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7 Scientific Superpowers Magneto Doesn’t Know He Has | Nerdist

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Hello everyone! If you’ve been following along on my Tumblr account, you’ve seen plenty of posts I’ve made about things that Polaris COULD do with her powers, with a series I’ve called

What Can Polaris Do?

The intent has been to demonstrate that, contrary to what many people seem to believe, Polaris is not redundant to her father Magneto and it’s very possible to let the two of them have the same powers but take different approaches and specialize in different areas.

Although the video at this link is about Magneto, it can really cover Polaris too. It presents many options I’ve already highlighted, but there are a few in this video that especially stand out.

Invisibility – In a past post, I noted that by affecting the minds of people she’s dealing with, she could make them see whatever she wanted them to see or even look invisible. This video actually explains a less invasive option: affecting light. Instead of having to focus on tons and tons of people, she could focus on the light around her.

I also suspect that she’d be able to go undetected for heat signatures if she wanted, meaning she could do more in the vein of thievery with Black Cat like we saw in Secret Wars House of M.

Control minds and bodies – I’ve said she could place images, memories, etc in people, or relay messages. I hadn’t considered that she could affect emotions and actual full-fledged body parts.

“End modern life” – This is the segment of the video explaining how a burst from the sun could be used as an EMP that hits the entire planet. Certainly, Lorna wouldn’t do something like that under normal circumstances… but it’d be a good setup, either as something that could happen or something that actually does happen, for a Lorna moment akin to Dark Phoenix or M-Day. 

And that last one actually comes close enough to a thought I’ve had that I’ll share it now: Lorna could, in theory, warp reality. Only whereas Wanda’s warping of reality meant creating an alternate universe, Lorna’s would be affecting this universe.

I have an even more tantalizing idea than that which I’m still withholding. I may state it some day, but now’s not the time.

One last thing. In the video, it’s explained that Magneto could give himself super speed if he wanted. I immediately thought of Quicksilver. Many people feel his and Wanda’s powers don’t really match with Magneto, but perhaps this is how it works out.

7 Scientific Superpowers Magneto Doesn’t Know He Has | Nerdist

A Simple Wooden Lamp With an Utterly Enchanting UI

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It’s that time again! No, not Tool Time.

What Can Polaris Do?

Part of an ongoing series of posts where I present an article, video or something similar, describe it, and then go into what it says about things Polaris could do with her powers if Marvel actually used her.

In this case, we see a lamp. It’s a special lamp. Normal lamps use switches, buttons, voice/sound commands and similar. This one uses magnets. A magnet is hidden inside each wooden ball. When brought together, the magnetic force pulls the bottom one up, turning on the lights along the inside of the lamp.

Now for the fun part: explaining what this suggests is possible for Lorna and her abilities.

The first and most obvious function this presents is deception and sneak attacks. You see a wooden ball. Do you expect it to have a magnet hidden in it? By playing on an opponent’s mistaken assumptions, Lorna can get the drop on them.

This is quite fitting for Lorna, too, as a result of Marvel constantly overlooking her. Her father Magneto is one for bombastic displays and high-profile presentation. Up to this point, Lorna has been relatively low key. Her real potential and the impact of her actions in life remain largely hidden from view. Because she isn’t as high-profile, she’s more of a wild card. There’s bound to be less data out there about her. It took decades for Lorna to have Magneto as her father confirmed. Although that’s mostly a result of Marvel disregarding her, it can also be taken as a sign that she’s a mystery or an underestimated factor.

Because of this, the only thing most groups really have to go on for what to expect from her is their assumptions about Magneto, what he can do, how he functions. Attacks like this one would not be expected from Magneto because he has to make a big show of everything. He has to make a statement all the time. Lorna, on the other hand, can play those assumptions against her enemies. Pretend she’s about to launch, say, a car at them, then hit them with a bunch of “wooden” balls from behind.

At one point during the 90s X-Factor, a group in the government figured Polaris could be their mind-controlled pawn to use against Magneto if needed because they have the same powers. Even when they didn’t know she was Magneto’s daughter, people limited their imagination of Lorna’s capabilities to what Magneto could do. That sort of mistake will only be more frequent now that they do know she’s Magneto’s daughter.

The second, more direct angle would be exactly what we see here: creating devices that rely on these sort of magnetic switches. She could, for example, lure an enemy into an underground location she’s set up before and then turn out the lights by separating the magnets.

