I won’t lie that I’m disappointed Lorna isn’t rocking her green hair in this. BUT. I’m okay. Emma as Lorna still looks badass for the brief clip. And there’s still a little bit extra for me to point out.
Having paused in the middle of her clip, it looks like Jamie Chung in the background. As in, her hair isn’t pink, and she’s not wearing makeup to look more like Blink. She looks “normal.”
Remember that the premise of this show is a family joining an underground network of mutants. Pink hair and face markings would make Blink stand out. Green hair would make Polaris stand out. This all meshes with the idea that they could be covering up how they actually look as mutants to avoid being caught.
Alternately, both could look “normal” now but then their looks change later in the show. Maybe when Lorna goes full power, for example.
In other words, I’m trusting that Fox has plans in store for Lorna’s green hair that aren’t apparent but will eventually come out in the course of the show. Might even be reasonable to say they’re withholding the “full mutant” look for both characters as something to see when watching the pilot.
It might seem strange to some that I’m putting this much trust in Fox, but it’s the exact same amount of trust I used to have in Marvel. I would still have that level of trust toward Marvel to this day if Marvel treated the character better for the past 8 years.
I look forward to more footage. I expect awesome things from Gifted and Emma’s performance representing Lorna.
I found out about this series pretty late, and I’m gutted it was canceled. The writing was excellent and witty, and Carmine di Giandomenico’s artwork was freaking amazing. Gem of a series.
I felt ANXF #2-6 were terrible treatment toward Polaris, but I also think it was slowly improving from ANXF #7 on after. I think it would’ve eventually found its footing if given a chance.
I’m also pretty sure @marvelentertainment intended to cancel it within a year from the moment they greenlit it. They gave it absolutely no promotion, deliberately kept Quicksilver off its covers while Days of Future Past was in theaters (when it would’ve helped ANXF the most), deliberately withheld the cover for ANXF #14 until the Friday before release (which was Lorna and Wanda finally spending time together as sisters; and while Marvel put out a certain Axis cover months in advance), and kept Peter David completely in the dark on their Axis plans for a forced retcon of Wanda and Pietro being Magneto’s kids (and therefore half-siblings to Lorna).
One of those might have been an unfortunate fluke. All of them was a pattern that betrayed intent.
Thank you SO much for all that context, I wasn’t aware there was so much bullshit behind the scenes about this series. Makes me doubly sad that this wonderful thing was set up for failure early on. A lot of the focus in later issues were on the Maximoffs, so I guess I didn’t feel like Lorna lost out on those earlier ones. Though speaking as someone who’s never been a big fan of Magneto’s spawns prior to this series, I kind of really liked her in those earlier issues as well, so maybe it still works as a sort of introductory thing for people like me.
I had to look up the developments regarding Axis after your reply, and hoooooly crap. That’s one hell of a retcon. Where does Lorna fit into all that? Pietro making a pretty huge effort to support Lorna was such a gorgeous thing, but then he up and leaves towards the end and that just felt so weird to me. Most of the writeups I read were about Wanda and Pietro. Damn. It’s pretty crappy to keep a writer in the dark when he’s handling 2 characters that were directly affected by such a huge change in their stories.
I read that Peter David said he was told the series was canceled due to poor sales, but when I look up the series here and elsewhere, it seemed like there was a pretty healthy fandom brewing at the time. I assumed it was another case of Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal not getting its Nielsen ratings in order to keep going on network TV.
Again, thanks for the added context and details. If I’m sad about this series now, years after the fact, I can’t imagine what fans must have felt like following issue after issue with all these other stuff going on.
Some of the problems with Lorna’s treatment in ANXF #2-6 can be hard to spot without knowing her history. Although All-New X-Factor was the first time she got to lead a team in her own right, she did have multiple cases of prior experience filling in for other characters. She’s previously led in the absence of Havok and Madrox, and played a “stand-in” role for Magneto on Genosha as his powers were weakening.
So, Lorna acting completely unhinged and ignorant in how to lead during those issues didn’t really fit her history. I also had a HUGE problem with how several incidents during #2-6 made it look more like Lorna was “leader in name only” with Gambit around. It’s supposed to be her team, yet Gambit recruited half the team (with Gambit himself being the only person Lorna actually got to recruit). This was especially egregious with Danger, because as Gambit recruited her, Lorna was written as sitting there moping in frustration as if Gambit overruled her on who got to be a part of her team.
