Could a sniper kill Magneto?

[let's rock]

No, he wouldn't be aware the shot was fired, the round would hit him before he herd the gun report, and the muzzle flash from a sniper rifle isn't visible at that range due to the long barrels of longe range rifles, so no

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

Magneto can control and sense magnetic fields, so he'd probably feel the change that the bullet would cause in the field nearby and be able to block it. If the bullet isn't made out of metal, as some have suggested, he'd likely just fly out of its way. Granted, such acts would take precise timing, but for someone who essentially has a spider-sense for metal, I don't feel like that would be problem.

 

[Quazimofo]

Depends, he is aware that a lot of people hate him, so he might have a strong magnetic field around him at all times... However they could make the bullet out of something other than metal and BOOM, headshot.

Pretty much this. Though I think he can 'sense' metal in a way, which means that he'd sense the bullet coming at him and be able to stop it. I say that mainly based on the second movie where he 'senses' the iron in the guard's bloodstream and tears it out of him.

yeah, they are fairly clear about this in first class. he feels the guy at the bank's finger ring and stops him from activating the silent alarm (because there is now way he could have seen the ring or known when to stop it), and he openly states he could feel the metal of the naval guns turning towards them on the cuban beach at the end.

 

[Denamic]

High caliber tungsten round.
Mission accomplished.

 

[Chrinik]

Just make the bullet out of something unmagnetic like, I dunno, a lead core with a tombak casing...but I´m not an expert on this...<.<

Bottomline: Magneto stopping bullets is bullshit...but it´s also bullshit how he can hover...what, is HE magnetic too?

Oh, and a Sniper wouldn´t need to shoot at his helmet people...aim for center mass...headshots are fancy, but ineffective, as in "hard to pull off" in real life.

 

[JDLY]

Spoiler

Also as demonstrated in the movies he can only control small amounts of metal over a distance of about 100 feet. Look at his "plastic prison":.

First, what about when he moves the Golden Gate Bridge in the 3rd movie. I do believe that that bridge is longer than 100ft.

OT: Lets set up the scenario with a few more details.
First: The only effective material for a bullet is one made out of some kind of metal. As somebody said earlier, other materials would either disintegrate or shatter. So we can assume that the bullet is made out of some kind of metal.

Second: Magnetic fields are not limited to manipulating only iron, nickle, and cobalt. All Materials fall into three categories when dealing with magnetism- Ferromagnetic (strongly attracted to magnetic fields, eg: iron), Paramagnetic (weakly attracted to magnetic fields, eg: platinum and oxygen), and Diamagnetic (weakly repelled from magnetic fields, eg: copper and water)

More proof that magnetic fields affect more than metals can be found at your local hospital in the form of an MRI machine, which uses magnetic fields to observe the brain, which is obviously not metal.

So we can also assume that, given a strong enough magnetic field, any object could be attracted or repelled.

Third: Magneto can "sense" metals, as seen in the second movie when he "senses" that the guard has too much iron in his blood, and in all the movies when he "senses" Wolverine's adamantium skeleton.

So, given the scenario. A sniper shoots a bullet, which is limited to metals, from far enough away that Magneto doesn't know he is there. This means that there is a period of time between the bullet leaving the barrel and hitting it's intended target. Now Magneto can sense metals, so we could probably assume he would notice if one was traveling above two times the speed of sound.

Now the question is, can he create magnetic fields centered only around him, or elsewhere? It turns out that it doesn't matter, because if he could create a field elsewhere he could simply create it wherever he had to to stop the bullet. If he can only center them on himself then we can use the fact that magnetic fields become exponentially stronger the closer you are and say that the closer the bullet was to him when he repels it, the easier it would be to repel.

And lastly, could he stop one that wasn't made of a strongly magnetic material. Obviously if it was a Ferromagnetic material then it would be easy. If it was a Paramagnetic material it would depend on how strong the field was. I'm inclined to believe he could make one strong enough seeing as he can rip the Golden Gate Bridge from it's foundation. And if it was a Diamagnetic material, such as copper, then all he would have to do is create a strong field and it would be deflected.

That's my two-cents anyway.

Thank you for compelling ignoring my point on reaction time.

I'll dismiss the Golden Gate thing as grade-A bullshit from Hack-extraordinaire Brett Ratner, X-man Last Stand has been all but ret-conned out of existence.

If Magneto could move metal that far away then that contradicts his "Plastic Prison" as no way does that have not a scrap of metal for a mile radius. The only possible explanation for the Golden Gate bullshit is he can sense and move objects a massive distance away if they are massive in size.

Outside of that the consistency is clear: small objects (from bullet to skeleton size) he can only sense or affect ONLY within a few hundred feet. He can never tell if Wolverine is within a mile radius, only if he is "close" usually within ear-shot.

Ferro-magnetism or paramagnetism are also irrelevant as regardless of Magneto's name it is REPEATEDLY made clear that he has power over ALL METALS equally!

The point about the speed of the bullet is REACTION TIME!

You can't do ANYTHING faster than 200 milliseconds. It DOES NOT MATTER how "strong" the stimulus is, even if to his magneto-senses the high velocity bullet is super-obvious to him he CANNOT respond quicker! This is true for all people with everything, from pressing button in video games.

If magneto's metal-sense instantly detected the supersonic bullet within 500 feet even (1/10th of a mile) he still could not do anything to counter it. It is just too damn fast.

But writers all too often from sci-fi to more grounded fiction seem to give all characters impossible reaction times. The reality is a human with zero-reaction time would be capable of absolutely extraordinary feats, they literally could dodge bullets.