A Simple Wooden Lamp With an Utterly Enchanting UI

Uncanny X-Men Sale! – Marvel Comics

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There’s a sale of X-Men digital comics on Marvel’s digital comic shop. Surprisingly, they actually acknowledge Polaris by including her first appearance (X-Men #49).

There’s also when Polaris launches Krakoa into space with Storm’s help (Giant-Size X-Men), when she’s given the codename Polaris (Uncanny X-Men #97), and Malice in Polaris’ body actually being menacing (Uncanny X-Men #221).

Uncanny X-Men Sale! – Marvel Comics

X-POSITION: The 2016 That Was, The 2017 That Could Be

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Who should win X-Character of the year and why?

“I think it’s a slam dunk for Emma Frost (a phrase she would no doubt consider low brow). I think many fans were genuinely surprised how much we missed Emma and Scott, but especially Emma, as she brings a certain wit to the X-Men that I don’t think anyone else does. She also destroyed one of the Terrigen clouds. I think many fans have been frustrated with the approach of the X-Men to this crisis given that there seems to be multiple characters who should be able to destroy, contain and/or reconstitute the mists already in the X-Men’s ranks and/or take out Inhumans big gun Blackbolt with relative ease. Jean Grey, Magneto, Polaris, Rachel Summers, Storm, Iceman, Magik, Hope, Nate Grey, Cable — we are looking at you! The inaction of the X-Men has been maddeningly frustrating, be we can trust Emma Frost to be enduringly FABULOUS, buck the trend and actually do something useful.” – Derek

Which character are you hoping makes more appearances in 2017?

“Polaris. It’s a shame that the heir and only daughter of the Master of Magnetism always seems to get the short end of the stick. Lorna is a powerhouse, has strong ties to many X-Men and should be a valuable asset to mutantkind against the Inhumans. Not to mention her close relationship with Crystal’s daughter Luna, her former niece. If that’s not enough, we know Polaris has a lot to say concerning the state of mutantkind thanks to her time in Genosha as Magneto’s heir. There’s a lot of potential there. Lorna needs to break through.” – Ben

“I really love Quicksilver as a character (I love Evan Peters too, but in very very different way). I think Peter David really did something great with that character and the dynamic between him and Polaris which was slowly being built in ‘All-New X-Factor’ was a great loss as it was the most organic/naturalistic brother and sister relationship I had seen in Marvel Comics. Generally there is some sort of imbalance in the sibling relationships in comics whereas as Quicksilver and Polaris were equals. I want Quicksilver back in the X-Books as a mutant again alongside his half-sister Polaris.” – Derek

Selections from the article and emphasis were of my picking here.

With 2016 having been such a shitty year, both for Marvel’s treatment of Polaris and just for all of existence everywhere, it’s uplifting to see this much emphasis on Lorna from readers. While @marvelentertainment keeps treating her like a nobody Z-lister, actual readers and actual fans clearly see Polaris as an A-lister not being given her due.

These comments by Derek and Ben also do a great job of highlighting how Marvel is utterly failing both its readership and its story potential by so stubbornly refusing to acknowledge and use Lorna. She can provide a hell of a lot in the dynamics with Inhumans, but Marvel won’t involve her. She can play off well with Quicksilver at a time that Marvel’s decided to keep Scarlet Witch away from him, but Marvel won’t use the long-standing relationship between Lorna and Pietro that was sibling-like even before they knew they were half-siblings. There’s decades worth of untapped potential here.

This year has been a year of rigged institutions ignoring what people actually want in favor of what they want to force people to want. I’m anticipating that next year will be even worse all around, but commentary like this gives some small sliver of hope for a brighter future somewhere down the road – because no matter how everything is twisted, future generations will eventually fix mistakes made today. And they’ll be even more devoted and inspired to do the best they can as a result of lost potential, of what could have been but never was.

X-POSITION: The 2016 That Was, The 2017 That Could Be

Marvel Comics Solicitations for March 2017

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lordtimeblogposts:

salarta:

So, aside from the eternal matter of @marvelentertainment refusing to use or acknowledge Polaris, it has been brought to my attention that the March 2017 solicits appear to reveal that the Scarlet Witch solo comic will end at issue #15.

This raises multiple questions and matters to discuss, but I want to reiterate something before I get into that.

