NX is an official Netflix Twitter account. I think it’s the studio behind their original programming, but I’m not certain about that. The first tweet in this string was rating other well-known X-Men characters, and a lot of people asked for their thoughts on other characters.
I’ve seen a lot of Lorna referred to as underrated, and at this point, I don’t think it’s an accurate estimation of how the general public views her. I think it’s an estimation of how Marvel views her. A lot of people take their cues on how they think the general public sees a character based on how Marvel treats them.
Wolverine is overrated because he gets way more emphasis than he should from Marvel. Magneto is overrated for the same reason. Likewise, Lorna gets almost nothing from Marvel, and typically has things stolen from her to benefit other characters. Ergo, she’s underrated, otherwise Marvel would treat her better. Right?
But she’s really not underrated by the general public. You don’t know what you don’t know, so people who don’t realize she exists aren’t able to rate her. And the people who DO know she exists and have put much thought into her, they seem to realize she has way more potential than Marvel’s been willing to acknowledge and use.
Yesterday, how much interest exists for Polaris/Lorna Dane on Twitter came into question. Well, I’ve been compiling tweets about Lorna for several months now. I’ve saved screenshots of over 200 tweets in that time. I’m sifting through and making use of some of them.
This post serves one purpose: to show those tweets I’ve found that demonstrate a strong desire that people have to see more of Polaris.
No commentary from me. Just a couple introductory “rules” and disclaimers to what I’m presenting.
No tweets about Gifted.
Will attempt to not use the same person more than once – can’t guarantee I won’t slip up.
For the top 10 lists, I opted not to save all the tweets including her cause I thought that would be annoyingly and unnecessarily repetitive.
With that, here we go. 72 tweets on this post. Broken down by category.
I have another post to make later. Tonight if I have the time and I’m not too tired. But this is overdue.
People are starting to talk about how it’s Lorna’s 50th anniversary next month. Marvel won’t acknowledge it, but others will.
Yep. People are increasingly aware of how shitty Havok has been for Lorna’s history. Having Lorna’s return and use on Blue hijacked by Havok to promote him and then Havok leading a team book while Lorna gets nothing doesn’t help that sentiment whatsoever.
I include this one because literally nobody has liked or retweeted it, vs the one it’s quote-retweeting getting 3 retweets and 19 likes.
Concern is rising about this. I don’t feel like writing extensively at the moment. Just. It’s pretty much what I warned could easily happen on this show after Dreamer was killed off so poorly.
Another to go with the Havok stuff up there. Guy’s trolling obviously. But it’s the same sentiment as the guy I ran into back in 2009/2010 that said Lorna should be left in space limbo to “keep her away from characters that matter.”
Couple new top 10 posts.
Segura doesn’t work for Marvel, but this is a vivid show that there are writers that would like to write Lorna in some capacity.
If they don’t work at Marvel right now, then it’s an issue that Marvel isn’t hiring people that would want to write her. They’re hiring people that match their personal sentiments that disadvantage Lorna.
Talk rising of how Lorna should be included in MCU based stuff with the rights going back to Marvel.
Remarks of how mental health issues are common in the Magnus family, and also questioning the trope of women “going crazy” in comics. I’d say a more accurate point here is women with great power suddenly turning out shitty or evil when they get it. Jean Grey, Scarlet Witch, Polaris, Sue Storm, Monica Rambeau (when Avengers leader), there’s a tendency in many past comics to paint women in a bad light.
Actually, I’d say Lorna could be bi too. But lesbian would fit just fine. Say that dating Havok was self-loathing. And it’s not like Marvel has any other characters in her history to deal with. They haven’t allowed her to date anyone that isn’t Havok.
Just some WATXM value.
The issue he’s talking about is, I believe, Uncanny X-Men #442 or #443 (I’m too lazy right now to make sure I got the number right). Austen’s run. Which shows how that run was integral to her character.
General fandom and character gushing.
Damn right she is!
This is an example of how interest in Lorna has spread. Again, people are dyeing their hair green specifically because of their interest in Lorna. People don’t do that over characters they don’t care much about.
Final tweet to highlight, for its great point. Marvel tries to seem progressive and supportive of diversity, yet they have all these great female characters that they don’t utilize in any real and proper way. Which, of course, includes Lorna.
That’s all here. I will have a post in the near future with no commentary, just tweets posted, to make a very specific point when I send someone the link.
This is two tweets I’ve found recently of people specifically asking Thompson to do stuff with Lorna.
I don’t think her reply in the second pic means anything; there were multiple suggestions, she could’ve been replying to any or all of them.
For the most part, I don’t have any particular feelings right now on whether Thompson would be good or bad for Lorna. I don’t know enough about her or her writing.