PS: you don't have to make a bullet out of metal. A Composite of ceramic, carbon fibre, teflon and iodine for mass would do that job. The only reason it hasn't been made as magneto doesn't exist, there is no pressure to make a non-metallic bullet, metal is "ideal" for the job, but it is not the ONLY material for the job.

I didn't purposely ignore your post on reaction time, it just wasn't something I was addressing in my post, so I didn't feel a need to mention it. His effective range (which is what I was getting at) does have to do with what I said. Mainly, if the sniper was far enough away, there could be up to a four second delay between when the bullet left the barrel and when it hit him, and if his range was large enough to sense it when it left the barrel, four seconds is plenty of time to react.

I meant no offence to you or your knowledge, I was simply adding what I know to the conversation. Such as the part about the different magnetic categories. Yes, he has the power to control all metals equally, as you said, but many people were talking about using "non-magnetic" metals such as copper or lead. I was pointing out to them that even if his powers didn't already branch to all metals, there is no truly "non-magnetic" metal.

Lastly, as I said I was simply bringing my ideas to the discussion, and I didn't know that a composite of, as you said, ceramic, carbon fiber, teflon and iodine, would work as a bullet.

It was not my intention to insult you or your knowledge in any way.

 

[Chrinik]

I meant no offence to you or your knowledge, I was simply adding what I know to the conversation. Such as the part about the different magnetic categories. Yes, he has the power to control all metals equally, as you said, but many people were talking about using "non-magnetic" metals such as copper or lead. I was pointing out to them that even if his powers didn't already branch to all metals, there is no truly "non-magnetic" metal.

Well, if he has the power to control all metals, a bullet out of friggin plastics will not shatter when it hits his probably pretty soft FACE...
People, you completely ignore the fact that ANYTHING going mach 3 can pierce human tissue...and probably shatter inside of him making a much larger exit wound completely ripping his skull apart...
So I´d just use a bullet out of something "not metal" and shoot him with that...if he´s not wearing all around Kevlar, he wouldn´t be able to stop it...at all.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

What about non-magnetic metals, or even something like depleted uranium? I'm sure you could make a bullet out of that.

Since pretty much the entire periodic table is non magnetic and a fair amount of it is metallic this is a fair point. Also uranium is a rare earth metal.

 

[Chezza]

So humans at one point thought "Hey plastic weapons can stop him!" but they forgot to consider all the others mutants. So why not develop a very strong plastic bullet? Surely it can be made. If not some other material other than metal

 

[Burning Monkey]

I haven't read the entire thread but I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this. Magneto does a lot more then just have the ability to control metals.

Magneto actually has complete control over the electromagnetic spectrum. He has been shown by this to control gravity, radio waves, microwaves, terahertz radiation, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, x-rays, and gamma ray, open wormholes, form force fields which can take hits from Thor's hammer and nuclear explosions, and some telepathic abilities.

He can sense the electrochemical activity in people and control it. He's paralyzed all the X-Men before by controlling this.

The range of his powers has been shown to cover most of the planet. (he's altered the Earths magnetic field, and controlled Astroid M while it was in space). They've had attempted assassinations on him in the comics multiple times with "plastic" bullets and what not and he's foiled all of them.

We aren't even considering his "costume" and helmet. Which are all held together/created with his powers. He's taken hits even without his force field (which is normally up in some form whenever he is awake) from SHIELD gunships and not been killed.

So no, I don't believe a sniper would be the one to get Magneto.

 

[pendragonown]

Doubtful. Although his helmet and costume are probably bullet resistant. He could be generating a magnetic field, but you could shoot him with a flint-head arrow or something.

Failing that, just slit his throat while he's asleep. No way his powers can stop that.



Also, can someone tell me- if captain america's shield is indestructible, how did they make it into a shield?

" During one of his experiments to fuse vibranium with an experimental iron alloy,[5] MacLain falls asleep and awakens to find the experiment a success. This is due to an unknown catalyst entering the process during his slumber, and he is unable to duplicate the result. The vibranium-iron alloy mix is then poured into a mold for a tank's upper hatch to create the disc shape and painted to become Captain America's symbol." Taken from a wiki. Hope that helps.

OT: I doubt it. Using a non metal weapon like poison or something like that would probably be easier.

 

[Slayer_2]

Use a hardened ceramic round, that might work.

 

[DannyHale09]

Even if he did sense it..bullets are fast and he is an old man. He would not have the reaction time to.. React.

 

[Zenn3k]

Shoot at Magneto with Aluminum bullets.

Aluminum isn't magnetic.

 

[Vykrel]

absolutely. hes not a jedi, so as long as someone caught him off guard, they would be able to shoot him. especially a sniper, considering that the bullet would reach him before the sound would.

 

[Simeon Ivanov]

If it's not a metal bullet, probably. But you'd need a damn good sniper. Like the TF2 Aussie

 

[Mr.Squishy]

I say we call the Mythbusters.

Mythbusters: X-men Edition would be AMAZING.

On a semi-related note, technically, couldn't you 'kill' Wolverine by dropping him in lava?

No, he's got Plot Armor. You could fire him into the sun or a black hole, and he'd be back in time for supper. X-men heaven doesn't have pearly gates, it's got a revolving door.

 

[LordLundar]

Magnetism is one of the four fundamental forces of the universe (gravity, strong nuclear and weak nuclear are the other three) so it does affect on the atomic level. To that end, anything fired at him could be stopped outright with a strong magnetic force. Whether he generates that level of force all the time is the question and I personally doubt it as that would cause all sorts of issues. The fact that he can be imprisoned in a Lexan cell is proof of that.

As for his helmet, he wears it because he cannot affect attacks that affect the mind, such as Charles Xavier's telepathic abilities, especially while he's concentrating on his magnetic control. The helmet, much like Juggernaut's, is made and designed to resist such attacks passively.