Polaris: Queen of Mutants/Mistress of Magnetism Appreciation 2024

[whitecrown]

Byrne was a fan of the 60s team and storytelling... so much so he later wrote an ongoing about it. Claremont wanted the 60s team other than the characters he adopted to his team as regulars to be consigned to the dust bin of comic history.

In terms of Lorna's parentage, it was respected through about 2006. Mike Marts backed up the Austen/Morrison change in Lorna's parentage. But, a lot of people at Marvel including current X-office editor Tom Brevoort were not fans at the time of it. That was why after Marts left Lorna's parentage basically became something that existed mainly AU or occasionally referenced on the book she was on. Never on other x-books, much less the Avengers titles.

That only started breaking down after Wandavision turned House of M into a non-comic fan must read title and casual Wanda MCU fans became fans of the relationship. The last time Wanda, Pietro, and Lorna were all together and alive in the same comic was... 2004. Meaning yes under Austen with them going to Genosha for a funeral. Marvel post Decimation was horribly divided about the family and storytelling suffered for it.

Fall of the House of X was the first time Lorna mattered to an x-line crossover ever. It would have never happened if the head writer of the line didn't successfully write her in his ongoing title.

I know X-Men: The Hidden Years isn't very popular but I'm glad it existed as a title anyway even if Lorna really only interacted with Alex and Bobby. And it also at least explained that she didn't go around codenameless for all that time. The Magnetrix codename always made me think that subconsciously there was a part of her that still wanted to be Magneto's daughter or believed she was anyway.

I never understood why Magneto being Lorna's father was so controversial. I'm seeing that it's not just a Marvel writer/editorial thing because I've seen this same weird backlash from fans. I was doing Marvel trivia once and was asked to name Magneto's children. I was warned beforehand not to mention Lorna because the game's judge was very offended by that idea...naturally I made sure to mention Lorna's name alongside Wanda and Pietro (don't remember if I included Anya or not). To this day I don't understand the issue people have.

I've always loved that Austen issue with Wanda, Pietro, and Lorna. Not just for uniting the siblings but also because it emphasized very clearly what Lorna's stance would be or what it should have been anyway in the dichotomy of Xavier vs Magneto.

[whitecrown]

[pops in]

I was mumbling about Giant-Size just yesterday, mostly on how much powered-up nowadays are mutants.
Well, put it this way: in 2020, not only there would be no need for a joint-move from the most powerful X-Men of Giant-Size, but Lorna would be able to launch Krakoa into space will nodding off and without even spilling her coffee. She could turn up wearing a pajama and then return to bed without even properly waking up. :P

Sorry. Just wanted to offer a funny image for a second-lasting snicker.

Returning serious for a minute.
I want a story/title with her and the O5, or some of them, to further develop their relationship. I'll die on this hill.
We really got too little in canon, and most was her/Bobby.
I hear that some of you weren't fans of Polaris's portrayal in Hidden Years, so I won't advocate for that series (which I loved). But if I had to choose the members of the O5 (and I couldn't get the whole team) I would leave out Bobby, I want to see more of her with the other 4.
I admit I'd be curious to see her and Warren. I don't think they ever worked together, and even in original X-Men and Hidden Years they barely interacted. I think they could make for a nice dynamic, especially as how different they approach to issues and their background (Warren as white-rich-man, Lorna as what amounts to be a princess of the mutant-dom).

[/shyly pops out]

That's true, most of her interaction from the O5 has been with Bobby, followed b Jean. I'd be curious to see her interact with Warren more and also Hank. I very much used to love the idea of Lorna and Bobby as a couple so it's a shame that won't be possible anymore. I hardcore shipped them for years especially after Deadly Genesis made that stupid error that Lorna and Bobby were secretly having an affair behind Alex's back. It would have been a lesson to him.

[marhawkman]

heh, speaking of retcons... what do you think about the idea of retconning that Magneta is actually related to Lorna?

[Magnetic]

heh, speaking of retcons... what do you think about the idea of retconning that Magneta is actually related to Lorna?

Magneta, Zala, and Lorna - new sibling trio. Who is Joseph's favorite?