She would fulfill one of my recent ideal criteria, which is Lorna written by a female writer. I think a lot of the problems with the way Lorna’s been written by Marvel stem from a male writer POV. Lorna was written well in the few pages Marjorie Liu used her, for example.
I have more tweets focused on fave characters of the tweeter, but I wanted to spotlight these two because of the X-Men Blue panel used. As I said in another Tumblr post, I’m seeing that panel more and more on social media. I think it shows people want Lorna to be Magneto’s daughter, they want it used and explored, but they also don’t want it to be treated like it’s all there is to who Lorna is as a character.
More fave character sorts of posts for Lorna.
More requests/demands for Lorna to get a solo book, to go with what I’ve pointed out in other posts.
I’m also really glad to see Lorna increasingly referred to as a Queen. I think most people are just using it as a title of respect, but in her original storyline she was called the Queen of Mutants. Plus she was set as the heir of Genosha. So it all fits perfectly. The sassy and beautiful green queen.
Damn right she does.
Another tweet of someone signaling they’d like Lorna to be a lesbian, or that they personally see her as lesbian.
And on the flip side, this. The original tweet from Marvel was about a list of who in the Marvel universe had the best beards.
I’m pretty sure this is someone wondering if Marvel’s going to try to kill Lorna off in the next Marvel event. I can see other ways of meaning though, mostly playful.
We all know there’s a lot of love for the ideal Magnus family, here’s another tweet to that point.
I’ve seen a fair number of these kind of tweets. I think it says something about Lorna’s popularity and how awareness has spread of her when people do these “character you remind me of” tweets and Lorna is among the characters thought of.
Tweetin time. I’m listening to the new Vicious album by Halestorm as I write this up, which I highly suggest listening to cause it’s awesomesauce.
This tweet got the date wrong; #49 came out in October 1968. But. This tweet itself is wonderful and important just for the attempt to acknowledge Lorna and when she first appeared.
This is canon now cause I say so.
Okay, okay. Honestly, bi fits her more. But personally I’d be fine with this too.
Also I like the dig on Havok because I’m sick as fuck of Lorna getting dragged down to promote his stories and put him on a pedestal. And I’d say the number of retweets and likes for this tweet says something in itself.
For those who don’t know, comphet means compulsory heterosexuality, as in someone acting heterosexual because society expects them to be.
A few more cases of people saying they’d want a Polaris solo already goddamnit Marvel stop refusing to do good things.
A couple cases of Lorna listed as a character that should be included in X-Men rosters.
Two more tweets about wanting her to be in Future Fight. It’s getting old that she keeps getting excluded for no good reason whatsoever.
There were a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT of responses to the second one that included Lorna in their top 10. I’m only posting this one case because to post all the responses including Lorna could’ve taken up a post all by itself.
Plus even before the responses, the fact Lorna was included in the picture kicking off the thread says a lot.
This tweet demonstrates how bad this cover was in the way it presented Lorna. Months have passed and views have very much not changed.
First tweet was for aesthetics of favorite characters. Second tweet was a series of Magnus family aesthetics.
On that note, more people talking about the idea of Lorna and Wanda fighting – an idea I’ve absolutely backed before. But the key to a fight is having actual emotional stakes and playing on their being sisters, not just having them fight for the hell of it.
Also stands out to me that they chose to use a pic of comics Lorna (in this case, Jeff Parker’s Exiles) instead of Gifted’s live action interpretation to match with the MCU Wanda pic.
Another case of fancasting an MCU version of Lorna, this time with Lorna as black. IMO I think she’d be a great fit of known actresses, but I still feel an “unknown” actress would fit better.
And wanting Lorna in the MCU again.
One of my headcanons is Lorna having a moment very akin to Wanda’s House of M tied to the trauma she’s gone through, getting pushed too far, etc. I think this shows a lot of people feel the same way in wanting something similar.
Another tweet about how Lorna’s Jewish ancestry, and how it doesn’t really come up much in use of her.
Various Lorna appreciation. I increasingly love Lorna referred to as queen. In her original storyline, she was called Queen of Mutants by Mesmero and followers. Going back to that would be great.
And for my final highlight tweets, two people talking about how Lorna deserves way, way more use and respect than Marvel is willing to give her.
Another installment of tweets. For the record, when I do these it tends to take me a few hours.
The X-Men Black tweet was before it was revealed it’s one-shots focused on different villains.
A lot of people want Polaris to get a solo or ongoing or at least be in a book. Yet Marvel isn’t giving her any of that. On her 50th anniversary. After how they used her on Blue to benefit Havok and Magneto at her expense.
The Magnus family as a whole, but especially the possible dynamics between Lorna and Wanda, continues to be something really want. Talk of the merger has people asking for Lorna and Wanda to be together in film/tv.
