Secret Empire X-Men Blue #9 Preview (Spoilers)

[jmc247]

Or Magneto may have hoped that Alex would die and thus he'd be rid of the last person that Lorna trusted apart from him...that he'd have total control over her and be the only person that she was close to, force her into a fight where Alex can only look bad and Lorna only good and sympathetic...

He doesn't seem to respect his leadership skills all that much, he doesn't want him dead. Well, when he isn't annoying him directly.

[Hulkout42]

Well we already know that the confrontation with Emma does not mean the end of New Tian.

Jean's words about the situation of Magneto's children being complicated does not even come close to describing how confusing this is but it's funny .

One of the few times the cover reflects the content.

Yeah but it won't last either beyond SE. I mean the can't have her majesty stay the secret Queen of the mutants because clearly it was never meant to so what will they do with her after? They are pushing to show her as Evil just as many old villains are returning like the Sinisters, Bastion and the Sentinels...so i guess she takes some mutants to make a new Hellfire Club?

[Hulkout42]

Is Polaris aware that she is not related to Wanda and Pietro? I mean was she ever close to them?

[jmc247]

Is Polaris aware that she is not related to Wanda and Pietro? I mean was she ever close to them?

Pietro very close, they had nearly two and a half decades of developments half of which in a brother sister like relationship before they were officially related like below.

Crystal, Luna and Lorna were pretty close.



Wanda and Lorna were still coming off Decimation blues and trying to get closer.



As for if Lorna knows or not. Magneto might have said something or not hard to tell.

Magneto: your family history was all a lie.
Polaris: So you are a robot again who is really pretending to be my father a second time?
Magneto: No not this time, it seems something something according to an inverted spell, Wanda and Pietro and their children are no longer related to us or something.
Polaris: Was there a talking cow involved?
Magneto: Not this time.

[Tycon]

Well we already know that the confrontation with Emma does not mean the end of New Tian.

Jean's words about the situation of Magneto's children being complicated does not even come close to describing how confusing this is but it's funny .

One of the few times the cover reflects the content.

Yeah but it won't last either beyond SE. I mean the can't have her majesty stay the secret Queen of the mutants because clearly it was never meant to so what will they do with her after? They are pushing to show her as Evil just as many old villains are returning like the Sinisters, Bastion and the Sentinels...so i guess she takes some mutants to make a new Hellfire Club?

We need a "Should New Tian Exist After Secret Empire?" thread. I really like the concept and it's an easy way to have the school (X-Men Gold, Generation X) while also having the Utopia/official mutant nation portion that many liked during Dark Reign.

[sureshot]

I wish Havok wasn't being used as a villain. I wish he was in a title monthly also. Same for Polaris.

Seconded and I will add Emma Frost to that list as well. Still good to see Polaris. The character is not a favored one yet it's always good to see a character written well imo.

[salarta]

Inverted or not Havok needs more respect. The guy has been around for a long time, lead X-factor for a long time and headlined his own series in which he was a major player in that universe's superhuman community. On top of it all he's a major powerhouse, he's certainly more powerful than his brother. But the last few years has not been kind to Alex, Uncanny Avengers showed some promise but that ended, now he's Emma's lackey. Alex needs a major revamping.

Wanting Havok to be written as a better character I can agree with and understand, but I have no respect for him and it would take a hell of a lot for me to ever respect him. At the same time Havok was leading X-Factor, leading that other series, and everything else, Polaris was getting screwed over in part for his benefit.

Havok is part of the reason Polaris didn't get her origin story told until 44 years after her creation. He's part of the reason she wasn't allowed to lead a team in her own right for 46 years - and in most of that time she was only allowed to be a member of Havok's teams. He's part of the reason she's never had a solo comic book, and probably won't get one until a decade or more from now. All the things he's received, he got partly by having them denied to Lorna until just the past 5 years without him.

