Polaris Appreciation III

[Mitteloss]

Also tied for second place amongst the villains is the universally hated character of Vulcan.

The story of Polaris and Vulcan started long ago when Polaris sent Vulcan (and Darwin) into space as she lifted Krakoa with her magnetic powers whilst they were trapped on it in Giant Size X-Men #1 in 1975! However, the two had avoided seeing each other until Uncanny X-Men #485/6 when Polaris attacked Vulcan after he had killed Corsair- almost killing him as she forced his armour against his body and most likely violently affected the iron in his blood in his body with her mighty magnetic powers!! This was well appreciated by many Polaris fans- already upset at the length of Rise and Fall and blaming the character of Vulcan for her her space limbo in subsequent years.

Vulcan became Emperor Vulcan and in... 'X-Men: Emperor Vulcan' he captured and imprisoned Lorna and half of the Starjammers. Polaris was tortured, and her powers had to be repeatedly nullified during her capture as the side-effects of her powers as Pestilence seemed to render the drugs that were meant to suppress them ineffective. Polaris, though drugged, remained psychologically resilient and attacked Vulcan whenever she awoke (much to fans delight). Polaris was eventually freed and in the final battle of 'X-Men: Kingbreaker' hurt him once more.

Vulcan eventually (supposedly) died in the final battle of 'War of Kings'- much to Lorna's (and fans) relief! Unfortunately that did not spell the end of the space saga!

[jmc247]

It was a funny how so many old time X-fans had much much less trouble accepting a third living Summers brother then they ever had to Magneto having a third living child.

Of course had they just created a new x-character who happened to be Magneto's child I suspect it would have been alot less of an issue like with Vulcan. But, it was very different for Lorna because of the power of nostalgia and the view the matter was settled in the Silver Age mainly by people reading character summaries of Lorna who never read her origional story or hadn't read it in a very long time and thought it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they weren't related.

Oh, and when I talk about the power of nostalgia for those who are wondering I mean those who can't stand a certain relationship (family, romanic, other) because it wasn't that way in their golden age of reading comics. One becomes attached to seeing something a certain way and all the sudden change becomes unaccepable.

There is nothing wrong with nostalgia in alot of cases, but for Lorna its been her greatest curse in my view.

Back to the topic at hand I wonder how many years before they bring Vulcan back as a foe? Probably at least 4 or 5.

[Ingonyama]

Those look like lightning bolts. :D Electrokinetic Polaris is awesome to behold!

I hate Vulcan and everything he represents. The idea of a treacherous Xavier, the whole Deadly Genesis thing, the death of Lilandra and Corsair (two characters I've always enjoyed), the massacring of everything I enjoy about the Shi'Ar Empire...so believe me when I say seeing the green gal zap him is nothing short of vindicating. ^_^

[Mitteloss]

As much as I'd like to continue, I really need to head off to sleep now- but will continue tomorrow!! Goodnight!! Though I will reveal that the supporting character tied for second place is... Magneto!!

[The_Greatest_Username]

If memory serves I think I voted for Havok as the supporting character. What did he rank Mitteloss?

[DurararaFTW]

Also tied for second place amongst the villains is the universally hated character of Vulcan.

The story of Polaris and Vulcan started long ago when Polaris sent Vulcan (and Darwin) into space as she lifted Krakoa with her magnetic powers whilst they were trapped on it in Giant Size X-Men #1 in 1975! However, the two had avoided seeing each other until Uncanny X-Men #485/6 when Polaris attacked Vulcan after he had killed Corsair- almost killing him as she forced his armour against his body and most likely violently affected the iron in his blood in his body with her mighty magnetic powers!! This was well appreciated by many Polaris fans- already upset at the length of Rise and Fall and blaming the character of Vulcan for her her space limbo in subsequent years.

Vulcan became Emperor Vulcan and in... 'X-Men: Emperor Vulcan' he captured and imprisoned Lorna and half of the Starjammers. Polaris was tortured, and her powers had to be repeatedly nullified during her capture as the side-effects of her powers as Pestilence seemed to render the drugs that were meant to suppress them ineffective. Polaris, though drugged, remained psychologically resilient and attacked Vulcan whenever she awoke (much to fans delight). Polaris was eventually freed and in the final battle of 'X-Men: Kingbreaker' hurt him once more.

Vulcan eventually (supposedly) died in the final battle of 'War of Kings'- much to Lorna's (and fans) relief! Unfortunately that did not spell the end of the space saga!

