Since I hear a lot of these questions over and over again, I thought I’d just answer a few and be done with them. These things never get covered in interviews, so it seemed a good place to get this stuff out there because for some reason people want to know.
So here we go.
Justin asks: I really liked your work on Uncanny X-Men, especially with what you did with Polaris. You turned her from a character that was always in the background who I hardly ever noticed into one of my favorite characters and you managed to give her character a nice edge.
One thing I was wondering is how the decision to make Polaris Magneto’s daughter again came down? Was that Morrison or your idea? Because, I know the storyline had its roots in Morrison’s New X-Men 132 back in September 2002.
I believe it was Grant’s. But the roots went much further back, though others can tell you specifically when and where, what issues, what the circumstances were, which page, what panels, what characters, the costumes they were wearing, who lettered it, and possibly even the type of printer it was printed on.
There was a storyline done years ago where she was ‘revealed’ to be Magneto’s daughter, but then it was undone, or proven not to be true, or only happened in one of Scarlet Witch’s continuity-scrubbing bubbles, or something. Maybe in the Neal Adams Roy Thomas run. I researched it at the time, but I’ve since forgotten. I needed to memorize someone’s phone number, and that’s the only brain space I had available.
Apparently Grant made a decision to go back to it, but I’m not sure whose actual idea it was: his, Marvel’s, or God’s acting through them both as a conduit—I assume his, because he was Grant Morrison, and he had the power, the power of Hoodoo—all I can tell you is that the germ of the idea wasn’t mine.
I had intended to use Polaris in my run from the beginning, keep her much as she’d been when I’d read about her in X-Factor and other places, then eventually marry her off to Alex, happily ever after—at least until some other writer came along and made them related to Satan. It was a surprise to me when she appeared in Grant’s X-Men—crazy, muttering to herself, and wandering in the radioactive mud. We’d just had coffee the previous day, and she seemed fine. Just shows how you can miss the little signs.
Once she’d appeared as Nutso Profundo I had to rewrite some of my scripts, and went with Lorna the edgier, more volatile and unpredictable Looney Tunes with a heart of gold. It made a certain amount of sense, and I agree with you, she became more interesting than she had been. CURSE YOU GRANT MORRISON AND YOUR GENIUS! He was always making me look bad for my lack of imagination. I think he did it on purpose.
If Lorna had been on Genosha when it was destroyed, that kind of devastation likley would have changed her, deeply, although I’m sure she still could have had kids, a marriage, and sold Tupperware in her spare time if only I had let her. I decided not to, because I’m a dick, that way.
So it wasn’t planned, it wasn’t actually my idea, but I ran with it and thought it was a good direction and an interesting one. And, tellingly, people both credit, and blame me for the change.
If you liked it, I did it. If not, it’s Grant’s fault.
See how easy that is?
So when I took over X-Men, I believed I had to use the team Joe Casey had used, which included the lovely and talented Stacy X.
I had no idea that I was free to bring in and get rid of people, to change their personalities, costumes, personal hair-care products, or anything of the sort—at least not initially.
So I kept Stacy, made her fall for Warren, then try to get some rebound jiggy with Kurt, left Lorna crazy, made Kurt quippy and fun (I was told initially that Joe intended to get Kurt out of the priesthood before I would take over, and had to adjust back to dark and somber when that didn’t happen for whatever reason), kept Archangel, added Paige Guthrie because the editor’s liked her personally and wanted her on the team, brought back soap and relationships because Marvel felt it was core to the series (and I agreed), added Sammy because Marvel wanted an anchor-point for new readers, and so on, and so on.
Eventually, with Stacy X, I was told to get rid of her. Now. Right away. Painfully, if at all possible, and never mention her again.
And unfortunately by then I had come to love Stacy. She turned out to be a great character. She created nothing but conflict, which is raw meat for any writer looking to give life to interesting and compelling stories. I thought Stacy was a brilliant character—one of Joe’s best ideas, actually—and would have loved to continue using her. She stirred things up. But people hated her, particularly the folks at Marvel. The ones who write those X-Checks I mentioned. They’re kinda like Disney bucks, only with claws on ‘em.
So on that panel in Chicago, or the seventh level of hell, what I wanted to say was, “No, Marvel made me get rid of her, she’ll never be coming back, and I miss her because she was a great character.”
But I wasn’t sure I could say that, then.
Now I no longer care.
http://forums.comicbookresources.com/showthread.php?referrerid=13171&t=195337
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