A stunning new X-Men variant cover shows Magneto in a Krakoan jail. These should be Magneto's best days. The Master of Magnetism has finally gotten his dream, with the entire mutant race gathering on the living island of Krakoa. Even better, at the first Hellfire Gala, he took the opportunity to reconcile with Scarlet Witch, the woman who he long believed to be his daughter.
But then Scarlet Witch was murdered in the Hellfire Gala wake, her body left unceremoniously dumped on the ground. The death of Scarlet Witch is leading straight into a miniseries bearing the ominous title The Trial of Magneto, by Leah Williams and Lucas Werneck, in which Magneto himself will be viewed as the prime suspect in Wanda's death. The entire world will be watching Krakoa's first murder trial, and - given Magneto's troubled history - there will be many who doubt his innocence.
But how does prison work on Krakoa? The island has never seen the need for cells before, because - with the exception of Sabretooth, who's been banished to a pit of some sort - they've never had the need to imprison anyone. But now, a stunning variant cover for The Trial of Magneto #2, by Stephanie Hans, shows the Krakoan version of prison - with Magneto hanging in vines and bound by tendrils.
Hans is one of the best artists in the business, and she has outdone herself with this one. But this probably isn't just an abstract image; those vines will possibly serve an important purpose in the story. Magneto is an Omega-level mutant, defined as "a mutant whose dominant power is deemed to register - or reach - an undefinable upper limit of that power's specific classification." In the past, he's demonstrated so much power he literally triggered an electromagnetic pulse that swept across the entire globe. But Krakoa feeds on mutant energy, so it's safe to assume these tendrils are draining Magneto of his power, ensuring he can be held prisoner.
This, then, is how the Master of Magnetism will be kept while he awaits his trial. But is he really responsible for Scarlet Witch's death, or was it actually conducted by someone else? Teasers have hinted The Trial of Magneto will link into Jonathan Hickman's X-Men: Inferno miniseries, raising the possibility that the deed would actually have been done by someone like Mystique, pretending to be Magneto. She's determined to burn Krakoa to the ground, and she has very personal reasons to hate Magneto, one of the two mutants refusing to resurrect her long-deceased wife Destiny. It's quite possible the X-Men are being played for fools.