Throughout this year, I have noted that Marvel kept the Scarlet Witch solo running despite dropping to the threshold for cancellation of any other title since issue #2. My intent was never to make Marvel cancel the solo, or to take an opportunity away from Wanda. It was to highlight how hypocritical Marvel is when they have an agenda for or against a character, how they will bend over backwards to support Scarlet Witch while bending over backwards to sabotage Polaris.

In other words, my intent was to try to if not force Marvel to do better for Polaris, then to at least spread awareness of how the company treats her poorly.

Having established that, let’s explore.

The Scarlet Witch solo is ending at SW #15. That is five issues sooner than All-New X-Factor #20. That might look like Marvel is trying to be fair, but there are some major caveats.

  • Tons of promotion for the SW solo; almost none for ANXF
  • SW sales at 25k or lower starting issue #2; ANXF, starting at #7
  • ANXF cancellation announced well in advance; SW cancellation not announced at all, but implied
  • ANXF regularly double shipped (put out two issues per month); SW solo rarely or never did

That last one may not seem relevant until I explain. By double shipping, All-New X-Factor technically lasted for 5 more issues, but time-wise it ended months sooner. Double shipping also negatively impacts sales unless it’s a book Marvel is heavily promoting. For one, people expect a comic book to only release monthly – meaning many readers missed the second issue of the month. For another, missing an issue can deter people from continuing to read in the same way that missing an episode of a TV show due to a changed time slot can put people off watching the show.

Both problems are why it was such a huge deal that All-New X-Factor #14, the first and only Marvel comic to date that really explored Lorna and Wanda’s 616 sister relationship, had a sales bump. Despite Marvel refusing to promote ANXF #14 (and even holding back its cover to keep it from spreading), and despite being the second issue of a double shipping month, ANXF #14 still sold 200 more issues than ANXF #13. Normally, the second issue’s sales drop by 500-1000.

So, despite the SW solo ending 5 issues sooner than ANXF, the SW solo still received a great deal of bias in support of it compared to bias against ANXF.

A further illustration of the bias in favor of the SW solo comes from Mockingbird, which I pointed out previously. Marvel canceled that comic at issue #7, citing low sales, even though it sold better than the Scarlet Witch solo. In canceling the Scarlet Witch solo at #15, Marvel effectively let its opportunity for SW last more than twice as long as for Mockingbird.

Which leads us to details of cancellation.

In all honesty, we don’t know why Marvel is being so quiet in canceling the Scarlet Witch solo. Maybe Marvel always intended for the solo to only last until issue #15 – though we would’ve expected them to say so from the start or at least months ago if that was the case. Maybe Marvel is trying to give the solo a chance to “bounce back” and if it does, they’ll figure they have a good enough excuse to keep it going. Maybe they don’t want to publicly acknowledge that the Scarlet Witch solo has finally reached a point where they can’t keep it going at a loss. Maybe they’re afraid of Scarlet Witch fans rallying to try to save the book, in much the same way All-New X-Factor fans became very active in trying to save the book after its cancellation was announced.

There are a lot of maybes here. No definites. We can’t even trust any statement made by Marvel because Marvel lies, or statements made by people who work for Marvel because Marvel might force them to lie to continue getting jobs.

This is a company run by people that have made many excuses for trying to undermine Polaris, from excuses for why she “can’t” be Magneto’s daughter, to excuses to exclude her from events like Avengers vs X-Men, to excuses for why a cover for a major character event wouldn’t come out until the Friday before the issue’s release. They’ll say and do anything in service to whatever agenda they have.

That’s my analysis. We’ll see what happens.

DEADPOOL &; THE MERCS FOR MONEY VOL. 2: IVX TPB

  • Written by CULLEN BUNN, GERRY DUGGAN, BRIAN POSEHN & ADAM WARREN
  • Penciled by BRIAN LEVEL, IBAN COELLO, SCOTT KOBLISH & ADAM WARREN
  • Cover by IBAN COELLO
  • The Mercs for Money have a new leader — and she goes by the name
    Domino! Does that mean that luck is changing for this motley crew? Don’t
    count on it! Ditching Wade Wilson doesn’t mean he can’t still have a
    say on the team’s uniform. That’s right, the Rainbow Deadpool Squad is
    back, new and improved! Things get even worse when the M4M are caught in
    the middle of a dystopic future battle between the Inhumans and the
    X-Men! As the Mercs take it upon themselves to protect the innocent,
    Negasonic Teenage Warhead’s powers keep getting stronger. Things are set
    to get explosive! Plus: Meet Deadpool’s other highly animated
    associates — the Insufferable Pals! Featuring…wait, Iceman and Firestar?
    Something isn’t right. Collecting DEADPOOL & THE MERCS FOR MONEY
    (2016B) #6-8 and DEADPOOL ANNUAL (2016) #1.
  • 112 PGS./Parental Advisory …$15.99
  • 9 and 10 No Written Cullen Bun crossover Deadpool
  • Uncanny  x.men 20 end?

