Lorna Dane: Polaris Appreciation 2020

[jmc247]

I'm hopeful that her touching on it does mean that Leah intends to explore Lorna's past depictions and integrate them into a solid base that future writers can take cues from. I mean, it is a big cast, so it probably won't happen fast, but all it takes is one writer that cares enough to leave a mark.

I hope that is what she intends to do as well. Let me put it this way there are writers who utterly failed writing her, some of her runs were meh, and there were writers that kicked ass. All of them played a role in developing the character, but not all their work deserve to be treated equally in rebuilding the character.

Lorna building the Boneyard was a strong scene and a parallels in some ways her building the Sentinel with Xavier and Mags face on Genosha.



israelsilvvart

[Havok83]

I might agree about Havok, Iceman and Magneto but how has she been treated like a possession by Xavier. Most of the time he's ignored her and he's not a man thats tied with any significance to her

she's so beautiful

[salarta]

I might agree about Havok, Iceman and Magneto but how has she been treated like a possession by Xavier. Most of the time he's ignored her and he's not a man thats tied with any significance to her

I assume they're referring more to her earlier days when saying that, since I've seen a few panels leaning that way from the early days. You know from my complaints that I generally consider Havok to be the worst case here, with things a little dicey with Magneto but not "hazardous material do not touch" levels. Lorna's somewhat fortunate on the Magneto front in that exploring their relationship is so new that a misstep can be easily corrected. Whereas Lorna's dynamic with Havok has decades of missteps and blind nostalgia that obscure the right path, and make new missteps so much worse.

Though it does remind me of theories we've discussed in this thread of Xavier having heavily altered a young Lorna's mind to be more pliant, more in line with how he wanted her to be rather than risk her turning out more like her father, and that perhaps Xavier influenced Lorna and Havok to be together for that purpose. It's a dark take that I know doesn't fit with how many fans feel about Xavier and that period, but theories are theories.

[Will Evans]

I assume they're referring more to her earlier days when saying that, since I've seen a few panels leaning that way from the early days. You know from my complaints that I generally consider Havok to be the worst case here, with things a little dicey with Magneto but not "hazardous material do not touch" levels. Lorna's somewhat fortunate on the Magneto front in that exploring their relationship is so new that a misstep can be easily corrected. Whereas Lorna's dynamic with Havok has decades of missteps and blind nostalgia that obscure the right path, and make new missteps so much worse.

Though it does remind me of theories we've discussed in this thread of Xavier having heavily altered a young Lorna's mind to be more pliant, more in line with how he wanted her to be rather than risk her turning out more like her father, and that perhaps Xavier influenced Lorna and Havok to be together for that purpose. It's a dark take that I know doesn't fit with how many fans feel about Xavier and that period, but theories are theories.

I don’t think Xavier did that. Otherwise he would have made her compliant with Bobby.

Heck. Claremont had it in Classic X-Men backups of Giant Sized X-Men #1, that Charles was kinda pissed that Alex and Lorna decides to leave.

Lorna’s real villains who abused her were Erik the Red, Mr Sinister (through Malice by proxy), Zaladane, and Shadow King.

[jmc247]

I would say her villain in the 70s and 80s was the writer that treated her as a weak doormat. I would agree with Leah's assertion about Lorna's personality under Claremont's pen and Brubaker. PAD and JM's Lorna had one at times. Austen's Lorna, Liu and DnA's Lorna most certainly had one.

I might agree about Havok, Iceman and Magneto but how has she been treated like a possession by Xavier. Most of the time he's ignored her and he's not a man thats tied with any significance to her

Xavier didn't treat her like a possession. Though it was clear he didn't understand her and by some point after walking away from his dream so many times he stopped thinking of her as one of 'his' X-Men. Just look at the difference between his response to Colossus walking away from his dream to join the Acolytes moving heaven and Earth and Lorna doing so where he just sort of shrugs.

Iceman I feel did respect her as much as was possible for Bobby, but Lorna didn't really return the favor. Havok is a tough one as she turned herself into a doormat for him and in turn he treated her like a doormat... so I would say its true there, but its hard to say Lorna didn't feed the problem.

For Magneto he has tried to balance his self interest with Lorna's interest and one can argue one way or the other on how successful or unsuccessful he has been there.

[Dipter]

israelsilvvart

Nice art but I am still not sold on this costume, especially with that darn stomach window. I don't know if I've ever seen a costume that pulled off a stomach window without looking dumb.

[Soulsword323]

Beautiful cover! I'm really starting to love Polaris' new costume more and more.

[salarta]

Lorna’s real villains who abused her were Erik the Red, Mr Sinister (through Malice by proxy), Zaladane, and Shadow King.

In terms of in-universe intentional abuse, this is true. But dynamics with heroic characters can be functionally abusive even when not intentionally. Usually, those cases are functionally abusive in that the writer frames the scenario in a way intended to have readers empathize with one character at the expense of another. Sometimes it's the character doing something bad that the writer tries to spin as good. Other times it's something that isn't from a character's actions, but from misusing one character to add depth to the experiences of another. The character may not even need to be present to benefit from this. We've seen each a fair amount with Havok, which is why I'm so opposed to the pairing until Lorna's had a lot of time apart from him and given much needed treatment and respect from Marvel first.

