Brotherhood of Evil Mutants

The Brotherhood of Evil Mutants is a group of villainous mutants founded by Magneto to advance his agenda of mutant superiority, defeat the X-Men, and eventually establish dominance over humanity. In addition to Magneto, the Brotherhood once included Mastermind, Toad, and the siblings Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. The team was all but disbanded in a single day following an altercation with the Stranger, who turned Mastermind to solid stone and took Magneto and Toad into space. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch left the team on the same day, tired of fighting for Magneto's malevolent cause, and of the mutant conflict in general. Toad, for his part, revels in being a shamelessly loyal underling to Magneto.

Biography

Magneto formed the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants some time shortly after his first defeat at the hands of the X-Men in 1963. In early 1964, Magneto assembled the Brotherhood for an invasion of the small republic of Santo Marco, having commandeered an American ship. The invasion was swift and simple, as Mastermind conjured an image of a large army that prompted the country's instant surrender. Not long after Magneto took control of Santo Marco's government, the X-Men arrived in the country. They took the fight to the Brotherhood and forced the group's retreat into Magneto's inner sanctum, though Professor X was severely injured by an explosive booby trap. Magneto planned to launch a nuclear weapon on Santo Marco as the Brotherhood escaped, a last-ditch effort to defeat the X-Men for good. But Quicksilver could not let this occur, and canceled the launch as he escaped. Magneto soon established the Brotherhood's base on a large asteroid orbiting Earth that he dubbed Asteroid M. Determined to find the X-Men's base, Magneto sent Toad to disguise himself as a benevolent mutant to get the X-Men's attention. This part of the plan succeeded, but the X-Men figured out his ruse before they brought him back to their base. This led to a battle in the subway between the X-Men and the Brotherhood, during which Magneto hastily abducted Angel, running off with him and leaving Toad behind. Magneto placed Angel in confinement on Asteroid M, attempting to learn the X-Men's location to no avail. Leaving Toad on Earth proved to be the downfall of Magneto's plan, as the X-Men followed the listless Toad on a rocket back to Asteroid M. Magneto attempted to send the intruders out through an airlock, but Quicksilver again stopped him from killing anyone. The X-Men were able to rescue Angel, escaping as the asteroid dramatically split into two.

Magneto then set his sights on expanding the Brotherhood further, and looked to recruit Namor the Sub-Mariner, widely known for his displeasure toward the human race. He sent a mental projection into Namor's undersea palace and got in the ear of one of the Sub-Mariner's more ambitious underlings. He convinced him to sway Namor into coming to Magneto's hidden island base and join the Brotherhood: in exchange, the throne of Namor's palace would be empty, and his for the taking. The traitorous Atlantean agreed, and soon Namor arrived at Magneto's base. The X-Men arrived soon after, and a fight ensued. Namor witnessed how Magneto ungratefully treated the Brotherhood, particularly Scarlet Witch, and swore off any form of alliance with him. Eventually, the X-Men took Quicksilver captive, and Xavier took him under mental control. Magneto fled to his inner sanctum with Toad and Mastermind, but Scarlet Witch refused to leave her brother behind. Namor lost interest and went to leave, renewed in his hatred of all surfacemen. Magneto vowed revenge against Namor for not aligning with him, as he escaped by rocket with Toad and Mastermind and gave the others a mental command to follow. Xavier released Quicksilver and allowed the siblings to leave peacefully, failing to convince them to leave Magneto's cause.