[whitecrown]

I liked Zala and wanted more of her. Although I have to admit that digging up a Z-List character and associating her with Lorna again is probably the worst thing for raising Lorna's profile.

[jmc247]

I've always loved that Austen issue with Wanda, Pietro, and Lorna. Not just for uniting the siblings but also because it emphasized very clearly what Lorna's stance would be or what it should have been anyway in the dichotomy of Xavier vs Magneto.

That was a very important issue for Lorna. It did a great job articulating her worldview. Austen said he had no inkling of House of M when he wrote it, but it’s hard to imagine her inclusion in House of M without it.

[UncannyLZ]

I liked Zala and wanted more of her. Although I have to admit that digging up a Z-List character and associating her with Lorna again is probably the worst thing for raising Lorna's profile.

This is exactly why I’ll never understand why any Polaris fan would want to further associate Zaladane with Lorna. I recognize the real world way to handle both scenarios of adopted parents and half siblings but I’d rather see her around A-listers like Scarlet Witch and Magneto. I’d like to see Magneto and Polaris in a psychic therapy issue where Erik says on panel how he feels about Lorna. Really establish what their dynamic is and fill in the blanks of their relationship (retcon if needed). Love it or Hate it, “Magneto’s Daughter” is Lorna’s strongest hook on to the franchise. I think she can have stories with the X-Men with that use that as the guide for her personal storylines. With the franchise being called X-Men, I’d love for Polaris to finally be seen as one!

[salarta]

I did hear about some Lorna fans on Twitter who were upset that people wanted her on the main X-Men team. How she would have an easier chance to shine in X-Factor as a lead than in the flagship book where she'd be sidelined by A-Listers.

I don't think most of those people were Lorna fans. I think most of them were fans of 2020s X-Factor, of other characters on the book, or of the writer, and saying those things was purely them trying to sell Lorna fans on the idea of not voting for her in the poll. Those same people tended to have a very strong emphasis on the idea that the book would die without her name and image present to trick readers into checking it out.

I beg you all to stop sharing screenshots from that series.

Sometimes you need to show the garbage for people to understand there's a problem that needs fixing. Simply hiding it and hoping people forget it ever happened invites Marvel repeating the same mistakes, especially if there are other people around pretending garbage is gold with no voices around saying otherwise. We don't need to talk about it incessantly, but we shouldn't ignore when mistakes are made, either.

Here's the thing. I am okay with a wild reinterpretation of their relationship (as long as it's not them going out for ice cream - my God, never again...). Honestly, it really doesn't bother me to have Polaris call him father or dad or whatever. And the reason being... if you trace Polaris' appearance back to her beginning, and most/all of her AUs... Polaris clearly WANTS to be Magneto's daughter. Or rather, and more importantly... (I'm speaking as someone who was abandoned by a father here)... wants Magneto to accept her as his daughter.

THIS is the allegory I have been dying to see here. Not just "Here's all this crazy Super-Comic History that makes everything complicated because Robots and psychometry with polaroids." No. I really really want to see the abandonment issues. While, at the same time, defining her love for the parents who raised her like their own! I am so embarrassed they still have not addressed the Danes. They now act like Polaris and Magneto have always been close, but Lorna was raised her entire life by the Danes! 1200 miles away from San Francisco. In, what my head canon deems, a ranch in Boulder, Colorado, where she was a horse girl and has many family dogs, and her "mother" is Eloise Dane, the sister to Arnold, and her her "father" is Robert Dane, a pilot who got swept up in all this.

And while we're talking about big dreaming:

• Just make Suzanna a mutant, as implied, who passes her gene on. And just like Polaris inherited Magneto's electromagnetism, she also inherited (as a secondary mutation) Suzanna's empathic-bomb abilities
• Just make Zala her twin, who wasn't a mutant, and they threw into the Savage Land. Give Zala a proper reason to have become the monster she became. And admit she's also Magneto's (born-human) daughter.

Anyway...

Marvel's been dropping the ball hard on Lorna being Magneto's daughter for the past couple decades now. They should be interacting and building a meaningful dynamic. What we've seen instead has felt more like a mix of trying to treat Magneto like a new Havok, and Lorna like a "new" X-23. Both angles are wrong.

