Polaris: The Mistress of Magnetism Appreciation 2022

[juan678]

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[juan678]

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[juan678]

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[anyajenkins]

Two comments.

One, people at Marvel actually do have the energy for such things. Brevoort was vocal in his opposition to Lorna as part of the Magnus family. He didn't stop there, though. In Children's Crusade, he had an image from House of M redrawn to replace Lorna with a random woman. During Axis, a variant cover of Wanda and Enchantress was tinted in a way that made Enchantress' hair look green (and Wanda's red), at the same time All-New X-Factor #14 (where Lorna and Wanda actually interacted) wasn't promoted and had its cover withheld until the Friday before release. Also during the Axis retcon, the script had Wanda claim Magneto no longer had any children, as if Lorna didn't exist. Finally, in Uncanny Avengers post-Axis, they tried to replace Lorna with Luminous as the twins' sister.

In short, to say nobody at Marvel has energy to deliberately undermine Lorna in various ways is naive at best.

Two, Duggan picked people for the vote that he said he would be fine with writing if they won the vote. Being okay with writing her is not the same as wanting to write her. You can be fine with eating something despite not really liking it. Same applies to characters. That is NOT to say Duggan hates her, to be clear. But there is a big difference between wanting to do something and simply being okay with doing it.

It's also worth adding that if I heard correctly, many of the candidates for the first year's vote came from writers of existing books (one character per book), and Williams offered Lorna. Yes, Duggan had to be okay with writing her, but it's also not like he got to look at the X-Factor cast and say "I'd most like to write this one."


To the matter of Lorna's history, notice that the actual best writing - and what most writers do - for established characters involves acknowledging their history and building on it. People are raving about Ewing's writing of Magneto, and where that comes from is acknowledging history. As an example, he recognized Anya as significant to Magneto and used it - rather than inventing an entirely brand new character. People at Marvel keep wanting to pretend Lorna didn't exist past the 90s or at best 80s. Sometimes, they want to pretend she didn't exist until the exact moment they're writing her. Instead of doing a service to Lorna, what they're really doing is saying they have no respect for the character and what she offers, and think she's always been trash prior to them coming along and writing her.

I don’t know what picture you’re talking about specifically, but it clearly didn’t effect her being in HoM (I know she didn’t do much, but neither did most the characters, it was an avengers /magneto story, with a dash of wanda, lol) the other examples are clearly in the not caring category (enchantress looked like enchantress on that cover and variant covers are meaningless, and making her Wanda’s not sister was about movie rights.)

I'm finally able to post after being busy with other stuff.



The problem is bigger and higher than the writers. The current culture at Marvel leads both to no writers that would want to write Lorna getting hired, and any that might have an inkling of interest in her being dissuaded from doing anything meaningful for her.

I'm sure when Duggan said he would be open to writing Lorna when she was selected for the vote, he wasn't thinking "I'll just write a few scenes, write one issue that focuses on her but doesn't touch on anything important to her or even have her on the cover, then completely abandon her for half of my run."



Only the ones you mentioned plus Rogue. Lorna's had a mixed bag of dynamics with Rogue but they've been mostly good. Which means it's just a matter of time before someone at Marvel tries to ruin that relationship too.


I don't regret Lorna and Magneto being related specifically because I think the X-Men office is actively trying to ruin their relationship right now. Unlike with Havok, where the relationship being garbage was because they wanted to put Havok on a pedestal at Lorna's expense.

Kelly Thompson has been a good writer for Lorna when using her, but again, that's not where she's supposed to be. Sending Lorna off to space at the first sign of something happening in the comics that's too big to ignore her history for is, once again, damning. And shows at least the X-Men comics if not more than that don't deserve money or support in any fashion. There's no reason to support a company that has so little respect for its own fictional universe.

I think it’s mostly Kelly Thompson taking the chance at writing a bunch of popular characters that are being most ignored because the main writers keep obsessing about about Sinister and Emma.

[juan678]

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[jmc247]

I don’t know what picture you’re talking about specifically, but it clearly didn’t effect her being in HoM (I know she didn’t do much, but neither did most the characters, it was an avengers /magneto story, with a dash of wanda, lol) the other examples are clearly in the not caring category (enchantress looked like enchantress on that cover and variant covers are meaningless, and making her Wanda’s not sister was about movie rights.)

There was a very different x-office editorial in place in 2005 and Brevoort was not yet the head editor of virtually all crossovers. Mike Marts allowed Morrison and Austen leeway to continue realigning Lorna's story away from that of a generic one note girlfriend heroine of X-Factor. I am fairly certain Marts was responsible for her tiny role in the main House of M story.

That was very important because House of M is now Dark Phoenix level popular and generally is the core book endless numbers of new fans come to for understanding the Magnus family. When House of M came out Lorna was still considered a middle ground character in the comics and her Genosha plotline bled over into Lorna's interaction with Magneto. Lorna's interaction with Magneto in the House of M minis is light years ahead of the garbage that X-Men Blue and Trial of Magneto have made of their relationship.

