Lorna Dane: Polaris Appreciation 2018

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That is almost certainly a dreamscape likely the one Esme seems to give her in the pregnancy scene in the previous promo of Reeva's dream (which looks to be making a mutant homeland out of the United States).

Not quite the mutant controlled Genosha of the comics off the coast of Africa. You had hundreds of thousands of humans on the Island when the mutants took over and she was in the cabinet and there was most certainly humans in the cabinet.

Mutant controlled Genosha was supposed mutant Israel analogy after the take over. The dumbed down versions like in WATXM where there were just mutants there never as interesting. The story and the evolution from a CSA type state to a mutant Israel was one of the X-Men's better storylines in its history.

Damn you're right I didn't notice she unfurls banners with a DNA symbol and there is that blue blurry stuff above and below

Well thats... disappointing

Meh

We'll have to see how it goes in the show

[jmc247]

One ex-Marvel artist remembers Lorna's 50th.



I still have great appreciation for his 3D 1960s art.

Damn you're right I didn't notice she unfurls banners with a DNA symbol and there is that blue blurry stuff above and below

Well thats... disappointing

Meh

We'll have to see how it goes in the show

From the EW

The Gifted: Premieres Sept. 25 on Fox

At the end of the X-Men (or rather, X-Men-adjacent) drama’s first season, the Strucker family splintered, the Mutant Underground disbanded, and Sentinel Services lost a loyal agent in Jace (Coby Bell). With so many characters moving in different directions, season 2 expands the universe, delving into more mutant groups like the Morlocks and the frosty Inner Circle, led by Reeva Payge (Empire alum Grace Byers). “One of our big goals [for the second season] was humanizing all the different perspectives,” showrunner Matt Nix explains. “This season’s really been about doubling down on the characters, the themes, and the aspects of last season that we loved the most.” Doubling down? Where’s Multiple Man when you need him? —Shirley Li

https://ew.com/tv/fall-tv-preview-20...sept-25-on-fox

The real question is if they present reasonable differing sides to the argument between the MU and Reeva and where it looks like Lorna and Esme will pretty quickly end up or will it be pure Xavierism (with the Mutant Underground) vs Reeva's dream? Because, even before the current crop of interviews one could tell Reeva's dream only can be enacted by the destruction of most of humanity.

Skyler Samuels: Polaris who is still adjusting to this world starts to ask questions, is this really the right thing to be doing, is this the most ethical thing to be doing and I think the questions Polaris starts asking start to effect Esme and Esme starts to doubt the ethics of the Inner Circle...

Esme dedicates her lack of a mom to her relationship to Polaris’ baby. Reeva, Phoebe and Sophie are harboring the anger of what happened to their family in the past and while Esme carries that anger I think she starts to see the hope in doing it right. Anger doesn’t always have to be the fire that moves you it can also be the want to do it better than we had it growing up and so that I think that the idea of family starts to separate them throughout the season and eventually puts them on opposing sides.

https://comicbook.com/2018/09/11/vid...ks-the-gifted/

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The real question is if they present reasonable differing sides to the argument between the MU and Reeva and where it looks like Lorna and Esme will pretty quickly end up or will it be pure Xavierism (with the Mutant Underground) vs Reeva's dream? Because, even before the current crop of interviews one could tell Reeva's dream only can be enacted by the destruction of most of humanity.

I didn't get that impression at all

But there is still the Morlocks alternative to Underground

And I still doubt Lorna and Esme just rejoin the MU

So yeah I'm pretty sure it'll be more nuanced than you are thinking

Matt Nix seems like he has a good head on his shoulders and his vision is genuinely about offering different sides that viewers can sympathize with

[jmc247]

I didn't get that impression at all

But there is still the Morlocks alternative to Underground

And I still doubt Lorna and Esme just rejoin the MU

So yeah I'm pretty sure it'll be more nuanced than you are thinking

Matt Nix seems like he has a good head on his shoulders and his vision is genuinely about offering different sides that viewers can sympathize with

AH, I like Matt Nix a great deal and he says the right things about what has been missing in genre fiction for a long time, but that doesn't mean either of us know what is going to happen with Lorna at the end of the season. Next season will tell the story and neither of us control the outcome so please don't get offended for my take aways from Skler's comments.

