Handle: Joseph
Age: Unknown
Sex: male
Race: mutant
Affiliation: X-men, formerly Acolytes.

Physical Description:
Height:6'2"
Weight: 190lbs
Hair: Silver
Eyes: Blue

Known Relatives: as a clone, Joseph has no real relatives, though the offspring of Magneto, his genetic template, should have some identical genetic material.

Abilities: Joseph is an expert on genetic manipulation and engineering, with knowledge far beyond that of contemporary science. He may be a genius in these fields. He can mutate humans in order to give them superhuman powers, or create adult clones of human beings and then manipulate the genetic structure of these clones during their development.

Joseph has mastered many technological fields as well: for example, he created an X-gene nullifier for Rogue.

Joseph also has knowledge of hand to hand combat and select weapons, although not a master.

Powers: Joseph is a mutant with the superhuman power to control magnetism. He can shape and manipulate magnetic fields that exist naturally or artificially. It is unclear, however, whether he must draw magnetic force from outside himself (if so, then he can do so over vast distances), or whether he can also generate magnetic force from within himself. Nor is it clear whether Joseph's power is psionic or purely physiological in nature.

Although Joseph's power is not on the level of the Silver Surfer in his prime, it is for all practical purposes limitless. Joseph can use his magnetic powers in more than one way simultaneously. He can completely assemble a complicated machine within seconds through his powers. He can erect magnetic force fields with a high degree of impenetrability around himself for protection. Although Joseph often gestures when using his magnetic powers, he can utilize them fully even when standing totally still merely by concentrating.

Although Joseph's primary power is magnetism, he seems to have some ability to project or manipulate any form of energy that is related to magnetism. In the past he has fired a bolt of electricity, he has also created enough intense heat to destroy a metal door. Heat, or infrared radiation, is part of the electromagnetic spectrum, which also includes visible light, radio waves, ultraviolet light, gamma-rays, and x-rays. Joseph may be able to project any of these. He has also been shown creating an anti-gravity field, and presumably does so whenever he levitates a non-magnetic object. Hence, Joseph may be living proof of the longsought Unified Field Theory that all forms of energy are related. However, Joseph almost always uses only magnetism, so perhaps it is more difficult for him to manipulate other forms of energy.

Joseph has apparently exhibited powers of astral projection and telepathy. His abilities along these lines are minimal, however-enough, perhaps, to protect himself against mightier telepaths, but not of great use otherwise.

Joseph's ability to wield his superhuman powers effectively is dependent upon his physical condition. When severely injured, his body is unable to withstand the strain of manipulating groat amounts of magnetic forces.

Strength Level: Joseph can use his magnetic powers to increase his physical strength up through Class 100 (the ability to lift over 100 tons).

History: The man called Joseph is a clone of Magneto. He was created in a laboratory between dimensional planes by the woman known as Astra. When the space station Avalon was destroyed, Colossus carried the comatose Magneto into one of the escape pods, only to crash-land somewhere in Antarctica. It was Astra who found the pod and stole Magneto’s body before Colossus woke up, this being the perfect chance to get revenge on him for the way he had treated her when she was one of the members of his original Brotherhood of Evil Mutants. Killing Magneto would have been far too easy, Astra wanted to humiliate him. Astra proceeded to rebuild Magnus' damaged mind, in order to create a copy of him with full mental faculties. She used both Kymellian and Glyxian technology to create a perfect mental and genetic copy of Magneto at a younger age, without the self-imposed limits he had placed on his powers.

Astra then pitted her creation against the newly restored Magneto, laughing out loud as Magneto, unable to best his younger self in combat, was forced to flee. Believing to have seen enough, Astra ordered her creation to fulfill the task he had already started, while she teleported away to space. The clone caught up with Magneto over Central America, and the pyrotechnics of their confrontation could be seen for miles. In order to survive, Magneto was forced to resort to trickery, and struck his clone in the back of the head with a piece of debris, sending him falling to Earth. The impact destroyed what little memories the younger Magneto had, and he wandered the jungle for days, amnesiac. [X-Men (2nd series) #86] Meanwhile, the real Magneto went into hiding, to properly recover.



