Warning! Spoilers ahead for S.W.O.R.D. #5
In the latest issue of Marvel Comics' Marvel's King in Black, Magneto ordered that Cortez be resurrected immediately. This is because Cortez wished to present a case to Krakoa's leading government known as Quiet Council, seeking to argue against the laws prohibiting the murder of humans by mutants.
In S.W.O.R.D. #5 from writer Al Ewing and artist Valerio Schiti, the bulk of the X-Men's space program is now focused on the raging Snarkwar plaguing the galaxy. However, Cortez has been rushed from his resurrection straight to the Quiet Council at the request of Magneto, (leaving Cortez with no time to even put clothes on). Regardless, Cortez still makes his case against Krakoa's second law to kill no man. Using the reasoning that humankind in on the inevitable decline, he questions why killing them should be considered murder.
With a bit of pressure from the council , Cortez reveals that he and his sister were ostracized by their Homo sapien family . Despite being given six figures and a property in Florida, Cortez still feels persecuted, providing the real source of his desire to push back on Krakoa's second law. In response, Magneto then shares words of his own, revealing how truly misguided and foolish Cortez is while also proving his own evolution from a classic villain of comics' past to a genuine leader of mutantkind on their new island nation.
Cortez was so full of his own self-importance that he didn't even realize that Magneto granted his audience solely for the purpose to shut him down...hard. This is why he is rushed without clothes, and why the full Council hasn't even been gathered. Magneto of all mutants has known true pain and persecution at the hands of humans, and yet he's in full of Krakoa's laws, as he now knows that that's the true way to live in peace as Homo superior, not to murder humankind as he once did. While Cortez still mumbles about wanting an exemption from Krakoa's second law, the Council disbands now that Magneto has made his point and epically put Cortez in his place.
While Cortez still tries to demand respect from the Council, believing himself to be invaluable to S.W.O.R.D. and to Krakoa, the meeting ends with the reveal that Cortez has been replaced, leaving the misguided mutant to realize how unimportant and wrong he truly is. Regardless, it's amazing to see how far Magneto has come in Marvel Comics, and this latest interaction proves it perfectly, seeing him committed to peace with humankind in the service of peace for his own kind in the Marvel Universe. While Magneto may still have darkness within him, he's still come a long way.
