Polaris: Lorna Dane Appreciation 2019

[salarta]

They actually had an excellent adventure in space with the Star Jammers. All 3 were written as extremely powerful and had good showings against Vulcan and the Shiar Imperial Guard. Sadly, all that was forgotten once they got back him to Earth.

They really should've stayed in space.

Depends on what portions of space are being focused on. Most of the time when Havok was around her, Lorna was written as incapable of thinking for herself and overly infatuated with him. Repeatedly, Lorna was written as depressed or self-loathing so Havok could "comfort" her, and the general attitude seemed to be to try to force her back into a role of "Havok's girlfriend" rather than her own character. This included one portion where Lorna being tortured was used to play up Havok's manpain at having to hear it.

The only good takeaways I saw from her in space were some powerful moments of using her powers, and scenes with Crystal and Luna.


All this said: hell no to Lorna thrown into space again, or the idea of her staying there.

I'm going to start this off with a personal anecdote. When I was just finding out about Lorna, around 2009/2010, I was on one of the chan boards. I said I wanted to see more of Lorna. One person's response: Lorna should stay in space to "keep her away from characters that matter." That's a paraphrase from memory, possibly inaccurate, but it gets at what they said.

Someone might say "that person was trolling." But here's the thing. It doesn't matter if they were trolling. They still highlighted what's wrong with Lorna in space: it's a way to exclude her from the X-Men franchise and its characters, which is where she belongs.

She's the second woman to join the X-Men. She's been around since 1968, over 50 years now. She survived the Genoshan massacre. She's Magneto's daughter. She should be a mainstay in the franchise, not an outcast to be rid of - which is what her time in space was partly about. To use her as a support for Havok, and to push her out of ongoing X-Men activity.

Before space, Lorna had been involved in Genosha and House of M in a meaningful role, leading into her brief period as Pestilence. Lorna getting sent into space disrupted both the ongoing narrative of Genosha AND kicked her out of X-Men events. Marvel STILL doesn't acknowledge she survived Genosha and what it should mean to her, which is like ignoring how Magneto survived the Holocaust. Uncanny X-Men is the first time in a DECADE Lorna got to take part in an X-Men event (Secret Wars was a Marvel-wide event, not an X-Men event). Maybe these things would've happened even if Lorna hadn't been sent into space, but at the very least, space gave Marvel an excuse to do it. It gave them a cover story that she's not relevant enough to the X-Men franchise to maintain her Genosha history or take part in events.


I wouldn't mind Lorna having a brief visit in space, like for one story arc, or a very special event. But anything long-term is a hard no unless Marvel is bending over backwards to make sure she can still take meaningful part in X-Men events and respect her character history while she's out there. And when I say that, I don't mean "satellite book has a tiny ignorable subplot that technically ties into the event" like they pulled on All-New X-Factor during Axis.

I don't think Lorna's character works well in space in the long run. An adventure here and there is fine, but staying there permanently wouldn't do her characters any favors. I think it works better for Alex more so than Lorna.

I agree on this. Both because of the way his powers work, and because of his father and the Starjammers. I leave full judgment to Havok fans on this point though.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Nah he'd only had the position because his father had it before him in many ways, Lorna did get some time in space with Crystal...

Well Marvel doesn't really apparently view Genosha the same way that some fans here do, they seem to view it as something horrible that Magneto caused or is greatly at fault for to some degree, I think that sometimes Lorna didn't get sidelined because she was Alex's girlfriend but more that it was just the way that they sidelined both of them, sidelining them both so that some other character could get a push...

[salarta]

There's a poll for Funko Marvel Woman of Power. As you can expect, Lorna wasn't included on the list. However, there's a write-in option. Worth a write-in.

[MichelleDiMera]

Nah he'd only had the position because his father had it before him in many ways, Lorna did get some time in space with Crystal...

Well Marvel doesn't really apparently view Genosha the same way that some fans here do, they seem to view it as something horrible that Magneto caused or is greatly at fault for to some degree, I think that sometimes Lorna didn't get sidelined because she was Alex's girlfriend but more that it was just the way that they sidelined both of them, sidelining them both so that some other character could get a push...

