Polaris: Lorna Dane Appreciation 2019

[salarta]

I really like Lorna's look when she was on Genosha with the energy hair and the black spiked headdress I don't care for the rest of the outfit.

I did do this crazy design with the with all the X-Woman in the divine doll maker program: https://www.dolldivine.com/x-girl.php

The energy hair would be a nice touch for her at high power usage, and when used in a prominent way. Also, I've seen a lot of divine doll maker renditions of Lorna, I just usually don't post them here cause afaik it's a simplified character maker. It's still great whenever I see a new one though!


I think I'm gonna post some new fanart now.



By The_IronLad. If you're a fan of Emma Frost or Psylocke, IronLad made the same sort of thing for them in the same tweet, too.



By MarvelousAxe

There's probably some new stuff on instagram, but I don't feel like going to check right this second.

[salarta]

A stand-alone of the Rage Gear Studios art that included three other female villain characters.



Beach fun cosplay (or "cosplay") Gambit's tagged, so I assume the guy in back is meant to be Gambit.



More yhasyme sister cosplay. Each of them has an additional separate picture on the instagram post.

[Havok83]

A stand-alone of the Rage Gear Studios art that included three other female villain characters.

She's wearing a Havok earring....lol nice detail on the part of the artist

[salarta]

She's wearing a Havok earring....lol nice detail on the part of the artist

I didn't even see it that way til you mentioned it. My attention gravitated more toward the Malice necklace.

[salarta]

A piece by 127skata.



A little reminder of how fans consider the family to be the family, not excluding any of them like Marvel did with the pack these figures came from.



I've seen a few of these playful "Magnus family therapy sessions" kind of posts over time, and they're always pretty amusing. And also indicative of how people recognize the family has interesting issues worth exploring as a family.



Earlier today, I started thinking about Lorna's codename of Polaris again. I've been pretty much on the side of keeping it because she's known for it, and she's had it for decades. But really... what's the point of the codename? There are all sorts of fanon reasons I can come down to for it, but we've yet to see something properly explain it in comics. And it's not in any way straightforward like Wolverine, Storm, Dust, etc all are.

So I'm considering two things basically. 1) Lorna's codename having some deeper meaning to make it important to who she is, and 2) whether or not a new codename would be better, and if so, what that codename could be.

[salarta]

I don't search 'lorna dane' as a keyword as often as others on Twitter cause it includes a lot of results of people that simply have her name in their handles. But when I do, I pull up things. Next posts will be from that.

I saw the random green-haired woman in HoX/PoX for the first time today. I post the following screens of discussion mainly cause they're demonstrative of a) how Marvel keeps trying to introduce random new green-haired characters instead of using Lorna, and b) how fans actually react any time that happens.

[houndsofluv]

I was so adamant there had to be a connection esp with the green magneto ... maybe pox3’ll expand on it otherwise guess it is just a weird coinky-dink

[salarta]

Cosplay from erriaa



This one's actually from deviantart by EllistraeDraws. As I've said before, I'm not keen on this costume, at all. But posting this felt worth it due to how the artist drew it for a comic shop owner.

[salarta]

I was so adamant there had to be a connection esp with the green magneto ... maybe pox3’ll expand on it otherwise guess it is just a weird coinky-dink

I think it's intentional given the number of times we've seen new green-haired characters lately, but I think it's supposed to be a snub that people behind it at Marvel hope causes a big reaction. It's not like they've been introducing tons of random new purple, pink, or blue haired characters in the past few years (at least that I'm aware of).

[powerpax]

I think it's supposed to be a snub that people behind it at Marvel hope causes a big reaction.

Yeah, there is honestly zero chance this is the case. Marvel is not out here looking to troll the relatively small Polaris fandom (and I say that as a fan of Polaris); there is no reaction to be had and no consequence or benefit to be reaped. It's far more likely Hickman had a thematic reason to utilize elements of the character in either one or two Chimeras, just as he made Rasputin an amalgam of other X-characters he found interesting.

[salarta]

Yeah, there is honestly zero chance this is the case. Marvel is not out here looking to troll the relatively small Polaris fandom (and I say that as a fan of Polaris); there is no reaction to be had and no consequence or benefit to be reaped. It's far more likely Hickman had a thematic reason to utilize elements of the character in either one or two Chimeras, just as he made Rasputin an amalgam of other X-characters he found interesting.

People who work at Marvel have been petty before. Just need to look at past behavior tied to things Brevoort was involved in. House of M portrait redrawn to remove Lorna, a variant Axis cover colored in a way to make Enchantress look more like Lorna, post-Axis Wanda and Pietro given a new "sister" named Luminous, not to mention the many scenes pre-Axis and during Axis where Lorna was excluded from the family. It's not like things haven't happened to give a reason to expect such behavior out of Marvel.

The green hair issue has been going on for years longer than HoX/PoX. But specific to this event, two things I will say. One, I don't think Hickman's the perfect master planner people think he is. I don't think any one person can be, especially with how little time there was to plan this out. Even George R.R. Martin's needed help from a dedicated fan to keep details for his Game of Thrones books straight. As such, I think some things enter without him having a purpose behind them. Two, I think there are gaps and non-essential details to this event filled in by people who aren't Hickman - executives, editors, artists. This is why I said by people at Marvel, not by Hickman. I don't know what Hickman would do (yet), but I know what people at Marvel have done before.