Also, inconsistency in Lorna’s behavior in those issues. She’d go into blind murderous rage mode over a cat clawing her in ANXF #3, but then let Gambit yank her by the arm in ANXF #5 when she was about to do something he didn’t like.
But as I said, things got much better from ANXF #7 and onward, which is why I try so hard to make the distinction. I seriously think ANXF #7 is where the comic book should have started off as its #1 or #2.
But enough of that!
Yeah, Marvel tried to blame low sales, but that excuse doesn’t wash. For one, Marvel didn’t give it a chance before deciding to shut it down. For another, they didn’t stick to their own criteria for the Scarlet Witch solo book about a year later. The Scarlet Witch solo had a MASSIVE sales dropoff from #1 to #2, falling to a point that it took ANXF months to reach. Then Scarlet Witch fell even lower in sales numbers. Yet unlike with ANXF, Marvel just kept promoting and advertising it, treated low sales as a reason to push it even harder, and waited months longer before deciding to cancel that book.
There was a decent fan effort to keep the book alive at the time, too. There was a Twitter hashtag effort to keep it going.
As for where Lorna fit into the forced Axis retcon… she didn’t.
There’s a lot I can say about that. The cliff notes version is that Tom Brevoort dislikes Polaris and hated her being part of the Magnus family. He went out of his way to exclude her from everything he could – Children’s Crusade, Avengers vs X-Men, Axis itself (while trying to make Enchantress look like a replacement for her in Wanda’s life), etc. So, while Wanda and Pietro were busy getting that awful retcon thrown on them, Lorna was over on All-New X-Factor taking no part in the storyline at all. Although it’s reasonable to expect she knows by now, for all we know by its lack of attention in the comics, Lorna isn’t aware that forced retcon even happened.
Which is fine by me. Cause as far as I see it, Wanda and Pietro are still Magneto’s kids, and Marvel stopped writing them shortly before Axis.
I think the Lorna and Pietro interactions were one of the major highlights of ANXF. In all honesty, I think the Lorna and Wanda issue could’ve been better, but it was still good. And a decade overdue.
Sorry for loads of text! Also I just want to note that I definitely think it’s worth looking at my POV with a critical eye, since I may feel certain things were handled poorly or well, but other people may feel otherwise.
The loads of text is awesome, thank you for it! Your perspective’s giving me a different angle to view the series with, and I really appreciate that. I hope you don’t mind me chiming in with my own, ‘cause I started reading the series as a Gambit fan, and, um…yeah, sorry for adding even MORE loads of text.
As someone who hasn’t followed Polaris, what you said is definitely surprising to me, ‘cause she really did read as a newbie to the leadership role in ANXF. I wouldn’t have thought she’d had important leadership roles before if you hadn’t mentioned them.
I can see what you mean about the early part of the series kind of pushing Lorna back in terms of her leadership role, but considering the arc dealt with them going to the Thieves Guild’s island as well as confronting Danger, whom Gambit’s had the most history with, I thought it felt pretty okay that he took front and center during those issues. I can see why that would chafe for those reading to follow her specifically, though, especially since she’s given a leadership position and then forced to take a backseat so early on. More ground for the series to cement her role would have been nice before it happened, but at the same time, I think the creators might have also just wanted to hit the ground running.
It’s also a bit odd, ‘cause I think the legacy Gambit had been left with was sort of undermined (not ruined!) during the ANXF run. Asmus left Gambit in a really good place at the end of his series, with Gambit assuming the leadership role of the international Guild, which was pretty huge. But during ANXF, the Guild was portrayed as not that big of a deal, the Guild’s base was mostly destroyed, their established anonymity compromised, and Gambit generally didn’t seem to be taking his role as King very seriously. Him running away from responsibility isn’t really new, but in his series, the build up to his actually acknowledging he was more Thief than Superhero and choosing to lead the Guild rather than just being saddled with it (the latter being the norm for him) was pretty major to me. It felt like some of the character development he went through was diminished.
As quibbles go, mine is really minor, though. Most of me’s just glad and grateful that Gambit was still featured in a major title and portrayed rather freaking well.