Unfortunately, I expect Marvel is going to either never use Lorna in those places, or only use her as “Havok’s clingy girlfriend” cause Marvel doesn’t seem to be willing to acknowledge that Lorna is so much more of a character than the bad stereotype she was treated like for too long.
Just more cases of people asking for Lorna in more figurines, games, etc.
Note that yet again, Havok got something – a metalfig – but not Lorna. Marvel’s bias against Lorna strikes again.
There are a few other tweets of “fancast me as a character” where Polaris was given as an answer. I just chose this one. Also, second pic is another case of people associating green hair with Lorna.
This tweet gets across the same feeling I had about Blue’s use of Malice.
I was not among the people who raged about the idea of using Lorna’s history with Malice. I always felt, and still feel, that exploring that history would be great for Lorna if handled well (read: not how Claremont did it). My big complaint and concern was how Havok around would ruin what’s possible there.
If Bunn had given Lorna a dedicated story arc on Blue where she’s possessed by Malice, we could’ve seen so much. We could’ve seen inside Lorna’s head as she fights Malice from within. We could’ve seen Malice exploiting Lorna’s connections and reputation on the outside. Things could’ve been revealed about Lorna or her relationships that would never come out in any other scenario.
Instead, Bunn had Lorna possessed then suddenly breaking free in almost no time at all. It was nothing more than a filler footnote buried in a story dedicated to Havok.
What the tweet above does bring to mind, though, is that perhaps the problem runs deeper than Bunn. Two different writers doing the same thing to two different characters at the same time suggests the editors may have pushed wasting all the potential that could’ve been explored with this story.
On the flipside of the value of Lorna’s family connections stated above, here’s a couple tweets that tell another side to the story.
Going too far with Lorna’s ties to her father Magneto is just as bad as not using them enough or not at all.
Lorna is her own unique character. She has a history, a mindset, dreams and aspirations, and so much else that all belong to her. It is very important that who Lorna is as her own character remain intact. Moreso than anything else. Not maintaining that runs the huge risk of people dismissing Lorna as “just Magneto with green hair and boobs.”
It’s better for Lorna to be less known but keep her identity than for Lorna’s name and face to be popular but she’s just a carbon copy of her dad.
And here, Lorna’s acknowledged for her Jewish ancestry. Which gives me thoughts of Lorna and Kitty exploring that ancestry together.
Last page that Connor refers to is from New X-Men #132. It is an amazingly powerful and emotional issue that does so many things. It shows Lorna using her powers for more than tossing metal around or shooting energy. It highlights just how horrific and traumatizing what she went through in surviving Genosha was. If you actually read the issue, it sticks with you deeply. It’s one of the most important issues out there to read to understand her.
A couple more cases of people suggesting an X-Men Green featuring Lorna.
I thought this was really interesting. As it says, it’s a bot about Marvel characters over in Japan, and Lorna was among the characters suggested for the bot. I think it does well in further demonstrating awareness of Lorna in other countries.
Lastly, a bunch of random tweets of people saying how much they appreciate Lorna, how she’s their favorite character, wanting to know more about her, etc. These are the sort of people that @marvelentertainment keeps refusing to do things for by not giving Lorna any opportunities and trying to hold her back as “Havok’s girlfriend” or “Havok’s ex” purely for his benefit and none of her own.
This post is overdue. Tweets about Polaris. Two separate times of tweet-gathering shown here.
Another fancast. Seeing a fair number more these days.
My personal “fancast” more in spirit, look and style than in acting history is Bishop Briggs. White Flag and Dream are very Lorna songs and capture her nature perfectly.
Basically, all of these tweets combine to say the same thing: @marvelentertainment is completely ignoring what people actually want in favor of what they want to make people want.
Yet again, I demonstrate that there’s great demand for Polaris and content involving her. People aren’t just saying it’d be nice to have her. They’re having dreams about things they want that Marvel won’t give them. It really says something about the biases and ego rampant at a company when there’s this kind of interest and it’s spurned cause the people in charge refuse to acknowledge it.
People who follow my posts know I had a lot of complaints about Bunn’s writing of Lorna. One thing that can be said, though, is that she was in some of it. This user demonstrates that Blue would have had more success and interest if Lorna had been put to real use on the book.
Just a little more to emphasize interest in the whole Magnus family.
And this is another case of showing just how valuable the Polaris legends figure really was.
Lorna went over a decade without one, she was on countless top 10 most wanted lists for years. She’s been out for a couple years, and this is the result.
Exposure matters. Sometimes it’s finding out she exists at all and sparking interest. Or in the latter case, that figure provides emotional support
It’s more than just some dude buying a figure to collect or to give to a kid to play with. Figures can inspire new ideas, and offer much-needed motivation through tough times.
