Kipling Kat is Ignoring Me

"And thanks on the compliment on the avatar. I’ve been wanting to set one for a while now, but I kept putting off looking for a decent image to use. Once I did, I had to consider what’s already in use as an avatar by others."

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Bringing up how Wanda got Lorna’s role raises a lot of fascinating questions in my mind. In two cases, WatXM and X-men Legends II, they’ve taken something that was originally given to Lorna and put it on her half-sister. They took something away from the character they’ve been ignoring and putting it on a character they want to hype up and make more popular. It’s like they thought “hey, that’s a good dynamic, we should’ve given that to Wanda instead of Lorna since Wanda is already more popular” and forced it over to Wanda. It makes me wonder how many OTHER cases like this may have happened in the past that I don’t know about, where a writer may have had a stellar idea for Lorna that would’ve really boosted the interest people had in her, only for someone higher up in the company to essentially say “Hey, that idea’s too good for Lorna, we should give it to one of the more popular characters.”

As for the people who hated how Lorna was finally getting respect… my thought process is kind of complex. It’s rooted in something not comic books. I like video games, and the characters within them, and in many games the characters are or were very inspirational to me. In one case, Final Fantasy IV, I found what can only be described as an intentional campaign to ruin one of the characters I loved from the game just so fans of another character in the game could hype their favorite up and make their favorite look better by comparison. This involved everything from twisting and omitting important events, all the way to flat out lying about what “official guides” said about the character, just because they want everyone to fawn over their favorite. I liked both characters about equal before all that happened, now I hate the one that got hyped up because the actions of her fanbase and their effect on my favorite character from the game.

That’s where I’m coming from when I show dislike for things like Claremont and Storm, and why I’m often pretty harsh about Marvel not making more and better use of Lorna. I’m not thinking “This is my favorite character, she deserves to be treated like a goddess!”, I’m thinking about all the stupid fanboy and fangirl actions and comments, Claremont included (since I consider intentionally setting out to ruin other characters just to hype up one’s favorite to be a fanboy thing to do), and all the many small and evolving factors that get us where we are today after more than 40 years of character history. On top of it, I’m thinking of Marvel’s unwillingness to make good use of Lorna’s potential just because some fanboys want to beat down and stomp on creative possibilities if those possibilities mean someone gets more attention than their fanboy and fangirl favorites. I’ve developed the same hardline stance here; loathing any and all factors that have contributed to the situation. Storm is among them.

In essence, the more that fanboys show hatred toward Polaris and an unwillingness to let the character actually develop and use her potential to stand out in a good way, the more I’m inclined to hate the things that are very likely the reason behind them not wanting Polaris to have a chance to do anything. So far, that’s Claremont and Storm. That list might expand.

Sorry for the book of a post, when I get started it’s hard to stop myself. :P Now to go off and feel weird and bad for writing so much.

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"I would have liked Polaris on Uncanny X-Force. I use past tense because interviews with various people highly suggestive they have absolutely no plans for her and never will. If Polaris were a popular character, and Marvel had a good track record with her, then I’d believe they could be lying to try to keep it secret. But Marvel has a very long and strong history of not letting her shine, and pulling the rug out from under her any time she has even the slightest chance of standing out in a good way. So, I fully expect they’re going to waste her potential like so many other times they’ve wasted her potential and she won’t be in it at all. And given how absolutely perfect the first arc would’ve been for her, if she’s not in that, it’s pretty safe to say she won’t be in it at all."

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That’s why I said anyone saying you can’t have both Magneto and Polaris in the same thing due to their powers are at best ignorant. They think you can’t have two characters with the same basic powers with Magneto and Polaris, but then you jump over to other more popular characters like Wolverine and X-23 and all of a sudden it’s “oh well they can use their powers in different ways so it’s okay!” Which to me is uninspired code for “I don’t like the character and I don’t have the guts to just say I don’t like the character so I’m going to make up an excuse and hope you buy into it.” Or alternately that they really are so creatively blind that they can’t see their own bias.

Actually it’s not just this case, I hate any time where I see “fans” of something proclaim that something absolutely cannot happen under any circumstances just because they don’t want to see it happen. It’s even more annoying when you see these same people change their tune and lie about how they saw those possibilities all along if said possibilities are taken up by creators, but then steadfastly maintain that something similar still can’t happen with some other character. Another pet peeve is when something happens that really shouldn’t, like a female character that used to be known for being strong and classy and elegant suddenly being transformed into an emotionally weak sex object just to sell something by sex appeal, and many “fans” act like it’s perfectly fine. The specific example might not hold up when it comes to comic books, but there are definitely similar cases.

