Marvel Pick Of The Week – September 17, 2014

All-New X-Factor 14, by Peter David and Pop Mhan

One of my favorite parts of the first Peter David X-Factor run was Polaris. I had never heard of her, though the character had been in the X-titles for decades as Iceman’s girlfriend and later demonstrating her own mutation of magnetic powers. There had been a lot of confusion about whether Lorna Dane was really Magneto’s daughter, and she had weird super strength for a little while, but I didn’t learn about the mess until David had left the title, and I was able to follow and fall in love with his version of the character. She was beautiful, with that amazing green hair and the sexy metal bathing suit she used to wear on missions. But she also had complexity, showing ferocity on the battlefield but then allowing Wolfsbane to cut her arm open if that was what it took to rattle her into rationality. Polaris was also the first (and maybe the only) superhero to talk openly about her eating disorder. After Peter David left, subsequent writers decided to resurrect the question of her paternity and also wrote her with steadily declining mental health, and this stopped being the dynamic woman I’d loved. His return to the character in the X-Factor relaunch didn’t quite knock the game board over in frustration, but he made short work of her origin (Yes, she’s Magneto’s daughter, she didn’t know, stop asking) and her mental health issues (Don’t push her, but she’s generally fine, thank you). But in All-New X-Factor, her leadership of the team has generally forced into a competent but stodgy character, and I’ve been waiting for my teenage crush to come back.

It’s good to have her back this issue.

All-New X-Factor 14 shows the Scarlet Witch coming to visit Serval Industries to try to bond with her half-sister via an impromptu Girls’ Day Out. Lorna loves Quicksilver, having been teammates for years before finding out they were siblings, but she and Wanda haven’t had much shared screen time, and Peter David understands this. But minutes before Wanda walked in, feminine murder-android Danger had sexually propositioned Lorna as a way to learn the breadth of human experience, and Polaris sees an outing as a convenient distraction from having to finish that awkward conversation.

The humor works throughout the issue, be that Wanda’s cheerful enthusiasm for beer or Lorna’s exhausted explanation to a stranger who asks about her green hair. But just as importantly, this is an issue that moves the plot forward, with a challenge to Lorna’s sanity when she’s faced with a potentially lethal resolution to a conflict, and the last-panel reveal pays off 14 issues of subplot. Lorna Dane deserves a showcase issue like this one.

Honorable Mentions:

Edge of Spider-Verse 2, for introducing Gwen Stacy as a rock-and-roll Spider-Woman whose approach to superheroics demonstrates how much she has learned as a policeman’s daughter. She’s not a Batgirl knockoff, but I want to read them in a team-up book so badly that I would even re-read all the Amalgam titles to make it happen.

Uncanny X-Men 26, both for giving Iceman the twisted response to Cyclops deciding to fulfill Xavier’s last wish – “Actually, his last wish was probably like, ‘Scott Summers, I wish you weren’t killing me right now'” – and then giving Iceman a couple of pages to explain why he is acting so far out of character about all of this. It’s a big week for writers apologizing for messing up X-Men (see Uncanny Avengers), and this one worked better for me because Bendis has been much more consistent with Bobby than Remender has with Rogue. (And if Bendis had found a way to make the inside of the book apply at all to the awesomely scary cover, it might have been my Pick Of The Week.)

Uncanny Avengers 24, for Remender explaining that Rogue’s bizarre shift of character was out of grief at the loss of Xavier. This does not, for me, excuse what little resemblance Uncanny Avenger Rogue has had to Any Appearance Since 1985 Rogue, but an apology is a great start, and I accept it.

Elektra 6, for THAT COVER. Y’all, look at it. At first glance, it’s Elektra taking a bow after the ballet of her past five issues, but then, you see that she’s bowing over the bodies of full-on dead people, and THEN, you see that her “spotlight” is the searchlight of a helicopter that is trying to kill her, and whoosh, I have gotten what I need out of a picture. Wish the inside of the book had held up, but hey, the bar was set high.

Daredevil 8, for a bunch of Purple Children that are every bit as creepy in the pages of the book as they are on the cover. I mean, significantly creepier than kids in general, even. Ewww.