I can go with the abandonment issues notion. I also agree that we should see the Danes. However, I don't agree with the Zaladane part until the Magnus family is fully restored, and now I feel Marvel needs to do better with Lorna and her father's dynamic before bringing the Danes into it. I think if they tried to bring the Danes in right now, it would become an excuse to ignore Magneto being her father and diminish her as a meaningful X-Men character, and down the line might be used as an excuse to retcon her being Magneto's daughter. There are still people at Marvel who would love to do that. If Brevoort feels the same way today as he did a decade ago, he's one of those people.

I liked Zala and wanted more of her. Although I have to admit that digging up a Z-List character and associating her with Lorna again is probably the worst thing for raising Lorna's profile.

I can see a path toward value and relevance, but not until Marvel does a hell of a lot better with and for Lorna. Zaladane is pretty far down the list of things Lorna needs addressed. Genosha is first and foremost, especially after X-Men 97 hijacked the event without acknowledging and respecting Lorna, Emma and others in relation to it. Restoring the twins is next, so the family can have a big event. Then after that, more action with the O5, and generally more ways of acknowledging how long she's existed. I'd say Zaladane would then come into play after all of that.

If they bring Zaladane into things now, without tackling those other things first (especially Genosha), I'm going to assume it's part of nostalgia baiting mixed with a deliberate attempt to regress her again.

[whitecrown]

That was a very important issue for Lorna. It did a great job articulating her worldview. Austen said he had no inkling of House of M when he wrote it, but it’s hard to imagine her inclusion in House of M without it.

I'm impressed Marvel actually let her be in House of M. With their track record, I could easily see them snubbing her then. Austen may have been the one to save her in so many more ways than one.

[whitecrown]

This is exactly why I’ll never understand why any Polaris fan would want to further associate Zaladane with Lorna. I recognize the real world way to handle both scenarios of adopted parents and half siblings but I’d rather see her around A-listers like Scarlet Witch and Magneto. I’d like to see Magneto and Polaris in a psychic therapy issue where Erik says on panel how he feels about Lorna. Really establish what their dynamic is and fill in the blanks of their relationship (retcon if needed). Love it or Hate it, “Magneto’s Daughter” is Lorna’s strongest hook on to the franchise. I think she can have stories with the X-Men with that use that as the guide for her personal storylines. With the franchise being called X-Men, I’d love for Polaris to finally be seen as one!

Exactly. As much as I'd like to see old storylines for her resolved, Zaladane is scraping the bottom of the barrel, even if I found her interesting during her few appearances. She's not even considered an X-Man by Marvel at this point so bringing in a total no-name like that is basically accepting defeat. At least Wanda and Magneto give Lorna some much needed prestige and boost in status. I know the popular consensus on here is that Lorna needs a lot of work done on herself before she's ready for a relationship with anyone, but Marvel couples tend to attract a lot of attention and shippers. I think with the right A-List love interest, Lorna's status could be raised even further because heaven knows she needs all the help she can get to not be shunted off regularly to character limbo or backwater books with no prospects.

[whitecrown]

I don't think most of those people were Lorna fans. I think most of them were fans of 2020s X-Factor, of other characters on the book, or of the writer, and saying those things was purely them trying to sell Lorna fans on the idea of not voting for her in the poll. Those same people tended to have a very strong emphasis on the idea that the book would die without her name and image present to trick readers into checking it out.

I can see a path toward value and relevance, but not until Marvel does a hell of a lot better with and for Lorna. Zaladane is pretty far down the list of things Lorna needs addressed. Genosha is first and foremost, especially after X-Men 97 hijacked the event without acknowledging and respecting Lorna, Emma and others in relation to it. Restoring the twins is next, so the family can have a big event. Then after that, more action with the O5, and generally more ways of acknowledging how long she's existed. I'd say Zaladane would then come into play after all of that.

If they bring Zaladane into things now, without tackling those other things first (especially Genosha), I'm going to assume it's part of nostalgia baiting mixed with a deliberate attempt to regress her again.

