This was going to be about Polaris tweets, but the first tweet I had to highlight generated so much text from me that I’m making it its own post.

I need to talk about this because Gail thinking Lorna would be a hard sell underscores heavy bias against Lorna at @marvelentertainment​.

To repeat: I said bias from Marvel, not bias from Gail Simone. What she said here says nothing about her views on Lorna. Do not “go after” or complain about her for providing insight into what she has to take into account when working with a company as biased as Marvel.

Now to the meat of my post.

Lorna is a character who has never received even one solo, miniseries, one-shot or dedicated origins book. This is while so many other characters – including ones only the most hardcore of hardcore readers have ever heard of – have received solos.

Blink got her own solo series. Firestar got not one, but two solo volumes. Strong Guy. Layla Miller. Shatterstar. Longshot long before Deadpool 2. Chamber, a character I literally never heard of until I put together one of these lists, had his own 4-issue miniseries in 2002.

Marvel’s able to make solos and one-shots for all of these characters, but not for Polaris? Somehow, giving Lorna a single series is a hard sell at Marvel?

It’s even worse when you consider the full context. The live-action version of Lorna is the most popular character on Gifted. This year is the 50th anniversary of her creation. She’s the second female X-Men member. If you check social media, you see tons and tons more people requesting or demanding that Lorna get to lead a team, or get to have a solo book, or so many other things.

Polaris is not only at the height of her popularity, she’s not only jumped over every hurdle these other characters that got series had to jump, she’s exceeded the qualifications.

If Lorna isn’t able to get a solo under these conditions, conditions that no other character that got a solo had to have to get theirs, then what the hell is it going to take? Does the idea of her have to end world hunger first? Does the U.S. government have to declare the day of her creation National Polaris Day? Would that be enough for Marvel to give her a solo book?

Or is no amount of popularity or demand in need of supply ever going to be good enough for this company?