That’s an interesting point about recruitment. IIRC, prior to issue 7, Lorna got Gambit in, Pietro was her call whether he joined or not (so maybe not so bad?), Danger was definitely Remy railroading everyone lol, and Cypher had been a joint invite between Remy and Lorna. I thought at that point, the series was setting up a sort of dysfunctional, platonic mom-dad joint leadership thing between Lorna and Remy, but I’m glad that didn’t become the case and it was made clear later on that Lorna’s going to be at the helm.
And part of me thinks that Lorna being a bit less aggressive on Remy than she’d normally be might have to do with their shared experience as Apocalypse’s horsemen, but that’s me trying to fill in the blanks/rationalizing the inconsistency. You’re right, it does seem odd in retrospect. I don’t really know any better, so I sort of assumed the whole murderous rage thing was part of a previous arc I wasn’t privy to, and that it asserts itself now and then. Glad we didn’t see much of it in later issues during moments that didn’t warrant it.
I find it entertaining and a bit of a relief that the series never makes mention of the presence of stripper!Gambit during Lorna’s wedding way back when (I’m glad it happened, but it would make things weird for ANXF probably. Not even sure if Remy knows about it.)
A bit of a tangent, I’d just like to mention that having the sort of respectful dynamic between Remy and Lorna was just so amazing for me to see as a Gambit fan, ‘cause that’s really something I needed to see more of, and as someone who didn’t follow Polaris before, ANXF ended with me finding her character so memorable and so compelling. Aaand now I’ve just made myself sad again thinking I’ll never have more of that dynamic. Ugh. I don’t think these two would have cause to interact in any meaningful manner again in the future.
I didn’t know all that about the Scarlet Witch series. It certainly puts what happened with ANXF in an unfair light. Such a shame, since both David and Giandomenico seemed to really like working on it.
That really freaking sucks about Lorna being shoved away from arcs that directly affect her, though I’m kind of glad ANXF seemed mostly separated from it (apart from Pietro…who was removed in the last issue, what even was that? Would you happen to know if that was part of a different writer’s decision, ie wanting Pietro back in the Avengers for Reasons, or if Peter David had some story arc planned about him leaving and maybe coming back?) TBH, I can’t really fault writers who take up X-title mantles too much, since they’re such a clusterfuck of history and impossible to keep track of, but I’m getting the impression from you that Lorna’s way overdue some love from more writers who actually care about her. And I’d really rather writers shoved aside characters they don’t like rather than kill them off, which almost happened with Rogue at one point.
Reading ANXF without knowing too much of the other characters was honestly quite an experience. I came for Remy, and as it went on, adorable and amazing things kept happening for the Maximoffs that just fucking melted my heart and made me want more. On top of which, Georgia and Luna together were cute as hell and made a good team.
It’s really depressing that the same issues that made me stop following the comics in the 90′s still prevail today, with crossovers that squeeze readers and favored characters being yanked around from one title to another, with some being returned and oh, if you want to know what happened during their absence, pick up issues A, B, X, Y and Annual Fuckall. Still though, I’m so, so glad I picked up this one, even though 20 issues is as far as it got. It had a few problems of its own, but it really brought back what made me love comics in the first place, something I frankly didn’t think I’d experience again in an X-title.
THIS IS A LOT OF FEELINGS, I’m so sorry for the text spam. Thank you again for taking the time to explain the details to me and for letting me know how the series looks from your perspective. I rarely get to talk to other people about comics, and I think some of those bottled up stuff just bubbled over in this post, oops.
Edit: I belatedly realized that I may have come off as trying to argue your specific points regarding Lorna’s treatment, and I apologize for that. To clarify, I just thought it was interesting how we read the series differently from the perspectives we’re coming from, because yours has been enlightening to me. I realized that my liking Remy has created a pretty huge blindspot regarding aspects of Lorna’s portrayal that could have been handled better.
I don’t mind at all! Though I may take time to respond since I have things I need to do as well. Which is why I don’t mind if people don’t respond when I have long spiels.
Since you’re a Gambit fan, I feel like it’s my duty to connect you to @nekobaghira if you don’t already know him. He’s a huge Gambit fan, I believe he runs a full-fledged Gambit fan site and forum, and he’s commissioned some cool Lorna x Remy stuff in the past.
