Warning: Spoilers for New Champions #2Marvel’sNew Championshave finally been introduced, and it was inevitable that they would get a new villain to conflict with them sooner rather than later - and that villain is totally aMagnetotype. Right from the beginning, Steve Foxe, the writer ofNew Champions, has been teasing that not all the New Champions characters would be heroes, and it has finally been revealed which ones will be the villains.
At the end ofNew Champions#2by Foxe and Ivan Fiorelli, Monte, a sorcerer with similar powers to Doctor Strange, returns to New York afterfighting with the New Champions in Norway.
It turns out thatMonte is a spy for Magnetrix, who seems to be the first big bad for this new age of heroes. Frustrated that she was not recruited to the team as well,Magnetrixis ready to show the world how evil she really is. Inspired by Magneto, it should have been obvious that Magnetrix was the villain.
Despite Being Sidekicks, Not All the New Champions Were Meant to be Heroes
New Champions#2 by Steve Foxe, Ivan Fiorelli, Arthur Hesli, and Travis Lanham
To celebrate the success of Spider-Boy, the forgotten sidekick of Spider-Man who was erased from existence to explain his absence in comic lore, Marvel gathered a band of its current all-star artists and created a variant cover series calledthe New Champions variants. This new series spanned all of Marvel’s then-current titles and introducedalternate universe sidekicks of some of Marvel’s top heroesandvillains. The New Champions characters have since popped up across Marvel’s many titles, and they are all brought together in theNew Championsseries.
Magnetrix is one of the few New Champions characters who are inspired by a villain, as the idea of the New Champions is to introduce a new age of heroes.
Before the first issue ofNew Championswas released,in an interview with CBR, Foxe mentioned that some of the characters would be villains. Before the series came out,Amaranth, the mysterious apprentice of the Scarlet Witch, seemed to be the most likely choicewith her dark powers and secretive backstory, but since her appearances inScarlet Witchby Steve Orlando and Jacopo Camagni and inNew Champions,she has seemed a lot more heroic. What seemed to go under the radar were the characters who hadn’t appeared yet, like Magnetrix.
Magneto’s Sidekick May Not Be the Only Villain in the New Champions
The Creative Team Has Teased Even More Conflict
Magnetrix is one of the few New Champions characters who is inspired by a villain, as the idea of the New Champions is to introduce a new age of heroes. Kid Juggernaut is the other villain-based sidekick, and he also happens to be X-Men themed.There’s a chance that he will follow an evil pathlike the older counterpart of his character, but he was summoned by the spell cast by Hellrune to gather all New Champions, so it is unlikely that he will turn bad.His story continues inAvengers Academyby Anthony Oliveira and Carola Borelli.
Marvel Ushers In a New Generation With Help From the “Core Four” Heroes
Marvel just officially confirmed the four young superhumans who will lead its next generation of heroes in The New Champions.
Magnetrix, on the other hand, was not summoned by the New Champions spell, and she seems quite jealous that she missed out on all the fun. Monte explains that it may be due to the fact that she is super evil, to which Magnetrix responds she will let the whole world know it. From the screens in her secret lair, it also seems that Magnetrix has been keeping an eye on theNew Championsfor a while, so there may be more backstory to her than just beingMagneto’ssidekick.
Sources:Marvel,CBR
Magneto
The oldest and best-known adversary of the X-Men, Magneto has been a part of Marvel Comics since the mutant team was introduced. Bearing powers over magnetic fields, he views mutants as superior to normal humans, and aims to build a world where humans are dominant. The only thing stopping him is Professor X and his team of heroes.
