The classic 1982 story Magneto, who was not always meant to play an integral role in the machinations of the storyline.
A defining comic book venture of the 1980s, Claremont's second original Marvel graphic novel God Loves, Man Kills features the X-Men reluctantly turning to their most frequent mutant threat Magneto in order to strike back against a human evil. With the assistance of Magneto, the X-Men prove successful in turning the tables on genocidal evangelist Rev. William Stryker and his merciless anti-mutant hate group known as the Purifiers. It would be difficult to imagine the X-Men's mission going as smoothly as it did without the upper hand gained from "The Master of Magnetism"...except that the story initially was going to do exactly that.
Influential comic book artist Neal Adams had planned to bring the death of the X-Men's earliest and most significant foe to the comic book page in the early 80s. Though Adams' version would ultimately never come to fruition, there has been a series of unfinished black and white artwork that has surfaced from his time developing the book. At the center of these art pieces is Magneto fighting off and ultimately finding himself detained by several agents, assumed to be the Purifiers, at a construction yard before being ruthlessly murdered on the spot. Adams reveals in Eisner Award-Winning Jon B. Cooke's Comic Book Artist #3 that he was looked at by former Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Jim Shooter to work on an Marvel Graphic Novel, which would eventually become God Loves, Man Kills.
While the X-Men's definitive graphic novel was in its development stage, Shooter originally offered to hand art duties of the standalone story to Adams. Adams had begun to make a name for himself in the 1970s with his artwork on superhero books Adams has returned to Marvel with New Avengers and DC with his Dean miniseries. After Marvel and Neal ended up parting ways, another young promising artist Brent Anderson (Astro City) would be brought onto the project to fill in for the vacant spot left by Neal Adams.
Though God Loves, Man Kills is not without its harsh pair of opening deaths, Magneto's demise would have certainly reinforced to the readers that Claremont is not taking any prisoners with the story. If even Magneto couldn't stand a chance against the Purifiers, then the X-Men would need to seriously prep in order to make it back to the X-Mansion alive. Not only that, but Magneto's presence throughout the story would be difficult for another character to take. The final interaction between Magneto and his longtime friend and rival Professor Charles Xavier is one of the most memorable sequences of the graphic novel. Professor X nearly latches onto Magneto's beliefs of mutant supremacy, only for Charles to be saved and returned to his ideals by his altruistic students. The extended role of Magneto in God Loves, Man Kills only works to improve the storyline and draw a possible parallel between himself and an equally vengeful human on Magneto's level, William Stryker.
Magneto has always been an overseer of the human threat to mutants, stemming from his traumatic childhood experience in the Holocaust. Seeing Magneto's death come at the hands of the absolute worst that humanity has to offer once again would have served as a cruel yet poetic ending for the infamous X-Men antagonist.