I don’t think Xavier did that. Otherwise he would have made her compliant with Bobby.

I know this doesn't really apply to old comics, but when taking modern day understanding of Iceman being gay into account, a reason that could be given for Xavier not doing that today would be "Iceman is gay, I shouldn't force him into a heterosexual relationship."

[Strong Girl Daken]

I don't know who Polaris is as a person and I've been reading X-men for forever, so I'm looking forward to getting to know her. Sometimes she seems like this elevated HOUSE OF MAGNETO royal figure with an extravagant costume and headpiece while other times she's so street level with street clothes and working for the government / doing lowkey investigations.

[JB]

Lorna building the Boneyard solidifies her, for me, as the heart of the team. No one asked her to do it, she wanted to create something beautiful for a cause she firmly believes in. And to ask Krakoa for help so they could build it together warmed my heart. That's part of her healing process as far as I'm concerned. We all know creating heals.

In my most humble opinion, for an opening issue that had a lot to cover including a mission statement, she shined wonderfully.

[juan678]

deadpool 6 preview

[salarta]

I don't know who Polaris is as a person and I've been reading X-men for forever, so I'm looking forward to getting to know her. Sometimes she seems like this elevated HOUSE OF MAGNETO royal figure with an extravagant costume and headpiece while other times she's so street level with street clothes and working for the government / doing lowkey investigations.

I think a majority of this happening is a result of Marvel randomly sticking her somewhere and then trying to justify why she's there, rather than Marvel actually taking who she is into account and placing her properly based on that. That in itself is closely tied to what, if any, worth people at Marvel believe she has.

Lorna does have a core character. But not all depictions of her adhere to that core. In fact, most don't. I believe the line of her core is most closely traced by starting with her introductory issues, then going from there toward anything that actually makes sense in tandem with those introductory issues. It's why when I recommend Lorna comics, I skip from her intro issues to Giant-Size, then after that completely skip Claremont, X-Factor, etc and go straight to New X-Men #132 and issues from Austen's run. Do I think things in between could be used? Yes. Do I think Lorna's treatment within them matches who she is as a character? Not really aside from some rare exceptions in that time frame.

From that, the core Lorna as I understand her is someone who cares immensely about mutant rights, has been deeply affected by her traumas which serve as a foundational cornerstone of her views and actions ("never again" comes to mind; Genosha is to her what the Holocaust is to Magneto and should never be "old news" or forgotten), and is highly regarded and respected among at least some mutants in a near-royal sense. She was considered "Queen of Mutants" in her intro issues from Magneto being her father, and when Austen went back into it, Genoshans and Genosha's survivors/supporters again considered her a sovereign princess followed by Queen of Mutants in Magneto's absence. Lorna as I understand her is also very much willing to rebel and question the state of things, as seen in Uncanny X-Men #442-443 when challenging Xavier's pacifism in the wake of having survived the horror of the Genoshan genocide. Also, there's a reason many fans love the "Bridezilla" aesthetic in spite of Lorna going after Annie instead of Havok. It resonates with the understanding of her as able to be a vengeance monster when pushed too far.

I know other fans will see her differently, depending on what depictions they like and more closely match Lorna as they see her. This is simply my take.

[AbnormallyNormal]

Yeah i"m cautious about Leah "rebooting" lorna, like jmc and salarta said, there are important past aspects to her I don't want simply ignored now

She's not really meant to be a "sunny optimistic happy go lucky" sort IMO

Hell... just as recently as XMen 1 by Hickman and PoX 5 (or was it HoX 5, whatever) we have a Lorna openly speculating about whether humans have worth, and then confidently wanting to pursue an escaped adversary. So... hopefully this run doesn't even ignore THAT extremely recent canon, but it looks like it may... too soon to say right now but yeah. I'm just cautious, this team and book feels like "fun hijinks" more than something more serious and dramatic to me as of now

As for the artwork of her and Rachel yeah it does bring to mind how "baggy" and robe-like that costume is. To me it doesn't really work it makes Lorna look like a magician or something instead of more of a warrior/princess which is probably closer to her overall identity

[salarta]

I believe Lorna can be playful at times, as she's multifaceted like any person is, but with perspective maintained of what she's experienced and how it's affected her. Likewise, it's possible for her to want to heal, but wanting and doing are different things. Is Bruce Wayne's Batman still Batman if he's moved on from his parents' death? Is Peter Parker still really Spider-Man if his uncle's last words aren't haunting him to be responsible with his powers? Her past experiences have to matter, not just in that they happened (though acknowledging they happened is an important first step) but also what lasting impressions they made on who she is. Nobody's going to survive a genocide and then 10-15 years later be completely at peace with no lingering effects.

And honestly, I think that's part of why Marvel's ignored the Genoshan genocide all this time. The woman she should be as a result of the genocide is different from the docile minor supporting character many think she should be. Another part of the reason being that the genocide lends her more importance within the X-Men franchise than some people think she should have.

[Purplevit]

Loved Lorna in X-Factor. Amazing return.