Vicious terrorists? Or principled anti-heroes?

Black Adam- Magneto

Magneto? One of the main antagonists of the Marvel Universe, and the X-Men’s chief antagonist. Beginning in the early ‘80s, X-scribe Chris Claremont wrote Magneto as a relatively noble defender of mutant rights (a mutant Malcolm X) and a Holocaust survivor, although I think he’s been shown more recently to be a murderous terrorist again.

Once I started to pay attention to comic books again, I noticed that Black Adam was no longer purely the antithesis of Captain Marvel. It seems that DC —via Geoff Johns and David Goyer— played the character as not only an anti-hero, but as a surrogate with which to address real world tensions between the Middle East and the West. He also looks really, really cool.

Commonalities:
While both were initially portrayed as conventional villains desirous of world domination, they have each been shown to be principled —if often favoring scorched earth methods in dealing with their adversaries— antiheroes. Both are world figures, not to be trifled with.

Differences:
Black Adam is more or less the Middle East’s own Superman, and as such is a mystical reincarnate, whereas Magneto is the master of magnetism.

Alternate histories:

BA: Theodore Adam is borne into a middle eastern community that is oppressed by the Third Reich; his vast metahuman abilities emerge as he defends his people against Nazi depredation. He marries a woman named Sindella: after she flees her vengeful husband, she gives birth to the sorceress-to-be Zatanna and another child. Meanwhile, Adam assumes the identity of Black Adam in his campaign to avenge metahuman oppression. He assembles an organization (which includes his children; neither he nor they know of their true relationship) to oppose the Teen Titans and other superhuman operatives. For many years, he vacillates between more peaceable methods and utter hostility towards conventional humanity. Black Adam takes over the nation of Kahndaq, which he fashions as a refuge for metahumans.

MA: An unscrupulous man named Erik Lensherr is possessed by the spirit of an ancestor, which results in gaining mystically originated control of magnetic fields. Dubbing himself Magneto, Lensherr opposes many in the heroic community: his methods evolve from indiscriminate terrorism towards an old world “eye for eye” brand of justice. He enters an uneasy alliance with the Liberty Legion, but he becomes estranged from the heroic community in time. Magneto becomes the head of state of the nation of Genosha, but runs amok worldwide and is briefly depowered.