Quote Originally Posted by jmc247 View Post
Claremont's first run didn't look back much for ideas (outside of one early 70s Hulk story where she is in the desert with Havok) on what to do with her and as a consequence other writers after did not think much about such things until her Genosha arc which Claremont did get involved in. I sort of see that arc as the beginning of modern Lorna and the rebirth of her original themes. It was made possible by the end of 90s X-Factor, Havok leaving for the Mutant X universe, and Magneto having a country. The writers of her Genosha arc very much had her 60s story in mind and some of the same dynamics were almost transposed from it.



Austen's original plan was very simple. Write Lorna like early 90s X-Factor, have a love triangle, marry her off to Havok and dump her in limbo. Where Lorna was between Eve of Destruction when she was still living on Genosha and Morrison dropped the hammer on the island was unknown. Morrison decided in 2002 to have her be one of the survivors in a really powerful and emotional story. That left Austen feeling he should revamp his entire plan for the character. As part of that he did a lot more research then your typical writer of Lorna's runs on her early relationships and even some obscure activities like archaeology.

The real success of the era wasn't even restoring her parentage (though that certainly mattered) as much as it was giving her a semblance of a personality, core motivation and worldview. Without the core themes to go along with her who donated their genetic material to make her really doesn't matter as it doesn't spice up her relationships or character drama without it being built into the character.

Scott since Decimation has felt much more heir to Magneto’s legacy then Lorna.



You are correct that X-Men West Coast would have raised her profile and odds of getting on one of the two core 90s X-Men teams.

In terms of Lorna after Decimation she lost any semblance of a goal, direction, overarching theme, etc. Lorna should have had a lot to do in the decade of mutant extinction stories, but she was wholly divorced from all of that. I think uninspired writing that couldn’t see a way for Lorna to fit in with Magneto back to being an X-Men mainstay and the revolutionary Scott push was to blame.



I don't think we can assume anything at this point about what Disney/Marvel will do. I do think watching the Marvel/Disney promotion and merch over the next few years will tell a good story at least on their thinking in terms of their overarching role if any for the character.

My general view is if they bench Magneto for a few films it’s probably good for Lorna as they can introduce her to segway into eventually introducing him. If they make him into the big boss of a full phase with his own mutant army or nation behind him it probably helps Lorna as it did Gamora and Nebula with how big they made their father.

If they go a similar role to the Fox films from First Class to Dark Phoenix for Magneto it’s a problem for Lorna as she really doesn’t have much space to work with unless they think well outside the comic book box for the character.
I'm still surprised to this day that Claremont included Erik the Red in his first run since he apparently had never read any of the O5 issues before besides maybe the Neal Adams issues. I know there was a lot of confusion about his connection with Lorna since he ambiguously stated that he only knew of the X-Men through her. Even in those Marvel Team-Up issues with the Living Monolith, Havok was more of the central focus of the stories unlike Lorna so she got snubbed there as well.

I never thought about how the Genosha arc was very much along the lines of her 60s storyline. The destruction of Genosha did have the positive effect of giving Lorna a reason to return to the X-Men and have the Magneto connection revealed. Although it still shocks me that it took practically a decade even after then for her origin to be fully disclosed to readers.

Ugh, I had no idea about Austen's original plan for Lorna. Was the love triangle supposed to be her, Alex, and Bobby or was it always going to involve that nurse Annie? As bad as Claremont treated the Alex/Lorna relationship in the 80s, nothing was as bad as what Austen did and it didn't do any favors for either character. I'm glad he had enough sense to realize that with Genosha's destruction, Lorna's arc needed to be adjusted rather than plow straight ahead with what he wanted to do originally. And I agree, that we finally got Lorna's world views and what ideology she truly believed in when it came to human/mutant co-existence, I felt like we got to know more about her in general. Such as how a lot of her interest in marrying Alex was for good genes and breeding because she felt he provided that. Plus her interest in Gambit lol. That makes me wonder why nobody did more between Gambit and Polaris in the Reload era especially since Gambit and Rogue were already having relationship problems.

The real X-Men Schism should have been between Jean and Lorna, not Logan and Scott. A missed opportunity for sure, especially if Wanda got dragged in somehow considering her ties to both of them, particularly Lorna.

To be fair, Lorna wasn't the only character neglected during the Decimation period. Most of the X-Men were wallpaper behind the STD called Scemma during the Utopia days. Magneto had a major role but he was more like a lackey to Wrongclops. Wolverine was an exception as he tends to be, but other major characters like Storm were completely missing (which would have been a great opportunity to shoehorn in Lorna). The real missed opportunity was after Schism since Lorna got shunted off to X-Factor when she could have been part of Wolverine's core team alongside Beast, Kitty, Iceman, and later Storm. Even if her ideology was more along the lines of Cyclops during Schism, I can't see how that side would suit her since the same handful of characters that composed of Cyclops' core group hogged all the attention and as long as Magneto was there, Lorna was always going to play second fiddle. X-Men Legacy would have been another great choice for her if not WATXM alongside Rogue, Gambit, Rachel, and Frenzy. For that matter, has Lorna ever even interacted with Frenzy?

Right now Disney merchandise for the X-Men like the recent coloring book is based off of the Disney+ 90s designs so it seems to be taking heavy inspiration from the 90s animated show. But with a few exceptions like Iceman is prominent and Mystique and Magneto seem to be X-Men allies.

Genosha has never really been a thing in the movies so that would be a good concept to introduce in the MCU, especially since Wakanda hit it off so a mutant kingdom could also really take off and be cinematically pleasing. Asteroid M or the Savage Land would work as well.