That's just for drama and soap opera. Genosha meant nothing in the grand scheme till Magneto took it and made it legit.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Genosha meant something before Magneto took it over, sure it means more now than it did but it wasn't like nobody knew about it before Magneto took it over...then again his presence was part of the problem there, not saying that he was wrong for wanting to protect mutants but some characters bring more strife than they settle...

[Soulsword323]

Polaris by Peter Nguyen. Once again blessed by Peter's Lorna.

https://twitter.com/petervnguyen/sta...88368877883392

[salarta]

Thanks Soulsword.

It seems like we have no issue of artists wanting to draw Lorna. We have at least Kris Anka and Peter Nguyen, if not more. The issue seems to be a combo of needing a writer willing to actually work on her for her, and editorial being willing to make up for Marvel's past treatment and give her a real shot for once.

[Heroine Addict]

... Polaris by Peter Nguyen. Once again blessed by Peter's Lorna.

https://twitter.com/petervnguyen/sta...88368877883392

Just SO lovely! And somewhat Emma Dumont-ish, IMO.

[Soulsword323]

Peter doing the covers of a Polaris mini series would be fire.

She does kinda look like Emma, HA. I think its the eyes.

For those wondering, Polaris held her own against Magneto in the background today in Uncanny. Again, nothing too huge, but she was the last one standing of those who fought against him, and I appreciated that at least.

[Heroine Addict]

Peter doing the covers of a Polaris mini series would be fire.

She does kinda look like Emma, HA. I think its the eyes.

For those wondering, Polaris held her own against Magneto in the background today in Uncanny. Again, nothing too huge, but she was the last one standing of those who fought against him, and I appreciated that at least.

Would. It. EVER!!!

MOST definitely.

And gave the Cuckoos a bit of a dressing-down while doing it, which I LOVED!

[juan678]

maybe Lorna in 2020 in Disney +

[salarta]

I went on a bit of a rant on Twitter after reading about X-Men shows via Disney.

My expectations of Marvel are either never using Lorna, or using her as Havok's girlfriend and nothing more.

The company doesn't demonstrate any real respect for her. They spent two years with her in limbo, then used her to promote Havok and a little Magneto on Blue with no benefit to her (in fact, I'd say they went backwards in some spots), then they gave Havok a team book to lead while not using Lorna for most of 2018 until Uncanny happened. We'll need to see what happens with Prisoner X, but it's telling that Marvel decided that instead of letting Lorna lead her own team or have a separate book starring her, they made her a member of Bishop's team. Especially after all the Havok stuff.

I've seen quite a lot of the same attitude from people on Twitter, too. Including that what Marvel's done with Uncanny isn't sufficient.



If Marvel can't be bothered when Lorna is the breakout star of a TV show currently airing, and after the past few years of how they've treated her, then it's hard for me to believe they'll do right by her in future X-Men shows. They're simply not a good enough company to be that considerate. Hence my no longer buying anything Disney anymore with rare exceptions. Give money to things that deserve it. Disney doesn't.

Peter doing the covers of a Polaris mini series would be fire.

For those wondering, Polaris held her own against Magneto in the background today in Uncanny. Again, nothing too huge, but she was the last one standing of those who fought against him, and I appreciated that at least.

Thanks for sharing this info. Small things are at least small things. Also agree on a mini.

[LoganAlpha30X33]

Again technically Alex co lead Astonishing and most of the X-world did it's very best to deny that the team even existed and the vast majority of the X-world and the Avengers basically put down said team and acted like they were nobodies and Alex didn't come to help Jean and the others as he's currently in prison at the moment...

As for any new X-related show with Disney, don't think that they'd just have her as nothing more than Alex's girlfriend, I'd fear more that she'd just be Magneto's daughter if they'd have him as the big villain, that the X-Men and Magneto would be the big characters and if both used Lorna and Alex would be more the Romeo and Juliet angle...just without the whole death part...

[Heroine Addict]

Her small "moment" today:

... in Disassembled's finale.

[Soulsword323]

Her small "moment" today:

... in Disassembled's finale.

I really loved this. Really impressive to see Lorna going up against her father like that, and hold her own. Not the first time we've seen something like this, but its nice nonetheless. Thank you for posting!