Yeah, it was also pointed out to me that he’s off Deadpool starting in the spring. Lots of possible reasons, but I assume the main one is that he’s writing X-Men Blue and that’ll be his entire focus.

I’d like to believe he has some big plan for Polaris, maybe an unannounced book, but I know better. Marvel flat out doesn’t want Polaris used. They basically forced Bunn to go back on his word about Lorna potentially showing up on Uncanny X-Men, and he probably had to jump through hundreds of hoops to be able to get Lorna into his final arc of Deadpool and the Mercs for Money in any sense.

That doesn’t mean I think he’d do a lot of Polaris-centric stuff if he could. I think he’s mainly into Magneto and sees her as a way to support him. But, within that context, I think he’d use her more if he could by sheer virtue of what she can offer to Magneto. Especially given Marvel has made Wanda and Pietro off-limits with their stupid forced retcon.

Marvel Comics Solicitations for March 2017

Marvel Comics Solicitations for March 2017

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So, aside from the eternal matter of @marvelentertainment refusing to use or acknowledge Polaris, it has been brought to my attention that the March 2017 solicits appear to reveal that the Scarlet Witch solo comic will end at issue #15.

This raises multiple questions and matters to discuss, but I want to reiterate something before I get into that.

Throughout this year, I have noted that Marvel kept the Scarlet Witch solo running despite dropping to the threshold for cancellation of any other title since issue #2. My intent was never to make Marvel cancel the solo, or to take an opportunity away from Wanda. It was to highlight how hypocritical Marvel is when they have an agenda for or against a character, how they will bend over backwards to support Scarlet Witch while bending over backwards to sabotage Polaris.

In other words, my intent was to try to if not force Marvel to do better for Polaris, then to at least spread awareness of how the company treats her poorly.

Having established that, let’s explore.

The Scarlet Witch solo is ending at SW #15. That is five issues sooner than All-New X-Factor #20. That might look like Marvel is trying to be fair, but there are some major caveats.

  • Tons of promotion for the SW solo; almost none for ANXF
  • SW sales at 25k or lower starting issue #2; ANXF, starting at #7
  • ANXF cancellation announced well in advance; SW cancellation not announced at all, but implied
  • ANXF regularly double shipped (put out two issues per month); SW solo rarely or never did

That last one may not seem relevant until I explain. By double shipping, All-New X-Factor technically lasted for 5 more issues, but time-wise it ended months sooner. Double shipping also negatively impacts sales unless it’s a book Marvel is heavily promoting. For one, people expect a comic book to only release monthly – meaning many readers missed the second issue of the month. For another, missing an issue can deter people from continuing to read in the same way that missing an episode of a TV show due to a changed time slot can put people off watching the show.

Both problems are why it was such a huge deal that All-New X-Factor #14, the first and only Marvel comic to date that really explored Lorna and Wanda’s 616 sister relationship, had a sales bump. Despite Marvel refusing to promote ANXF #14 (and even holding back its cover to keep it from spreading), and despite being the second issue of a double shipping month, ANXF #14 still sold 200 more issues than ANXF #13. Normally, the second issue’s sales drop by 500-1000.

So, despite the SW solo ending 5 issues sooner than ANXF, the SW solo still received a great deal of bias in support of it compared to bias against ANXF.

A further illustration of the bias in favor of the SW solo comes from Mockingbird, which I pointed out previously. Marvel canceled that comic at issue #7, citing low sales, even though it sold better than the Scarlet Witch solo. In canceling the Scarlet Witch solo at #15, Marvel effectively let its opportunity for SW last more than twice as long as for Mockingbird.

Which leads us to details of cancellation.