Vulcan shoulda died in Kingbreaker. He was flawed from the getgo, but there's some value in a villain that from the getgo is intended to get a red carpet treatment in terms of miniseries and story arcs. Alex, Lorna and Rachel had this whole antagonistic relationship built up with him and suddenly War of Kings roles around and Gladiator and Black Bolt take over as main characters. Kind of a waste.

[Mitteloss]

It was a funny how so many old time X-fans had much much less trouble accepting a third living Summers brother then they ever had to Magneto having a third living child.

Of course had they just created a new x-character who happened to be Magneto's child I suspect it would have been alot less of an issue like with Vulcan. But, it was very different for Lorna because of the power of nostalgia and the view the matter was settled in the Silver Age mainly by people reading character summaries of Lorna who never read her origional story or hadn't read it in a very long time and thought it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they weren't related.

Oh, and when I talk about the power of nostalgia for those who are wondering I mean those who can't stand a certain relationship (family, romanic, other) because it wasn't that way in their golden age of reading comics. One becomes attached to seeing something a certain way and all the sudden change becomes unaccepable.

There is nothing wrong with nostalgia in alot of cases, but for Lorna its been her greatest curse in my view.

Back to the topic at hand I wonder how many years before they bring Vulcan back as a foe? Probably at least 4 or 5.

That's true. Just goes to show the hypocrisy. I think the thing is that they didn't like the idea of an existing character being made his child. Vulcan wasn't pre-existing upon Deadly Genesis. Still- they seemed fine with having the whole storyline of GSX change... but not Polaris being Magneto's daughter as was most likely originally intended?

[Mitteloss]

If memory serves I think I voted for Havok as the supporting character. What did he rank Mitteloss?

I don't recall and I have deleted those messages since, but I know he didn't have enough votes to rank in the top three supporting characters.

[Mitteloss]

Vulcan shoulda died in Kingbreaker. He was flawed from the getgo, but there's some value in a villain that from the getgo is intended to get a red carpet treatment in terms of miniseries and story arcs. Alex, Lorna and Rachel had this whole antagonistic relationship built up with him and suddenly War of Kings roles around and Gladiator and Black Bolt take over as main characters. Kind of a waste.

Too right. It was quite unfair how the X-Jammers were sidelined for most of WoK in favour of Inhumans and Gladiator. Still a great event though!

[Mitteloss]

Though I will reveal that the supporting character tied for second place is... Magneto!!

No one expected that the reunion between Polaris and Magneto would happen in space. The calls of many fans throughout the space saga as to why Polaris should return to Earth was to tie up the loose ends with her Father. We were all very surprised and delighted when we heard Magneto would beheading into space to rescue Polaris and the others in 2011!! This was a long-awaited reunion- Polaris and Magneto had last interacted ten years beforehand and they still had no regular 616 interaction since she was revealed to be his daughter and the Genoshan genocide.

Though their time together in the space saga was brief and the two spent most of their reunion working together rather than sorting through their issues and loose ends of Lorna's backstory due to the desperate situation they were in- any sort of interaction with Magneto was greatly welcomed! Lorna defended Magneto when Havok questioned him, reasonably bringing up the fact he had rescued them and thus they had no reason to be suspicious of him. The two seemed very civil and co-operative towards one another and we hope that their interaction in the space saga sets the path for a positive future relationship with her Father. Magneto also acknowledged Lorna was his daughter and treated her as such- voicing his regret on how badly he has treated his children in the past.

This was certainly a highlight!

[jmc247]

Too right. It was quite unfair how the X-Jammers were sidelined for most of WoK in favour of Inhumans and Gladiator. Still a great event though!

From what I heard the x-office and the cosmic book office both lobbied for the big Vulcan battle and editoral gave it to the cosmic office. Had the x-office won I suspect Lorna would have been returned home earlier and had far better battle scenes in the war, but likely no Crystal and Lorna scenes and who knows what they would have done regarding her parentage when she got back home.

The x-office I think would have expected old time fans to start bitching and yelling for weeks about the Lorna/Crystal/Luna interaction as they better knew three years ago there were still alot of fans angry regarding her parentage so they probably would have avoided them interacting. The x-writers after Austen left until Mike Carey stepped in didn't want to touch the issue of her parentage with a ten foot pole to avoid pissing off the fans who opposed her parentage.