Skler Samuels: Reeva... we get to see her backstory as well... and Reeva, Phoebe and Sophie harbor the anger in what happened to their families in the past... Esme starts to see the hope in doing it right.

minute 9:20

Doing the mutant homeland right, or is it the idea the MU is right or a third way? We don't know... that was my point.

Polaris feeds Esme's doubts about the ethics of the Inner Circle and her comment at 9:50... "eventually that puts them (the triplets) on opposing sides". Does the Inner Circle which is currently the Brotherhood in all but name turn into something like Hellfire with different factions? Do they return to the Underground? Do they get a mutant nation somewhere that is more reasonable then carving land out of the U.S. (the last time that was tried was Mutant X)?

I never said I know what will happen AH.

Matt Nix is a wise man no doubt about that, but we will see how he does in threading the needle with Lorna.

And, in other news Emma celebrates a million Chinese social media followers.

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Fair points jmc I don't disagree that we do not know. And yeah I wish I could download that Chinese app. Apparently Dumont switched from Weibo to something called "Douyin" I think. But that seems harder for me to access without understanding Chinese characters and how to type them

I'm jealous they get special attention lol, it's interesting to me how she targets her messaging differently to the Chinese fans like it's more general or universal things anyone could relate to. I hope that market can legally support the show since it seems so large and energetic. I also noticed a sizable presence of the fandom from Turkey and Brazil. Not sure exactly why those countries (can speculate the anti authoritarian themes/themes about grotesque social inequalities are appealing).

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Episode #6: got your siX

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In this scene we see how Polaris is "corrupting" a young mutant

At first she is giving off a beautiful display of water manipulation it is almost like a carnival show or something

Suddenly it forms into a ball and slams down, destroying a vase

Much to Lorna's approval

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This is the result - a nearby Caitlin Strucker freaks out and tells Lorna she has issues, needs to stop trying to get these kids all about fighting

Lorna tells Caitlin that is life now, as mutants there will always be fighting

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Later Lorna continues her new purpose and attempts to train more young mutants

This time including Lauren and Wes

The first kid passes her test of blasting away a thrown piece of scrap metal

Wes gives Lorna an illusion the object is a flower

Lorna freaks out and delivers a ranting speech giving us insight into her more militant and angry views "you're gonna have to depend on each other JUST TO SURVIVE", showing how her experience in prison has hardened her and the low regard she now has for humanity as a whole

Next she is about to fling something at Lauren, who is ready to try blocking (which Lauren presumably could easily do given her powerset)

Caitlin interrupts of course, much to Lauren and Lorna's chagrin

They have another discussion after

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Ultimately when a crisis occurs and both Reed , Andy, and Marcos need assistance

Caitlin relents and permits Lauren to help alongside Lorna and Wes

They do a 3-mutant combo move, Lauren providing a shield for the truck carrying their friends to bounce off and over the SS barricade, Lorna blocking out all the bullets being fired at the truck, and Wes giving the SS an illusion showing 2 trucks while the actual truck went another direction entirely

It works out well although personally I felt Lorna simply nullifying bullets was a fairly lame way to do things she could/should have done more there imo

Themes of this episode was just basically the Lorna vs Caitlin clash further bringing out Lorna's mindset pretty clearly. Not the most intense or exciting episode ever for her but it was pretty good and had its moments

[jmc247]

Fair points jmc I don't disagree that we do not know. And yeah I wish I could download that Chinese app. Apparently Dumont switched from Weibo to something called "Douyin" I think. But that seems harder for me to access without understanding Chinese characters and how to type them

I'm jealous they get special attention lol, it's interesting to me how she targets her messaging differently to the Chinese fans like it's more general or universal things anyone could relate to. I hope that market can legally support the show since it seems so large and energetic. I also noticed a sizable presence of the fandom from Turkey and Brazil. Not sure exactly why those countries (can speculate the anti authoritarian themes/themes about grotesque social inequalities are appealing).

She had a number of highly energetic pre-The Gifted fans from China who helped build an apparatus of a fandom for her allowing it to spread and build like wildfire when the time was right.



They also worked together with unity of purpose in a way I think fans in the West never did, the closest Polaris fans came to agreeing on anything was a decade ago and even then you had long time fans against her parentage because that wasn't the way it was in their nostalgic era of comic buying. Trust me alot of writers these days still don't emotionally see them as related because they weren't when they came of age reading comics.

