Originally Posted by
salarta
I'd argue this philosophy is the core of why the Scarlet Witch solo had such low sales starting from #2 on after.
I am not saying that Wanda has nothing to offer if she's not part of the Magnus family. That would be wrong and stupid to say. But part of a character's appeal is their relationships. If you don't utilize their relationships, you're cutting off a huge source of potential readership as well as potentially engaging storylines. Disavowing/avoiding a specific relationship is good if it's incredibly toxic, but even then it's just that one relationship and shouldn't be permanent. Cutting Wanda off from Magneto effectively cuts her off from Polaris as well as basically anything to do with mutants, as we've seen since Axis. Whereas for a counter-example, Polaris not interacting with Havok doesn't cut her off from potentially interacting with Cyclops, and doesn't sever her mutant history and connections.
For the record, I generally use the Scarlet Witch solo's approach and sales a) as part of my argument to restore/use many of Lorna's relationships that Marvel stopped acknowledging (Jean, Iceman, etc), and b) as an argument that Marvel has no excuse not to try giving Polaris a solo, mini or oneshot. If Marvel can go 20 issues with Scarlet Witch at sales as low as "cancellation level" for All-New X-Factor despite heavy promo, they can give at bare minimum a oneshot to Lorna.
I disagree with this. I believe what tarnished Wanda's image was the poor attempts at Marvel to make excuses for M-Day, rather than embracing and exploring it more deeply. She did something terrible during a moment of weakness. She's a character, and characters can have big flaws with terrible consequences.
Right now, the closest comparable situation for Lorna was on Genosha. I talk a lot about how she survived it, and the PTSD she suffered as a result. But buried within what happened on Genosha is the fact that at some point, she stopped fighting the Sentinels and focused on self-preservation and escaping. One view a person could take (and I've seen some fans elsewhere say) is "that moment treated Lorna poorly, it made her look like a coward who won't fight to save and protect people." But I don't take that view. Lorna's a character. She has flaws, and moments of weakness, and consequences to those actions. If another character held that moment against her, that would be absolutely fine and valid to me. It could make for a compelling story. "How does Lorna handle having been princess of Genosha and revered as Magneto's heir while also having failed to protect what were at the time her people?"
The key is empathy in writing. The angle needs to be one of understanding and shedding light on the complexity of emotions and mental states. Lorna trying to protect herself and escape on Genosha could be understood as the horror overwhelming her. Likewise, Wanda's actions on M-Day could be understood as a sense of extreme loss and perceived lack of control pushing her to a point she wasn't prepared for. Similarly, I think Peter David did a good job with Pietro on ANXF, writing him acknowledging and coming to terms with his own past actions with the Terrigen crystals.
When I bring up the idea of dealing with how Wanda's actions on M-Day affected Lorna, I'm not thinking of it as "Wanda wuz teh sux." I'm thinking of it as a chance for some amazing insight on what both characters have been through. In particular to Wanda, I think of it as what would be her first real chance to address M-Day and move forward from it. All the explanations given to her so far have felt artificial. Like Marvel trying to say "See, it's not real, let's just ignore it." Having to face Lorna, and all the suffering she went through as a result of M-Day, would open up to Wanda having to face some hard truths about herself - and then plan to be better in the future. Watch herself. Wield power responsibly. Just as Lorna reflecting on Genosha would serve toward a commitment to be a better champion for mutants.