In Left Unresolved, I spotlight storylines that have been, well, left unresolved.

A couple of weeks ago, I did a Comic Book Questions Answered that dealt with the question of whether Magneto is considered a mutant again after he was stripped of being a mutant following Scarlet Witch using her powers at the end of House of M. I explained in that column that Magneto initially got his powers temporarily back via some machinery designed by the High Evolutionary. Later, after they got a piece of a Celestial, they two of them used the Celestial technology to give Magneto his powers back for good. Later on, we discovered that Magneto's X-Gene had been re-activated by said machine, so he was officially considered a mutant again.

Reader Andreas G., though, thought that Magneto's powers had already returned during the New Avengers arc called "The Collective" and he was wondering what, exactly, happened to him getting his powers back then and then seemingly losing them again later on. I don't know that I would even say that Magneto did, truly, get his powers back in that other story, but I certainly cannot say that the ending of that story didn't leave a huge mystery hanging that has, to this day, not actually been resolved. Andreas' theory is as likely as anything else, really, as they sure did not do a good job explaining what happened.

In any event, "The Collective" dealt with the fact that all of that energy created when the mutants of the world lost their powers split into two balls of energy. One of them revived Vulcan, one of the X-Men that Xavier had hid from the rest of the world because they died on their first mission. The other one, led by the consciousness of the villainous Xorn, went to a young mutant in Alaska who could absorb power and made him so powerful that he couldn't help but kill Alpha Flight when they encountered him.

Anyhow, in New Avengers #20 (by Brian Michael Bendis and Mike Deodato), this Xorn energy found the now human Magneto and used the energy to give him his powers again...

It even made him dress like his old self...

The Avengers, though, were able to separate Magneto from the energy and he fell, powerless, back to Earth...

And then the energy was dissipated in outer space by the Sentry.

However, at the end of the issue, with Magneto badly injured from his fall from the sky, he is taken into custody in a SHIELD transport and it suddenly explodes and Magneto is nowhere to be found...

Andreas theorizes that this was Magneto's powers returned, as how else could he escape like that? I'm not saying he's wrong, but it wasn't resolved either way. Just check out when Magneto showed up again...

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He next popped up in Uncanny X-Men #491 (by Ed Brubaker and Salvador Larroca), after Masque of the Morlocks was trying to hunt him down as part of a prophecy involving the mutant race. He is clearly no longer a mutant and no mention is made of the New Avengers story...

At the end of the issue, though, the mutant known as Skids brings the prophecy to Magneto and it curiously notes that he is still a mutant!

However, when Magneto next showed up in X-Men: Legacy #208 (by Mike Carey, Scot Eaton and John Dell), when he is trying to help Exodus and the Acolytes cure the almost fatally wounded Charles Xaviier, Magneto is clearly a human...

It's, like, a whole big deal in the story that he is now a human...

So...huh? A good THEORY is that Magneto had JUST enough leftover power from the Xorn energy that he was able to blow up the SHIELD transport and escape before the power dissipated, but that was never shown in the actual comics and it certainly doesn't explain the whole "you are still a mutant" thing from Uncanny X-Men #491. It's just a big ol' pile of unresolved plots.

Thanks to Andreas for the suggestion to spotlight the "Collective" story!

If anyone has a suggestion for an unresolved comic book plot, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!