After years of pulling off some of the most devastating acts of villainy, Magneto has proven himself to truly be the Master of Magnetism given the parameters of his immensely powerful mutant ability–though many X-Men fans may not know that Magneto also has secret psychic powers that make him even stronger than previously thought.
Erik Magnus Lehnsherr, or Max Eisenhardt, is an omega-level mutant who has the power to control metal and manipulate any form of magnetism in a multitude of ways including the power to create electromagnetic force fields and create blasts of magnetic rays. Erik became the mutant villain Magneto after he came to the conclusion that humans and mutants would never be able to peacefully coexist, sparking a number of preemptive attacks against humanity. While Magneto may be on the side of heroism, peace, and diplomacy in the current X-Men continuity, his early days were filled with plots to destroy the X-Men and bring humanity to its knees, and he used every power in his arsenal to achieve that sinister goal.
In X-Men #6 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Magneto has decided to grow his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants by recruiting some much-needed muscle on the team. In this issue, Magneto attempts to convince Namor the Sub-Mariner to join his crew by traveling to Atlantis and speaking with Namor in person–well, sort of. For the first time, Magneto uses his powers of astral projection to separate his consciousness from his physical form to go to the underwater kingdom without fear of drowning or being attacked by the Atlantians. While projecting one’s astral form at will is an example of significant psychic ability, Magneto steps it up a notch by later revealing he has the power to infiltrate someone’s mind. In X-Men #7, Magneto tries to recruit the Blob to join the Brotherhood, and upon meeting him, Magneto probes the Blob’s brain, seemingly with his own telepathic power.
Magneto showing signs of telepathic and psychic abilities is truly shocking for those who previously believed his powers were purely based around controlling metal and manipulating magnetism–which makes sense since Magneto's secret psychic abilities like Astral Projection have all but been forgotten. These two X-Men issues were some of the first ones ever released, long before X-Men became one of the most popular franchises in history. At that point, these characters were still being fleshed out and developed, and since Magneto’s mental strength was described as being second only to Professor X, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby seemingly decided to run with that idea and make Magneto’s powers fall more in line with those of Professor X. As time went on, however, Magneto purely became the Master of Magnetism with his psychic powers rarely explored again.
While it seems unlikely that these long-forgotten powers will ever return, Magneto would be an absolute powerhouse if they ever did. Magneto is already an omega-level mutant because of his mastery of magnetism on a planetary scale, but if he also trained his mind to enter other people’s psyches at will and practiced in astral projection enough to release his astral form and travel the globe in an instant, then Magneto could potentially wipe out the human race single-handedly. Magneto’s secret psychic powers make him stronger than X-Men fans realize, and if he took the time to master them, he would be absolutely unstoppable.