Lorna Dane: Polaris Appreciation 2020

[Leirus]

I can only imagine being a casual reader and going from Factor 3 to #4 lol the whiplash would be disorienting.

I do agree that Leah's handling of Lorna in this issue was a tad heavy handed but also necessary. It's obvious that she wanted to use this issue of the event to explore Lorna's psyche after such a big battle and the loss of an X-Men and how her survivors guilt triggered these feelings of inadequacy as well as referencing the Lornas of the past. I think all things considered she mostly pulled it off with having Lorna go through the stages of grief with Rockslide's death.

But what I can't excuse is the terrible interaction she wrote between Magneto and Lorna. Magneto up to this point has treated Lorna with understanding and a modicum of kindness not someone who's going to fly off the handle and start telling at he is emotionally unstable daughter who's carrying the decapitated head of a fallen Xmen in her arms. Like what the hell??

Maybe she is planning for Lorna to confront Magneto as the last step of her personal evolution. Because after the reveal that he had Mastemind manipulate her mind as a child, Magneto is the prime responsable for her troubles.

[juan678]

https://twitter.com/ToddNauck/status...95124011724801

[Lucyinthesky]

Maybe she is planning for Lorna to confront Magneto as the last step of her personal evolution. Because after the reveal that he had Mastemind manipulate her mind as a child, Magneto is the prime responsable for her troubles.

We need to add the context Magneto had Mastermind erase Lorna´s memories of being responsible for her parents deaths when she was three years old, we are talking about an event that left her catatonic when she found out as an adult so we can only imagine what growing with that knowledge would have done to her, she could have ended worse than Legion.

It was also explained he did this because he wanted Lorna to grow up in a "normal envoirment" that´s why he also left her be adopted by her mothers sister instead of taking her to a life with the brotherhood with a father who was already losing his own mind because of his powers.







I wish writers wrote Magneto with his children the way he´s done with most other young characters, because he´s perfectly capable of being kind with people under his care or younger people, After all he helped the New mutants get out from their trauma of being repeteadely killed and being brought back to life by the beyonder, the problem is that it seems the only way writers think they can develop tension between Lorna and Magneto is by having them have a disfuctional relationship, just like the one he has with the twins, when they have mostly tried to get along and try to be a family despite their issues.

So yes I get annoyed when writers have Magneto and his children have a terrible relationship when he bassically has been a mentor for the New mutants and even Cyclops himself, a character who used to hate him, it´s ironic he can develop a warm mentor like relationship with someone who used to be his enemy but he can´t seem to be able to have a good relationship with his own children. It just looks more and more like Magneto has to get along better with the main X-men than with his family.

[salarta]

by Boyce

[juan678]

AIPT: Living the dream. Another question about an early scene in X-Factor #4, X-Fan Heroine Addict (@MutantMusesX3) asked if the immediate effect on Polaris when the Otherworld gate closed was the result of Saturnyne’s mental implant or Lorna’s recently revealed connection to Krakoa? Is it the correct reading that there’s a symbiotic relationship between Polaris and the island?

Jordan: Well, anything is possible. I don’t know that that was my read on it. No, I think it was much more connected to the specifics of this issue and what was happening with her in this issue. The connection that you’re referring to, I understand what you’re talking about, though. It’s from X-Factor #1 when she kind of communes with the island to build their base, which I think is really cool. And she kind of draws upon, well, oddly, she kind of draws upon a connection as one of the main people who defeated Krakoa.

[juan678]

AIPT: I was going to say I was reminded of that reading the Giant-Size X-Men: Tribute to Wein & Cockrum the other day.

Jordan: Yeah, absolutely. She’s one of the main reasons they beat Krakoa because she was able to like, literally help lift the entire island out of there and throw it away. So I think that in X-Factor #1, yeah, she draws upon that and kind of like, her and the island sort of have a bit of an understanding even though she can’t understand it the way that Doug does. But they kind of come to a meeting of the minds so that it can make for her specifications, the space that they need for X-Factor.

Now, that said, it’s also worth noting that the same is sort of true in other places, which is not to say that it wasn’t done on a grander level in that way. But we have heard about Nightcrawler talking about how it feels like his home was built for him. And, you know, Scott being like, this is what I wanted. Like, I don’t think that Scott–maybe I’m wrong–I don’t think Scott like drew up blueprints for the Summer House and like, went, “Here you go, Krakoa, do this.” I think most of the buildings are made with some sort of collaboration between the land and the people. But I think Polaris was able to amp that up and again because she gave and devoted so much to it and had that like intense communion overnight, that’s how she was able to do it very quickly and all at once in a very dramatic way. But the gate closing, I think had much more to do with Saturnyne’s manipulations.

[juan678]

AIPT: It was a good effort. Now I have a storytelling question about X-Factor #4. In modern comics, I feel like we don’t get inside characters’ heads quite as much as we did in classic comics, so it was refreshing to see what Polaris was thinking. In contrast, in Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men comics, for instance, we don’t see what Cyclops is thinking in thought bubbles. As a comics editor, how do you feel about that storytelling technique?

Jordan: I mean, they’re both perfectly good ways to do things. It’s just, what are the different tools in your toolbox and when do you want to use them and when do you not? Jonathan writes a very particular way, but not everybody writes that way. This isn’t the first time we’ve been in the character’s head in this era. At the very least you’ve got Wolverine, who’s constantly narrating his book. And I’m sure if I look back at it, there are other times too, like, did Kate really never narrate a Marauders issue?

[salarta]

I mean, of course at the point in time of Giant-Size, Lorna wouldn't have been able to throw Krakoa into space by herself. At the same time, "help lift" implies she was just assisting other characters who did it, rather than being the one who actually did it after getting charged up by the others.

