There’s been news and images since yesterday with several X-Men titles and lineups revealed.
None of them have Polaris/Lorna Dane in them. I’m waiting for word on that.
The big worry as the Magneto solo has been wrapping up was that either Magneto or Polaris would get killed off. Now that we know Magneto will be survive Secret Wars and star in Uncanny X-Men, the concern becomes exclusively that Polaris will get killed off.
We still don’t know anything for certain. That’s why I’m not complaining, only stating concerns. Maybe she gets killed off. Maybe she continues to live in a different capacity that hasn’t been revealed yet.
Lorna’s getting a big spotlight over the past month thanks to the Magneto solo and a couple nice cameos, and she’s given a much bigger one next month. But, the question becomes whether that extra attention is to prime her for something more and better that Marvel hasn’t revealed yet, or if it’s intended to dull complaints if she’s killed off.
My personal experience with company behavior trends toward the latter. Usually, I’ll see this kind of activity when a company intends to get rid of a character. But, there’s always a chance Marvel can prove that trend wrong, and I hope they do. It’s happened before, and I really like the rare moments when it does. I’d rather be wrong and admit I was wrong than be right and have a reason to complain.
Now this sound negative for a fan. Me as a fan of Polaris I would rather believe there is a All New All Different X-factor out there. They only published some books, but not all of it. It’s too early to publish them all at once. Also, this sounded that because of Magneto book, Polaris became something big. I don’t think so. Don’t forget All New X-factor was an excellent book and didn’t got canceled for poor sale like Storm (as an example) book did. Pretty much you can say that in All New X-factor, Polaris was the protagonist of this book. It was more like her solo book running a team. To me, Polaris was big ever since she became Magneto’s daughter, joined the X-Men, X-Factor, and appeared in many tight in books. Anyway, my point is, I don’t think she’s going to die at all. I mean, they took away Magneto’s twins and now they gonna take Polaris away too? I doubt it, but I do understand your concerned. But to me, Polaris is going to be pretty much alive and it will be a surprise to see her in one of these all new different.
It’s true that this is negative, but it’s because I’ve come to find the negative outlook is more often true than false.
I had a LOOOOOT of text here explaining the pessimistic side of my outlook in minute detail, but after writing it, I don’t think it’ll be needed unless Lorna actually does get killed off.
So here’s the cliff notes. Marvel has done a lot of good for her, by giving her a lot of good character development and giving her some representation in the form of her first playable video game appearances and some cameos. However, she’s also been excluded from her family, excluded from Marvel and X-Men events and representation (even when she has a huge stake in them), and typically, what she’s on isn’t promoted. In one case, a cover was even deliberately withheld until a week before the issue hit shelves.
She’s given progress, but it’s under the radar, not supported, and segregated from anything important. Marvel is looking to cull the number of X-books out there. It’s inevitable that will mean characters get cut, whether that means less/no use or outright killing them off.
If a person doesn’t value something, they feel less obligation to keep it. If Marvel feels she doesn’t deserve to be in big events, represented on franchise-wide covers or have her books or big character moments promoted, it betrays an attitude toward her put simply as “Eh, she’s a nobody, we can afford to kill her off.”
To answer your direct comments, the Magneto solo is frankly the biggest spotlight Marvel has given Polaris in 6 years. It’s a smaller role than All-New X-Factor, but unlike ANXF, Marvel is actually willing to promote it. It also helps that it has more readers.
As far as Lorna’s place on ANXF, I disagree with you. It was closer to a Gambit solo. Most stories focused on Gambit, and until ANXF #7, he was treated more like the team leader than Lorna. He even got to recruit half the team, including one member, Danger, that Lorna was visibly uncomfortable with having on “her” team.
That doesn’t mean ANXF was bad. Aside from ANXF #2-6, I felt she was written very well. It allowed her to interact with her brother and sister, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, after far too long apart from them. And it was good that Lorna finally got to lead a team in her own right, rather than filling in like she did for Havok (various teams), Magneto (Genosha) and Madrox (X-Factor).
But ANXF was definitely not in any way a Polaris solo, even partly. Gambit, Quicksilver and Danger, in that order, all had more use and representation than Lorna.
Lastly, you’re right, it would be a terrible idea for Marvel to kill Lorna off after the forced retcon on Wanda and Pietro. But then, the forced retcon on Wanda and Pietro itself was a terrible idea, and they’re sticking to it despite the well-deserved backlash.
Again, I hope my concerns are wrong. I like to be wrong in cases like this. However, I can’t pretend the risk isn’t here just because I don’t want it to be. Optimism is nice, but if there’s a chance your ship might sink, it’s not helpful to pretend it won’t. It’s much better to know what to expect and make plans for if it happens.
We won’t know what really happens until the actual issues come out, or
at least until we get more interviews and previews. This is all
speculative educated guessing based on what we’ve seen so far. This
prediction could be completely wrong. Again, I doubt she’s going to die because she’s part of X-factor and Magneto and always was. There are rumors from Tom talking about the return of X-factor. It doesn’t mean she’s going to be in it, but it also don’t mean she’s not. This is the different between a true fans, always have faith and never speculate what is not on panels or previews.Plus Polaris was more a protagonist to me than Gambit was. She was actually the bad ass there. Perhaps Gambit was the sec protagonist, but I would consider Quicksilver to be the sec protagonist. This ANXF was pretty much base on family matters and not about Gambit.
