salt-of-the-ao3:

ritshoe:

Kudos to fanfiction writers for writing about all the trauma and emotional and mental turmoil that the original content creators dont acknowledge when putting characters through hell

This has evolved to one of fanfiction’s major assets in my eyes. To every author that cares enough about the characters in their stories to examine trauma, but also the slow, tedious processes of healing and recovery: your stories mean so much to me and other persons with mental health problems. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

This especially applies to fans talking about Polaris/ Lorna Dane. Marvel acts like she has none when she has an extensive history with it.

Uncanny X-Men got more of a reveal today. I have thoughts about that reveal and what it suggests pertaining to Lorna. Event info and my thoughts after the cut.

From Marvel’s page:

Last month at San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel Comics announced that UNCANNY X-MEN would return this fall. Today, the creative team was officially announced as well as an official release date for UNCANNY X-MEN #1 – Wednesday, November 14. The new ongoing series is jam-packed with X-talent – all the writers and artists have previously worked on X-Men characters and stories and will be teaming up for more mutant mayhem!

UNCANNY X-MEN will launch with a 10-part weekly epic called “Disassembled.” Where the series goes from there depends on who is left standing! In this “epic tale of mystery and tragic disappearance,” every remaining mutant on the planet will come together in “an adventure so Earth-shattering, it could very well be the X-Men’s FINAL mission!” With stakes this high, it will take an extraordinary team to tell this story.

Writers Ed Brisson (EXTERMINATION), Kelly Thompson (MR. AND MRS. X), and Matthew Rosenberg (PHOENIX RESURRECTION, ASTONISHING X-MEN) will join the equally X-perienced artistic team of Mahmud Asrar (X-MEN RED), R.B. Silva (X-MEN BLUE), Yildiray Cinar (WEAPON X), and Pere Perez (ROGUE AND GAMBIT). Leinil Frances Yu will provide artwork for the covers.

As a Lorna fan, I didn’t expect she would be included at all. Not after how she was treated on Blue, and how Marvel has no plans for her in October, the month of her 50th anniversary. So, that she’s included is good, for starters.

However, I also have to point out: “every remaining mutant on the planet will come together.” Which raises the question: is Lorna only included because she is objectively still alive, and therefore excluding her would be a blatant show of bias?

There are other things to say on that note, but I’ll get back to that later. For now, I’m going into visual analysis, because that will be easier for me.

Visuals

That Lorna’s not near Havok in this image is a good start. That’s the most important part of the whole visual. Lorna has a long, long history of being visually stuck near Havok to suggest her value is tied to being his (ex-)girlfriend.

But on that mark, it’s notable that Lorna is way in the back while Havok is right at the front. In the past, an argument to dismiss this would have been “Yeah but see Iceman and Angel are the back too, so it’s just random.” Another suggestion was that as she’s a flying character, flying characters are put in the back for visual spectacle.

But see, Storm can fly too, and she’s right up front. Same with Jean Grey, though whether TK flight is used enough with her to count puts that into question. The point is, characters Marvel considers “important” are placed front and center regardless of their power set. Placing Havok in the front, and Polaris in the back, says Marvel thinks Havok is important and Polaris isn’t.

Moving on, I like that she’s in her iconic costume, not what she wore on X-Men Blue or some other team costume. It’s a visual that helps her stand out, especially for anyone familiar with her.

The last thing to note: the giant X breaking up the picture.

This is a theory. It’s probably baseless, but it’s still a theory.

The plan from Marvel is to kill characters off during this event. It is possible that either characters cut in half by the X, or characters not cut in half by the X, will be killed off during this event. Marvel likes to use visuals to tease.

There are problems with this theory either way you look at it.

If it’s characters not cut in half that die – which would mean Lorna dies – then it would also mean Jean Grey, Shadowcat, Multiple Man, Domino, Iceman and many others die too. I can’t see Marvel killing Jean off when they just brought her back, same with Multiple Man, and I can’t see Marvel killing off any of the others given how much use and promotion Marvel’s given them. But really, it’s Jean that screws up this theory.

If it’s characters cut in half that die – meaning Lorna’s spared – then Storm, Rogue, Gambit, Beast, Colossus, Havok and many others like them would die. I can’t see that either. Yesterday on Twitter, I pointed out how a lot of the shit Marvel does to Marvel, they would never pull on characters like Storm. She’s too high-profile, and she has too much weight in diversity and representation, for Marvel to ever seriously consider killing her off. She’s safer than Wolverine and Magneto for that reason.

Basically, Jean Grey and Storm respectively unravel each type of theory.

And now we move on from visuals to what I have to say about the event itself.

Event Details

Right off the bat, there’s something I hate about the premise of this event.

Where the series goes from there depends on who is left standing!

Half-assed character death is one of the shittiest things about comic books. It’s treating death as a tool to use in the following ways:

• cull large roster of available characters
• make a threat look more dangerous
• advance the stories of characters the writers give a damn about

All three of these reasons are bullshit.

There is no reason a roster has to be culled by killing off characters. You never know when a particular character will be relevant and interesting for a story. Killing them off effectively means if a writer wants to use the character, they have to take the time to bring them back and explain how it happened.

Making something look more dangerous is also bullshit. There are plenty of ways to build up a threat that do not require characters dying. Have the villain torture them. Turn their own powers against them. Sow discord among close relations to turn them against each other. Hell, use functional nameless side characters (e.g. “the guy who sold bread to me”). There’s no good reason to kill off established characters like this. Not when they could be sent off to another dimension or something like how Reed and Sue went off to parts unknown for a while.

And then there’s character death to advance the stories of other characters. Throwing away a character’s opportunities and potential just to put a chosen character on a pedestal is garbage. It’s disrespectful. There are plenty of ways to advance a character without killing off another character to do it.

Lorna’s situation

I wrap up with my view of where things stand with Lorna.

I already said above how Lorna was overall treated poorly on Blue, as just a character to promote Havok. I also said how nothing is being done with her at all in October. This event is the only thing we know about any future for her.

All of that is in spite of growing interest in Lorna, in spite of her 50th anniversary, and in spite of how a particular interpretation of her is becoming the most popular character on a TV show. All three criteria should mean that Marvel doing a hell of a lot more with and for Polaris, but it doesn’t.

Combine that with the plan to kill off characters, and I expect Lorna is one of the characters Marvel is going to kill off during this event.

Furthermore, my pessimism following Blue leads me to believe her death will be used to promote Havok and advance his story. If Marvel is putting him on a pedestal while treating Lorna like she’s beneath him and mainly exists to serve his needs, then there’s really nothing to stop them from taking their bias against Lorna all the way.

That’s everything I have to say at the moment. Maybe there will be more as more as revealed or I put more thought into it.