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The Polaris Chronicles – Chapter 1 – salarta – X-Men (Comicverse) [Archive of Our Own]

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Chapters: 1/12
Fandom: X-Men (Comicverse), X-Men – All Media Types, Marvel (Comics)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Lorna Dane
Additional Tags: Childbirth, Mutants, Mutant Powers, Mutant Birth
Summary:

For the 50th anniversary of Polaris’ creation (October 1968), a chronological journey through her character history in the comics. Contains fanon and fan reimaginings of existing moments. One new chapter per month until end of the year.

First chapter text included after the “Read More” cut-off! Chapter title: 

Trick of the Lights (or, A Star is Born)

“Push, honey! Push!”

Suzanna’s screams did more than echo down the halls. Lights flickered. Tools rattled in the tray. Air crackled electric along the contrails of her voice. Every grunt, every groan, every breath carried with it a miasma of raw power emanating with bright and brilliant jade shimmers. If one truly knew what they saw, they might have recognized the glitz and glimmer of a very special mutant born to this harsh human world.

But this was a different time. A different place. Before the Brotherhood. Before the X-Men. Before the world came to know and fear ‘The Mutant Menace’ living next door. Sentinels, Senator Kelly, Dark Phoenix, Malice, Genosha, these and other historical footnotes and horrors had yet to come. The future lay ahead, uncharted, many paths open for the taking.

So blinded, proud Suzanna and Arnold understood only this: they had a baby on the way. Any minute now, their beautiful bundle of joy would emerge from her mother’s womb amid one of the wildest, most cataclysmic earthquakes to rock the good state of California in decades. Like all birthing mothers, Suzanna had the perfect words to answer her husband and mark this grand occasion.

“What the fuck do you think I’m doing?!”

Animal instinct taught Arnold not to touch the bed’s siderails. His hand still quivered from his last shock, not at all helped when his watch stuck fast to its metal for several seconds too long. His poor frazzled brain put no thought into why or how jolts coursed through his arm and down his leg. Just as it never bothered to grasp why bits of metal jumped free and floated of their own accord. It didn’t have the time. Or energy. Or basic tools. He was a husband and father, damnit, not a rocket scientist. Nine to fiver in the mills, not equipped for the majesty of his coming child… but trying all the same.

“Someone fix these damned lights,” shouted the couple’s doctor – perhaps better mannered than could be expected. Forceps out of reach. Power on the fritz. Despite his years, nothing prepared him for this kind of birth. Out of his depth.

“The baby’s crowning!” Nurse Annie excitedly proclaimed. First-timer, she bore witness from afar and silently wondered about the strange little aurora looping around Suzanna’s belly and thighs. Trick of the lights. Had to be. Nothing else explained the blinding green crescendo, all those lovely swirls and pulses of life beating to the tune of that baby’s heart.

Mesmerizing. Almost hypnotic. Suzanna’s pained cries and Arnold’s desperate quavering cascaded out of Annie’s amateur ears to the sight before her. She could lose herself in this moment. Simply lose herself. Slip away from all her bills, and her family dramas, and… and… and…

“Nurse! Forceps!”

Annie awoke with a few fierce blinks. Quietly apologetic, she handed the doctor his tools as demanded. Time bled and sped in a blur. Soon enough, the baby slid out. What happened next, she saw many times in movies and training segments, but watching the real deal would have felt bizarre under any context. It just so happened that this birth had an extra special kink to its wrinkles.

The doctor smacked the baby’s bottom.

Then.

The baby cried.

And with it came a boom. Loud and mighty, the entire building shuddered as if the earth itself rebelled at the doctor’s foolish act. It forced the doctor back on his ass in the closest seat while power flowed unseen from bulbs and sockets into the wailing newborn. While the doctor collected himself, the nurse took her place in these affairs. Cleaning the baby. Wrapping her. Presenting the glowing bundle to her parents.

“Congratulations,” Annie said. “It’s a girl.”

“Oh, my precious little star,” Suzanna gasped with joy, paying no mind to the matted tufts of hair fading from green to brown. Trick of the lights. Nothing more.

The Polaris Chronicles – Chapter 1 – salarta – X-Men (Comicverse) [Archive of Our Own]

Record-setting polar explorer, 16, hits back at men who say she belongs in the kitchen

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profeminist:

“At 16 years old, Australian explorer Jade Hameister is the youngest person to ever complete the polar hat-trick by reaching the North and South Poles and crossing Greenland, but even she has to deal with loudmouth critics who have opined that her place is in the kitchen.” 

[AAARGGHH. 

EDITORS’ NOTE / MOOD READING THIS]

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BACK TO OUR STORY – 

“In 2016, after the then-14-year-old become the youngest person to ski to the North Pole from outside the last degree of latitude (a distance of about 60 miles), she gave a TEDx talk in Melbourne in which she encouraged young women to embrace an adventurous mindset, and to resist societal pressures that discourage them from their ambitions. Male YouTube commenters took offense to Hameister’s message, as users flooded the page with the phrase, “Make me a sandwich,” an internet meme that mocks women for having ambitions aside from making food for a man.