I also think I should let you know, both cause you enjoyed ANXF and cause he needs the spread, that Peter David has a gofundme up right now due to a lot of IRS and tax issues that total $88,000.
On a personal level, I think the Thieves’ Guild stuff could have (and probably should’ve) happened later in the run. I think Peter David just really really wanted to rush to Gambit-centric stuff right out of the gate. By contrast, he waited until after ANXF #7-8 before he did anything Lorna or Pietro centric. Peter David also at the time blamed lack of support from Gambit fans for ANXF’s cancellation, but while I think that claim wasn’t true, I also think Peter David was just really really emotional about the cancellation and had trouble handling it. So I see it mostly as a sign that he cared and wanted to do more, and that he placed most of his hopes on Gambit.
As a result of that, I think Lorna got a raw deal from ANXF #2-6. But, Peter David was improving. And improvement is the most important thing to me. Doesn’t have to be perfect.
Oh, before I get off the complaints involving Gambit, the issues of Lorna’s treatment continued into ANXF #6. That’s where Gambit, rather than giving Lorna expert advice as someone who has more regular leadership experience than her, seemed like he was trying to control her and make her do things he’d do if he were leader. Which would’ve been fine if Lorna called him on it, or lashed out as would’ve been consistent with ANXF #3-4, but instead she got written as meekly accepting it.
There was definitely a lot of potential with Lorna and Remy, IMO. The key, if it was pursued, was to not make either of them look “lesser” than the other. Gambit suffered from that as Rogue’s boyfriend, and Polaris REALLY suffered from it as Havok’s girlfriend. I was extremely vocal and critical during ANXF #2-6 because it seemed like it was shaping up to turn Gambit into another Havok where that was concerned, and Lorna’s potential and options for use have already suffered for decades as a result of how she’s typically written with Havok. Thankfully things got better in that regard on ANXF.
If it helps to know, I viewed Lorna not actually fighting back against Gambit during their segregated Axis arc as a sign she cared and didn’t want to hurt him (in spite of her verbal threats).
It’s still possible for them to have a dynamic again in the future! One of the things I bear in mind is that ANXF provided the ground work for how future interactions can go with these characters. It’s not being pursued now, but who’s to say it won’t be pursued years from now? Polaris being Magneto’s daughter was retconned out shortly after it was revealed way back in the late 60s/early 70s, and it only got restored in the early 00s. It took decades, but it came back. Same goes for Lorna and Remy interacting.
Stripper Remy was amusing, and I think it could’ve led to something. Not sure if it would’ve fit Peter David’s style though.
As far as Pietro suddenly leaving ANXF – that was all Brevoort (in charge of the Avengers books). One of the conditions to Brevoort even allowing Peter David to have Pietro on the book at all was a stipulation that Brevoort could pull Pietro out whenever he wanted. On one hand, it’s nice that Peter David was allowed to write Pietro at all. On the other hand, Marvel seemed to go out of the way to hide Pietro being on the book.
I’ve learned over the past 8 years (I discovered Lorna in 2009) that Marvel consistently appears to offer something great for Lorna, then sabotages it so it doesn’t amount to anything. Got her origin story told after over 40 years without it? Don’t promote it. Got Lorna interacting with her sister? Keep the cover from public view and make the issue the second issue of a double shipping month (which hurts sales). Pretty much everything Lorna’s gained in the past 8 years has been an uphill struggle, with progress made by a mix of grassroots Lorna fans and some people at Marvel like Cullen Bunn and Peter David willing to use her when able.
My understanding of matters is that several writers and even some editors at Marvel like Polaris and want to do more with her, but it’s people higher up at Marvel that stop them. Bunn’s written some Lorna (Secret Wars: House of M alongside Dennis Hopeless was great, Deadpool & the Mercs for Money was pretty good), and Mark Paniccia (senior editor of the X-Men books) has said he would have a Polaris solo if it were up to him. There’s no lack of creative will or interest, only lack of executive willingness to acknowledge Lorna’s value and potential.
