This summer Marvel Comics, home of The Avengers, The Fantastic Four,The X-men, and Spider-Man, is smashing all their alternate realities together in a story event called “Secret Wars.” Alternate-reality versions of all the heroes must battle for supremacy in a gigantic cross-over that will affect every single comic that Marvel publishes. No one knows what version of the Marvel Universe will emerge from the wreckage and become the one that we read stories about. But it looks like Marvel will get its first hard reboot. It’s a great opportunity for Marvel to up their diversity, and to fix a lingering origin issue that can’t get swept away by gently fudging numbers. 

The best fix for Magneto’s origin problem is to reboot him and Professor X into the heart of the Civil Rights Movement.