You said in a post about X2 that it has theme issues? Could you elaborate?

opinions-about-tiaras:

Comic pedantry:

While Magneto has done some bad shit in the comics – in the Ultimate Universe, he almost wipes out Manhattan with a tidal wave,

racefortheironthrone:

Let me first say that I actually like X2, so my problems with it are much less intense than my dislike of X3 or Apocalypse, etc. 

So about themes, let me first strongly recommend listening to School of Movies’ episode on X2, which influenced my thinking on this. 

Longer discussion below the cut.

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this abruptly ended the character and the story, forcing a retcon,
because once Magneto has shifted from mutant liberationist to genocider,
his character is done. 

This isn’t really the case, and you’d be better off avoiding Ultimate Universe Magneto in discussions about the character being nuanced.

Ultimate Universe Magneto is, basically, a piece of shit. He’s deliberately constructed from the ground up as all of 616-Magneto’s bad traits dialed up to eleven with none of his good traits. He’s an explicit advocate of genocide, a terrifying anti-human racist using language that’s adapted straight from white supremacist rhetoric, and delights and revels in emotionally abusing his son; indeed, at one point he explicitly instructs Scott Summers to call him “father” in front of Pietro for no better reason than that he knows this will hurt Pietro and Ultimate Universe Magneto gets his rocks off on hurting Pietro.

I don’t know WHY they did this. I generally like the Ultimate Universe. I consider Ultimate Spider-Man to be one of the triumphs of the modern comics era, both the Peter AND Miles runs. Ultimate FF’s first couple years are criminally underrated and should server as a model for what the FF should be like.

But the Ultimate Universe has made some jaw-droppingly bad character choices, and Ultimate Magneto the mustache-twirling villain is one of them. He’s not as bad as Ultimate Cap or what Ultimate Reed eventually turned into, but he’s pretty bad. You don’t want to bring him into a discussion about 616-Magneto’s nuance, because that comparison is… not a solid one.

Well, it ended the character in the sense that Ultimatum killed the Ultimate Universe, for a whiole variety of reasons that went beyond just what Magneto was up to: Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver getting all Lannister on us, the Blob cannibalizing the Wasp, and so on and so forth.