Polaris: Lorna Dane Appreciation 2019

[salarta]

I saw this tweet via Tumblr tonight and immediately thought of Lorna.



I can't decide which is Lorna. The little girl who's mad her foster parents lied and said her hair's illegal, or the grown woman proudly displaying her hair to the wonder and delight of little girls.

That aspect of Lorna's history obviously isn't a critical topic (at least as things are right now), but it is something I've felt holds a hell of a lot of potential. She had to hide her hair color as she grew up. Why? What did her foster parents say to her? Did she look forward to Halloween because it was the one time of the year she could go out showing her actual hair color?

[AbnormallyNormal]

^ Yeah when she is first intro'd into the canon she is intentionally dying it brown to "fit in". Of course we can use a sliding timescale and assume society was less open-minded about "alternate" hair color at that point.

But I guess it does seem like something Lorna should have considered vis a vis is she possibly a mutant maybe. When did she actually find out she is a mutant BTW?

[jmc247]

Wow I didn't know Lorna isnt in Future Fight that sucks

I'm definitely glad she appeared at all in HoX5 and had a decent sized role in XM1 but we need more

Lorna has been straight up blackballed from games the past half decade. It’s gotten quite aggravating. I think Lorna fans themselves need to pick a game like future fight and lobby for her inclusion, hell they have one of Wanda’s kid and the blond Summers, they have characters with fewer fans then them as well. At this point it’s just game maker nostalgia for the 80s and 90s when she was just a character who existed to promote other characters.

by cheetuspeepus.

Nice art.

As for the art of Lorna and the other X-Men together it’s a benefit of Lorna’s current set up. Expect more to come.

[salarta]

As we're in the final hours of Halloween, I think I'll repost the excellent work of BoxOfWant.

I commissioned this from BoxOfWant, who previously did a 50th anniversary piece for me last year. The idea of a Halloween pic of Lorna and Wanda dressed as a knight and a witch is one I've had for a long time, and I'm glad to finally get something in that covers it.

[salarta]

More awesomeness from ssminos

Also a great tweet highlighting Lorna's history with Genosha, and consequently its importance.

[ermac]

That's a powerful panel

(even if it has Billy Tan's art)

[jmc247]

That's a powerful panel

(even if it has Billy Tan's art)

It is a powerful panel. The character had her own story back then that wasn't overpowered by the soap. Nothing wrong with some soap when its counterbalanced with a character having their own story.

Genosha and its destruction gave her a story a motivational feature and added spice to any soap she had and drive to the character. After Decimation there was a reversion back to triangle dynamics without a core to Lorna's story. There were some attempts to give her some non-Genosha or mutant related story without a lot of success. Looking at Lorna's history triangles only get her so far without having her own story and pathos attached. The 90s with her big stories and relationships Rahne/Lorna/Havok, Random/Lorna/Havok, Fatale/Havok/Lorna lets face it being all being glorified triangles.

Anyway inks from DS.

[salarta]

Recent commission someone got from LexiKimble, of Lorna and I think a femboy version of Vision. It's a follow-up to one someone got of Wanda and a femboy Pietro. Lorna with pigtails looks strange to me. About as strange as when she was drawn with a ponytail for a brief time (and IMO, thankfully didn't keep).

It led me to this other Lorna piece by the same artist that I don't remember posting or seeing posted before.




I would agree that triangles do not serve Lorna well. Although I never put deliberate thought in the idea of triangles in themselves, subconsciously there's a reason none of my interests or suggestions involve "triangles." They've always been just "I wanna see Lorna interact with Wanda" or "I wanna see Lorna interact with Jean or Iceman." It's cause deep down I recognize writers seem to fail at handling triangles in a way that respects all three characters, at least when Lorna is involved. It's an extra layer of complexity that's not necessary, and more importantly, attempting that complexity is only good when the writer actually understands and respects all three characters. Miss on one of them and the triangle blows - as was seen with the X-Men Blue #28 cover.

All this aside, I'm getting a lot of reminders lately that Marvel's much less than it could or should be. But that's not shocking, it's been evident for a while. Fans are better at Marvel content than Marvel. They just generally don't get paid for it.

[AbnormallyNormal]

I actually really like a lot of that costume in the first pic you showed there salarta (although the cameltoe and everything is a bit... much so maybe let's make the lower area a bit more covered). The pigtails sort of work if we're thinking of this version of Lorna as like a teenager or something.

Ok question for y'all:

Who is the #1 most important character for our gal to interact with, meet with, or be on a team alongside?

[jmc247]

I noticed Marvel putting out a lot of early X-Factor Lorna of late in action figures and whatnot. I will only say in regards to that version of Lorna which I did read at the time it was good art, but there wasn't much of a character there. The one thing they got right which I feel DnA, Austen and Liu also got right is the character needs to be fun and snarky with a dry wit when its not time to be dead serious. Lorna if anything has been too reserved in the past decade and a half which doesn't do well to balance her depressed states.

I think Lorna having a dark sense of humor and not a lot of filter when talking is the best balance for current Lorna. I feel personality is the most important area of difference between Lorna and her father and the only area that is actually needed, but that doesn't work when she is too reserved and doesn't come off as having much personality. The character can take off again with the right personality balance and as long as ideas are central to motivating and moving her story not loyalty triangles or love triangles.

Who is the #1 most important character for our gal to interact with, meet with, or be on a team alongside?