The Brotherhood continued to fray at the seams, as Mastermind began openly discussing mutiny with Scarlet Witch, as well as aggressively coming on to her despite her protests. Witch and Quicksilver continued to feel an obligation to Magneto, but Quicksilver promised that that would change should any harm come to his sister. In any case, Magneto carried out further recruitment, visiting a carnival and approaching an obese mutant known as the Blob. The Blob was capable of making himself effectively immovable when standing his ground, and possessed incredible strength and seemingly impenetrable flesh. Blob was uninterested in Magneto's offer to join the Brotherhood, and became aggressive when Magneto pushed the issue. In the scuffle, Magneto jostled Blob's head, breaking a mental block that Professor X had put on him when the X-Men had faced him months prior. Blob remembered that the X-Men were his enemies, and that they were afraid of him joining with Magneto; this was enough to make him accept Magneto's offer. The Brotherhood made their way to an abandoned factory away from civilization that Magneto had prepared personally. He radioed the X-Men's school to notify them of where they could be found. The X-Men arrived as expected, and the two teams fought. Eventually, Magneto fired a series of torpedos that he had prepared, but the X-Men all ducked behind the Blob, and he absorbed the entirety of the blast. Incredibly, he was unharmed, but Magneto realized that his plan had failed and the core Brotherhood members retreated in his plane. Scarlet Witch was increasingly frustrated at Magneto's violent approach to mutant superiority. Meanwhile, Blob became fed up with the mutant conflict as a whole, and decided to return to his job at the carnival, independent of the X-Men and the Brotherhood.

Magneto went on to establish a camouflaged undersea base just off the coast of Manhattan, where he could observe the city for any sign of the X-Men. He sent the rest of the Brotherhood out to search, while he stayed behind watching remotely for any signal. Soon after, there was a large magnetic storm in the area, as countless metal objects went flying through the streets—whether Magneto deliberately caused this or not is unclear. His submersible was soon invaded by the hero Thor, and seeing his power, Magneto believed him to be a mutant as well, and offered him a spot in the Brotherhood. Thor thoroughly refused, and the two fought. It proved to be a grueling battle, until Mastermind sent word that he and the others had found the X-Men, but they were fighting back aggressively. The X-Men soon found their way to Magneto's base as well, forcing him to retreat in an escape craft and hide amongst the sea floor. Thor destroyed the abandoned base. Shortly afterward, Magneto expressed interest in a mutant wrestler known as Unus the Untouchable, and sent Mastermind to one of his events to scout him. Unus was interested, but Magneto insisted that he prove himself before joining by bringing him one of the X-Men, now more cautious after the Blob incident. Unus had the power to effortlessly deflect any harmful object that comes near him, while still allowing him to make contact with things as normal otherwise. In the end, the combined might of the X-Men was enough to convince Unus to give up pursuing a life of costumed criminality.

In early 1965, the Brotherhood met a mutant known as the Stranger, and naturally tried to convince him to join their cause. Stranger seemed to be a middle-aged man, unfamiliar with local customs. Meeting in a second-floor hideout, the Brotherhood showed off their powers to the potential recruit, but he grew angered by Mastermind's illusions and blasted him with a laser beam, transforming him into a block of solid matter and sending him through the floor. The X-Men soon arrived to try to reason with the Stranger, and the two sides fought. Stranger grew uninterested and went to leave, but Magneto insisted upon coming with him to continue trying to convince him. The two and Toad fled in an invisible cone of energy created by the Stranger, leaving Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch behind. Quicksilver had been frozen by Iceman, and Scarlet Witch was worried for his safety. Cyclops melted him free, and the siblings announced that they were finished serving Magneto: their life-debt to him had by now been repaid "many times over." Cyclops asked them to join the X-Men, but they decided to return home to Europe, weary of the endless battles between mutants. The X-Men took Mastermind's petrified form back to their base for examination. Stranger took Magneto and Toad to a remote wooded area, where he told them that he in fact wasn't a mutant: he was an alien from another planet, whose people traveled the universe looking for compelling specimens of mutantkind. He took exception to Magneto's arrogant, controlling nature, and used several varied superhuman abilities to quickly incapacitate the two mutants. He wrapped them in strange cocoons, and though the X-Men soon arrived to intervene, they could not stop him from quickly flying Magneto and Toad into space, declaring that they would never return. With that, the Brotherhood was effectively dismantled.

See also

• Brotherhood of Mutants (Earth-1610)