Every installment of this feature is about odd comic book plot points that were rarely (sometimes NEVER!) mentioned again after they were first introduced.
Today we look at a very odd Magneto moment, from his brief return to outright villainy in the late 1980s...
The first time that we learned that Magneto was married after World War II occurred in Avengers #186 (by Mark Gruenwald, Steven Grant, David Michelinie, John Byrne and Dan Green), where Quicksilver learned of his and Scarlet Witch's mother, Magda...
Around the same time, in X-Men #125 (by Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin), we got the separate piece of information that Magneto was, indeed, Magda's unnamed husband (this was a great piece of subtle writing that Marvel then decided they needed to make explicit a few years later)...
Okay, so anyhow, in 1987's Classic X-Men #12 (I forgot how long this went unexplained - this is practically a candidate for Provide Some Answers), we learn what happened with Magda and Magneto and tragically, how it involved the death of their daughter...
Sad. That story ended with Magneto then saving a pair of humans from a fire. Anyhow, the "Magneto is a villain!" contingent at Marvel had seemingly gotten their way by 1989, so in X-Factor Annual #4 (by Ralph Macchio and John Byrne), the events of Classic X-Men #12 were revisited. Go to the next page to find out...
The concept of the short back-up story is that Doctor Doom is, in effect, challenging Magneto on whether Magneto is really a villain again, and he uses a telepathic mutant to "test" Magneto's mind, so he makes sure Magneto tells the truth (this story also does some other continuity cleanup that I'll address in a later Abandoned Love)...
This is basically a set-up for each character to re-tell their origin, only with the other guy basically talking shit about the other guy's origin, like Magneto dropping truth bombs on Doom about Doom's obsession with Reed Richards...
But then Doom does the same with Magneto and the death of Magneto's daughter...
And shockingly enough, Magneto doesn't even really argue the point...
He doesn't outright say, "You're right, Doom, I totally let my daughter die!" but he actually comes pretty close to saying just that. Magneto then "kills" the child and the art is kind of vague, so it actually looks like he seriously just murdered a little girl, but the context of the story makes it relatively clear that she is meant to be a robot, and a later letter column confirms that (that'd almost be an interesting column idea right there - comic stories where the art made things too confusing to know what exactly happened).
Anyhow, obviously no one else has followed up on this concept, because it is pretty far out there, but it is somewhat interesting, especially if you dig Magneto as outright villain.
If you have a suggestion for a future edition of this column, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!