I am going to say that I consider both you and Salarta correct. A big part of Lorna's problem right now is writers in the office are focusing on their favorites to the exclusion of everything else, but I have seen signs of clear editorial for years pushing of 90s themes on Lorna and excluding completely early 2000s themes. Who does one think is the force stepping into Lorna comic book art that is almost done and having scenes re-drawn to 90s X-Factor?





I wouldn't even care about editorial doing that and engaging in their nostalgia love of the 90s if they haven't also been ignoring Genosha and its destruction which came up in Magneto's flashback memories in IvX, but not anything Lorna related since President Bush's first term.

Lorna's most impactful story and its not even close was Genosha and its fallout. They can't remember that existed for her, but they can remember over and over again each and every time she was mind controlled for two seconds decades ago? That utter travesty is on editorial. It's not like the X-Men didn't return to Genosha a number of times the last of which was Empyre X-Men with no Lorna to be found, but just about every other mainstream x-character at the time.

In my personal opinion Lorna has completely lost her philosophical edge because too many comic runs in a row ran with 90s Lorna and editorial played a role in that. Duggan was showing signs of stepping out from 90s Lorna and his run with Lorna ended up being only 6 months. Maybe that is always what he intended, but its hard for me to believe that editorial didn't play a role in that.

Now that is some good art. That had a bad ass feel greatly lacking from comic book Lorna the past few years.

[salarta]

An assortment of various people can only be blamed for so long before you have to look at common threads between them. It's rare for blatant disrespect to happen randomly.

I think it’s mostly Kelly Thompson taking the chance at writing a bunch of popular characters that are being most ignored because the main writers keep obsessing about about Sinister and Emma.

I don't know how Lorna being written by Kelly Thompson on Captain Marvel came about. I assume she's stepping up to do something with Lorna either in the absence of the X-Men office wanting to do anything with her, or to save her from the current X-Men office wanting to completely ruin her. If that's the situation, I appreciate her stepping up to salvage Lorna as best she can from Marvel being a garbage company.

But, it also doesn't change that space isn't where Lorna should be right now. That's not on Kelly Thompson. That's on the X-Men office specifically, and Marvel as a whole. In terms of impact itself, it doesn't matter if we blame the X-Men office writers or something else in the X-Men office. But in terms of actually dealing with the core problem, it's important to recognize where it's coming from so you can at least know why it's happening, regardless of if you can do anything about it right this second.


Three weeks.

[ARkadelphia]

Ooo. Ominous.

[juan678]

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[UncannyLZ]

AIPT is going another X-Men Monday, this time a post Judgment Day Q&A with Kieron Gillen. I think this is another chance for us Polaris fans to send in questions and show Marvel there’s an audience that wants to see her on the page. I’m definitely going to ask about Magneto’s death and the lack of Lorna’s involvement. Here’s the link: https://aiptcomics.com/2022/10/26/x-...udgment-day-3/

[salarta]

I encourage sending something in too. Not that I expect they will actually be asked or answered, or that the number of questions would even be relayed to anyone at Marvel, but it doesn't hurt to send them in. So long as there isn't an assumption that sending in a question is all that needs to be done.

It also gives certain people at Marvel another chance to course correct. I'm all for giving them that chance. I'd prefer it for the potential of an outcome that's good for everyone. And I don't mind saying it that way, because I've reached my limit of BS out of the X-Men comics office. I've already given them since 2017.

[jmc247]

I have sent off a question. I would certainly agree Marvel needs a massive course correction with Lorna's story and a chance to institute it.

[UncannyLZ]

I think it’s great that Polaris will be in a Captain Marvel and I really think Kelly Thompson will do a great job of writing Lorna! She may even bring up Genosha or magneto‘s death. But I will admit I will be really disappointed if the x-office ignores Lorna and doesn’t use her at all after these recent events. Lorna not speaking on her dad‘s death and using that to bring her into the X-Men’s overall story would be really frustrating from Marvel, especially considering “magneto‘s daughter“ is all they ever give Lorna.

[jmc247]

I think it’s great that Polaris will be in a Captain Marvel and I really think Kelly Thompson will do a great job of writing Lorna! She may even bring up Genosha or magneto‘s death. But I will admit I will be really disappointed if the x-office ignores Lorna and doesn’t use her at all after these recent events. Lorna not speaking on her dad‘s death and using that to bring her into the X-Men’s overall story would be really frustrating from Marvel, especially considering “magneto‘s daughter“ is all they ever give Lorna.

She won't bring up Genoshan genocide in this space story. She might have a plug or off hand comment about Magneto's death, but I am going to be frank Captain Marvel's ongoing in space is not the place or the time to deal with Lorna's feelings there for a multitude of reasons.

It should not be in any other characters ongoing title and that includes Wanda's. However, those issues must be dealt with somewhere.

[salarta]

“Polaris is defined by the men in her life, but only when she can be used to promote those men. As soon as being connected to a man would actually benefit Polaris in any way, it’s time to completely separate her from him.”