The Mistress of Magnetism: LORNA DANE POLARIS Appreciation

[Darin1979]

You know the more I look at it and think about it...I sadly think we might not see Lorna again in the comics. Since anxf she hasn't appeared and I believe that is the longest period of time she's ever had without being in books. The longer it goes the worse off it is.

[jmc247]

You know the more I look at it and think about it...I sadly think we might not see Lorna again in the comics. Since anxf she hasn't appeared and I believe that is the longest period of time she's ever had without being in books. The longer it goes the worse off it is.

She went over two decades in the comics with only guest appearances on the main title with the vast majority of them as the ultimate un-married domestic housewife, getting beaten up even by characters way out of her league or mind controlled in the Golden Age of X-Men comics.

Not seeing her outside of a few issues the Magneto series about two years ago is no where near as bad as she had it for good chunk of her time as a character in Marvel comics.

But, success builds on success and the opposite is true as well and from 2000-2005 she was seeing success and character and fandom building. It was clear by 2006 you had a new writer who saw her in 70s terms which was a version of her that never caught on with fans outside of a tiny nitch and then in turn she was dump in space and over the past ten years we have seen how being disengaged and separated from the stuff X-Men fans care about like mutant issues builds on itself.

[Heroine Addict]

These things take time. From the late 90's, through the early 00's, Polaris went through a lot of development that reconnected her to Magneto, in just a few appearances that many casual fans would miss. Many fans and creators have a view of Polaris prior to this era, where she was an occasional X-Men guest star, Havok's girlfriend, and long-time X-Factor member. Warming to the changes has been slow, but in the past decade a lot of the reward from those late 90's developments have really started to grow to fruition. I think Polaris is in a much better place right now. Sure, things could go in the completely opposite direction, but I'm not going to worry about something that might happen when there are wonderful things actually happening like Polaris being part of a tv show cast! That's a huge and unexpected development. Anyway, I also loved the Austen era for Polaris. Fun times for sure.

IDK, Sienna, right now you're clearly feeling WAY more generous & forgiving than I am. I mean, how much longer is it going to be, exactly? I've already been giving them the benefit of the doubt for over half a decade now, with an AU appearance in what amounts to 1 comic since late 2015... how many more YEARS is it going to be?! I agree with you on Polaris being in a better position, and the TV thing is really, truly HUGE for her, but... I'm sorry, I'm through defending, making excuses for, & rationalizing/being so understanding of... Marvel's publishing division. I'm beginning to consider them public enemy #1 of the fans, and especially when it comes to Lorna being held back... for whatever paranoid, delusional, & INANE reasons they seem to have.

Just wait for the early 00s to go retro in about five to ten years.

OMG... WHAT?! If that's really the case, then F them for sure, good luck to y'all... and peace out! I'm through... I'm done.

[Soulsword323]

Polaris will get her due eventually.

I guess because a lot of my favorites are considered second tier who never seem to get used or have been dead, I have a whole lot of patience with waiting to see them pop up again.

[jmc247]

Polaris will get her due eventually.

I guess because a lot of my favorites are considered second tier who never seem to get used or have been dead, I have a whole lot of patience with waiting to see them pop up again.

Lorna shouldn't be considered a second or third tier character. She was the second female member of the X-Men and daughter of Magneto. A great many fans don't emotionally accept either and that is an issue of nostalgia and Marvel's retcons which took over thirty years to undo the 1969 retcon and of course poor and weak depictions over three decades.

When they got rid of her edgy intelligent persona mid last decade and divorced her from mutant issues they gutted the character to return her to what certain fans wanted whose interest is Lorna being shoved into a bus to get her out of the way of the main titles. To this day I believe most of those who yelled loudest about early to mid 2000s Lorna's real interest was reverting Lorna to her previous position which was interfering with their pre-ordained pecking order of characters, their favorites and/or how they think things should be with Lorna and the x-books.

I have more patience then many here, but what I don't have patience for is the view on the character that she is a failed concept and second or third tier nothing. She is only failed because some prefer she be kept down and that bad depictions define the character.

Ascribing to the concept of historical tiers is a good way to keep certain characters down and others up and yes writers, fans and editors all do it at times consciously and at times unconsciously.

[Soulsword323]

I consider Polaris to be a big league character myself, I was just saying that a majority of my favorites aren't considered that so I'm use to waiting.

[jmc247]

I consider Polaris to be a big league character myself, I was just saying that a majority of my favorites aren't considered that so I'm use to waiting.

I understand that, but my point is the psychology that she is a second or third tier weak nothing girlfriend character is so entrenched in the generation of fans that came of age in the 70s through 90s that in the end that mindset is the greatest foe the character. She has creations made decades and decades after her rising far above her because they don't come with the baggage Lorna was loaded up with along with the hardened pre-set view of her as a nothing character and failed concept.

That is how X-Men creations made decades after her one after another to even creations last decade have been able to rise above her. Because a great many fans, writers and editors have an entrenched view on her status as a weak nothing character that until it's solidly broken she will never rise for very long even if a writer decides to use her and editoral is good with it.

[Askani's Flame]

Did y'all see the news : http://www.geekexchange.com/news/x-m...-men-revealed/http://www.geekexchange.com/news/x-m...-men-revealed/

She's officially on the show

[jmc247]

Did y'all see the news

Yes, we saw it, but it's not a show yet until/unless the pilot gets approved for a season.

A 49 year character having to rely on people outside the publishing franchise interested in her at Fox studios for the publishing franchise to maybe in the future find some interest in her says everything that is wrong with the situation.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

I think that Lorna fans should feel happy that she wasn't in this latest crossover...

[jmc247]

Who cares if any particular story arc is good or bad, there are already winners and always stinkers in any story arc or crossover. Being divorced from all issues mutant and X-Men has been a killer.

House of M and Decimation was an outright screw job to Wanda as a character and mutants in general and had some big assed flaws, but I would take Lorna being there in spite of those flaws any day of the week.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

I just meant that there were few characters if any that came out of this latest crossover looking good...and written well...

[jmc247]

It doesn't matter as much as some think if a character comes out smelling like roses or something not so pelasent.

Lorna didn't come out looking or smelling so pleasant from her wedding and neither did Havok. But, you know what outside of some hardcore fans who raged and raged that my character would never hold up Lorna at the alter or Lorna would have handled this calmly, she would never have tried to harm Alex over it aside... the masses of casual fans out there loved it and still how much they loved the wedding issue to this day.



The AU depictions of Lorna in Deadpool were strong though not exactly relevant to ongoing IvX events, but actually show that Lorna can have an edge without being unstable or out for blood. She has had a lot of great AU apperences over the past 20 years, arguably more then good 616 apperences and for that I am going to blame the fans as much as Marvel because more then a few hardcore fans by in large are actually quite conservative when it comes to new things done with their characters.

Obviously there is edgy and risk taking and there is character assassination and a fine line between the two.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Well many would say the recent crossover that she wasn't a part of would constitute character assassination for several characters starting with Emma...I was just saying that I was glad that Lorna hadn't gotten the same treatment...

[jmc247]

Emma may have been character assassinated recently, but every character gets their turn on the wheel from Wanda, to Magneto in Eve of Destruction among others to even Jean later retconned into being under alien control eating a star and killing a world.

Anyone who thinks Lorna was better off not being in say the Phoenix storyline (she was in part of it, but not the biggest part) because they took the hammer to Jean in it or HoM because they took the hammer to Wanda in it should consider what would happen if Lorna was in no storyline that was either poor or where a major character was depicted like crap.