Or more cynically, the execs know Lorna’s value and potential and are holding her back specifically for that reason. Fox owns the film rights to the X-Men franchise. Ike Perlmutter has hissy fits about that. His answer is to screw over X-Men characters on Marvel’s end. With Lorna getting her first live action role in the upcoming X-Men TV show (played by Emma Dumont), there’s even more suspicion that perhaps Lorna’s been undermined and kept in limbo going on a year and a half now specifically cause Fox has plans for her.
But yeah, Lorna’s overdue for a lot of things. She was created in 1968, with her opening storyline being her status as Magneto’s daughter. Until 2012, she didn’t have an origin story. Until 2013, she had no playable video game appearances. Until 2014, she never had a team she led in her own right (rather than leading it on someone else’s behalf as a stand-in). She’s still never had a solo comic book. Havok is the only character she’s ever really dated; Iceman was a love triangle with Havok that ended in her with Havok, Remy was only flirtations in ANXF. House of M is the only time she’s been included as a core character in a major Marvel-wide event (she USED to be a core character in some major X-Men events, but even that’s not permitted anymore). That was a decade and a half ago.
I think one of the things Marvel keeps dropping the ball on is how they could mix high-profile and unknown characters into teams and give lesser known characters some exposure. Mix it up. Wild cards. That’s one of the things I think Peter David did right with ANXF. I think I still wouldn’t know Danger and Cypher existed if not for ANXF. It’s a big fictional universe. Marvel should make use of it.
Also: don’t worry, I have huge blindspots in favor of Lorna that I try, and sometimes fail, to offset. I don’t think I was as critical of how poorly Pietro got treated in Secret Wars: House of M as I should have been at the time. I called it out, sure, but I was too soft.
I found out about this series pretty late, and I’m gutted it was canceled. The writing was excellent and witty, and Carmine di Giandomenico’s artwork was freaking amazing. Gem of a series.
I felt ANXF #2-6 were terrible treatment toward Polaris, but I also think it was slowly improving from ANXF #7 on after. I think it would’ve eventually found its footing if given a chance.
I’m also pretty sure @marvelentertainment intended to cancel it within a year from the moment they greenlit it. They gave it absolutely no promotion, deliberately kept Quicksilver off its covers while Days of Future Past was in theaters (when it would’ve helped ANXF the most), deliberately withheld the cover for ANXF #14 until the Friday before release (which was Lorna and Wanda finally spending time together as sisters; and while Marvel put out a certain Axis cover months in advance), and kept Peter David completely in the dark on their Axis plans for a forced retcon of Wanda and Pietro being Magneto’s kids (and therefore half-siblings to Lorna).
One of those might have been an unfortunate fluke. All of them was a pattern that betrayed intent.
Thank you SO much for all that context, I wasn’t aware there was so much bullshit behind the scenes about this series. Makes me doubly sad that this wonderful thing was set up for failure early on. A lot of the focus in later issues were on the Maximoffs, so I guess I didn’t feel like Lorna lost out on those earlier ones. Though speaking as someone who’s never been a big fan of Magneto’s spawns prior to this series, I kind of really liked her in those earlier issues as well, so maybe it still works as a sort of introductory thing for people like me.
I had to look up the developments regarding Axis after your reply, and hoooooly crap. That’s one hell of a retcon. Where does Lorna fit into all that? Pietro making a pretty huge effort to support Lorna was such a gorgeous thing, but then he up and leaves towards the end and that just felt so weird to me. Most of the writeups I read were about Wanda and Pietro. Damn. It’s pretty crappy to keep a writer in the dark when he’s handling 2 characters that were directly affected by such a huge change in their stories.
I read that Peter David said he was told the series was canceled due to poor sales, but when I look up the series here and elsewhere, it seemed like there was a pretty healthy fandom brewing at the time. I assumed it was another case of Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal not getting its Nielsen ratings in order to keep going on network TV.
Again, thanks for the added context and details. If I’m sad about this series now, years after the fact, I can’t imagine what fans must have felt like following issue after issue with all these other stuff going on.
Some of the problems with Lorna’s treatment in ANXF #2-6 can be hard to spot without knowing her history. Although All-New X-Factor was the first time she got to lead a team in her own right, she did have multiple cases of prior experience filling in for other characters. She’s previously led in the absence of Havok and Madrox, and played a “stand-in” role for Magneto on Genosha as his powers were weakening.
