This fan story is available in the fanzine: Celestial Toybox #10 Julie Fitch 1501 Genesee Rd. South Euclid, OH 44121 "Cannonball Express: Dangerous Crossing" by Alice Aldridge "Cannonball Express: Hear That Lonesome Whistle Blow" by Sue Collins These two stories are part of an ongoing series that's been running in the Celestial Toybox fanzines; I know this from the flyers, but in fact I own only this zine, since Celestial Toybox has not responded to my SASE for price information. Both stories feature Magneto. In "Dangerous Crossing" he's a main character; in "Lonesome Whistle" he's an important secondary character. I'll review "Dangerous Crossing" this time and get to "Lonesome Whistle" next time. Review by Alara Rogers aleph@netcom.com The background of "Dangerous Crossing" (as I have reconstructed it from within the story itself): Magneto and Lee Forrester were married, and Lee had just given birth to twins, when Magneto was forced to go into battle against the Shadow King to protect her and the children. For reasons left unclear but that seem to stem from concern for them, he abandoned them after the battle (perhaps this is the "sick, awful cost" of victory referenced in UXM #274-275.) He then went to the Savage Land, defeated and killed Zaladane as in the above-referenced UXM issues, and then, weakened emotionally and psychically by all that had happened, was overwhelmed by the mental cries of the mutant slaves in Genosha. He went to Genosha in a murderous rage and threatened to annihilate it. Only the pleading of Chief Magistrate Anderson, and her pointing out that such an act would kill thousands of innocent children, many of them potential mutants, stayed his hand, but his presence and the electromagnetic pulse he'd used to disable the Genoshans' anti-mutant technology became a flashpoint of rebellion. The mutants rose up against their oppressors, and blood flowed in the streets. Magneto was forced to take political control of Genosha in order to save the country from tearing itself apart. As the story begins, Lee Forrester receives what seems to be a transmission from the husband she hasn't seen in months. He appears to be thoroughly insane, and demands that she turn their children over to him. Lee checks the news reports, learns that Magneto has taken over Genosha and that a news blackout has been imposed on the country, and fears that the transmission she was barely able to believe is true-- Magneto is insane. She vows to protect their children from him, no matter what, and returns home to Florida. Magneto comes to Florida, seeming far saner than the man who made that transmission. He is having a lot of trouble with Genosha; the human populace is terrified of him, and it sickens him that they see him the same way he saw the guards in Auschwitz. Doom, an ally, has advised him that he can somewhat allay the fears of the human populace by bringing his human wife to live with him, as a visible symbol that he is not a human-hating monster, since sooner or later the humans may revolt, feeling they have nothing to lose, if they remain so terrified. Though Magneto was reluctant to use Lee for political purposes, psychologically he desperately needs her right now, and he has come to believe this is a good idea, so he's coming to ask Lee to join him. He doesn't seem to expect her to be there, though he does expect the children and their caretaker, and becomes apprehensive when he finds the children missing. A note from Lee confirms his worst fears-- in the note, she warns the children's caretaker that Magneto is dangerously insane, and that the children must be taken away from here and from him for their own safety. History is repeating itself; once again his human wife has fled him and taken his children out of fear of his power. Magneto is plunged into a morass of rage and despair as he recognizes that Lee had reason to be so afraid... and as he weeps hysterically, he sees the ghost of his first wife, Magda. Clearly no longer rational, Magnus follows the ghost, running after her, until she turns on him and accuses him of having survived when his whole family were murdered, when people died by the thousands around him at Auschwitz. The pain and despair intensify with her accusations, until Magnus realizes, horrified, that the weakness he feels isn't just emotional- - *something* is draining his life force, rendering him unconscious as it feeds on his pain. We see, though he doesn't, that what he thought the ghost of his wife is in fact the demon D'Spayre. Meanwhile D'Spayre appears to Lee in the form of Magneto, acting thoroughly insane and threatening to destroy everyone in the area. Lee, though terrified, stands him down, and realizes that a lot of what Magneto is saying is totally out of character. After he vanishes, she realizes that the power she's just sensed is not electromagnetic in nature-- and, once she realizes that, she recognizes what