Not taking into account family I would wager which will be allowed to interact when the retcon comes down. Getting rid of that retcon is number one though a separate matter.

The answer is Emma Frost and it’s not even close. They have a shared history on Genosha, it benefits x-characters greatly to have a close female friend. There are no obvious blocking relationships preventing it from happening. Lorna also could use a less well known friend as well. Someone like Frenzy.

I have accepted the death of Jean/Lorna given Jean has both a very popular friend, extremely popular love interests as in two of them and a popular frenemy. The door doesn’t get any more closed then that. I might not like it, but I accept it.

[salarta]

I actually really like a lot of that costume in the first pic you showed there salarta (although the cameltoe and everything is a bit... much so maybe let's make the lower area a bit more covered). The pigtails sort of work if we're thinking of this version of Lorna as like a teenager or something.

Ok question for y'all:

Who is the #1 most important character for our gal to interact with, meet with, or be on a team alongside?

I didn't even notice the cameltoe til you mentioned it. I think I would've avoided posting it and just linked to it if I noticed before, but now that it's up and apparently okay, I'll leave it this time.

I'd say Scarlet Witch is the most important. They remain hugely of interest for potential sister dynamics.

After that, kind of a three-way between Jean, Emma, and Iceman. Jean and Iceman due to old history that's gone horribly untapped for too long, Emma because of the Genosha connection (hey, if they have that shared history to relate on, may as well make use of it).

Pietro after that, which I credit ANXF for.

Interacting directly with Magneto isn't hugely important now thanks to the past half decade of Marvel doing things with it, but the relationship needs to remain and they should continue to interact at times.

Then I'd make a list of basically every character that exists and put Havok at the bottom for the next 10 years. Maybe bring him back up after that time if Marvel seems to understand Lorna has worth and has done enough to insulate her from falling into the "she exists to be Havok's girl" problem.

[Soulsword323]

Its hard to pick one. Lorna really needs stronger relationships outside of Havok and Magneto.

However, I'd go with Iceman. They have a history, and I wish writers would try to flesh out their relationship more, especially since Bobby's coming out. I'm glad Sina thought to include Lorna via text message in Iceman's solo, but she should have actually appeared in the book IMO. They need some quality panel time.

[Lucyinthesky]

I actually really like a lot of that costume in the first pic you showed there salarta (although the cameltoe and everything is a bit... much so maybe let's make the lower area a bit more covered). The pigtails sort of work if we're thinking of this version of Lorna as like a teenager or something.

Ok question for y'all:

Who is the #1 most important character for our gal to interact with, meet with, or be on a team alongside?

I would like to see her interact with Jean, Storm, Kitty and Emma. Just to know more about how they relate to each other.

[jmc247]

I would like to see her interact with Jean, Storm, Kitty and Emma. Just to know more about how they relate to each other.

Kitty is an interesting one I hadn't thought of because of the identity stuff and Kitty's forever hate of Magneto after he turned away from Xavier's dream in the 80s.

Emma though represents the greatest potential next to Wanda for Lorna to be able to put her snarky bitchy face fully on though them to have a complex relationship as long as writers remember she isn't Jean. I felt their interaction in Blue though well meaning wasn't that interesting to me because Lorna's snark was too much in the vein of what I would have expected coming out of the mouth of Jean. I more conceptualize their interaction as the rogue princess and the ice queen which wasn't what we ended up with.

Also, if Lorna and Jean are going to get anywhere they need a totally new conception to their relationship that isn't based on their history with the Summers brothers. Their relationship sunk like the titanic decades ago when their relationship was reduced to occasional generic hero antics and talking about their the Summers boys. There was too much treating them like color swapped versions of the same character.

The greatest potential exists with Wanda and the conflict that should be built into their relationship when the Axis retcon comes down whenever that happens to be.

[Lucyinthesky]

Kitty is an interesting one I hadn't thought of because of the identity stuff and Kitty's forever hate of Magneto after he turned away from Xavier's dream in the 80s.

Indeed Kitty and Magik interacting with Lorna would be interesting for me given how them both kind of had a father-daughter relationship with Magneto even before Lorna was confirmed as his daughter, they have seen parts of him that I don´t think Lorna has seen yet, they have unique perspectives that can contrats with Lorna´s in her relationship with Magneto. Also Kitty is in charge of the marauders it would be nice to know Lorna´s pov about their mission.

Emma though represents the greatest potential in my book for Lorna to be able to put her snarky bitchy face fully on though them to have a complex relationship as long as writers remember she isn't Jean. I felt their interaction in Blue though well meaning wasn't that interesting to me because Lorna's snark was too much in the vein of what I would have expected coming out of the mouth of Jean. I more conceptualize their interaction as the rogue princess and the ice queen which wasn't what we got in Blue.

The new Emma by Hickman could relate with Lorna in the political sense imo.

Also, if Lorna and Jean are going to get anywhere they need a totally new conception to their relationship that isn't based on their history with the Summers brothers. Their relationship sunk like the titanic decades ago when their relationship was reduced to occasional generic hero antics and talking about their the Summers boys.

Well I was thinking of them like Austein wrote them, old friends who used to hang out to have fun and go from there to a more serious relationship, similar with Lorna´s talk with Cyclops, just a little less serious and more playful. Also given Jean´s kind of close minded perception of Magneto it would be interesting to see contrast that with Lorna´s own pov and experiences.