I just realized Marvel’s recent comics and their plans for future comics demonstrate how little respect @marvelentertainment has for Polaris/Lorna Dane.

X-Men Blue #8 and #9 were her “big return” – after a 2 year forced limbo – that amounted to Marvel treating her like she has absolutely nothing to her character except the men in her life. Primarily focused on Havok, secondarily on Magneto.

She’s been in nothing and won’t be in anything since. She has minor appearances in X-Men Blue but that’s it. And the few she’s had are treating her like any random character that could be thrown into the situation, or purely as an extension of her father Magneto.

There are no future comic book plans for her. She’s not on teams. She doesn’t have a book of her own. No presence in major events. Nothing.

But guess what? Blink is a starring team member on the new Cable book.

I cite Blink because both Polaris and Blink are starring characters for Gifted. Of the two of them, Marvel is only interested in using and promoting Blink. Not Polaris.

Translation: Marvel has no respect for Polaris. If they did, they would give her at least as much as they’ll be giving Blink.

Marvel’s lack of respect for Polaris translated into the assumption that Polaris isn’t “deserving” or “good enough” to have regular use while Blink is. It likely translated into an assumption that Blink would be the sole breakout star of Gifted and Emma Dumont as Polaris would get hardly any interest.

This is why I have so little respect for current Marvel itself. They have a negative attitude toward Lorna and her potential that in turn means I have no respect for Marvel right back.

Juuuuust cause I wanna make my views clear on things I support or am okay with on Gifted vs things I wouldn’t be okay with in the comics.

“Weaker” powers

Lorna’s abilities on The Gifted can be summed up as street level electromagnetism. The show is doing excellent things with street level use with her powers. They’re very creative with it at that level, and the show needs to start Lorna off not at her peak so she has something to go with her powers. Gifted is also an AU version of her.

I wouldn’t be okay with this in the comics. Lorna in the comics has already demonstrated amazing powerful feats and, during Austen’s run, meaningful creative uses of her powers. In comics, to cut her down to street level before ever really exploring her potential would be insulting.

Costume

In Gifted, her costume fits the story and setting. It’s effectively an AU version of her, meaning there will be some differences. Most importantly, Gifted is giving Lorna a huge spotlight. That spotlight offsets any possible issues with not using her iconic costume.

The comics ditching her iconic costume or a variation of it would be bad, and I’d complain. First of all, Marvel has multiple green-haired women. Abigail Brand. Viper. Carmilla Black. She needs enough to get noticed as not being them. Second, Marvel never gives Lorna any kind of real spotlight. X-Men Blue #8-9 was the closest, and setting major problems with those issues aside, that wasn’t a major X-Men event nor a core issue of the Secret Empire event. The costume was necessary.

The baby

Honestly, on Gifted I don’t like this coming up so soon. I feel it would’ve been better in the second half of the season or in season 2, after people got to know Lorna more. But, this is once again an AU. I’m willing to see where it goes first. And, again, Lorna is in the spotlight on Gifted. And the baby isn’t being treated as the one sole thing to know about her or the most important.

I’d have a huge problem with Lorna pregnant in the comics.

Marvel hasn’t explored her potential much at all. Since Austen’s run, they’ve been going out of their way to bury her. They exiled her to space. They never advertised her origin story issue, or her leading X-Factor. They had her in forced limbo for two years. In the comics, to give Lorna a baby/pregnancy right now would be insulting.

Secondly, even if I were somehow okay with comics Lorna made pregnant or having a baby as a general concept, Marvel would just use it as a way of burying her and shoving her out of view. “Lorna has a baby now, that means she shouldn’t want to fight, we don’t need to write anything with her anymore.” Alternately “Lorna only exists for the baby, just like before how we decided she only existed for Havok, there’s no reason to explore who she is beyond the baby.” Something we don’t have to worry about with Gifted. Even if I were somehow okay with it in the comics, Marvel would screw it up royally.

That’s all I can think of right this second. If I have more, I’ll either edit or reblog to add it.