she's up against. D'Spayre, the demon that drove her father to suicide and that she once fought off in the past, has come for her again. But even though she knows what she's fighting, now, can Lee successfully drive out D'Spayre when she has so many fears and doubts about her relationship with Magneto... while all the time D'Spayre is continuing to torture Magneto, pushing him closer to the brink of sanity, and convincing him that Lee has betrayed him and must be destroyed? Review: I *really* like this story. It has some technical problems-- too many exclamation points, for one thing. (Never use an exclamation point in narrative unless the universe is exploding.) And it's extraordinarily melodramatic, but then, I love melodrama. The characterization is very good. Lee is portrayed as very strong, but not superhuman. Even knowing what D'Spayre is doing to her, she is still vulnerable to her fears, and those fears are entirely normal for a woman in her position-- she doesn't know what Magneto has done in Genosha, only the garbled news reports that imply something awful, and she doesn't know how he feels about her, or humanity in general. This seems very much in character with the Lee Forrester we saw in various issues of New Mutants. As for Magneto, I get a little sick of stories in which this man who's been brutally emotionally abused all his life is strongwilled enough to overcome any mental onslaught. In this story, Magneto is capable of putting up very little resistance to D'Spayre's manipulations-- he argues with D'Spayre desperately, but we know he actually believes everything D'Spayre is saying deep down inside, even when it's totally irrational, such as the intimation that Magneto abandoned his family by surviving when they were shot instead of just laying down to die with them. We know he actually *does* believe he abandoned them by surviving, though his rationality tells him otherwise, so when he argues that he was only a child who wanted to live, we know he doesn't really believe it. Some of the stuff the authors have D'Spayre use on him is truly disturbing-- a sequence in which D'Spayre tries to convince him that all women are inherently betrayers, for instance, or another in which D'Spayre shows him false images of himself raping Wanda (this one horrifies him so much that he actually manages to muster the strength to attack D'Spayre, but it doesn't help much.) And although we know Magneto is capable of great emotional strength, I find it totally realistic that he would succumb to D'Spayre's attack the way he does, since the entity is using his own traumatic memories against him. The climax of the battle is a little bit sappy, but I like the way the aftermath is handled. Spoilers: Okay, we all knew Magneto and Lee were going to beat D'Spayre, right? They do, but they don't immediately throw themselves into one another's arms, even though it was their love for one another that defeated the demon in the first place. Instead, there's a painful scene in which Magneto tries to explain what he's been doing in Genosha, and gives a number of practical reasons why he wants Lee to come with him, none of which are what Lee needs to hear right now but all of which are totally in character. And after he finally admits he needs her, she doesn't immediately tell him she'll go-- she says she needs to think about it. Of course, given the general tone of the story it's pretty obvious what her eventual decision will be, but I think it's realistic that the fears and doubts raised by D'Spayre do not simply go away because the demon was defeated, and that Lee is not sure the love she feels for Magnus is enough. I like that. The ending is a little sappy, but then, I guess when you have such extreme melodrama and angst, a sappy ending is justified. :-) Anyway, I highly recommend this story. However, "Celestial Toybox" costs something like $20, and consists mostly of Star Trek (TNG and DS9), Blake's 7 and other fanfic original fiction. It has only the two Marvel stories. So the price might be steep. I am enough of an obsessive about Magneto to buy it anyway, and besides, I like the other fandoms, though I found the stories set in those fandoms to be a little shallow and have no emotional power (surprising-- Blake's 7 fan fiction is often some of the most emotionally powerful stuff out there.) If this is outside your price range, consider teaming up with some other fans who'd like the story, pooling your funds to buy the zine, and then sharing the zine amongst yourselves. The other problem is that I can't get Celestial Toybox to respond to my inquiries. So who knows how reliable they are about mail order? I'm hoping that they will be at Eclecticon, a fanzine convention I'm attending in November, and I will be able to buy the zines with the rest of this series in person there. Try writing them, but don't be too surprised if it takes a long, long time to get a reply.