salarta

salarta:

Okay. I literally just finished reading Magneto #20. There are SPOILERS in this post. They are also immediate first impressions, subject to potential change.

Here are my thoughts. And they are all Polaris-focused.

Keep reading

I’ve had some time to think more on Magneto #20, and a day later also means I can be open about spoilers.

First off, I want to say I WAS a bit too critical at one spot: when I said Magneto taking power from Lorna was unnecessary.

When I said this, it was one part emotional reaction and one part failure on my part to properly describe context for where it is and isn’t okay. From what I’ve seen, it’s perfectly within character for Magneto to take power from Lorna against her will and make himself into the sole vessel. The Magneto solo has done a lot of build-up to him feeling he’s made mistakes he has to make up for, which leads to him being more than willing to sacrifice his own life for the better of the world. Now, I don’t think he actually had to do that, but that doesn’t matter – what matters is whether or not Magneto THINKS it’s what he had to do, and I think it it fits for him.

Now, the context where Magneto taking power from Lorna wouldn’t be okay is IF Lorna completely loses her powers as a result of Magneto’s actions. I’m COMPLETELY OKAY with Magneto betraying her and siphoning power off her. That’s something Magneto would do, and it’s something that’s happened before.

But if Lorna’s completely depowered from this, it’s no longer simply Magneto acting in a way you’d expect him to act; instead, it’s an excuse to essentially kill her off without the character death part. Depowering her, especially in light of Marvel trying to undermine the X-Men books and cut them down, would be an excuse to make sure she doesn’t get to play a part in a universe she should be in.

Right now, we don’t know which it is: if Lorna was depowered, or if Magneto merely siphoned power from her and she still has her powers.

If it’s the latter, that’s good. That’s fine. It’s Magneto’s book, Magneto’s acting how he’s been shown to act, it’s all cool. But if she was depowered, that’s where I’ll have a problem, because that would be corporate trying to hold her back for showing the potential to break out again just as she was about to do in the late 1960s, early 00s and around 2008/2009. It’s a cycle I won’t allow to repeat.

So, for the moment I’ll “cool my jets” so to speak and wait for either an interview or the next issue to confirm. If we get no confirmation by next issue, however, then I’ll go forward assuming she was in fact depowered and respond accordingly.

So, sorry for overreacting a bit yesterday, and I’m hopeful for good news. Also, this bears repeating: if Lorna actually was depowered or anything else along those lines, it’s not Cullen Bunn’s fault. It’s Disney and Marvel’s. There are editors and executives above him that can tell him to change things if they want it to turn out a certain way.