Lorna Dane: Polaris Appreciation 2020

[jmc247]

An add I noticed in an old Iron Man issue.

kirbyscomicart by dikeruan



awesome pic Thanks JMC247

Your welcome juan, hopefully there will be many more to come.

I think a writer being told to write Lorna may be necessary to some extent, because short of Marvel hiring someone specifically because they're a Lorna fan, the prevailing attitudes and culture mean writers refusing to put any thought into her until they're put in a position where they have to think about her. However, having other characters around that those writers like more, or who they believe will garner more readership, causes problems because those writers seem to decide that Lorna should be written in service to those characters. On this note, Austen didn't really pick Lorna, but he was open-minded enough to look at what Morrison did with New X-Men #132 and over time considered her POV more.

In short, whether or not a writer is willing to take a real and unbiased look at Lorna makes a difference. Someone who has a hate-on for the character or has a huge crush on another character and thinks she could be exploited to promote said other character isn't really thinking about her. They're thinking about damage they can do to her, or what a useful tool she can be.

I never said that it isn't at times necessary for a writer to be promoted to write her by editorial. Austen I am unsure if editoral told him to write her or not (its certainly possible) I only know that his first plans were to do write her like she was in X-Factor meaning a unidimensional generic female heroine a few months of love triangle BS then marry her to Havok and dump her in limbo in 2003. Morrison's New X-Men issue and then looking into her Genosha run pushed him to dig deep and think about the character, her history and what she went through.

I need to see Lorna, Amelia, and Carmella on a team please. The power they would have.

Great idea and I think its gets to a possible solution to the conundrum we are in.

If she wants to have fun and a wild time that is fine, but the last thing she needs is to focus on romantic intrigue which far too much of the characters existence has already been consumed by that.

Lorna needs something else to do outside of detective work in Mojo land and many other scenic destinations. This doesn't require her to appear a lot outside of X-Factor, but certainly from time to time. She needs a goal on Krakoa otherwise lets face it she is irrelevant to this status quo and a certain fans idea of her having the role of the skeptic against the mutant homeland is a loser for her and not in character either.

Her working with the faction inside Krakoa among the Acolytes to help sway the council is a winner for a role at least in the short term. That can be roped into to the HoM being a faction working for common purpose and yes Lorna interacting with council members.

[madmodpoetgod]

Dear friends,

I want to read some good X-stories that include Lorna. I've already read Peter David's first X-Factor run -It wasn't bad, but whimsical tone doesn't work for me. I know the second run David is much better, way more mature. Please help me w your recommendations. For example, I am thinking to read Ed B's X-men run, featuring Polaris and Havoc. Is it good?

[Havok83]

Dear friends,

I want to read some good X-stories that include Lorna. I've already read Peter David's first X-Factor run -It wasn't bad, but whimsical tone doesn't work for me. I know the second run David is much better, way more mature. Please help me w your recommendations. For example, I am thinking to read Ed B's X-men run, featuring Polaris and Havoc. Is it good?

I loved Brubaker's run. Be warned that when it was coming out, people werent feeling it bc his main story was 12 issues but Id imagine that would be easier to read in multiple sittings than month to month. Its not a definitive story for Lorna at all but she has some good moments

[jmc247]

Recommendations for must read Lorna issues.

X-Men 49, 50-51, 52, 60
X-Factor 94-96
Of Darkest Nights- Uncanny 442-443
Uncanny X-Men 425-426
Uncanny X-Men 430-431
Uncanny X-Men 380*
New X-Men 98, 99*, 132
X-Factor: 243, 260
ANXF- 1, 3, 7-20
X-Men 157-166
Astonishing X-Men- 62
Emperor Vulcan 1-5
War of Kings 1-2*, WoK Who Will Rule*
X-Men Legacy 254-259
Magneto: Dark Seduction 1-4
House of M: Civil War 1-5
Secret Wars: House of M 1-5
Prisoner of X 1-5*
Jeff Parker's Exiles 1-6

The issues in bold are essential issues in Lorna's story.

The issues I put a star next to are ones that not necessarily essential, but ones I think the writer did a superb job with in regards to the character or are quite important to her story. The rest are what I would consider semi important or at least well written.

[salarta]

Dear friends,

I want to read some good X-stories that include Lorna. I've already read Peter David's first X-Factor run -It wasn't bad, but whimsical tone doesn't work for me. I know the second run David is much better, way more mature. Please help me w your recommendations. For example, I am thinking to read Ed B's X-men run, featuring Polaris and Havoc. Is it good?

I made a list a few years ago. This is a copy paste of the issues.

X-Men #49-50
New X-Men #132
Uncanny X-Men #425-426
Uncanny X-Men #431
Uncanny X-Men #442-443
Civil War: House of M
Exiles volume #2 (Jeff Parker's issues)
X-Factor #243
All-New X-Factor #1-2, #7-20
Secret Wars: House of M

I don't really recommend anything else. Stuff outside this has occasional moments of good but a majority of either nothing relevant to Lorna, or content that's bad for Lorna in one way or another. The good bits are well covered in panels and pages people have posted online without having to see all the other bits. For an obvious example, you can see the panels of Lorna spending time with Crystal and Luna in space without having to also read how terrible Havok's failure manpain feels at having to hear Lorna get tortured, or see her hate on herself and insist she should be in jail for being mind-controlled by Apocalypse just so Havok can look like a big strong man for comforting her. I think the stories listed above provide enough that's actually good for Lorna, without having much bad in them, to warrant a buy and read of whole issues.