Let me explain something about being a “true fan”: if you don’t show your fandom, you lose it. Companies flat out do not care about you or anything you care about unless you demonstrate that you’re watching, and that means appreciation for the good, criticism of the bad, and airing of worries and concerns to avoid any of the bad.
I didn’t pop out of nowhere. I have over a decade of experience, and I got it from video game companies, mainly Square-Enix.
When you tell me “true fans” should “always have faith,” you’re reminding me of the day I stupidly bought and played Final Fantasy X-2 in 2003 because I naively thought Square-Enix would always love and respect the Final Fantasy franchise beyond the ability to make money off of it. When you suggest I shouldn’t speculate without panels or previews of actual issues, you remind me of 3rd Birthday, and how “true fans” insisted I should “wait until it comes out”… only for every single fear I had to not only be proven right, but for all of them to be far, far worse than even I could imagine.
Every single teaser betrayed Square-Enix’s complete and utter disrespect for Parasite Eve and Aya Brea, but the “true fans” wouldn’t hear it. Then, it came out and ruined the franchise and character so badly that Square-Enix, a company that had plans to bring Parasite Eve back in full swing, hasn’t done a single thing with it in 5 years. They literally refuse to fix the mess they made or admit they ever made one, because there wasn’t enough criticism to force them in the right direction before and not enough complaints to force them to set things right after.
I’ve seen franchises and characters I’ve loved completely, utterly destroyed. Parasite Eve, Soul Calibur, Final Fantasy, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, all have either been torn to shreds or had great characters within them ruined, all because nobody gave enough of a damn. After over 10 years, I’ve learned that “always have faith” is a huge mistake. You’re pretty much begging the company that owns the rights to what you love to screw you over. Polaris is my “no more” line in the sand. I’m sick of history repeating.
You know what I’ve learned works, though? Complaints. If you get it to a level that can’t be ignored, they have to respond and at least try to listen.
When Nintendo of America refused to bring Xenoblade Chronicles, The Last Story and Pandora’s Tower to the United States, it took a huge fan push called Operation Rainfall to get NoA just to localize those games. When Square-Enix butchered Final Fantasy 13 and Final Fantasy 14, it took internet-wide complaints for them to actually look at why people were complaining and do right by them.
Square-Enix even offered access to FF14 for free while fully remaking it with A Realm Reborn. That would not have been necessary for Square-Enix if they had early warning signs of fan concerns before it had a chance to damage their image.
I know what I’m doing, and despite how it may look to you, I am not being critical right now. I’m being cautious, and I have good reason to be.
I can get into an argument about the rest regarding ANXF, but frankly, I feel like I said all I needed to last time. There’s one bit I’d like to add, but in the current social media climate, I fear pointing it out publicly could lead to attacks toward certain people.
I understand your concerned, but there is nothing to worry about.
Just like there was nothing wrong with ANXF. It’s strange something that was really good in selling and in reading. You automatically right away find something wrong and always has to do with Polaris. Thousands of character that have been mislead or else and always Polaris has something wrong. Trust me, I know, I’ve been around the internet and what makes me realize is that Polaris IS an interesting character and well developed that took slowly to get there. Now, she’s well done and everyone still complaining. I think everyone is afraid that Polaris is becoming something more than any other characters. Polaris is the S*HT no matter what. There would be no one like the green hair and everyone knows it. Afraid that she will become better than Storm or Jean or any other female characters and that’s why people always have something negative to say about her. I’m speaking in general (no offense).
I don’t like Final Fantasy. I always dislike that game. I don’t think it was all that.
I’d first like to say sorry for some rudeness in my post replies. I can go overboard when I get passionate.
There were good things and bad things for Lorna in ANXF, just as there’s good and bad things in EVERY piece of work. I think I did a good job of stating what I found to be both good and bad about ANXF.
I was extremely supportive of ANXF before it launched, and once Peter David got going well with it, I was supportive toward it again. If I was not, I wouldn’t complain that Marvel didn’t give it proper marketing and promotion. I’d instead be complaining that Marvel ever gave him access to Lorna in the first place. There are video games I’ve demanded companies flat out “unmake” entirely, as if they never happened. I don’t do that for ANXF.
If you mean to imply that I’m “afraid” of Lorna being great and that I’m trying to hold Lorna back, then I definitely take offense to that. Lorna is the reason I care about anything Marvel at all. If she gets killed off during Secret Wars, I’m swearing off everything Disney, including Star Wars.
You are mistaking negative remarks about certain depictions of her with negative remarks about the character herself, and that is just wrong. That’s like saying if someone’s critical of the way a current president is running the country, that means they hate America and don’t want it to be great. Questioning what’s put in front of you is a crucial part of being a fan. If you don’t question anything, you’re just a consumer.
salarta 