Even though I knew this moment was coming (it was originally told in New Mutants Vol. 1 #49), I was still so floored afterward it took me hours before I could even begin to look at this issue rationally. The storytelling is crafted *that* well.

Now that I can step back to appraise it, it is still a remarkable issue. Once again Greg Pak tells Magneto's story by artfully weaving it around real events. One of the many remarkable things about this series is how subtly Pak is molding Max into the man who would become Magneto. We can see by the choices he faces and consequences he endures how this essentially good boy became the complex and ambiguous character we know today.

This miniseries is essential reading not only for Magneto fans and those interested in history, but for anyone. Even if they don't normally read comics.

After collecting the Uncanny X-Men for 24 years, this issue finally made me quit.  Magneto and Cyclops are written utterly out of character, the X-Men act incredibly stupidly, and the entire thing is a extremely forced Silver Age homage that makes no sense with a fight that is choreographed worse than a bad martial arts film. (And I don't mean bad as in "cheap", I mean bad as in "*BAD*").

Until Brubaker and Fraction are replaced, I will not be buying another Uncanny X-Men.

Greg Pak continues to tell the story of Max Eisenhardt (love the name!) and his family trying to survive in Hitler's Germany. As Jacob takes the path of least resistance as so many Jews did at the time, Max begins to show subtle inklings of some of the character traits the adult character will become so well-known for: his resourcefulness, his pride, and his need to protect the weak, even at risk to himself.

Like the first issue, Max's story is attentively woven into the backdrop of real history, and no comic book super villain can match the kind of suspense these events inspire. The action is well-paced, and a bit of success gives Max's story a moment to breathe under the weight of the horror of real history. The dialog may seem heavy handed to many modern readers, but these were not subtle attitudes or events. Germany of the 1930's was a time of outspoken, violent, systematic racism, nothing like we here in the U.S. experience today. (Read Mein Kampf sometime. It reads so ridiculously over the top to us today is seems like a joke, until you realize that there were hundreds of thousands of people who took it completely seriously. Then it is one of the most horrifying texts you have ever read.) I imagine the discussion the Eisenhardts had over the dinner table were echoed in many Jewish households of the time.

I also liked that Pak took a moment to tell Magda's story, because the Gypsies were actually one of the first groups to be rounded up in concentration camps.

Djurdjevic's covers continue to be framable, and Di Giandomenico's styled realism in the interior continues to pull the reader in to the story, while providing a buffer for the violence and hatred.

I am probably biased, but I think it is safe to say this is the finest story Marvel is publishing this year, and if you are missing it, you are missing out.

As a history major and a fan of this character, the idea of a comic that took a historically realistic approach to Magneto's childhood has been incredibly tantalizing. It's actually been rather difficult keeping my excitement in check in order not to build up unrealistic expectations. But I am pleased to say that Magneto Testament fulfills them all.

This is very much a story of a young boy in the middle of politically turbulent times, only bits and pieces of the entirety of what is happening filtering through his childhood perceptions until they smash through him utterly. The characterizations are good. These are not stalwart heroes facing a behemoth. They are imperfect, good people struggling to find a way in a world changing too rapidly, too radically, for them. (And Mr. Pak does remember that Magneto had an older sister. Props!) The dialog is solid.

The story telling is interesting. As a solitary child (and by his own accounts Magneto was) much of the story is told in the visual. This is part of what creates the childhood POV of the story (in fact it rather reminds me of the opening chapter of "Portrait of the Artist As a Young Man" in how much it relied on the visual to create that feeling), but it sometimes it makes the pacing feel a tad uneven. But that was something I had to go looking for. I had to make myself look for something wrong, and that was all I found. This is a very well-told emotional roller-coaster that creates a satisfying, if extremely unpleasant, climax in the final pages.

This was great stuff! Well done, sirs! Well done!