Hello! Welcome to another installment of what I’ve decided to make into a series due to how often I see these possibilities pop up.

What Can Polaris Do?

Because if Marvel can’t be bothered to explore Lorna’s potential, then I may as well be the one to showcase what we’re needlessly missing out on.

In this study, magnetic zaps to specific parts of the brain were used to help participants navigate a maze with no other stimuli. No sight, sound, touch, nothing but a little brain zap. The magnetic zap in this case created a phosphene, a bar or blob of light in the eye. The presence or absence of this phosphene was used to tell subjects whether to move forward or down.

Simple? Yes. But this is just the beginning, and it demonstrates that magnetic manipulation to specific parts of the brain can relay simple instructions or affect sight.

Conclusion: The matter is simple: we kill the Batman.

Wait, whoops, wrong identity. Hang on a sec.

What immediately comes to mind is that Polaris could use her powers to temporarily blind someone by loading their vision with phosphenes. Perhaps there’s an application here for preventing Cyclops’ concussive eye blasts, by actually turning off his brain’s ability to generate them?

Alternately, communications. Imagine she or someone else is trapped, and they can’t send out your usual message in case it’s intercepted. Send little flashes for proper direction until the person finds them. Or, use the phosphenes as a way to synchronize an attack; Polaris signaling when to strike and who should do it without having to utter a single word. Imagine the kind of advantage she would have by doing that when the enemy assumes no such coordination can be done without a telepath. Better yet, thought may be fast, but a bodily change of that sort may be even faster.

Lastly, perhaps a little operant conditioning? Punish an enemy with phosphenes every time they try to do something, until they stop.

Gamers blindly navigate a digital maze with input only from brain stimulation

Because Marvel finds it so difficult to acknowledge Polaris and make use of her potential, I’ve decided that starting now, I’m going to make this a series.

What Can Polaris Do?

In this article, we see that Polaris could use her powers to bring back repressed memories. In one sense, she could help a character cope with trauma – whether that means repressing those memories, providing them with a safe way to relive them, or helping them manage during combat. In an offensive capacity, Lorna could arouse memories in her enemies that will make them scared, senselessly aggressive, docile, etc.

Meanwhile, this information goes a long way toward a specific theory about Lorna’s mood and personality shifts: her magnetic manipulation abilities may actually be causing certain behaviors due to their effects on her brain. As far as I’m aware, neither she nor Magneto have ever actually tried to control the mental aspects of their abilities. The closest I’ve ever seen was an AU where Magneto physically warped Apocalypse’s brain to kill him, but not to alter his thinking in any way.

Conclusion: Through this actual, real world research, we know Polaris could be given abilities normally considered as purely for psychics. In other words, she could take spots on teams normally reserved for the likes of Jean Grey, Rachel Grey, Emma Frost, Professor X and Psylocke, among others. She could also provide an alternative approach to dealing with characters like Legion; perhaps she could even save Haller in crucial moments because it wouldn’t be powerful psychic vs powerful psychic, but powerful psychic vs magnetic manipulation of the brain – which we know to be the source of these powers thanks to Red Skull using Xavier’s brain during Axis. Lastly, she could take advantage of things like X-23′s memory of her trigger scent to make her feral, or make Bruce Banner Hulk out by making him remember something enraging.

Magnetic brain stimulation can bring back stowed memories