In all honesty, we don’t know why Marvel is being so quiet in canceling the Scarlet Witch solo. Maybe Marvel always intended for the solo to only last until issue #15 – though we would’ve expected them to say so from the start or at least months ago if that was the case. Maybe Marvel is trying to give the solo a chance to “bounce back” and if it does, they’ll figure they have a good enough excuse to keep it going. Maybe they don’t want to publicly acknowledge that the Scarlet Witch solo has finally reached a point where they can’t keep it going at a loss. Maybe they’re afraid of Scarlet Witch fans rallying to try to save the book, in much the same way All-New X-Factor fans became very active in trying to save the book after its cancellation was announced.

There are a lot of maybes here. No definites. We can’t even trust any statement made by Marvel because Marvel lies, or statements made by people who work for Marvel because Marvel might force them to lie to continue getting jobs.

This is a company run by people that have made many excuses for trying to undermine Polaris, from excuses for why she “can’t” be Magneto’s daughter, to excuses to exclude her from events like Avengers vs X-Men, to excuses for why a cover for a major character event wouldn’t come out until the Friday before the issue’s release. They’ll say and do anything in service to whatever agenda they have.

That’s my analysis. We’ll see what happens.

Marvel Comics Solicitations for March 2017

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

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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

No, the Pennsylvania recount effort isn’t “over.” Yes, the mainstream media is lying to you.

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intersex-ionality:

note-a-bear:

tpfnews:

Since the recount effort in three states got underway last week, the major media have afforded it virtually no coverage. Even as the Wisconsin recount enters its third day and numerous inconsistencies are being documented, the mainstream media has remained silent. After the Michigan elections board approved the recount go-ahead, nary a peep. Now the major media outlets are finally talking about the Pennsylvania recount effort, but only to report that it’s now “over” – which is not the case.

What actually happened today is that in a desperate last ditch attempt at preventing the recount, the State of Pennsylvania suddenly invented a million dollar bond that third party candidate Jill Stein would have needed to immediately pay for. This came after the state of Wisconsin had surreptitiously increased its own recount price tag from $1.1 million to $3.8 million, for the rather transparent purpose of trying to bankrupt Stein’s recount effort.

Stein had raised millions of dollars, but with so much of that having been eaten up already by Wisconsin’s sudden price hike and the attorney fees required to fight fierce court battles against all three non-cooperating states, it turns out she didn’t have the $1 million cash on hand today to cover Pennsylvania’s sudden ransom demand. Thus she was forced to withdraw her court petition for a Pennsylvania recount. That doesn’t mean it’s over, of course, only that there is now another legal hurdle to fight.

In fact her next step is to fight for precinct by precinct recounts in Pennsylvania until the vote totals have been sufficiently corrected and revised to drop Donald Trump’s lead in the state from the current 0.8% mark to the 0.5% mark, which in turn would trigger an automatic statewide recount under Pennsylvania state law. So how many mainstream major media outlets are correctly reporting that the PA recount effort is now continuing with a new strategy? There don’t appear to be any.

If you look at the headlines coming from the major media outlets this evening, they’re uniformly misleading in that they’re attempting to create the appearance that Stein’s recount effort is finished. “Green Party drops court case seeking statewide recount of Pennsylvania’s Nov. 8 presidential election,” states the Associated Press in a tweet which paint the phony picture that there are no next steps. BuzzFeed News falsely claims that Stein put in a “request to discontinue the recount request,” misleadingly suggesting that she pulled the plug on her own effort. And this ABC News affiliate flatly insisted in its original headline that the challenge to the recount is “over” before ultimately changing the headline entirely to focus on Stein’s next move.

It would be one thing for the major media outlets to ignore the recount effort because they simply decided it wasn’t newsworthy. But after spending the past week largely pretending the recount effort wasn’t happening, these same major media outlets are now racing to report headlines which falsely claim the Pennsylvania recount effort is over. In other words, they didn’t want the public to know about that the recounts were even happening, but now they suddenly want to make the public believe that the recounts are “over.” The mainstream media agenda here isn’t entirely decipherable, but it is entirely unacceptable.

Good news!

Please, if you live in Pennsylvania, go to the Recount website and volunteer as an observer in your precinct.

http://www.jill2016.com/recountPA

Overseeing the Recount to make sure that even more fraudulent crap isn’t happening is absolutely critical.

No, the Pennsylvania recount effort isn’t “over.” Yes, the mainstream media is lying to you.