salarta

1) I assumed people keeping a closer eye on the specifics had read it and knew it was Lorna. So, in the strict sense of correcting a mistaken assumption, thanks.

2) Since you’re anon, I don’t know if the “racist” line is meant to be joking or troll bait. I’m assuming troll bait since you followed up with badmouthing Lorna for no reason.

It’s also not going to stop me from saying things I was always going to say when I learned this.

I’m not surprised it’s not “supposed” to be Lorna. I was surprised when I thought it was Lorna, because Marvel has such a history of pretending she’s worthless and keeping her out of weddings and events that my default assumption is that they’ll deliberately exclude her.

It’s a shame that Marvel is proving me right yet again.

It’s also a shame that they’re proving me right that they have something against Lorna deliberately. If it had been Lorna back there, then her being between two women wearing green would’ve been fine. But you combine those two women in green not only beside Abigail Brand, but Brand without her glasses and with loose long hair, and it becomes pretty clear someone at Marvel is doing this on purpose to be a tool.

I’ve talked about this sort of thing before. I just don’t think I’ve ever been this explicit about it in a post before.

Polaris is a multifaceted character. She has a lot to offer, and a lot of untapped potential. The thing is, she also has a long history of her potential getting undermined for the sake of promoting the stories of other characters and making those other characters look better. Sometimes it’s a simple “this character beats her” situation, but sometimes it’s more complex.

Because of this history, it’s important to be cautious of how Lorna is treated in connection to her relationships. It’s important to strike the right balance and right tone.

If you focus on Lorna and completely exclude all her relationships, then she has nowhere to go and no collaborative opportunity for development. She needs Magneto, Scarlet Witch, Jean Grey, Iceman, etc so that she can interact with them and show her sides while also helping the other characters demonstrate their sides.

You may have noticed that in a lot of my proposed ideas for Lorna interacting with other character, I emphasize shared territory and how Lorna can help them just as they help her. Lorna interacting with teen Jean is useful cause Lorna was the second female X-Men member and has early history with Jean as women. Lorna interacting with Iceman (teen or adult) is useful cause she was part of a love triangle involving Iceman in the early days, so she has insight into his relationship history as a previously closeted gay man that other women don’t have.

If you focus on Lorna’s relationships and put everything of who Lorna is and what she can offer in her own right to the side, then Lorna gets nothing out of it. She stops being a character and starts being a plot device to put other characters on a pedestal.

Much of Lorna’s history with Havok has been existing as his girlfriend. In that time, writers would have her quit things she cared about just cause Havok wanted to quit them (e.g. leaving the X-Men), or spout ideals and do things only to follow up with lines like “I thought of what Alex would want me to do.”

With Magneto, as written in too many more recent cases (but not THE most recent issues of Blue), her status as Magneto’s daughter has been emphasized to a point of robbing her of agency and keeping her away from other possible interactions. An attack happens on HQ, she somehow acts surprised so Magneto can “correct” her, despite her history surviving a genocidal surprise attack on Genosha. Her ‘Mistress of Magnetism’ codename gets twisted into looking like something she’s only allowed to have cause Magneto’s her dad. Things like that.

Balance is important. Lorna needs to be able to interact with other characters and build her relationships, but who she is and what she can offer shouldn’t be entirely sacrificed just to make the other party look better at her expense.

Lorna should not be reduced to “Havok’s girlfriend” or “Magneto’s daughter” to the point where she loses all else about who she is, like Genosha survivor, or mutant rights activist, or all sorts of things that make her who she is.

A normal person is not defined exclusively by “so and so’s daughter” or “so and so’s girlfriend.” When news agencies refer to accomplished women as things like “George Clooney’s wife” in the headline and don’t use their name, they get rightfully called out for it.

The same applies to Lorna. She’s more than just someone’s daughter or someone’s girlfriend. She’s Lorna Dane.

With this in mind, two things.

One, it’s important to be attentive to one’s own ways of supporting a character to see what direction they’re taking.

Two, it’s important to watch what other people are emphasizing as the most important thing to notice about Lorna.

Cause if it’s all or almost all about how she’s Magneto’s daughter or Havok’s girlfriend, and everything else is ignored or hardly mentioned? That’s bad for her. That’s placing her beneath those characters, setting her in their shadow, and saying she can’t ever be her own unique and meaningful self without their presence to define her entire being. It ends up saying she can’t deviate from them in any way.