I’m still so happy that more and more people are noticing and repeating how Lorna was the second woman to join the X-Men. Word of mouth is taking care of informing people about something Marvel isn’t bothering to tell anyone about.
I also love when her nature as Mistress of Magnetism is acknowledged.
There’s tooooooooooooooons of role playing done that involves different versions of Polaris. I generally don’t post about those role plays, for the same reason I don’t post OTP matches or the “Polaris [insert verb] the Marvel universe” posts. There’s one interesting NSFW one that’s regularly caught my eye, but I never posted here cause this isn’t a NSFW blog.
This one stood out for me though, enough for me to want to share it here. I never would’ve thought of role play of baby Lorna, let alone interacting with baby sis Wanda. It’s pretty cool to me.
Different take on the whole X-Babies thing Marvel’s done stuff with.
Yes @esteicy-blog, I’m posting one of your tweets again. 😛 I agree with it here and when I responded on Twitter.
Jean would be a nice girlfriend. A new version of Dreamer based off the one that was on Gifted would also be good, IMO.
Personally, I’m not deeply invested in what shade of green she has as long as it’s very clearly green and fits her overall look.
But, I found these tweets really interesting food for thought. To me, anyone caring this much about not just her hair being green, but what shade of green is yet another sign of how much interest and support she has.
People don’t go down into details like that if they aren’t invested in the character, and people don’t get invested in characters when there’s nothing worth getting invested in.
Questions be questions.
The second one is neat in that it’s more of Lorna considered meaningful enough to be a trivia item for people to answer.
More of desire for Lorna in X-Men movies, this time with desire to actually play the role. Not just see it exist.
More of Lorna listed as various top favorites. More of her listed alongside other high-profile names.
Last one. Green hair = Polaris is a take I’m all for seeing more of, as always.
Here’s more Polaris tweets. I actually took these a week ago and never got around to posting them, so there’s new stuff out there that’ll come out next time.
Two of a number of tweets I found that essentially said Polaris’ team and her leading that team is something they love and would rather see instead of the teen O5. I think the fact X-Men Blue is more visible compared to how buried All-New X-Factor was is why we’re seeing a lot of people talking about the team.
On the flipside, these two complaints from the same person.
It shows that people are keeping a very watchful eye on how Lorna is treated by Marvel, and that there’s definitely a general feel beyond just me that Marvel isn’t really doing Lorna justice. Even a little suspicion that Marvel is deliberately undermining her at times.
Also this case of someone asking for more female-led books, and naming Lorna alongside other female characters that Marvel typically sees as “much better and more deserving of respect” than Lorna.
Multiple more recent requests and comparisons of Lorna and Wanda, and asking for more with them.
Personally, I also like the tweet about Lorna’s original green costume because it’s an explicit mention of how important that is for her character. Most people don’t really talk about it much because it’s “her default.” That leaves people who don’t like it and want it changed into something radically different that would make her unrecognizable to casual readers into the most commonly seen voice.
Flipside, here’s a case of someone wanting Lorna more than Pietro (well, “Peter”) in the films.
This is where I’ll go on record and say that 1) I’m perfectly fine with Quicksilver in the films instead, and 2) I feel Lorna and Pietro’s possibilities often don’t get the attention they deserve, including from me.
Also someone (mutual follow now) wishing Lorna was in the MCU, as another films element.
A little more taste of how far interest in Lorna has spread. She’s among top 5 X-Men women for one person, and viewed as a highly inspirational and uplifting example to cite by another.
Marvel should really be keeping the latter in mind when writing Lorna. That there are people out there who are deeply moved by the character, meaning she’s not the throwaway nobody some at Marvel think she is.
People are pretty open to the idea of Lorna being a lesbian, though as has been pointed out to me before, bi would be more appropriate given her relationship history.
I also just plain find it interesting and cool that people are specifically thinking of Lorna when they bring up these ideas. They could’ve gone with all sorts of other characters and Lorna is the one that came to mind.
This is the last one I have. There’s always talk from people about loving the Gifted version of Lorna, but this tweet is a good reminder that there are a lot of big Polaris fans out there that don’t like or care about the live action TV version. Gifted isn’t the final word on who Lorna should be, in other words.
I think it also kinda works in conjunction with all the other tweets about wanting a solo movie for Lorna, wanting her in the X-Men films, wanting her in the MCU, etc. If people were satisfied with the Gifted version, they wouldn’t be asking for a film version, or they’d at least note that they want film Lorna to be Gifted version or played by Emma Dumont.
And so ends another episode of Polaris Tweet Theater!
salarta 