I would like to wish it was over, but it isn't. A fan still can't bring up her parentage on many boards without old time fans stepping in and saying they don't accept her parentage and that the 'retcon' hurts Magneto's 'real' family Pietro and Wanda. It is very much a minority viewpoint right now a decade later, but those who have it still feel that way very strongly.

That's true. Just goes to show the hypocrisy. I think the thing is that they didn't like the idea of an existing character being made his child. Vulcan wasn't pre-existing upon Deadly Genesis. Still- they seemed fine with having the whole storyline of GSX change... but not Polaris being Magneto's daughter as was most likely originally intended?

Most of them I have found haven't read the origional Silver Age story. Instead most of them simply read a summaries of the origional Silver Age story that make readers think that there was solid evidence that she wasn't his daughter and that it was the origional intent of the writers that it be a plot twist that Magneto is really a robot who is lying to her from the start.

If you believe that her parentage was a settled matter back in 1968 from reading summaries of Lorna's backstory and that solid evidence was produced that she wasn't related to him I can understand the anger. However, as the audio reviewers of X-Men 49-52 said that was posted on the Polaris Thread reciently the whole thing at the end didn't actually prove anything and came out of nowhere in the story.

[Mitteloss]

Best Villain(s)

Deathbird and The Imperial Guard

Both Deathbird and the Imperial Guard were tied as winners for the best villains of the space saga. Although Lorna had very little interaction with either the Imperial Guard and Deathbird- I assume most preferred them as characters to Vulcan and other villains due to their history in the X-Books. Polaris did not really fight Deathbird during the space saga- however- she was viciously attacked by her as she was about to crush Vulcan in Uncanny X-Men #486.

Polaris first fought the Imperial Guard in X-Men: Emperor Vulcan #5- when members of the Imperial Guard including Electron, Manta and Plutonia attacked the X-Jammers on the Starjammers in another bid to defeat the resistant opposition towards Vulcan- with the X-Jammers posing the biggest threat! The Imperial Guard were no match for Lorna's skillful and powerful magnetic abilities and much to fans delight she quickly stopped them by wrapping them tightly in metal as she lead the X-Jammers and protected the ship with her magnetic force field! Impressive!! Polaris was defeated in the end- but that was because the whole Imperial Guard boarded the Starjammer- still- her triumphs in Emperor Vulcan #5 are fondly remembered!!

[salarta]

I have to jump in with something here:

Every Final Fantasy Square comes out with usually ends up being its own IP, due to the fact that each game is a completely different story with completely different characters. Now, I do agree they're a little too focused on the "Final Fantasy" name, and could stand to use some more IPs, but within the series there's a lot of reinvention and original content. Not all of it good, mind you, but very much there.

I've loved the X-Men franchise...the classic characters, Claremont's classic stories...since I was 11. I may not want to tear down other characters I love to raise her up, but I still want Polaris to be a larger part of that legacy than she is, with stronger ties to the rest of the team and that rich history.

I have to disagree a little here.

Each game is technically its own IP, but not really. Until Toriyama screwed it up with FF13 (that's a whole other rant of mine that I'll spare us :) ), each FF game carried over common concepts, atmosphere and themes. Different world, different characters and setting, same underlying feel. FF13 got a lot of backlash for its different direction, which could be taken as a sign that "change is bad," but in reality each Final Fantasy game was already providing the very change needed. Each game focused on brand new characters and brand new locales, barring a few playful carry-overs like Cid (who was a different character in each game). What FF13 changed was like X-Men being about space robots instead of Earth mutants.

By obsessing over the old Final Fantasy games (remakes and re-releases of FF4 every year, FF7 getting 5-6 sequels/prequels in a couple years, etc), then failing spectacularly on their very few highest profile installments (also, it took half a decade for FF13 to come out), Square-Enix made themselves look like they're complete crap and have to live off memories of the past through the handful of remaining fanboys and fangirls they have left to not go out of business. This hurts sales, because it makes people think the company's best days are behind them. Which is why Square-Enix is launching so many new, non-FF IPs. To prove they don't have to rely solely on nostalgia.

And this is the risk Marvel is taking by refusing to let characters like Lorna get real use and publicity, and relying entirely on the nostalgia of characters that were already whored out for decades. It might work great for the short term, say ten years. But then the X-Office makes a mistake, uses Wolverine or Cyclops or Storm wrong, and now they have no leg to stand on. What are they going to say then? "We know you think we've run out of worthwhile stories to tell, so here, check out our fifty thousandth one about Wolverine! This time Apocalypse turned him into a baby seal! And he uses GUUUUUUUUUUUUNS!" They could have the best damn story to ever tell, but the average person is not going to bother to check if they think Marvel is just living off nostalgia.

