For the first time, Marvel is letting fans weigh in on who they would like to see officially join the X-Men. The 10 candidates available range from former classic X-Men, to longtime members of X-Factor and the New Mutants, to more obscure mutants who haven’t been seen in years.
With early voting well underway, Marvel has revealed the current poll numbers. And if current trends continue, fans may very well expect a blowout victory from one particular mutant who has been continuously sidelined since their first appearance back in 1968.
According to the first poll released, Polaris, the mutant Mistress of Magnetism, is in the lead with a whopping 22.2 percent of the vote. Created by Arnold Drake and Jim Steranko in X-Men #49, Polaris, aka Lorna Dane, was initially conceived as the heir of Magneto, and given the exact same electromagnetic manipulation ability as the longtime X-Men nemesis. She would eventually join the team alongside Cyclops’s brother—and her eventual love interest—Havok, aka Alex Summers. Lorna and Alex’s initial tenure wouldn’t last, though, as the X-Men title was canceled with issue #66.
When the X-Men title relaunched with an instantly iconic new team in 1975—including Storm, Wolverine, Colossus, and Nightcrawler—Polaris retired from super-heroics and quickly faded into the background of the Marvel universe. It wasn’t until she joined X-Factor in 1991 that Polaris was given a consistent title off to the side of the main X-Men titles. By the time she eventually did transition back to a spot on the X-Men, she had experienced a drastic and controversial character shift.
As one of the lone survivors of the mutant genocide of Genosha, Polaris suffered an emotional breakdown in the wake of the tragedy. Previously portrayed as a strong and reliable leader fully dedicated to carrying out Xavier’s dream of human-mutant, Polaris’s second stint on the X-Men was marked by erratic and violent behavior, inspired in part by Magneto’s philosophy of mutant supremacy. It wasn’t until, after years of ambiguity, Lorna was revealed to be Magneto’s biological daughter that she was able to finally come to terms with her identity. Like most mutants in the Marvel Universe, Polaris currently lives on the mutant island nation of Krakoa. In addition to co-leading the new incarnation of X-Factor Investigations, Lorna has fully embraced her heritage within Magneto’s House of M. With Magneto’s role as an elder statesman, Polaris is effectively the closest thing Krakoa has to a princess.
For most of Polaris’ publication history, she’s existed in the shadow of the men in her life, notably Havok and Magneto, as most of her major storylines revolving around her relationship with the two. Polaris is one of the few Marvel superheroes who struggle on-panel with mental illness, having been officially diagnosed with bipolar disorder in the past. However, the portrayal of her mental facilities has often been inconsistent at best, insensitive at worst. Her taking the current lead in the #XMenVote suggests that fans are ready to finally see Polaris graduate to the A-list and be a major player in the Krakoa era of X-Men. Though, many fans also believe that the current portrayal of Lorna in the pages of X-Factor by Leah Williams and David Baldeon is the strongest and most nuanced she has appeared in years, if not decades. Whether the potential election of Polaris onto the X-Men would result in her leaving X-Factor has yet to be revealed.
