Magneto: Testament is a 2008 Marvel Comics title, written by Greg Pak with art by Marko Djurdjevic and Carmine DI Giandomenico.
The series focuses on Magneto's origin story, from his days as a young Jewish boy named Max Eisenhardt in Germany to his time as a prisoner of Auschwitz during The Holocaust.
Magneto: Testament provides examples of:
- The '40s: A chunk of the story happens in this decade, especially Magneto losing his family in occupied Poland during the Holocaust. The story ends in 1948, 3 years after the Holocaust and World War II have ended.
- Bait-and-Switch: The miniseries starts with Magneto's father talking to somebody named "Erich". At that point it's easy to think he's talking to the future Magneto. He is in fact talking to his brother. Magneto is his son, Max.
- Big Damn Heroes:
- Brutally subverted in the scene where the Max's family is caught. All the emotional beats of Max suddenly finding the power within him and shielding everyone from gunfire are set up in a neat little row... And then it doesn't happen and everyone but him is killed.
- Later partially played straight. Right as Max, Magda, and the other remaining prisoners are about to execute a revolt that might get them all shot, Allied planes start bombing the camp, giving them cover to run.
- Butterfly of Death and Rebirth: When Ruthie spots butterflies, it serves as a Five-Second Foreshadowing that she and her family are about to be apprehended by Nazis.
- Dad the Veteran: Max's father Jakob fought for Germany in World War I.
- Death Glare: Max gives one to Jakob's old army friend turned government employee Jurgen Scharf whom he had saved in WWI after he says that he and Jakob are "even now" after keeping a Nazi beating of Jakob for "making trouble" in Scharf's office from ending in Jakob's death. Jakob and Max had only gone to see Scharf to see if he could help Jakob get his job back after losing it because of the Nuremberg Laws, with the "trouble" being Jakob waiting hours to meet with Scharf, and while Scharf's intervention kept the beating of his old friend from being fatal, Max no doubt would have rather he'd have prevented his father's beating altogether.
- Don't Create a Martyr: Max's uncle Erich stops him from killing a Nazi at the Warsaw Ghetto who murdered a Jew for stealing bread, arguing the Nazis would have slaughtered a hundred Jews in retaliation.
- Doomed by Canon: Max's family and later his wife Magda, and their daughter Anya.
- Downer Ending: By the end of the story, Max has lost his family and his love Magda.
- Face–Heel Turn: Over the course of the story, Max changes from a friendly Jewish boy in Nazi Germany to, well, Magneto.
- Foregone Conclusion: Obviously, we know that Magneto will survive and grow up to become the leader of the human-hating Brotherhood of Mutants.
- The Great Depression: Where our story begins. Kristallnacht happens in the second issue.
- Killed Offscreen: Magda's mother Anya is killed in the gas chambers at some point prior to her reuniting with Max in Auschwitz.
- Meaningful Name: Max's favourite teacher is named Kalb. German for calf and despite all the good he does and all his efforts to save both Max and himself, he gets slaughtered like so many herd animals.
- Meaningful Rename: Erich was the name of Magneto's uncle and the young boy ends up becoming far more like his uncle than his father. His father on the other hand, is far more like Xavier.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Max's former teacher Fritz Kalb is murdered in Auschwitz, Max having to dispose of his body in the crematorium.
- Oh, Crap!: At the end of the first issue, Max is out in town when he finds a certain infamous symbol from World War II, followed by a crowd making a certain yell and salute.
- Retcon: Magneto's name is here revealed to be Max Eisenhardt, not Erik Lensherr. It appears he takes Erik as the first name of his alias from his paternal uncle.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: The headmaster of Max's school expells him for cheating after he reproduces his gold medal-winning javelin throw with a heavier "regulation" javelin after it's declared he made his winning throw with a "defective" javelin. While the headmaster clearly did it solely out of anti-semitism, it's implied Max's latent mutant powers are what allowed him to make the throw.
- Sadist Teacher: The headmaster of Max's school is a firm antisemite. When Max wins a gold medal for javelin throwing at the school's track and field, he goes on to accuse Max of using a defective javelin that nullifies his win, saying he may only keep the medal if he reproduces his winning throw with a "regulation" javelin that is purposefully much heavier. When Max does manage to reproduce his throw, implied to be the result of his emerging mutant power, the headmaster calls him "cheating Jewish scum" and expels him.
- Saved by Canon: Magneto is going to avoid being killed in the Holocaust and continue to live as a mutant in the present, unlike the rest of his family.
- Start of Darkness: The comic details how Magneto became a genocidal mutant terrorist.
- Uncertain Doom: Max's uncle Erich doesn't join his family in escaping the Warsaw Ghetto, staying to fight back against the Nazis. He never appears again, leaving it unknown whether he lived or died.
- Villain Episode: The entire miniseries is devoted to Magneto's origin story. His power to control metal is subtly hinted at or featured with most of the story being grounded.
- You Know I'm Black, Right?: Inverted. When Ruthie talks about how the people at her workplace think she is German, her father gives her a You Know You're Black, Right? and resignedly tells her that she is German.
