Polaris: Lorna Dane Appreciation 2019

[powerpax]

They haven't announced any Wave Two titles but Wolverine yet, so I wouldn't get too excited to get nothing for Polaris just yet.

[salarta]

Not really excitement. More like awareness. I've considered what Marvel's done, what we know Marvel's planning to do, and what Marvel's likely to do beyond that based on existing information. Then adjusted accordingly. Marvel's basically given all the clues needed to know what's best for Lorna's future - and by extension, for people who benefit from the character.


To go to a different topic, yesterday I considered where her hair color might really be coming from.



Green's toward the middle of the visible electromagnetic spectrum. Given her powers, perhaps her green hair color is her "default" mode, that ties most closely to her personality and nature. Perhaps when she really taps into her powers, her hair color can change drastically and go all over the spectrum.

This is also a good reminder that given her abilities, she could X-ray people. Also, do more with the Hulks given she could tap into gamma radiation and all.

[powerpax]

Okay, putting aside for a moment that we have very little information about Wave Two, what is best for Lorna's future?

[Punch Dimension.]

Okay, putting aside for a moment that we have very little information about Wave Two, what is best for Lorna's future?

Some random cosplay apparently.

I'm more curious about these apparently very revealing current state of affairs via fan questions tbh.

[Offbeat]

What’s hilarious is that one of the few questions at the panel was from a Polaris cosplayer - who then said her favorite mutant was jean grey! Granted, she at least demanded a new PAD X-Factor in wave two but not a mention of Polaris at all!

[Punch Dimension.]

Imagine demanding more of the same.

[RachelGrey]

Some random cosplay apparently.

I'm more curious about these apparently very revealing current state of affairs via fan questions tbh.

I will try not to bring my Rachel depression into your Lorna thread. Maybe Rachel and Lorna can reform the Exiles and deal with multiversal threats along with other Exiles members. Lorna would be a good leader for that.

[jmc247]

I will try not to bring my Rachel depression into your Lorna thread. Maybe Rachel and Lorna can reform the Exiles and deal with multiversal threats along with other Exiles members. Lorna would be a good leader for that.

What is up in terms of Rachel I haven't been paying attention? I do think things might get better in wave 2 though we wait awhile longer. Rachel has gotten into a Marvel game of late I noticed. That is one thing that Lorna hasn't managed in a half decade.

Imagine demanding more of the same.

I don't want any of the writers that had her in the past for any length of time to write her next ongoing even the few I liked. Its a new era and the character needs new blood and ideas. I an still hoping the powerful mutant houses in cooperation and conflict idea comes to pass and we don't have Lorna as either a sounding board or stuck in 90s nostalgia land which has held her back for a very long time.

I would be nice to have a book dealing with the Acolytes and the politics with them and that side of the line as long as its not starring Magneto.

[Soulsword323]

I'm optimistic that Polaris will have a home in wave two. She's still going to be in the first issue of X-Men, and each issue will feature a different mission, and roster, so there is a potential for her to be featured beyond the first issue.

[powerpax]

I will try not to bring my Rachel depression into your Lorna thread. Maybe Rachel and Lorna can reform the Exiles and deal with multiversal threats along with other Exiles members.

I think we can do better than shoving two lovely characters off to nowheresville with the Exiles. Last time Psylocke got shunted to Marvel's version of Dept of Motor Vehicles purgatory she ended up fucking Sabretooth. Sabretooth!

[salarta]

Okay, putting aside for a moment that we have very little information about Wave Two, what is best for Lorna's future?

We have Marvel's history, what's been done with HoX/PoX to date, and what we've seen and been told about Wave One. It's not like we have nothing to go on.

What's best for Lorna's future is a topic that many fans feel differently about - and I don't think benefits from an argument that will just take up posts and time, not really change any of our views, and get repeated in the future anyway if pursued. So I'll skip it. But, I do want to add a sincere thanks for asking instead of reacting.

What’s hilarious is that one of the few questions at the panel was from a Polaris cosplayer - who then said her favorite mutant was jean grey! Granted, she at least demanded a new PAD X-Factor in wave two but not a mention of Polaris at all!

That's great news, thanks for sharing!

What I see in that information is a fan who likes Lorna so much that she took the time, money and effort to cosplay as Lorna. Lorna may not be her favorite, but she must still have a lot of love and respect for the character. Especially if she made props of her own instead of buying them or a friend making them for her. Plus it's great that Lorna got visual representation from fandom at a time Marvel provides none. Further proving that fandom is Lorna's best bet.