That does make me think, though, that Giant-Size essentially says Storm, Cyclops and Havok can't (or at least shouldn't be able to) hurt Lorna with direct energy-based attacks if they fought. Since she absorbed their "attacks" to power herself.

White doesn't really answer the question of why Lorna was depicted acting the way she was in X-Factor #4. He says it's not Krakoa (couched in "that's not my read on it" which gives wriggle room for future change if desired). The end of his answer to that second question might be taken as backing the Saturnyne mental implant theory. I read it as just talking about what closed the gate.

His comments also imply her depiction didn't consider her surviving the Genoshan genocide, since he says "the specifics of this issue," but there's some blurriness between editor awareness and author intent. At the least, if the Genoshan genocide was meant to be a factor considered in her depiction, then White's comment shows not even he picked up on or knew about it.

[shooshoomanjoe]

I loved her She-Hulk wannabe days.

[jmc247]

Re-reading over the first two issues of X-Swords after a break to see where my opinion is. First I feel it is setting up a conflict between Lorna and Magneto and being heavy handed about it. I have no problem with a conflict between the two building if it feels in character for them and not forced and right now its feeling forced.

In terms of the comics Heroine Addict seems to be asking in the comments above if mind control stuff or Lorna's connection to Krakoa is why she is so emotionally weak and labile. I had a similar thought when it came to earlier issues of X-Factor with Lorna and Daken that their edge is gone and the island might be a factor. Daken's sex drive isn't gone, but he has been seriously declawed. For Lorna her wit isn't gone, but she has been declawed as well.

The editors is basically saying as I read it is that Lorna's response in the issue is unrelated to anything not in the issue. In terms of external influence the story showed that the antagonist was using her to help build the stone device, but her running around crying was very much depicted as her own emotionality. Though it felt much more like the emotionality of a 16 year old that has never experienced death then someone experiencing survivors guilt.

[rhaenylis]

Maybe it's a conspiracy theory, but I feel like Marvel is constantly looking to disparage the image of the father
It started with Carol Danvers' father in her 2018 mini
Then Monica Rambeau's father was completely erased in the Captain Marvel movie
Then we just learned that Jessica Drew's father was ultimately a completely mad scientist who never wanted to do his daughter any good.
And now Magneto suddenly acts like a heartless ******* to Lorna (yep, I know Magneto was a bad father to the twins but his relationship with Lorna is completely different)

Even me as a woman it's starting to worry me

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Well Magneto has alternated between loving his children and treating them nice and treating them like absolute crap over the years as well so it should be no surprise that he'd treat Lorna like that eventually as well, at least for a time...

[salarta]

Creators and companies have common, repetitive assumptions and tropes that they engage in. This is part of why there was pushback within Marvel against the idea of Lorna and Wanda both being daughters of Magneto, yet there can be 3 Summers brothers or 2 sons of Odin without issues.

Marvel has an ongoing problem of trying to reinforce their standing practices instead of questioning them, even when those practices are bad. They don't do anything truly new for this reason. The whole concept of "heroes fighting other heroes" has been used ad nauseum at Marvel because it was the last truly meaningful narrative step forward they've had for quite some time, and they're not comfortable with/ready for the next. Plus it helps that it played into their existing "my fave can beat up your fave" line of thinking.

The problems Marvel's had in writing Lorna and Magneto's dynamic are an extension of that. They're falling back on tropes.

One trope says Lorna must be written to benefit Magneto, even if it means ignoring her history (e.g. Lorna acting surprised by a surprise attack so Magneto could mansplain surprise attacks to her). This is the same line of thinking that made her dynamic with Havok too toxic for use barring some major work on Lorna that Marvel refuses to do cause they don't think she deserves it.

The second trope says to basically do the opposite, where Magneto's written in a way that suggests they should be kept apart. It's framed in a way where readers are supposed to "empathize" with Lorna having such a terrible dad demanding too much from her. It looks like it's considering what's best for her when it's actually undermining her, regardless of intent. For one, there are other, far more important things in her history already there for readers to empathize with. Her surviving the Genoshan genocide being one of them. Those things are actually focused on Lorna, not on the nearest man.

For another, a depiction where Magneto demands "too much" from Lorna inherently implies that Lorna isn't capable of doing what he expects from her, or at least has a great deal of difficulty/discomfort doing it. We've already seen the problem with this thanks to X-Factor #1 using it as an excuse for why Lorna's been demoted to merely a team member of X-Factor and isn't doing more important stuff elsewhere. Pretend Magneto's the big bad abusive father demanding things from her she doesn't want, pretend it's her choice to be relegated to a fringe satellite book helping someone else (bonus if it's a man) become the great leader Marvel apparently thinks she can never be, and suddenly being denied opportunities somehow means she's "empowered" because the character is "choosing" to waste her potential.

Can't complain about Marvel refusing to give Lorna any of what she deserves if everyone thinks it doesn't fit who she is, and expecting more than that is on par with Magneto shouting abuse at her. Right?

The core problem as I see it is Marvel not putting any real thought into Lorna herself. All of it's revolved around "How can I write her to make this other character look good" or "How can I write her to justify where she is right now" or similar questions. Never "How can I write her in a way that actually fits who she is and what she's been through." Other characters like Magneto getting misrepresented is part and parcel with those objectives.

[Frostfire]

https://i0.wp.com/aiptcomics.com/wp-...68%2C532&ssl=1

Even though she's crying in this image when I saw it I thought she looked well drawn here - any idea what the context is in this scene?

[Factor]

https://i0.wp.com/aiptcomics.com/wp-...68%2C532&ssl=1

Even though she's crying in this image when I saw it I thought she looked well drawn here - any idea what the context is in this scene?

It's from the Giant-Size special that's an homage to GS X-men #1. All the pages are redrawn by current artists. This is not a new story.