And even recently, we've seen that behavior still taking place at Marvel. Havok was on Uncanny Avengers, took part in Axis, got included on the X-Men amalgam covers alongside four of the original 5 X-Men to show his long history. During all of that? Nothing for Polaris. She didn't get so much as a mention by Havok or a sighting acknowledging her long history at all. Yet, as soon as Polaris was added to Gifted, it was deemed absolutely necessary for Havok to interact with her in X-Men Blue. No talk of their past and relationship history when all burners are for promoting Havok, but as soon as Lorna gets a little of anything, Havok gets to show up to take advantage of any attention directed her way.

Havok's history means I have no respect for him at all, have no reason to ever respect him, and want him kept far far away from Lorna. Other people want to see Lorna beat him into the ground with this story arc, but I wish he wasn't in any of these issues. Even with him as an evil twisted villain type of character, appearing with Lorna and playing on their history together is taking advantage of Lorna to build Havok's "brand." Polaris apparently is too "unimportant" to deserve their relationship coming up when he's on Uncanny Avengers and Axis where everyone can see him, but as soon as she's in the driver's seat, holy hell Havok needs to appear immediately to show how "important" he is to Lorna's history.

Blonde star tool gets to be all over the place without Lorna, but Lorna can't go 5 years without him shoved back into her life like a sleazy selfish ex-boyfriend who can't stand his past "conquests" moving on in life and finding happiness without him.

tl;dr I'll agree Havok needs to be written better but I don't think he's owed respect since so much of his "history" and so many of his "accomplishments" were at Polaris' expense and ruined her prospects for decades. And still hurt her to this day.

Keep him away from Lorna after this X-Men Blue story arc that never should've included him in the first place. Rebuild his character somewhere that doesn't involve dragging Lorna down like he does every single time she's getting anywhere without him.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

I don't think that there's any evidence for any of that salarta, I don't remember any writer saying that they couldn't write a Lorna mini without writing an Alex one or anything like that. I don't think that Marvel has really cared about Alex's "brand" for decades now, even back during X-Cutioner's Song they basically left him out for much of it and even that force field on the moon that was supposed to let those with Summers dna pass gave him a powerful zap when it let him through unlike Scott...when Corsair was brought back to life and took teen Scott out to space they didn't even bother to have Corsair as much as say hi to Alex. Most of Alex's time in Uncanny Avengers people hated.

I don't think that Alex had any part in Lorna's history not being told until recently, a good chunk of it I'd suspect was far more that until recently Magneto wasn't her father so there wasn't really much to tell about her history...where is there any evidence that Alex played any part in Lorna not leading a team for that long, how is there any evidence that Alex didn't like her moving on, while asking Pietro to keep an eye on her wasn't a good move I remember it as Alex mostly expecting something to happen so he had Pietro be at her side and that if the you know what hit the fan then to call him, otherwise nothing...part of the reason that he didn't mention her was Remender's doing I'd guess...

In Blue Lorna isn't in the drivers seat, Magneto and teen Jean are, if anything Lorna is a reoccurring guest star because her daddy is headlining the book, she's there right now greatly to boost Magneto's "brand" if anyone aside from her own, Alex is being used as little more than a throwaway enforcer role by a writer that doesn't seem to care about him really at all...

If anyone deemed it necessary for Alex to show up in Blue it was Bunn, so then why blame the character for what the writer does...

In the first movie Alex was a side character at best that wasn't that important, then it was a blink and you'll miss him time in the second and the third they changed everything, making him the older brother, parents that never left Earth and he wasn't in the movie to improve his "brand" but to improve Scott's "brand"...

[Mistress of Dictionaries]

I agree to Logan.
One of the reason why Lorna and Alex fit together as characters is that they are always in the shadow of someone. It's good to see that Lorna is slowly trying to pop out (even if she is still only known as Magneto's daughter). Alex's time is yet to come. I am looking forward to it.
The only thing that still bothers me is Beast, Iceman and Angel being just talking cameos. They should have gotten Jimmy imprisoned and the three out using their abilities. Instead it's just Jean, Jean, Jean

[salarta]

I agree to Logan.
One of the reason why Lorna and Alex fit together as characters is that they are always in the shadow of someone. It's good to see that Lorna is slowly trying to pop out (even if she is still only known as Magneto's daughter). Alex's time is yet to come. I am looking forward to it.
The only thing that still bothers me is Beast, Iceman and Angel being just talking cameos. They should have gotten Jimmy imprisoned and the three out using their abilities. Instead it's just Jean, Jean, Jean