[I literally can’t even make it through this I’m so annoyed]

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“After Hameister’s recent record-setting descent to the South Pole, the teenager offered a biting response to her critics with a Facebook post in which she posed alongside the Ceremonial South Pole flags while carrying a sandwich on a plate.

“I skied back to the Pole again … to take this photo for all those men who commented ‘Make me a sandwich’ on my TEDX Talk,” she wrote. “I made you a sandwich (ham & cheese), now ski 37 days and 600km to the South Pole and you can eat it xx.”

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Read the full piece here

YES!!! THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT! 

GO JADE GO!!! 

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Record-setting polar explorer, 16, hits back at men who say she belongs in the kitchen

In 2018, let’s stop pretending abusive fans are ‘passionate’

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This is an important article, and why I’ve spoken about toxic fans and toxic fandom in the past.

If a company, a director, an editor, a writer, whoever does something wrong or that upsets you, there are ways to respond to it that get the message across (even with stubborn or mean-spirited ones) WITHOUT taking it too far.

There is no context where SWATting a person is okay. Same goes for death threats, doxxing, making harassing phone calls, sending suspicious packages, and other things that are not physical harm but create fear of being harmed.

If you have a problem with what someone’s done and it’s legitimate, it has solid ground to stand on, then making your case and spreading it is usually good enough. Yes, you’ll run into people who push back even if they know you’re right, but a majority of people care about what’s right. Especially in the modern social climate.

By making a case, if it’s legit, then the person/people/company behind the cause will often respond by trying to fix things. If they’re good-intentioned, they’ll do it right away if they see what’s wrong. If not, they’ll do it with enough pressure. In extreme cases, boycotts on various levels may work in conjunction with calling things out. We live in a capitalist society. Refusing to give money affects not just immediate funds, but future opportunities to make money too.

This is why some fanboys will mock complaints with “you’ll buy it anyway,” and why stuff like buying a game just to break it is the wrong approach. If you give money, you’re actually hurting your cause.

If you care about something, you want things to be preserved or (more often) changed, there are ways to do it that are right and ways that are wrong. Avoid the toxic abusive stuff like SWATting and death threats.

In 2018, let’s stop pretending abusive fans are ‘passionate’

Natalie Portman’s Christmas Tree

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People following my blog may have seen this post from me asking about whether or not certain Christmas holiday elements, even without the portions involving Christianity and leaving it just at stuff like Santa and trees, would be offensive and disrespectful to Lorna and Wanda given their Jewish descent via Magneto. Some of you replied, which I greatly appreciate.

My understanding of things got murky with responses. Some said it was a problem with erasure, others questioned lineage (traditional matrilineal vs modern openness to either parent) and whether or not either of them really follow Judaism given they haven’t been displayed doing so.

After reading the article I linked here, I think I’ve come to my answer: don’t do it.

When I was uncertain, my uncertainty was because I grasped the problem if it was enforcing another religion onto these characters. What I didn’t understand is that Hanukkah runs much deeper than that. The article notes it’s not just a problem of one religion supplanting another, it’s a problem if any kind of event – religious or not – takes precedence over Jewish identity.

If anyone can provide me with ideas for next year around this time, that utilize Wanda and Lorna’s red and green colors and still fully respect their Jewish descent, then please share. Otherwise, this is just one thing I will be leaving off entirely in favor of trying to figure out something else I can do that is good and respectful.

Thanks again to everyone who provided input!

Natalie Portman’s Christmas Tree

Disney and Fox are closing in on deal, could be announced next week: Sources

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I have some things I feel I need to say about all of this.

I have made no secret about my pessimism and negativity toward Marvel itself, especially the idea of Disney managing to buy Fox productions and in so doing re-acquire the film rights to the X-Men franchise. Repeatedly, every time the notion of this deal has come up, I have talked about how this would be a terrible deal for the vast majority of fans.

I stick by that. Completely.

The normal “logic” some fans of various characters hold is that in this situation, they should keep quiet or perhaps even kiss Marvel’s ass. The thinking is that doing so means if Marvel does manage to buy the rights, they’re in Marvel’s good graces for future plans. The logic is that they can lobby Marvel to support their character once the rights go to Marvel.

But here’s the thing: I’m a Polaris fan. I’ve been one for 8 years. I know better.

I’ve seen Marvel’s history of treating Lorna poorly. I’ve watched as they technically did good things for her on rare occasions lately, but made absolutely certain that those good things never got any spread and never amounted to anything. And only so they couldn’t be accused of not doing them. Because they knew it looked bad for someone to be able to say this character that’s existed for over 40 years never once had her origin story told, or never lead a team of her own.

I was there for a certain editor at Marvel arguing that her ties to her father Magneto should be severed, and watched as he explicitly kept her out of family events and even had House of M scenes redrawn to remove her.

All of which is just recent. I’ve seen them seem to not acknowledge in any way that Polaris was treated like a punching bag for decades prior to the 00s. I’ve seen them ignore the fact that she survived the Genoshan genocide, a major traumatic episode that gave her severe PTSD. I saw that Marvel routinely and eagerly ignores major developments and events in her character existence just cause it doesn’t fit a certain era that treated her poorly.

