In every installment of “If I Pass This Way Again,” we look at odd comic book plot points that were rarely (sometimes NEVER!) mentioned again after they were first introduced.

Today, based on a suggestion from reader Ken H., we take a look at Magneto's bizarre early astral projection powers that seemed to be pulled straight out of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee's...well...you know.

The whole thing seemed to start in X-Men #4, where Professor X confronted Magneto on the astral plane....

However, it's unclear whether that is really supposed to be the astral plane or if it is just supposed to be a demonstration of Xavier using his telepathy to communicate with Magneto through the some sort of visualization by Kirby. In other words, the original intent by Kirby in the art MIGHT have just been to show Xavier using his mental abilities to contact Magneto directly, and it was just depicted as if the two men were in the astral plane.

Whether that was the original intent or not (and really, who knows? I could be way off base there), things got way further in X-Men #6, when Magneto just flat out sent his astral spirit out of his body and had it travel through the ocean to find Sub-Mariner, to try to get Namor to team-up with him...

And that's it. The idea was dropped after that.

By the way, Magneto creepily later tries to pawn his own daughter off on Namor to get him to team-up with him (even if he didn't know it was his daughter - and, according to current continuity, she actually ISN'T his daughter - it is still creepy as hell behavior by Magneto)...

I assume that the power must have appeared SOMEwhere over the years since (maybe during Byrne's Hidden Years?), but it's almost completely dropped since then.

Okay, that's it for this installment! Thanks for the suggestion, Ken! If anyone else has a suggestion of a plot point that was quickly ignored by everyone else, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!