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"lol lorna was not fine as her own character. she was about as exciting as a ball of yarn."

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Lorna getting to kick ass for once when mind-controlled is exactly the type of thing I think about when I support the idea of her being mind-controlled again. There’s all this talk at times about how she can be this impressive threat, how she has these magnificent powers, but then what always seems to happen is that she gets humiliated, beat down, etc. I’ll admit that the corruption/characters turning “evil” idea is something of a kink for me, but I also think that it can be used to great effect as a window into just how powerful she can really be if she isn’t holding back in any way. Sort of like showing off how much she’s been taken for granted for all the years she’s been around. Also mind control is a way for the character to be “evil” without REALLY being evil.

I’ll also admit that sometimes I like the idea of the whole humiliation thing with certain characters, but definitely not in Lorna’s case. It’s been used too often, and in a far too insulting manner, in her case. There’s absolutely nothing to gain out of a storyline where being humiliated is the central focus of a character’s involvement when the character hasn’t been allowed to act as anything more than the resident punching bag. For Lorna, I personally think such a storyline would have to wait until after a minimum fifteen years of her being depicted in a very strong, respectable light for it to mean anything. And even then, I don’t think I’d support it in her case. She’s had enough public flogging of her character over forty years. I think it’s about time she got to shine.

I mean, when you’ve had Chris Claremont go so far in abusing the character that he makes one of her Secondary Mutation powers into Lorna acting as the nexus of every negative emotion man can ever feel, essentially turning her into the embodiment of everything bad in humanity (and I assume, though don’t know myself and would love someone to say what they know, that this also involved everyone she meets immediately hating her and wanting to hurt her), you know it needs to be given a rest.

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"And it’s that attitude of his that leads to me not buying Children’s Crusade, so it all works out. He gets to be a jerk, I get to not support him being a jerk. :) It’s kind of hilarious in a way because I can guarantee I’d be reading it if Polaris got some involvement, but since they’re taking this route, I have no reason to spend my money on it, so that’s at least $72 I get to keep for myself. That’s ssuming a $4 price tag for 18 issues… obviously I haven’t looked into prices or number of issues for the arc since I have no reason to do so as a new reader that only really cares about seeing more of Lorna."

"I don’t really think of those people as fans of the character. If they were, they would WANT her to have more about her explored besides her relationship with a boyfriend. Anybody that’s actually a fan of Lorna or hell even a fan of good writing would want that, because finding out more about her as a character won’t magically hurt her relationship with Havok. Becoming her own person can only improve their relationship, because it makes her less of an object and more of a person. She would no longer be a mere loyal dog that loves him for no apparent reason other than a writer’s whim, she would have solid and admirable reasons."

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Seeing this resolves some, but not all, of my acquired vitriol toward Storm. I say only some because regardless of what happens, in the end Storm is still so ludicrously popular all because Claremont and later writers following in his footsteps went about tearing Lorna to pieces as part of making Storm look better by comparison. If they had both been treated fairly and with respect when writing something deemed “official,” Storm and Polaris would likely be at least on an equal level of popularity.

There really is no contest of “which mutant queen is better” in terms of both popularity and company/writer bias. The “competition” was rigged in Storm’s favor decades ago.

That doesn’t mean I think there should be any kind of “competition” to begin with. But like so many other cases, I despise any character that’s the source of another character being constantly mistreated for absolutely no good reason.

To make sure my feelings are absolutely clear, it’s GOOD to me that the Storm fans are offering an olive branch. It’s good that they’re willing to support a sort of “rival” to the character they love. It gives me a better opinion of her fans, and some day I might actually come around to being okay with Storm rather than despising her. That’s just how I am; I could absolutely love a character, but if I find that she’s become popular because someone (whether it’s a writer or the fans themselves) decided to badmouth and ruin a wonderful character to make everyone like their favorite more, my feelings for the character will do a complete 180. In this case, based on what I’ve seen, I’d say it’s all due to the writer (Claremont) and not the fans.

I know I’ve said this before, but sorry if I sound TOO passionate or preachy or anything, and to Storm fans, definitely remember I only speak for myself. :)

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