I was there for Avengers vs X-Men, Axis, and everything with the Terrigen Mists. I saw how beyond just Lorna, Marvel viewed the X-Men franchise as so expendable that they could tear it down to build up the Avengers, then “replace” them with Inhumans.

I have two incentives to oppose Marvel getting the Fox studios. Poor treatment of Lorna, and poor treatment of the X-Men franchise in general.

Other fans may have their reasons for kissing ass, but I’m not going to. I know, for a fact, that Marvel having the film rights back means my favorite character is screwed, and most characters except the “most important” ones will get next to nothing from Marvel.

I can absolutely guarantee that if it were up to Marvel, I would not be watching Polaris be an awesome badass on Gifted. They would not have selected her to be a major featured character, and they most certainly would not have let her be as badass as she is on the show. Marvel’s view of her would have been that she should be either a minor supporting/background character, or the girlfriend of Havok, and nothing else.

That’s all Marvel sees in her. And I strongly suspect that Marvel would cancel Gifted or else kill off or demote Polaris once they gained control of the show.

Marvel spent the past 8 years keeping her separated from Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver before forcibly retconning the twins out of the family. They spent the past 8 years keeping Lorna isolated from broader X-Men and Marvel events, and excluding her from things like Axis where she sure as hell would have been involved if her actual stake in things was taken into account. Lorna’s back right now in X-Men Blue as a supporting character only, and that’s after putting her in forced limbo for two years.

Marvel’s made the fact it looks down on Polaris and doesn’t acknowledge her worth or potential very well known to me. I’m not going to kiss the company’s ass when I know they’ll do what they’ve already done for decades: tear her down. Hold her back. Undermine things she’s in.

We have Polaris on Gifted because Fox owns the film rights and Matt Nix wanted to use her. Marvel would not have done that all on its own.

End of my post.

Disney and Fox are closing in on deal, could be announced next week: Sources

UndereXposed: 15 Super Powerful X-Men Marvel Is Holding Back

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allwillbeone:

salarta:

Polaris has been a major part of the X-Men’s world for decades. We’ve seen her as Havok’s partner, Magneto’s daughter (you can always flip a coin to see if this has been retconned again lately), and as both a supervillain and a superhero across multiple teams. Her powerful magnetic abilities make her an intimidating foe, and the character is even enjoying some smallscreen spotlight now on the TV show The Gifted.

In Marvel Comics, though, the character is being really underutilized. She has popped up in what amounts to cameo appearances in X-Men Blue, but the truth is that she should be working alongside the X-Men or even headlining her own book. She’s got a rich history with multiple mutants, has worked alongside heroes and villains, and is an ultra-powerful mutant…what’s not to love?

Thanks @lordtimeblogposts for the heads up!

The underestimate of Darwin’s power and killed him off(b/c, you know) for white characters’ pain were why I’m forever salty for X-MEN: First Class movie.

I never saw First Class myself, and have no plans to do so, but character death is always awful. I feel like 99% of the time, character death is lazy writing. Writer can’t figure out how to be dramatic and exciting in other ways, so they resort to character death.

UndereXposed: 15 Super Powerful X-Men Marvel Is Holding Back

UndereXposed: 15 Super Powerful X-Men Marvel Is Holding Back

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Polaris has been a major part of the X-Men’s world for decades. We’ve seen her as Havok’s partner, Magneto’s daughter (you can always flip a coin to see if this has been retconned again lately), and as both a supervillain and a superhero across multiple teams. Her powerful magnetic abilities make her an intimidating foe, and the character is even enjoying some smallscreen spotlight now on the TV show The Gifted.

In Marvel Comics, though, the character is being really underutilized. She has popped up in what amounts to cameo appearances in X-Men Blue, but the truth is that she should be working alongside the X-Men or even headlining her own book. She’s got a rich history with multiple mutants, has worked alongside heroes and villains, and is an ultra-powerful mutant…what’s not to love?

Thanks @lordtimeblogposts for the heads up!

UndereXposed: 15 Super Powerful X-Men Marvel Is Holding Back

Yes, Polaris Is Magneto’s Daughter on The Gifted

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xmenladies:

While speaking with CBR, showrunner Matt Nix acknowledged that, as in the Marvel comic books, on The Gifted Lorna Dane (played by Emma Dumont) will indeed be revealed as the daughter of Magneto.

“There is some awareness she is Magneto’s daughter – I mean, her powers certainly are like Magneto’s,” Matt Nix said. “That’s something we will be exploring as time goes on, but more towards the end of the season, when some of these ideas and suspicions come to the fore. She has to confront, ‘OK, if that’s the case, what does it mean?’ The idea is there are challenges and opportunities with that. In some ways, it might divide her from her friends. In other ways, does she accept the mantle of her birthright? Is it her job to be Magneto in his absence?”

Yes, Polaris Is Magneto’s Daughter on The Gifted