So, Lorna acting completely unhinged and ignorant in how to lead during those issues didn’t really fit her history. I also had a HUGE problem with how several incidents during #2-6 made it look more like Lorna was “leader in name only” with Gambit around. It’s supposed to be her team, yet Gambit recruited half the team (with Gambit himself being the only person Lorna actually got to recruit). This was especially egregious with Danger, because as Gambit recruited her, Lorna was written as sitting there moping in frustration as if Gambit overruled her on who got to be a part of her team.
Also, inconsistency in Lorna’s behavior in those issues. She’d go into blind murderous rage mode over a cat clawing her in ANXF #3, but then let Gambit yank her by the arm in ANXF #5 when she was about to do something he didn’t like.
But as I said, things got much better from ANXF #7 and onward, which is why I try so hard to make the distinction. I seriously think ANXF #7 is where the comic book should have started off as its #1 or #2.
But enough of that!
Yeah, Marvel tried to blame low sales, but that excuse doesn’t wash. For one, Marvel didn’t give it a chance before deciding to shut it down. For another, they didn’t stick to their own criteria for the Scarlet Witch solo book about a year later. The Scarlet Witch solo had a MASSIVE sales dropoff from #1 to #2, falling to a point that it took ANXF months to reach. Then Scarlet Witch fell even lower in sales numbers. Yet unlike with ANXF, Marvel just kept promoting and advertising it, treated low sales as a reason to push it even harder, and waited months longer before deciding to cancel that book.
There was a decent fan effort to keep the book alive at the time, too. There was a Twitter hashtag effort to keep it going.
As for where Lorna fit into the forced Axis retcon… she didn’t.
There’s a lot I can say about that. The cliff notes version is that Tom Brevoort dislikes Polaris and hated her being part of the Magnus family. He went out of his way to exclude her from everything he could – Children’s Crusade, Avengers vs X-Men, Axis itself (while trying to make Enchantress look like a replacement for her in Wanda’s life), etc. So, while Wanda and Pietro were busy getting that awful retcon thrown on them, Lorna was over on All-New X-Factor taking no part in the storyline at all. Although it’s reasonable to expect she knows by now, for all we know by its lack of attention in the comics, Lorna isn’t aware that forced retcon even happened.
Which is fine by me. Cause as far as I see it, Wanda and Pietro are still Magneto’s kids, and Marvel stopped writing them shortly before Axis.
I think the Lorna and Pietro interactions were one of the major highlights of ANXF. In all honesty, I think the Lorna and Wanda issue could’ve been better, but it was still good. And a decade overdue.
Sorry for loads of text! Also I just want to note that I definitely think it’s worth looking at my POV with a critical eye, since I may feel certain things were handled poorly or well, but other people may feel otherwise.
I found out about this series pretty late, and I’m gutted it was canceled. The writing was excellent and witty, and Carmine di Giandomenico’s artwork was freaking amazing. Gem of a series.
I felt ANXF #2-6 were terrible treatment toward Polaris, but I also think it was slowly improving from ANXF #7 on after. I think it would’ve eventually found its footing if given a chance.
I’m also pretty sure @marvelentertainment intended to cancel it within a year from the moment they greenlit it. They gave it absolutely no promotion, deliberately kept Quicksilver off its covers while Days of Future Past was in theaters (when it would’ve helped ANXF the most), deliberately withheld the cover for ANXF #14 until the Friday before release (which was Lorna and Wanda finally spending time together as sisters; and while Marvel put out a certain Axis cover months in advance), and kept Peter David completely in the dark on their Axis plans for a forced retcon of Wanda and Pietro being Magneto’s kids (and therefore half-siblings to Lorna).
One of those might have been an unfortunate fluke. All of them was a pattern that betrayed intent.
Polaris and Scarlet Witch. Taken at New York Comicon, 2014 at the Jacob Javitz Center on Saturday, October 11th. A very sincere thanks to all of the nice folks who were kind enough to let me take their picture. If you see yourself in this or any of my other pictures, let me know in the comments, or by emailing me at loser: [at] istolethe [dot] tv.
There have been so many cosplays I’ve missed, sadly, and I’m glad to finally see this one!
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salarta 