It's also a good case study of how wrong assumptions can be. If the cosplayer had not cosplayed as Lorna, or nobody got to see she was wearing it, we wouldn't be talking about her here. We'd assume she was only a Jean Grey fan and didn't care about Lorna at all. It's only because of the cosplay that we're aware of her interest. It goes back to how an editor recently claimed there's not enough fan interest in Lorna to justify anything for her. Even if a character isn't THE favorite, the character may still be able to sell amazingly thanks to massive interest among people where she's their second, third, fourth, etc favorite.

Lastly, I'm taking it as another sign that Lorna and Jean's relationship needs to be rekindled. Imagine how happy that cosplayer would probably be to see two of her faves who've hardly had a chance to interact in decades finally get to spend time together.

I will try not to bring my Rachel depression into your Lorna thread. Maybe Rachel and Lorna can reform the Exiles and deal with multiversal threats along with other Exiles members. Lorna would be a good leader for that.

I'm actually okay with you bringing your Rachel depression into the thread. The two tastes are very compatible.

An Exiles book is an option, and IMO would be better than the current status quo. However, if she were to be used more in comics, I think Lorna would be best off in a solo/team book in the 616 which doesn't bind her to the perception and direction of DoX. Interact with characters and entities active in DoX, sure, but with enough length to cut loose and stand strong if things go sideways. Still being in the 616 would also be better as it would meaningfully build her place in the world for post-DoX/Hickman. As for how that could work, one idea (hardly the only possibility, mainly given as a hypothetical example) is something like going on a journey to see the world, find herself, and get a better sense of life. It would essentially be like all the other times she's left the X-Men and gone off to "find herself" only this time we see her journey, and it's more tangible.

[RachelGrey]

We have Marvel's history, what's been done with HoX/PoX to date, and what we've seen and been told about Wave One. It's not like we have nothing to go on.

What's best for Lorna's future is a topic that many fans feel differently about - and I don't think benefits from an argument that will just take up posts and time, not really change any of our views, and get repeated in the future anyway if pursued. So I'll skip it. But, I do want to add a sincere thanks for asking instead of reacting.



That's great news, thanks for sharing!

What I see in that information is a fan who likes Lorna so much that she took the time, money and effort to cosplay as Lorna. Lorna may not be her favorite, but she must still have a lot of love and respect for the character. Especially if she made props of her own instead of buying them or a friend making them for her. Plus it's great that Lorna got visual representation from fandom at a time Marvel provides none. Further proving that fandom is Lorna's best bet.

It's also a good case study of how wrong assumptions can be. If the cosplayer had not cosplayed as Lorna, or nobody got to see she was wearing it, we wouldn't be talking about her here. We'd assume she was only a Jean Grey fan and didn't care about Lorna at all. It's only because of the cosplay that we're aware of her interest. It goes back to how an editor recently claimed there's not enough fan interest in Lorna to justify anything for her. Even if a character isn't THE favorite, the character may still be able to sell amazingly thanks to massive interest among people where she's their second, third, fourth, etc favorite.

Lastly, I'm taking it as another sign that Lorna and Jean's relationship needs to be rekindled. Imagine how happy that cosplayer would probably be to see two of her faves who've hardly had a chance to interact in decades finally get to spend time together.



I'm actually okay with you bringing your Rachel depression into the thread. The two tastes are very compatible.

An Exiles book is an option, and IMO would be better than the current status quo. However, if she were to be used more in comics, I think Lorna would be best off in a solo/team book in the 616 which doesn't bind her to the perception and direction of DoX. Interact with characters and entities active in DoX, sure, but with enough length to cut loose and stand strong if things go sideways. Still being in the 616 would also be better as it would meaningfully build her place in the world for post-DoX/Hickman. As for how that could work, one idea (hardly the only possibility, mainly given as a hypothetical example) is something like going on a journey to see the world, find herself, and get a better sense of life. It would essentially be like all the other times she's left the X-Men and gone off to "find herself" only this time we see her journey, and it's more tangible.

I miss when Lorna and Rachel were in space together, I thought they made a good team. Their powers compliment each other and they are both very mobile and can fly.

I guess I go to Exiles because I think that's the only place Rachel can go, there are too many telepaths so she isn't needed. I imagine Lorna will get something to do, hopefully she does more than act as a character her father can discuss things with, she actually does need something to do beyond just being her father's sounding board.

[AbnormallyNormal]

How seriously should we take Lorna's dialogue from HoX#5? Like what should it tell us about the current state of her character? Or how she would be using going forward.

Maybe we can tie in her previous appearance in Prisoner of X as well.

To me, Prisoner of X helped revitalize the character and seemed strongly influenced by her live-action adaptation, portraying her more as a rebel, viewed by others as "crazy" (referencing a lot of her more modern comics portrayal) but in the end she was the "only sane person" around, or it was her very eccentricity and standoffishness that allowed her to break free where the others couldn't. She was also presented as quite powerful in fact basically equivalent to the entire rest of the teammates she was battling alongside if not even greater.