Eventually, he stumbled upon a Guatemala mission for children and was taken in by Sister Maria, the nun in charge. One of the children living there decided to name him Joseph. Helping out around the mission and its farmland, Joseph re-learned to use his magnetic powers and vainly tried to remember his past. One day, Joseph met Colonel Ramos, a local criminal who was extorting "protection" money from the missionaries. Seeing use for the young man's abilities, Ramos had the children and Sister Maria kidnapped in order to force Joseph to work for his associates. Instead, Joseph forced the colonel to reveal where the captives were. Arriving at the criminal's hideout, Joseph slaughtered all present in order to get to the children. The children, however, were shocked and horrified by his actions. The next day, Joseph and Sister Maria agreed he should go to America and find the X-Men, so that he could learn how to use his powers responsibly. [Uncanny X-Men #327]


On his way to New York, Joseph passed through a small town in South Carolina, where a recruitment drive for Humanity's Last Stand was going on. Seeing the intense fear and loathing in the hearts of the men and women he met, Joseph decided to join them, and subvert their movement from within. Days later, he was posing as one of Trask’s shepherd guards when the former X-Man Rogue was captured and brought in for interrogation. When Trask and his ally Bastion decided to torch the Last Stand compound, making martyrs of their followers and eliminating a dangerous mutant in one felt swoop. Joseph's fellow guard refused to participate in the death of his friends, so Bastion shot him dead. In retaliation, Joseph used his magnetic powers to destroy the lab he was in and free Rogue.


At first, she attacked him, believing him to be the Magneto of old, who was just pretending to not remember his past and trying to get her involved in one of his schemes. However, from his reaction, she saw that he was genuine about his amnesia. Together, they halted Trask and Bastion's plans, with Rogue urging Joseph not to kill their attackers. She saw the chance for “Magneto” to become a better person and didn’t want him to revert back to his old ways. For the same reason, she didn’t tell him too much of his past. Rogue decided to help bring Joseph to the X-Men, in order to determine what was to be done with him. To avoid detection, they traveled incognito. [X-Men (2nd series) #53, X-Men Unlimited (1st series) #11]


However, the X-Men had just been struck at from within by their mentor Charles Xavier, who had become the megalomaniacal entity known as Onslaught and attacked his students. Apparently when Xavier had mind-wiped Magneto months ago, a seed of Magnus's dark ego had infected Xavier, causing him to spawn a new malevolent lifeform. Joined by the Avengers, the X-Men believed that Magneto had somehow been deliberately responsible for Onslaught, and sent a team out looking for him. Instead, they found Joseph and Rogue. After a brief battle, the heroes accepted Joseph as an amnesiac Magneto; especially the Scarlet Witch, Magneto’s daughter, who had suffered under the man like no one else, felt that this was a different man when he gently reached out to her.


Joseph and Rogue offered to return with the heroes to battle Onslaught in New York, where he was constantly exposed to people who had known Magneto and reminded Joseph of his past actions. Even some of the human citizens that Joseph rescued cried out in terror, thinking him to be the true master of magnetism and believing him responsible for the city’s destruction that had actually been caused by Onslaught. With every bit of information he learned, Joseph became more depressed and wondered what kind of man he had been, and the attempts of Xavier and Captain America to cheer him up only helped to a certain degree. After Onslaught was defeated, Joseph remained with the X-Men as a member, though some like Wolverine and Gambit were highly uneasy around him. [Onslaught crossover, X-Men (2nd series) #57]

In an attempt to learn more about himself, Joseph tried to open the X-Men’s files on Magneto, but he was given no access to them. Instead, he had the computer search for Avalon, Magneto’s crashed space station, and learned that its remains were scattered all over the Andes in South America. Although Rogue asked Joseph not to leave, he felt that he had to research his past and departed. Once there, Joseph found a group of Acolytes, Magneto's former disciples, who were worshipping the remains of the space station. Uncovering Magneto's personal quarters from the fallen station, Joseph was horrified when he accessed the man’s logbook entries and heard the hatred in his voice.

