Covers and solicits for Blue #33 and #34 came out today. These are for August, two months before Lorna’s 50th anniversary.
I have some things to say about assumptions I’ve seen concerning the cover for #34. But first, the cover and solicit for the issue it’s paired with.
X-MEN BLUE #34
CULLEN BUNN• MARCUS TO (A)
Cover by R.B. Silva
• Time-traveling Magneto must team up with the future counterpart X-Men in order to save mutantkind from extinction.
• But in order to do so, will Magneto submit to his darker instincts?
• Don’t miss a major turning point for the Master of Magnetism!
32 PGS./Rated T+ …$3.99
The solicit for #33 explains Magneto’s gone 20 years into the future, so this is with him still there.
I’ll also have some good things to say after I talk about assumptions.
First, there’s the assumption that this is Polaris on the lower left. It’s a perfectly fair, reasonable assumption given Lorna’s use on Blue and that the costume and hair match.
However, this is Marvel. This is the same company that tried to make Enchantress look like Lorna during Axis, and for the Shadowcat wedding issue last week, made Brand look like Lorna while placing her between two women who just happened to be wearing green dresses. Even though all signs point to Lorna, it’s important to be prepared for the chance Marvel’s doing that on purpose before revealing it’s an entirely different character.
Second, there’s an assumption that this is proof Lorna doesn’t get killed off in upcoming issues and Marvel acknowledges she has a future. For which this assumption has three mistakes.
Mistake #1: Lorna being alive in the future doesn’t mean she doesn’t die in the present. Characters die and come back to life often. This is important because if she gets killed off, Marvel telling us “she’ll be back” means little if they conveniently have her dead in October during the 50th anniversary of her creation.
Mistake #2: The future can change. Just because she’s alive in the future now doesn’t mean she’s promised a return if she’s killed off.
Mistake #3: If she’s killed off in coming issues, then even if Marvel of today intends to bring her back, plans can change. Someone else could take over and decide to keep her dead.
All in all, it’s nice to be optimistic and hope for good things to happen. Maybe they will. But with Marvel, it’s also important to be prepared for them trying to pull fast ones and steering people toward making assumptions that aren’t true.
I said I’d have some good things to say after I addressed assumptions, so here they are.
This cover is better than the coming cover for Blue #28. If that is Lorna on the lower left corner, Magneto isn’t just standing over her, he’s standing over all of them. It sends a message of Magneto overpowering all of them, not just Lorna.
If that is Lorna, I also really like that it appears the costume she’s wearing will be at least closer to her iconic costume. That’s become a lot more important to me than it already was after Marvel decided to give Havok a book to lead where he gets to wear his iconic costume, paired with the “making Brand look like Lorna” debacle from last week. Those two situations have made me a lot more opposed to the idea of Lorna in a generic team uniform than I used to be.
The glove reminds me slightly of Anka’s idea for a costume redesign, which is the only redesign I’ve seen and liked so far.
I think some people are assuming they see a part of Lorna’s headpiece on the right side, but I think that’s just a portion of cape sticking out. I could assume she’s missing the headpiece she should have cause I’d expect it to poke out, but I’ll wait under the idea that maybe her hair is blocking it.
salarta 