That argument works better with Lorna and Gambit. Lorna was always forced to be in Havok's shadow while Claremont was writing her, and many subsequent writers stuck with how Claremont said Lorna should be treated. Hence how she got forced into X-Factor and the Starjammers with Havok as leader, and there was never a case of Lorna being leader and Havok being a member of her team. By contrast, Gambit was in the shadow of Rogue, and to some extent still is, which better matches what Lorna's had to put up with. Lorna being in Magneto's "shadow" is something that hasn't happened yet and hasn't even been a possible risk for her until very recently. I'm interested in making sure the risk doesn't become reality though, as I don't want Magneto to become another Havok - just as I didn't want Gambit to become another Havok on ANXF either.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Gambit was the one character that people kept clamoring for to be in the movies since the first one, if anything Rogue was in Gambit's shadow to many. Alex got to be leader because he was a Summers to a great degree....Lorna being in Magneto's shadow is happening now and has been happening for the last several years, it's something that she will never get out of as long as people keep referring to her as the daughter of Magneto deserves this or that...the writers after Claremont didn't have to stick with anything and I don't remember the other writers writing her the same way that he did decades ago...Marvel has treated Alex very poorly over the years and treated Lorna badly not because of Alex but because of Jean and Storm and others...

[JasonEsta]

I don't think that there's any evidence for any of that salarta, I don't remember any writer saying that they couldn't write a Lorna mini without writing an Alex one or anything like that. I don't think that Marvel has really cared about Alex's "brand" for decades now, even back during X-Cutioner's Song they basically left him out for much of it and even that force field on the moon that was supposed to let those with Summers dna pass gave him a powerful zap when it let him through unlike Scott...when Corsair was brought back to life and took teen Scott out to space they didn't even bother to have Corsair as much as say hi to Alex. Most of Alex's time in Uncanny Avengers people hated.

I don't think that Alex had any part in Lorna's history not being told until recently, a good chunk of it I'd suspect was far more that until recently Magneto wasn't her father so there wasn't really much to tell about her history...where is there any evidence that Alex played any part in Lorna not leading a team for that long, how is there any evidence that Alex didn't like her moving on, while asking Pietro to keep an eye on her wasn't a good move I remember it as Alex mostly expecting something to happen so he had Pietro be at her side and that if the you know what hit the fan then to call him, otherwise nothing...part of the reason that he didn't mention her was Remender's doing I'd guess...

In Blue Lorna isn't in the drivers seat, Magneto and teen Jean are, if anything Lorna is a reoccurring guest star because her daddy is headlining the book, she's there right now greatly to boost Magneto's "brand" if anyone aside from her own, Alex is being used as little more than a throwaway enforcer role by a writer that doesn't seem to care about him really at all...

If anyone deemed it necessary for Alex to show up in Blue it was Bunn, so then why blame the character for what the writer does...

In the first movie Alex was a side character at best that wasn't that important, then it was a blink and you'll miss him time in the second and the third they changed everything, making him the older brother, parents that never left Earth and he wasn't in the movie to improve his "brand" but to improve Scott's "brand"...

Magneto doesn't need any brand boostng. He's a icon. Lol. The biggest villain icon in Marvel history.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Every character can use their "brand" boosted from time to time, and Magneto is no more iconic than Wolverine and the like, not sure if he's the biggest villain icon in all of Marvel history either, not sure who would be but...Magneto is at least the most iconic villain in the X-verse, I'll give you that...

[JasonEsta]

There is no villian who has higher selling stories than Magneto. His story is the highest selling story in comic history..over Superman's death, Batman breaking his back, and McFarlane's Spider Man #1.

[The tall man]

Magneto doesn't need any brand boostng. He's a icon. Lol. The biggest villain icon in Marvel history.

Actually wouldn't biggest villain icon go to Dr Doom. Mags is a healthy#2, but he's been a hero/anti hero for so long now he's lost his villain cred.