Episode:Enter Magneto

The X-Men face their greatest threat in one of Charles Xavier's oldest friends.

Escape Attempt
While in prison Beast is trying to read Animal Farm despite being hassled by the guards. Suddenly the lights around the prison begin to break. One of the guards thinks Beast has something to do with it and orders him to make it stop. Thinking it is Wolverine Beast goes to the window only to have it pulled out, along with the guard's gun and belt.

A man then appears hovering over the blue mutant who removes his shackles. Beast deduces that he is Magneto. Magneto wants Beast to follow but Beast chooses to stay and await his day in court. Beast then reveals that Xavier reluctantly sent he and the X-Men to attack the Mutant Registration Agency's headquarters. Magneto tries to prove that normal humans will always hate mutants, but Beast insists that they are simply misguided will go to provide a grander service. Failing to convince Beast, Magneto leaves and destroys his attackers' weapons.

Old Friends Long Gone
Jubilee and Xavier then watch footage of the attack on the television. Xavier tells her that Magneto was once a friend of his. They met after a war. Xavier worked in a hospital where he used his powers to heal the wounded. A man named Magnus assisted Charles in helping patients rediscover the joy of life, and the two became friends. However, remnants of the army that took over his small country returned trying to take it back.

They saved several patients by revealing for the first time to each other and others that they had mutant powers. But Magnus would not let them go since he lost his family to those people. Magnus tried to destroy them but Xavier stopped him. Because of their ideological differences the two split up. Magnus began calling himself Magneto and attacked power plants, factories, and government buildings; determined to disrupt human society paving the way for a mutant takeover. Xavier did what he could to stop him. But after all those years Magneto has begun again.

Day In Court
In the present, Beast is in court trying to get out on bail. The plaintiff claims that because of the severity of Beast's crime and the danger he posses to the community that he should be denied bail. Beast's lawyer suggests that the court is denying him bail because he is a mutant. The judge insists that the court harbors no prejudice and will not tolerate any such claim.

Beast then tries to justify his actions by saying that two days before the attack, eleven mutants disappeared and all recently registered with the Agency. The crowd in the courtroom grows angry, even throwing tomatoes. After calming the people the judge denies Beast bail feeling that in light of the violence on both the Agency attack and "attempted escape" that he would be a danger.

The crowd cheers, angering Logan. When a guard pushes Beast down Logan pulls out his claws but Scott stops him. Just then, Sabretooth breaks into the courtroom and begins attacking randomly. The guards manage to knock the violent mutant out. Scott wants to help him but Logan refuses, Scott saves him anyways. At the Xavier Mansion Xavier is using Cerebro to search for Magneto, without luck.

Save One Enemy, Destroy Another
The X-Men then receive the critically injured Sabretooth where he is stabilized. Wolverine enters his room alone and pulls out his claws and cuts the cables leading to his heart monitor. Cyclops and Xavier confront him telling him they must help a mutant in trouble. Wolverine says that no one knows Sabretooth like he does and he can't stay there. Storm arrives and explains that many felt the same when Wolverine first arrived, and he and Sabretooth are much like each other. Suddenly an alert goes off that there is an attack at a missile base. Wolverine reluctantly leaves with the others.

Magneto is the one attacking the missile base, in the name of mutant liberation. He uses his powers to activate the launch sequences giving only three minutes, and they're targeted at the same base. The officers are unable to disarm the missiles and orders the base to be evacuated. The X-Men arrive and find the place in ruins and abandoned. Magneto sees them and assumes they are there to help him. When the X-Men remain firm in their stance with Xavier's beliefs Magneto attacks them.

Magneto tells them that he's become stronger than their last encounter and had time to prepare. He also states that those who oppose him are traitors to mutantkind and he will show Xavier no mercy. After incapacitating the X-Men Magneto leaves. They awake to find the missiles just about to launch. Wolverine enters the control room but is unable to find any override button and the missiles launch.