And then in her bit of dialogue on HoX she seems to be returning to her Austen (and somewhat before) roots of skepticism/questioning about the innate value of humanity, or their capacity to ever evolve enough to accept mutantkind.

These are after BLUE restored her positive relationship to her dad, and portrayed her as an effective team leader.

(I'm ignoring her portrayal in the last Uncanny I feel it was horribly regressive, and was only thrown in there "to be there", was basically meaningless wallpaper, lost every fight she was in, had nothing unique or meaningful to say, etc.)

But anyway, BLUE + Prisoner of X + HoX to me are laying a groundwork for her as a much more interesting character. Doesn't have to be a total "goody goody" a la Jean Grey but also doesn't have to be "insane" or "part of a new Brotherhood" necessarily either. I hope there is a space for her to go between these categories and be more nuanced (like Emma Frost is, and possibly Kitty Pryde will be). It all depends on how the writing goes in Dawn of X and if they maintain this ambiguity or they resolve it and go back to a more clean separation of Good vs Evil.

But yeah I strongly believe a core to her character has to be SOME overlapping with her dad's perspective, in terms of she is always "species conscious" for lack of a better term.

[jmc247]

I miss when Lorna and Rachel were in space together, I thought they made a good team. Their powers compliment each other and they are both very mobile and can fly.

Too bad after a half decade in space they only gave them a smattering of panels interacting, mostly talking about their significant others.

I did like the X-Jammers concept as X-Force in space on a mission to end Vulcan's reign, but I felt they didn't spend enough time as actual X-Jammers in a cosmic war and the whole thing went on way too long as well. DnA had a really good idea to utilize Lorna's connection to crystal and her political side, but the Inhuman take over didn't service the X-Jammers as a whole and I don't think DnA understood the X-Jammers as a space X-Force concept instead of the space pirates of the 80s.

Then Carey picked them up and while it was a bit humiliating to need to be bailed out and Carey didn't follow the space X-Force concept as well, it was passable and it got them home.

How seriously should we take Lorna's dialogue from HoX#5? Like what should it tell us about the current state of her character? Or how she would be using going forward.

Maybe we can tie in her previous appearance in Prisoner of X as well.

To me, Prisoner of X helped revitalize the character and seemed strongly influenced by her live-action adaptation, portraying her more as a rebel, viewed by others as "crazy" (referencing a lot of her more modern comics portrayal) but in the end she was the "only sane person" around, or it was her very eccentricity and standoffishness that allowed her to break free where the others couldn't. She was also presented as quite powerful in fact basically equivalent to the entire rest of the teammates she was battling alongside if not even greater.

And then in her bit of dialogue on HoX she seems to be returning to her Austen (and somewhat before) roots of skepticism/questioning about the innate value of humanity, or their capacity to ever evolve enough to accept mutantkind.

These are after BLUE restored her positive relationship to her dad, and portrayed her as an effective team leader.

(I'm ignoring her portrayal in the last Uncanny I feel it was horribly regressive, and was only thrown in there "to be there", was basically meaningless wallpaper, lost every fight she was in, had nothing unique or meaningful to say, etc.)

But anyway, BLUE + Prisoner of X + HoX to me are laying a groundwork for her as a much more interesting character. Doesn't have to be a total "goody goody" a la Jean Grey but also doesn't have to be "insane" or "part of a new Brotherhood" necessarily either. I hope there is a space for her to go between these categories and be more nuanced (like Emma Frost is, and possibly Kitty Pryde will be). It all depends on how the writing goes in Dawn of X and if they maintain this ambiguity or they resolve it and go back to a more clean separation of Good vs Evil.

But yeah I strongly believe a core to her character has to be SOME overlapping with her dad's perspective, in terms of she is always "species conscious" for lack of a better term.

Lorna appearing in X-Men #1 is what to watch out for there to see if that is where Hickman is going.

I will also say if its an eye turning appearance can't be underestimated its importance. It will be the most read comic Lorna has been in probably since AvX and if she actually has an interesting role in the comic and makes an impression it matters. I will see if I can make it to one of the midnight store parties. I just hope her appearance does make an impression on fans. My reservations for the lack of clear role on Krakoa for Lorna is tempered with knowing that can change, especially if this gets lots of fans talking about her who normally wouldn't pay her any attention.

Based on what I have seen of previews and Hickman's comments Scott gets together a team of heavy hitters to take on a major threat to mutants. She takes the gloves off and has some good commentary it will do a lot of good. If it works out it will be a great time to encourage new fans and show that that the character deserves a solid place on the line.

[powerpax]

The Starjammers in Brubaker's run were an excuse to get a handful of characters out of the X-books. Almost no one was reading those other tie-in books at the time.