[powerpax]

House of M portrait redrawn to remove Lorna, a variant Axis cover colored in a way to make Enchantress look more like Lorna, post-Axis Wanda and Pietro given a new "sister" named Luminous, not to mention the many scenes pre-Axis and during Axis where Lorna was excluded from the family. It's not like things haven't happened to give a reason to expect such behavior out of Marvel.

There's a very big difference between things you personally take umbrage with and deliberate pettiness on the part of the company. I've seen no indications of that re: Lorna. She's just never been a priority. Negligence and deliberate targeting are different things. Tom Brevoort may or may not have disliked the character, but those theories aside Tom Brevoort is not here anymore. And as I said, there is no net gain or loss for Marvel to bother with Polaris fans in that way. Nobody there cares that much.

The green hair issue has been going on for years longer than HoX/PoX. But specific to this event, two things I will say. One, I don't think Hickman's the perfect master planner people think he is. I don't think any one person can be, especially with how little time there was to plan this out.

You mean years? Hickman is not new to long-term planning on his books, and he had lots of lead time on this one.

People are not plotting to add green hair to his characters behind his back as a secret **** you to Polaris fans. That is absolutely insane. Those details are scripted. So you have two options:

1) The use of a Polaris resemblance is deliberate bc of a thematic reason that may either be plot-relevant or may be as simple as 'Hickman thought it would be cool for one of the Chimeras to resemble Polaris the way Cardinal resembles Nightcrawler and Rasputin resembles Colossus and Magik'
2) The use of a Polaris resemblance is deliberate bc Hickman hates Polaris fans and wants to demean them by... having a Hound resemble her? Which I don't take offense to, BTW.

YMMV.

[anyajenkins]

Yeah, marvel can indeed be petty but the hounds/chimeras are a plot point in the book and there is more than just Polaris.it could still end up being stupid or demeaning in some way, but not because her appearance.

[salarta]

There's a very big difference between things you personally take umbrage with and deliberate pettiness on the part of the company. I've seen no indications of that re: Lorna. She's just never been a priority. Negligence and deliberate targeting are different things. Tom Brevoort may or may not have disliked the character, but those theories aside Tom Brevoort is not here anymore. And as I said, there is no net gain or loss for Marvel to bother with Polaris fans in that way. Nobody there cares that much.

You mean years? Hickman is not new to long-term planning on his books, and he had lots of lead time on this one.

People are not plotting to add green hair to his characters behind his back as a secret **** you to Polaris fans. That is absolutely insane. Those details are scripted. So you have two options:

1) The use of a Polaris resemblance is deliberate bc of a thematic reason that may either be plot-relevant or may be as simple as 'Hickman thought it would be cool for one of the Chimeras to resemble Polaris the way Cardinal resembles Nightcrawler and Rasputin resembles Colossus and Magik'
2) The use of a Polaris resemblance is deliberate bc Hickman hates Polaris fans and wants to demean them by... having a Hound resemble her? Which I don't take offense to, BTW.

YMMV.

I don't know if his position changed and sources simply haven't been updated, but what I find quickly says that Brevoort is still Senior Vice President of Publishing. If he still has that position, it affords a lot of power.

I stick by what I said regarding both Hickman's abilities and amount of time. I also would question if we actually have evidence he decided on those details (e.g. script pages), and know they definitely came from him (vs an artist given liberty and he went with it, for example).

Much of your post frames what I said in a way that sounds conspiracy-theory-ish, with a very limiting binary. It's not as simple as a choice between "I'm a genius" or "I hate her with an undying passion." You don't need a dedicated plan of love or hate to toss a character a bone or screw them over. You just need to have a bias that's consistent with the biases of other people within that same closed culture, and then let those biases manifest the same as they do with everyone else.

Let's look at Polaris fandom as an example. I've said many times before that Polaris deserves a solo book, and I've made my case several times. Other Lorna fans on Twitter have also repeatedly said she deserves one. Are we coordinating? Is this part of a master plan meant to make her the star of all things Marvel above even Wolverine? No, we're just all fans who share the same culture. We want what's best for Lorna. We want more content dedicated to her.

Likewise, when I say "I think this is an intentional snub," I don't mean that Marvel has some grand plan to destroy the character. I think it's a flight of fancy manifestation of negative bias against the character exhibited by multiple people who think of her the same way. Hell, some of them may not even be consciously aware they're doing it. Many things that happen in creative works, happen on a purely subconscious level. And Marvel culture doesn't exactly encourage people to question their biases and why they have them.

I feel like I've said all I can/should say with this post, so unless I feel there's a good reason to say more, I probably won't reply after this. I'm saying this so you know lack of response isn't personal, it's just that I think I've reached my conclusion and don't want to bog the thread down with repeating myself for multiple pages.

[powerpax]

Hickman's script for House of X #1 was released with the first issue. If you were actually reading these two series, and had seen that or another comic script, you'd know those kind of details are very specifically chosen.

Tom Brevoort is not ruling from on high to do stuff to Polaris. I doubt very much he cares, for one, and in his current role he is removed from those decisions. Hickman has been given carte blanche. So we can feel however we want to feel about a Polaris-esque color being in play of Powers of X, but to claim it is an action from above him is just not true.