Every week, we will be examining comic book stories and ideas that were not only abandoned, but also had the stories/plots specifically "overturned" by a later writer (as if they were a legal precedent). Click here for an archive of all the previous editions of The Abandoned An' Forsaked. Feel free to e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com if you have any suggestions for future editions of this feature.

A couple of months ago, I did an Abandoned An' Forsaked on whether Magneto was Polaris' father. In the comments, writer Peter David mentioned that I might want to do a follow-up following X-Factor #243, which came out this week. In the issue, David essentially abandons and forsakes a Polaris story from the past. Read on to see what it was!

X-Men #52 was the issue that initially "proved" that Magneto was not Polaris' father. It involved the death of her birth parents (well, her birth mother, at least) in a plane crash...

When Chuck Austen revealed that Magneto was Polaris' father in Uncanny X-Men #430-431, he added the new wrinkle that Magneto was most likely responsible for the death of Polaris' birth mother and the man she thought was her birth father...

However, before she could confront Magneto about this, well, a ton of Sentinels attacked...

The ensuing massacre drove her insane...

In this week's issue of X-Factor #243, though, Peter David reveals the truth of the magnetized plane crash...

At the very least, David is abandoning and forsaking Iceman's "affidavits" about when Polaris' parents were killed, as here she is a little kid who could speak while Bobby notes she was only a few weeks old when she died (although i suppose "only weeks after you were born" could mean "only 520 weeks after you were born") but I think you could argue that Austen was pretty definitely stating that Magneto was the one who crashed the plane, so David would be abandoning and forsaking that plot point, as well.

David also establishes that Mastermind messing with Polaris' mind is the reason why Lorna has had so many mental difficulties over the years (it is somewhat similar to the Abandoned An' Forsaked about how Kang caused Hank Pym's mental problems).

By the way, earlier in the issue, David had a great bit teasing the very idea of "canon," as David is well aware that things can easily be changed by future writers...

Hilarious.

Well, that's it for this week! Thanks to Peter David for the suggestion. If any of you readers have ideas for future Abandoned An' Forsakeds, e-mail me at bcronin@comicbookresources.com!