Watching with Cerebro, Xavier comments that he should have stopped Magneto when he had the chance. Cyclops is about to destroy them himself but Storm stops him saying that he might detonate the warheads. Storm then flies after them intending to destroy them using her powers. She uses the wind to divert the missiles over the water and lightning to short circuit the warheads so that they disarm and sink below the water. She exhausts herself and falls, only to be caught by Wolverine.

With the mission accomplished the X-Men leave. Magneto watches and wonders why Xavier would help those who persecute them.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Quotes
"Magneto, I presume."
 * -Beast

"What are you waiting for?" "My day in court actually."
 * -Magneto and Beast

"What chance does a mutant have, tried by normal humans?"
 * -Magneto

"They must see that we are not a threat to mankind, but a part of it."
 * -Beast

"The humans must be crushed, and I have the power to do it."
 * -Magneto

"But for some, a war is never over."
 * -Xavier regarding Magneto

"I have never seen such a change in a man."
 * -Xavier regarding Magneto

"Magnus, your violence will solve nothing. We must use our special gifts to bring peace to mankind." "You're a fool, Charles. Look at them. They can't even make peace with each other."
 * -Xavier and Magneto

"Looks like I'll have time to catch up on my Dostoevsky."
 * -Beast

"Your honor. We mutants yearn only to live in peace with our human brothers. To paraphrase the Bard, I am a mutant. Have not a mutant sense? Affections? Fed with the same food? Warmed and cooled with the same winter and summer as a human is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?"
 * -Beast, quoting from Shylock's lament in William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.

"Come on, they're gonna kill him." "Good."
 * -Cyclops and Wolverine regarding Sabretooth

"His name's Sabretooth. Wolverine knows him, and hates him." "Did he give a reason?" "Does he ever?"
 * -Cyclops and Xavier

"If it weren't for Xavier…"
 * -Wolverine to an unconscious Sabretooth

"He was near death." "Not near enough."
 * -Xavier and Wolverine

"How come we're supposed to trash your old enemy but we gotta go easy on mine?"
 * -Wolverine to Xavier

"Your most powerful weapons will destroy you. And mutants will hide in fear no more."
 * -Magneto

"Oh what a brave new world that has such people in it. I'm glad that you decided to join me in the liberation of mutant kind. Today begins a new day for all of us. A world were we needn't hide in corners or crawl in fear."
 * -Magneto to the X-Men

"I don't know what kind of world you crawled outta, bub. But we don't find nuclear missiles all that liberating."
 * -Wolverine

"Better we die on our feet that live on our knees."
 * -Magneto

"If Xavier dreams of peace between mutants and humans then his dream will soon become a nightmare."
 * -Magneto

Trivia

 * Both Magneto and Sabretooth appeared in the pilot as cameos but this is their first notable appearance.
 * Magneto appears to kill several people, such as the ones in the helicopter that crashes.
 * Beast's lawyer is named Hodge, possibly a relation to Cameron Hodge the Genoshan government ambassador.
 * Beast references Dostoevsky, who wrote Crime and Punishment, appropriate reading indeed considering both his legal plight, and how long it'll take to read it.
 * One of the few usages of the word "kill."
 * The countdown is almost but not exactly three minutes in real time.

Background
This episode is loosely based on "Uncanny X-Men #1" (September 1963), where Magneto attacked the Cape Citadel missile base.

While not directly stated, the war that Xavier mentions is most likely World War II with the army remnants being part of the Nazi Party. Magneto's family would have been lost in the Holocaust. It was most likely toned down for children, though WWII and Nazis would referenced later on.

When this episode originally aired, it had Iona Morris still doing the voice of Storm. But all subsequent repeats have redubbed Storm's voice with Alison Sealy-Smith.

Reaction
"Stu" of Marvel Animation Age said that the episode was a fine kick off for the supervillain but lacked the emotional punch of the next episode.

On TV.com the episode has a rating of 8.7 Great.