That's so nefarious that people were using her name just to save the book. I didn't even realize the book was popular enough online to attract that level of fan activity that they were willing to band together and sabotage a poll to keep it around. It's pretty telling that even they realize Lorna was the most high-profile character on the team and that X-Factor would die without her. I guess there's a compliment in there somewhere. But with so many odds stacked against Lorna from outright denial and people ignoring her existence, the fact that a subsection of people felt they needed to try and hijack her narrative in order to save X-Factor feels very gross. I'm glad those schemes didn't work even if they had the temerity afterwards to claim that the poll was rigged.

The good thing is that I don't think anyone has nostalgia for Zaladane lol so there's no danger of that. I know Claremont wanted to bring her back in the 2000s but he either didn't get around to it or wasn't allowed to and nobody besides Claremont remembers her.

[rhaenylis]

I just reread the interview where JDW talked about the results. He said fans tried to sabotage the votes and Lorna wouldn't have won if they hadn't fixed the situation
Fans were also very hostile to Firestar winning the vote
But Lorna and Angelica were undeniably the most popular characters in both lists (I like Tempo and Monet but non-comic book readers have never heard of them)
They acknowledged X-Factor was selling thanks to Lorna's popularity, but they didn't want to admit that same popularity would put her at the top of the vote

[marhawkman]

Magneta, Zala, and Lorna - new sibling trio. Who is Joseph's favorite?

Actually... given the time frame(Magneta is late teens or early 20s in MC2)... Magneta would fit more as daughter or niece of Lorna.

[jmc247]

I'm impressed Marvel actually let her be in House of M. With their track record, I could easily see them snubbing her then. Austen may have been the one to save her in so many more ways than one.

Things started getting bad for Lorna and family related issues after Mike Marts left the x-office and Lorna was dumped in space. Suddenly you had a new set of writers and editors weren’t connected to the storytelling of the early 00s. Then Children’s Crusade started and Lorna was cut off entirely from the Avengers side of the family.

Marvel's been dropping the ball hard on Lorna being Magneto's daughter for the past couple decades now. They should be interacting and building a meaningful dynamic. What we've seen instead has felt more like a mix of trying to treat Magneto like a new Havok, and Lorna like a "new" X-23. Both angles are wrong.

90s nostalgia and Genosha erasure play a huge role there.

When you rob Lorna of her own complexity she really can’t stand toe to toe with dad. Most depictions too much want Lorna depicted young and unworldly with him and focus on her either being blindly supportive or blindly oppositional.

Lorna knows what it means to have millions of people loyal to her die just because of their genetics not just dad and once you forget that for storytelling with Lorna and Magneto you have already failed.

[GoingGreen]

This is exactly why I’ll never understand why any Polaris fan would want to further associate Zaladane with Lorna. I recognize the real world way to handle both scenarios of adopted parents and half siblings but I’d rather see her around A-listers like Scarlet Witch and Magneto. I’d like to see Magneto and Polaris in a psychic therapy issue where Erik says on panel how he feels about Lorna. Really establish what their dynamic is and fill in the blanks of their relationship (retcon if needed). Love it or Hate it, “Magneto’s Daughter” is Lorna’s strongest hook on to the franchise. I think she can have stories with the X-Men with that use that as the guide for her personal storylines. With the franchise being called X-Men, I’d love for Polaris to finally be seen as one!

Here's why I am good with a Zala connection...

While Zala's appearances have been sparse, she made memorable appearances, even despite looking completely different in all three of her major stories (the Fabulous Chicken, Z is for Zala, and Scale Mail Maiden). Her final appearance had her as a global threat, and Magneto had to execute her, officially cutting his association with the X-Men, which led to him on Asteroid M with his new Acolytes. Zala happened just before the relaunch, and is largely part of establishing Magneto's story shift.

If Zala returned, I would expect her to continue being a villain. I don't think she is redeemable, even if her backstory and connections were confirmed and canon. And these days, villains like that are extremely rare. But Polaris getting another "personal villain" would be a really good thing, imo. And Zala was memorable enough, and it's been long enough since her death, that I think her returning could be a great thing, especially if it's on an actual X-Men title, and anytime Zala appears, Polaris is the MC.