Right then, he was approached by Fabian Cortez, who, while working together with Amelia Voght, needed Joseph to pretend to be the resurrected Magneto in order to stop current Acolyte leader, Exodus. Apparently, Exodus planned to re-raise Avalon, ignorant to the massive worldwide environmental catastrophes this would cause. Reluctantly, Joseph agreed to pretend he had Magneto's full memories and convinced Exodus to put off his plan. All might've been well, but Cortez deliberately sabotaged the rule by giving Joseph false information on Magneto's history, which led to him being unable to convince Exodus with his posturing. However, Joseph not only had to deal with a division in the Acolytes' ranks, for they had also been tracked down by operatives of Humanity's Last Stand, who intended to get rid of Magneto’s followers once and for all with a nuclear strike. Both problems ended up being solving at once, for Joseph's feats of power and devotion to save the Acolytes from the human's assault convinced everyone, even Exodus, that he was for all intents and purposes the real Magneto. For a brief instant, Joseph even convinced himself that he was really Magneto and was no longer pretending. Despite having learned next to nothing of Magneto’s history, Joseph had at least gained some insight to the man’s personality. Never wanting to become like him, Joseph asked the Acolytes to disband and returned to his place among the X-Men. [Magneto #1-4]



As Joseph and Rogue grew closer, considerable friction developed at an equal rate between he and Gambit. The two men actually came to blows over a misunderstanding, but Rogue ended the fight, telling them that she expected more and better from them. At the same time, the X-Men were slowly lecturing Joseph about his past, using the Danger Room’s holographic systems to actually show him their past confrontations with the master of magnetism. Everyone present, including houseguest Quicksilver, was surprised how deeply changed Joseph was from Magneto. He was friendly and cared about others; Rogue for example, trying to find a way for her to overcome her inability to touch others. Likewise, despite not remembering the things he had done to his supposed son, Quicksilver, he apologized to him, genuinely regretting any harm he might have caused him. [Uncanny X-Men #338, X-Men (2nd series) #58-59]


Shortly afterwards, the X-Men were caught up in one of the Gamesmaster’s schemes. He took control of every mind in Salem Center and made the X-Men believe that they had achieved their goal: mutants were now publicly accepted and treated like celebrities. Only, for his game to work, the Gamesmaster had kidnapped Jean Grey, the one X-Man who would have seen through the deception right from the start. Joseph’s mind too was hard to manipulate, for he sensed something being amiss and realized that Jean was absent. Once he had convinced Rogue and Gambit at least to consider him being right, they tracked down Jean, only to be confronted by the Gamesmaster. He challenged Joseph, promising to make all the positive changes permanent if he was willing to sacrifice one life – Gambit’s. The world would be a better place, and the man no longer in the way for a relationship with Rogue. Faced with this temptation, Joseph still did the right thing. While pretending to perform the kill, he secretly freed Jean and together they fought the Gamesmaster off. [X-Men Annual ‘97]


Not much later, Joseph found himself spirited to Dunfee, Illinois. At the time, several X-Men and the wards of Generation X, including Franklin Richards, were vacationing there. While alone, Franklin had reached out with his reality-altering powers, and transported Joseph there, blaming him for his parents’ apparent death, as they had sacrificed their lives against Onslaught. The boy wouldn’t listen to reason and threatened to kill Joseph if he wouldn’t return his parents to him. This time, it was Gambit who saved his rival, by keeping young Franklin occupied long enough till his powers were negated by Leech. [X-Men Unlimited (1st series) #14]


