Polaris: Queen of Mutants/Mistress of Magnetism Appreciation 2024

[From The Shadows]

[jmc247]

That was very much the 70s era for Lorna though the page says it was drawn in 1980. It's also why she started flopping from her promising start in 1968. Her two 60s roles were snatched from her. First by undoing her parentage and second by being replaced as the #2 x-woman and team energy manipulator.

Then what role was left for Lorna? Diet Jean with her diet Scott was the role she fell into. Claremont on some level realized that to not be workable, but his solution to deconstruct her completely in the 80s and make her a new character was wrong. 1990s X-Factor did not have an answer to that problem either though it convinced many it worked even though the book mainly coasted on readers from the 05 era and the comic book bubble who left until the title was living on fumes.

This is the core problem with some fans online who understandably want Lorna in X-Men 97 and are trying to signal to the creative staff with 90s Lorna in an X-Factor uniform to please include her. What role do you want her in so that she can do something?

She offers almost nothing as the diet Jean of the universe as Jean exists there. She offers almost nothing as well as Magneto's daughter with a conflicted relationship either, given they already have one vastly more popular daughter established there.

The same problem in the comics. What unique role exists for her? The daughter role isn’t good unless combined with a role impacting the main books.

[From The Shadows]

By god this was an ugly costume. I think this was poking fun of the 90's look as they did it with Quicksilver. PAD definitely had a bias against it. I think that costume, if I remember correctly, was connected to her body image issues at the time. As I enjoyed the 90's I admit to not liking some of its trends. Whatever happened to that character arc? I'm not as well versed as the Lorna fans.

[Havok83]

I actually dont think that costume is bad. It looked better when they covered up her butt. Not a fan of the bright yellow though

[GoingGreen]

Yeah, I remember hating that as a kid, but it grew on me eventually, like Havok83 said, once they covered up her butt.

She only wore that costume for like 5 issues ever, out of more than 500 appearances, plus alternate universe appearances... I find it wild people pull this look out so much. Every X-Character has had horrible looks at some point.

[jmc247]

[Soulsword323]

I'm hoping that Lorna will still be included in the Genosha plot in '97, but I don't have high hopes. I understand everyone's frustration when it comes to Polaris' exclusion, and giving it to another character. It sucks because this probably has more of an audience than the comics, and that can have a big impact on how people perceive these events unfortunately.

Also, I though they did a terrible job rendering Lorna's X-Factor costume. They made it look like she had a thong on it, when that wasn't part of the original design.

[marhawkman]

Yeah, I remember hating that as a kid, but it grew on me eventually, like Havok83 said, once they covered up her butt.

She only wore that costume for like 5 issues ever, out of more than 500 appearances, plus alternate universe appearances... I find it wild people pull this look out so much. Every X-Character has had horrible looks at some point.

It's... memorable. It's the same design logic as Psylocke's purple ninja suit.... except not purple or ninja.

[EmeraldGladiator]

I wish Quesada was giving the X-Factor art role at the beginning of the PAD run. An A list artist, though Joe Q wasn't considered that yet might have put X-Factor on equal footing with the other relaunches at the time. Not that Stroman wasn't good he just didn't fit the vibe the X-Office was putting out at the time for all the other mutant books.

[juan678]

https://twitter.com/rdauterman/statu...51012691976415

[GoingGreen]

I'm hoping that Lorna will still be included in the Genosha plot in '97, but I don't have high hopes. I understand everyone's frustration when it comes to Polaris' exclusion, and giving it to another character. It sucks because this probably has more of an audience than the comics, and that can have a big impact on how people perceive these events unfortunately.

Also, I though they did a terrible job rendering Lorna's X-Factor costume. They made it look like she had a thong on it, when that wasn't part of the original design.

Agree 100%. High hopes and low expectations for Polaris in 97. They're dropping hints left and right, and I find it strange they'd animate her and the rest of X-Factor for that tiny clip in the credits for Forge... we'll see. If she appears, hopefully her appearance isn't tied to the wills of bunch of men and nothing to do with autonomy.

It's... memorable. It's the same design logic as Psylocke's purple ninja suit.... except not purple or ninja.

Great point. However, Polaris' role was never anything like Psylocke. Psylocke has always been more of a fantasy girl you shouldn't/can't be with (Cyclops, Cypher, even Angel, etc). Polaris was never portrayed in that way - more of a woman you could take home to mom than a fantasy girl. Which you can't do when she's walking around in daylight in a thong.

https://twitter.com/rdauterman/statu...51012691976415

I am so extremely happy they are all three together again! It's been so long!!

[jmc247]

I'm hoping that Lorna will still be included in the Genosha plot in '97, but I don't have high hopes. I understand everyone's frustration when it comes to Polaris' exclusion, and giving it to another character. It sucks because this probably has more of an audience than the comics, and that can have a big impact on how people perceive these events unfortunately.

Also, I though they did a terrible job rendering Lorna's X-Factor costume. They made it look like she had a thong on it, when that wasn't part of the original design.

Without a workable motivation to call her own which only that storyline ever gave her in a larger sense she is stuck being a half baked version of other better characters (typically Jean or Wanda).

I have no doubt she will appear in time in X-Men 97, but I have a huge doubt sans motivation she will be more then a diet and hollow version of a pre-existing character.

Magneto before his Holocaust story was himself little more then a poor man’s Von Doom.

[jmc247]

It’s time to do a retrospective on the Krakoa era and I wrestled with how to do it and decided the best way is to just to recollect key moments from her three main writers of the era.

Hickman

[jmc247]

[whitecrown]

This may or may not have been addressed before but I just noticed something that rubbed me the wrong way.

https://marvelstrikeforce.com/en/cha.../trait/XFactor
In the app game, Marvel Strike Force, where Lorna is playable, she's classified as an X-Factor character. Not an X-Man.

In X-Factor, she's listed alongside fellow "A-Listers" like Longshot, Multiple Man, and Shatterstar. Meanwhile characters like Sunspot, Fantomex, and X-23 are classified as X-Men even though X-Force is also a team in this game, but Lorna isn't, which seems very odd to me.

I remember some months back I posted about that recent X-Men board game where Lorna's team designation was X-Factor instead of X-Men so is this the new trend now to only classify her as a member of X-Factor?