Exiles, CW:HoM and SW:HoM are AUs obviously, but they're good, and overall better than what Marvel does to her in the 616 most of the time.

[jmc247]

Some fans have Marvel Comic Unlimited which is a digital subscription service providing back issues which is why I provided three tiers of roughly what I would call must read in bold. Should read with a star and it would be nice to read eventually without either.

I recognize the problem Lorna has of certain big iconic runs that are critically acclaimed her appearances range from generic, to weak, to terrible. If the image set in ones mind is of Lorna as the clingy girlfriend or a generic one note character with no personality and no inherent virtue to reading her its hard for fans to shake that view. I feel as though the success of post New X-Men 132 Lorna was the writer coming at it as if its her rebirth. He respected her history, but treated it as a whole new start for the character rather then got caught up in his or his editors nostalgia for some past era.

BTW: Necrosha that doesn't have Polaris, but certainly has Genosha and X-Men Reload which has UXM 442-443 has been moved from their May/June release date that would have coincided with X-Men Empyre's original release to November 17th each. That might be helpful in guessing when they might release X-Men Empyre.

X-Men Empyre's trade is still scheduled for an October release, but that might be moved back as well. Though the trade cover is up on Amazon.



Its this issue we may end up figuring out how or if Lorna will become relevant to Krakoa. If not at least it brings up an important part of Lorna's past that Marvel denied for a decade and a half because a combination of nostalgia and not seeing her as deserving of the pathos. Marvel has also this past month released a comic of X-Men variant covers online. For Lorna it includes the Amazing X-Men #10 variant that I certainly appreciated. The original version was better then the recolored version that is all I will say.

[salarta]

Since jmc mentioned Marvel Unlimited, I think it's worth mentioning that Marvel made their own "reading list," but I'd call it a Havok reading list pretending to be a Lorna list. Marvel's "list" includes things like Rise and Fall of the Shi'ar Empire which isn't really relevant for Lorna, but excludes other things like New X-Men #132 that should be considered essential reading on a list that's dedicated to Lorna.

Outside of that, yes, I'm keeping an eye on Empyre. All signs for that so far are better than anything I've seen out of Marvel since 2015, but the past 5 years and especially Marvel's behavior since 2017 make me exceptionally wary. I'm also glad to see the variant cover for Amazing X-Men #10 was included in a collection, as I was very happy to see a nod to Lorna's Genosha history for the first time in too long.

[DAHX]

What if we actually see Aurora/Polaris as a couple?
Or Daken/Polaris?

Daken/Polaris sounds like a hot mess express .. so I'd be down to read it as long as it doesn't consume their respective character arcs. Thats something I can see as a friends w/ benefits scenario.

I was thinking maybe Daken’s bisexuality will get some representation in this series this time, so we might see him having interest in women and men too. Polaris/Daken idea came to my mind too, I think it’s a possibility as they are teammates. and I agree that it would probably be just friends with benefits, nothing serious and more likey a mess :P But of course we need to know how Leah writes the character’s personalities first.

[Will Evans]

I was thinking maybe Daken’s bisexuality will get some representation in this series this time, so we might see him having interest in women and men too. Polaris/Daken idea came to my mind too, I think it’s a possibility as they are teammates. and I agree that it would probably be just friends with benefits, nothing serious and more likey a mess :P But of course we need to know how Leah writes the character’s personalities first.

Yeah, I think of everyone on the team, Lorna’s more likely to hook up with Daken. Though I’d like to see her with Aurora.

[Will Evans]

I bet you all already saw this, but just in case.
https://mobile.twitter.com/jessdelau...63747352772611

Polaris as more of a disaster than Aurora? Shots fired!

Checked out the twitter link. I wouldn’t be opposed to this dynamic.

[Havok83]

Lorna being considered one of the original X-men when Cyclops was dead



Marvel dropped the ball by not doing anything with these 5 the most recent time Scott was dead

[AbnormallyNormal]

I'm sympathetic to people viewing Lorna as unnecessary or a relic in that sense, like "do we really need yet another white woman" type question. In the late 60s, Lorna functioning as the other female mutant besides Jean was enough to make bold feminist themes, but ever since the 70s and Giant Size bringing ethnic diversity much more into the lore, that's been a roadblock for Lorna I feel like. That's where I stand on the whole idea of "she is functionally part of the original team" like lots of fans actually dislike the original team and feel it's outdated so it's not necessarily such a plus to try to add Lorna into that.

It's the exact reason Claremont preferred New Mutants over X-Men West (with Lorna and Iceman), and while it may have been bad for Lorna it was surely a much better idea of a series to go with New Mutants for a variety of reasons

I feel like the winding twists of fate which denied Lorna a prominent place as a mainstream X-Man ultimately give her the opportunity to be something different, something more than just that. It's a blessing in disguise for her

[Havok83]

thats an interesting observation. I wonder how she would have fared had she been introduced as a woman of color.

[Will Evans]

thats an interesting observation. I wonder how she would have fared had she been introduced as a woman of color.

She might not be a woman of color, but ain’t she Jewish?

[Lucyinthesky]

From her father side, genetically speaking, yes but that I know she doesn´t identify with being Jewish.