That, plus the X-Office hasn't actually tried to market anything outside their big name characters. They literally have not tried. Putting out a book of an obscure character then giving it zero marketing beyond the fanboys is a self-fulfilling prophecy of failure and can't in any way be called an actual attempt. And X-23 doesn't count either. "She's just a Wolverine with boobs." We know that's not true, but it is to the outside observer. One such person being me before I found out about Lorna, and subsequently actually looked at what the Marvel comic books are doing.

Oh, and I'm not saying other characters need to be torn down to build Lorna up, if I gave off that impression in any way. It would be wrong for things to go about that way.

It was a funny how so many old time X-fans had much much less trouble accepting a third living Summers brother then they ever had to Magneto having a third living child.

Of course had they just created a new x-character who happened to be Magneto's child I suspect it would have been alot less of an issue like with Vulcan. But, it was very different for Lorna because of the power of nostalgia and the view the matter was settled in the Silver Age mainly by people reading character summaries of Lorna who never read her origional story or hadn't read it in a very long time and thought it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that they weren't related.

Oh, and when I talk about the power of nostalgia for those who are wondering I mean those who can't stand a certain relationship (family, romanic, other) because it wasn't that way in their golden age of reading comics. One becomes attached to seeing something a certain way and all the sudden change becomes unaccepable.

There is nothing wrong with nostalgia in alot of cases, but for Lorna its been her greatest curse in my view.

Back to the topic at hand I wonder how many years before they bring Vulcan back as a foe? Probably at least 4 or 5.

I get that impression too, that a lot of the hate toward Lorna being part of the Magnus family is just because of who she is. In fact, most of her not getting her potential used seems to be a result of stupid nostalgia. Brand new characters created in the past ten years get more respect than Lorna, and I doubt that's an accident. Marvel probably would be all over Lorna and featuring her in all sorts of things if not for how she was used in past decades.

Those look like lightning bolts. :D Electrokinetic Polaris is awesome to behold!

I hate Vulcan and everything he represents. The idea of a treacherous Xavier, the whole Deadly Genesis thing, the death of Lilandra and Corsair (two characters I've always enjoyed), the massacring of everything I enjoy about the Shi'Ar Empire...so believe me when I say seeing the green gal zap him is nothing short of vindicating. ^_^

Then that's probably a pretty good compliment for the writing of Vulcan himself. :)

[Mitteloss]

Best Supporting Character

Crystal!!!

One of the highlights of the space saga was the Lorna's reunion and interaction with the Inhuman royal family member, Crystal! The news of their impending interaction came at once when we were shown the preview pages for War of Kings. Fans were delighted, happy and excited as for the first time in years her relation to the House of M in 616 was finally acknowledged and as Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning realized Lorna's role as friend and informal advisor to Crystal in War of Kings seemed like a natural thing to happen.

When the X-Jammers were escaping the Shi'Ar, Lorna willfully and strongly used her relation to Crystal as a reason for the Inhuman ruled Kree Empire to allow them to take refuge. Following this- Lorna arrived in Attilan and met Crystal for the first time since her days as an X-Factor member, but this time with her biological relation to her ex-husband and Father of Crystal's daughter Luna established and known to the Inhumans. During these interactions, a friendship was immediately struck up between the two characters as Lorna played with her niece Luna, and Lorna's sassy and relaxed personality was seen in length band detail as she pointed out to Crystal the reality of her marriage to Ronan.

When the Imperial Guard arrived and attacked Crystal and the Kree/Inhumans at the wedding on Vulcan's orders- Lorna immediately helped Luna to safety with Lockjaw's aid. Following this- Lorna used her political savvy and expertise to have Crystal's helping of the Kree people following the attack to be recorded and thus known around to Kree Empire- which gained Crystal the support of the Kree and a 'people's princess' sort of mantra.

After the war, Lorna once again met with Crystal and used her political savvy and knowledge to guide her. A rather brash sde of Lona's personality not seen since Austen's run was seen- making War of Kings- through her interactions with Crystal- one of the most three-dimensional characterizations of Lorna ever seen. To many, this was the best scenes of the space saga!!

[salarta]

I definitely agree that her interactions with Crystal were among the best of the space arc. She got to show a great deal of intelligence and personality while making her own decisions and following her own actions. Though I greatly disliked her being in space, at least she got her potential used to that extent.