In general Polaris fandom's biggest problem is its organization and huge disagreements on basic fundamentals of the character. I have met many fans whose definitive image of Polaris is her making food in the kitchen as a common law wife. That is 100% Polaris to them and everything else is crap The same is true of green haired Jean Polaris fans because that is what she was in their era of comic buying. The same is true of Polaris in just about any era. When one looks for a definitive version of Polaris what people tend to mean is the favorite of their nostalgic era of comics, because there is no definitive Polaris in the comics unlike Jean and a whole bunch of other x-characters where there is a broad agreement on fundamentals for those characters in a way that doesn't exist for Lorna.

[juan678]

[jmc247]

Today is the day for December solicits.

Edit: And, they are out. I hope people kept their expectations rock bottom.

They even skip over as I expected the Lorna centrist issues of Austen's run starting with the wedding and ending with UXM 443 and start with a new trade Uncanny X-Men 444-461.

https://www.newsarama.com/41880-marv...citations.html

Lorna's best comic story line continues to be Genosha UXM 379 thru to Uncanny X-Men 443 and blows away everything else the comics ever done.

[Soulsword323]

I love that Emma/Polaris has such a large Asian fan base. It's super cute how she interacts with all of them.

Only one more week until The Gifted returns! It'll be nice to have some good Lorna content.

[salarta]

Okay, that does it. We have confirmation that Marvel is blacklisting Lorna.

First, there's simply that Marvel has no plans for her whatsoever. It's her 50th anniversary, an idea of her is the most popular character on a TV show, and they're doing absolutely nothing.

Then, there's how Gail Simone thinks a Polaris solo would be a "hard sell." The only reason to think she'd be a hard sell is if she knows any ideas she pitches will get shot down immediately.



But now we have Marvel deliberately skipping over all her most important issues of Uncanny X-Men in the 00s. In February, they have the X-Men: Unstoppable TPB that stops at Uncanny X-Men #424, right before her wedding.



In December this year, they have that Claremont TPB that starts at #444 - right after her most important issues in Austen's run.



In short, they're screwing with fans and screwing over Lorna.

Which I knew they'd do. Months ago, I predicted Marvel would exclude Lorna from everything during her 50th anniversary months because they don't have any respect for her and don't want people to know her value. I was right. They've blacklisted her.

Even if they suddenly reveal she's back as Havok's girlfriend or something, I'm still right that they're blacklisting her. Because at that point, they're not writing Lorna the actual character. They're writing a plot device with the name and visual appearance of Lorna.

I'm still sticking by my word about plans, though. If Marvel announces Lorna doesn't have a solo, mini or oneshot, or leads her own team book, by end of this year, that's when I drop everything Disney. Tempted though I am to do it right now, I'll wait.

[Soulsword323]

It's sad to see no sign of Lorna anywhere in the coming months. Her having even a supporting role in Uncanny seems unlikely as well. At best she'll show up in the background zapping something with a magnetic bolt of energy.

I'm still trying to remain hopeful she'll be on a team post Uncanny, but who knows. Disappointing that Marvel seems to capitalize on other characters growing popularity, but continue to ignore Polaris'.

[jmc247]

It's sad to see no sign of Lorna anywhere in the coming months. Her having even a supporting role in Uncanny seems unlikely as well. At best she'll show up in the background zapping something with a magnetic bolt of energy.

I'm still trying to remain hopeful she'll be on a team post Uncanny, but who knows. Disappointing that Marvel seems to capitalize on other characters growing popularity, but continue to ignore Polaris'.

They aren't capitalizing on the popularity of the character they themselves created in the early 2000s by passing over her best run last decade and I would argue her best run of all time. They are passing off easy money in the process of releasing a trade for no good reason.

Lorna on Genosha and dealing with the fallout of the genocide, the wedding, Lorna and Xavier on Genosha and much more. Warts and all they were her best comic stories of all time in her 50 year history as a character.

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Well they changed the Cuckoos seemingly to more match with the show

That's my one sign the comics know the show exists

We'll have to find out if they do anything with Lorna at all

Should we hold out hope that CC is gonna pull a miracle and stuff her into the XMEN BLACK issue?