Whether I end up playing Marvel Crisis Protocol with XenonMage, KinpatsuSamurai, or other local friends, a good superhero team is only going to be as good as its villains. There was no way I was going to start picking up X-Men miniatures and not pick up the iconic Magneto, who has always been one of the most compelling and interesting “villain” characters to me in the Marvel universe. He doesn’t look like anything to scoff at on the table, either, and having Toad as a cost 2 unit that I can use to fill in squads is pretty swell, too.

Magneto comes with two pieces of terrain that he can summon and then throw all over the board at his foes, because that is how the Magneto do. Like Cyclops and Storm I love the balance between surface area to paint and play with and detail on these models, and I love how Magneto’s basing looks. Positioning the terrain pieces close to him and opposite that rear metal piece on his base makes me think of all those movie scenes where he’d just hovering droves of metal around himself, and is really evocative.

These were great to work with and paint, though I will admit that Toad had a bit of a varnishing accident. That being said, if any one of my Marvel miniatures was going to be covered in gooey, bubbly, sludgy varnish bits, it’s probably appropriate that it would wind up being Toad. Not to overthink Toad further, but I think if I were to re-do this model I would probably tone down the brightness of the bricks on the basing, since the bright red bricks almost take away from the brightness of the rest of the figure.

Magneto, though, I’m very happy with, especially in terms of how I tackled the musculature. And I love the little details on his terrain bits, like the traffic light at the base of one of the two extra pieces. All things considered a very iconic and fun kit and I think they’re going to look great if I’m ever fielding the Brotherhood to take on my friends’ hero squads.

“An uncompromising freedom fighter for his fellow mutants, his extreme beliefs for mutant superiority drove a wedge between Magneto and his close friend, Professor Xavier. Magneto’s vision for mutant kind caused him to form the Brotherhood of Mutants, who fight for mutant supremacy. When Magneto discovered and recruited him, Toad embraced the mission to conquer the human race who had rejected and degraded him.” – Toad & Magneto, Atomic Mass Games.