It managed to make a kind if sense of this series by the end but I can't help but feel it's been a massively convoluted way to fix an issue no one really cared about (readers I mean) or even really knew it existed.

Also, Toad was framed for this? Or went along with it to help others, again, feels odd. So much effort and drama for no real payoff and selling this as some sort of seismic event, which marvel did, is laughable.

[MR P · Rating 1 out of 5]

"Magneto is a good man who has done terrible things.

His biggest secret is that it was always out of love."

Lucas Werneck's art was really good, especially the image of Captain America embracing Wanda.

I enjoyed the dialogue around Magneto and his motivations.

Apart from that, this sadly wasn't for me.

The narrative felt really disjointed...

• Thunderbird's resurrection. Who was this for? This is treated like a momentous occasion, but why?

• Northstar's adopted daughter from at some point in time is going to be resurrected... Again, this isn't a factor in the story being currently told.

• Wait, so what happened with the Cerebro helmet that Magneto was meant to have used in the previous issue?

• Why was Toad found as the murderer if Wanda killed herself?!

Just, not for me.

[Juan Camilo Velandia Quijano · Rating 4 out of 5]

A ice resolution for this 5-part story on the death of Scarlett Witch. Even though it seemed a little impossible, it happened, and here's all the explanation why. The whole mutant resurrection and what comes from it presents, in my opinion, a series of ramifications not contemplated in this story, good and bad, so I'm not entirely convinced about the way this was handled. Yes, it was a Scarlett Witch - Magneto story, but still. It was enjoyable, although the two numbers in the middle are somewhat flat and almost forgettable.

[Raymond Paquette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anticlimactic. It was a good sorta mystery. Who killed her? What's going to happen now? When they revealed the truth it just seemed to be too much and not in a good way. What kind of person would do that? I was also disappointed about what happened to Toad. Always the patsy never the hero.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

This storyline was alright at best. Wanda being redeemed in such a nice way was good but I wonder what it was all for really? Is she involved in the current Xmen books? Will she be used in their events? Not sure but I'm happy she's been redeemed.

[Mana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Redeemer indeed. That story really came back and made sense in the end. My only issue is Toad had to suffer for it and that’s not right. We shouldn’t be trading lives like that. Wanda really should get him out or Magnus.

[Russell LeCroy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wait... SO [Spoiler] [spoiled] [Spoiler] RIGHT INTO THE PIT?! =O XD
For quite a while now I've felt like comics are our modern mythology and I like that this era of X-comics fully embraces that concept.

[Zeina (Taylor's Version) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I cried lol, I know the comic isn't perfect but the concept is amazing, and tbh I will read anything anything that has Wanda so... also I LOVE how it was a happy ending and how they forgave Wanda.

[Poppy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good conclusion to this short series, but I wish the X-Factor team was in it more :(

[Alannagh Doherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good read for the finale of a limited series

[francis · Rating 3 out of 5]

sorry but… lame.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

4

[Tommy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am shocked. This is one of the best series.

[Jason Allen]

Wanda's redemption

Great series. Nice to see such an amazing character get her redemption. I give it 5 stars as a whole.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mind. Blown. Everything about this was beautiful...how did Toad get involved though? 20 million! Everyone is coming home.

[Doh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story was all over the place. What was the point of old Wanda in this story. I think the point was just too fill the lack of story out. The end of this was such a mess.

[Munaya Al salhee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truly enjoyed it!!!!

[Shawn Ingle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. What a meandering and convoluted way to get to that ending.

[Papasmurfiiiviii]

There’s a lot of similarities between this mini-series (and especially issues #3 - #5) and Game of Thrones: really good ideas and end results that I like a lot but not giving said results enough time.

I do love the redemption of Scarlett Witch. Unfortunately there was not enough time to show how all of the things that happened in this mini-series went down.