On Christmas Eve, Joseph manages to surprise Rogue with a special gift. Over the past weeks, he had assembled components from Xavier's old Z'Nox psi-shielding chamber and re-arranged them into a new apparatus. While standing under it, Rogue could safely touch anyone, without absorbing their memories and personalities. They tried it out with Joseph kissing the grateful X-woman on the forehead. [Uncanny X-Men #341]


Later that night, a confrontation with Gladiator of the Shi'ar Imperial Guard led to Joseph, Rogue and a small group of X-Men being teleported to the Shi'ar Empire, which was under attack by the alien Phalanx. In fact, the entire Imperium was at stake, for the Phalanx were about to reach the breeding chambers on the Shi’ar homeworld, where they could infect and assimilate the next generation of the Shi’ar. The X-Men were accompanied by Deathbird, a member of the Shi'ar Imperial family and former enemy of the X-Men, in their battles against the Phalanx and ultimately they succeeded. To a large degree, this victory was because of Joseph lashing out in anger. Somehow, during the battles, the option of a genocide being committed in front of his eyes, he experienced some sort of deja vu, accessing Magneto’s memories of the Holocaust, which must have been copied along when he was cloned. [Uncanny X-Men #342-345]


On their way back to Earth, the X-Men’s ship was damaged, and they crash-landed in the Savage Land in Antarctica. They were confronted by a trio of bounty hunters from Gambit's past and Nanny, a robot guard that was maintaining one of Magneto’s old bases. Eventually, the team ended up separated and lost in the base. Wandering around, Joseph bumped into the mysterious Maggott, who had just been teleported there, along with former X-Men Archangel and Psylocke. Joseph was rather surprised that Maggott not only seemed to recognize him but, in fact, considered him a friend and was happy to see him. Before they could further talk, though, Joseph was struck from behind. When he woke up, the trial of Gambit had already been started, all of the present X-Men being forced to participate by a man wearing the guise of Erik the Red. The exposure of Gambit’s past dealings with Sinister and the Marauders led to him being left behind in Antarctica, while Joseph and the other X-Men returned to the mansion in Westchester, unaware that "Erik the Red" was in fact the true Magneto. [Uncanny X-Men #347-350]


Over the next days, the X-Men were busy making repairs to their damaged mansion, and Maggott avoided every contact with Joseph, for he had sworn his attacker – the true Magneto – to secrecy. Trying to keep her earlier promise to help Joseph uncover his past, she even went as far as suggesting for her to absorb his memories but, considering this a too risky move, he declined. Then, while watching a TV announcement about some possible “cure” for mutants, Joseph became rather mad and suddenly had a seizure. Rogue found him comatose and gave him CPR and mouth-to-mouth until a few second later, Joseph came around again and seemed fine. The cause for this strange effect was never found. [Uncanny X-Men #353-354]


A couple of days later, the Mossad agent Sabra arrived, intent to make “Magneto“ pay for his crimes. For a brief instant, Maggott pondered to let her kill Joseph, but he ultimately did the right thing by telling the truth. Joseph was even more surprised by the fact that he was not Magneto than Sabra, and both of them wanted to uncover the full truth, which is why he left with her for Israel, in order to once and for all determine his true nature. They had Maggott promise not to tell anyone why they had left, as not to jeopardize their investigations. Sabra reasoned that, for Magneto to leave the “imposter“ Joseph among the X-Men, he must have been planning some bigger scheme. [X-Men (2nd series) #73]


For weeks, Joseph lived on some Israeli military base where he was subjected to a number of tests and examinations to determine his true nature. During this time, he was visited by Quicksilver, who in the meantime had gotten over the fact that he was now older than his supposed father. Pietro encouraged Joseph that, even if he was not the true Magneto, he was the kind of person he had always hoped his father would have been. Eventually, the scientists uncovered evidence that Joseph was artificially created from cloned cells of Magneto.

He has since returned to the X-mansion to aid them in their time of need.