Sophistic, Radicalism and Charism: Magneto as Image of the Demagogue

Abstract

Cinema and comic are two of the most outstanding spaces where contemporary mythology is created. Cultural and social influence of the histories of superheroes and supervillains grows every day. The role they play justifies an in-depth analysis of the meaning of their main characters. Therefore, this paper aims to contribute to this analysis offering some keys of interpretation of one of the greatest instances of villain in this kind of stories: Magneto. Some of the elements of his narrative range will be compared with two particularly relevant representations of evil in the context of democracy: the sophist, concerning Greek democracy, and the political extremist, concerning modern democracy. Our intention is to show the kind of personification of evil that underlies this figure: the threat of demagogy and the danger of “magnetic” leaders.