Lorna Dane: Polaris Appreciation 2021

[juan678]

PAD will write Lorna again in X-Men Legends

[juan678]

[salarta]

Also official Marvel Strike Force synopsis of Polaris.

It's okay for what it is. I would have preferred Genosha mentioned but I assume it's similarly not mentioned for anyone else in the game. What I most noticed was their decision to describe her as "co-leader of X-Factor" which among other things, left out her time leading All-New X-Factor. Meaning that if anyone thinks that brief period was "enough" of it for her, how readily it got skipped over shows it really wasn't.


Obviously I'm not going to read the X-Men Legends issue. It's yet another case of Marvel trying to force the relationship with Havok on readers, this one a bit more blatant than the others but once again snuck in under the guise of "Oh we're just revisiting the past and we have to adhere to that past nothing can be done about it."

Which I realize sounds to some like a moot complaint, but yet again, I'll note that Marvel seems to have no problem with ignoring her experience with the Genoshan genocide and development from it for yet another year after 15 years in a row. If they can't acknowledge the worst thing that's happened to her and how she developed from it, there's no reason they should be acknowledging a relationship that 9 times out of 10 only serves to put Havok on a pedestal while killing off parts of her character.

[danielsan52]

The entire concept of Legends is about revisiting the past. No one is trying to “force a relationship with Havok”. If that were the case, she’d be in Hellions or he’d be in X-Factor.

[salarta]

The entire concept of Legends is about revisiting the past. No one is trying to “force a relationship with Havok”. If that were the case, she’d be in Hellions or he’d be in X-Factor.

Lorna being on X-Factor is in itself forcing the past on her. Lorna's been put on every instance of X-Factor since the 90s, and this time it even reset her back to "team member" status vs the leader status she had last time. Marvel also forces at least a name drop of Havok anywhere she goes if not more.

By contrast, Havok has been allowed to lead multiple teams on different non-X-Factor books, and he hasn't been pushed into joining this X-Factor or the previous team. In other words, Marvel keeps forcing nostalgia for the 90s and reminders of her time as Havok's girlfriend on her (simultaneously ignoring things actually relevant to her character), while Havok's off doing all sorts of stuff and expanding his horizons.

"Revisiting the past" as a reason for Lorna constantly being depicted with Havok may sound fine at first until you bear in mind that Marvel conveniently picks periods that involve her being Havok's girlfriend and only those periods. At which point it's incredibly obvious that "hey we're just revisiting the past you can't blame us" is just an excuse to keep defining her primarily as Havok's girlfriend and not allowing her to do or be anything meaningful without him.

[rhaenylis]

Lorna and Sean are the two finalists

[salarta]

I've come to a decision that if Marvel is allowed to pretend Lorna never had anything to do with Genosha and never experienced its genocide, then I'm allowed to pretend things that I don't like also didn't happen.

I'm thinking we'll just say Lorna never dated Havok. Ever. Doesn't know who he is. Also probably that Lorna's never been on X-Factor for good measure. She had her origin story told on an issue of one run and led the ANXF run but nothing aside from that.

[Devaishwarya]

Staying on the appreciation aspect of this thread....I wonder if Lorna (and the others) will get new X-Men costumes?
As this is a brand new iteration of the X-Men team it would be coolz if they went the way of GSXM #1, X-Men #1, Astonishing X-Men #1, Xtreme X-Men #1, New X-Men #114 and give the team members brand new looks.

[jmc247]

I would agree that its hard to believe that Lorna is living on another mutant homeland which intends to pack millions of mutants together and the extermination of 16 million mutants she lived through hasn't come up at all for her even in moments where its been extremely relevant.

Its bothered me as well though I really try to let writers analyze her history and come to their own conclusions on what matters with her. It is my humble view that daddy issues, mind control issues, and shipper issues just aren't nearly so unique or thought provoking.

Staying on the appreciation aspect of this thread....I wonder if Lorna (and the others) will get new X-Men costumes?
As this is a brand new iteration of the X-Men team it would be coolz if they went the way of GSXM #1, X-Men #1, Astonishing X-Men #1, Xtreme X-Men #1, New X-Men #114 and give the team members brand new looks.

Duggan has said in his last podcast all of his cast will wear more then one outfit/costume. My favorite of her green outfits obviously include the skull.

[DragonPiece]

Staying on the appreciation aspect of this thread....I wonder if Lorna (and the others) will get new X-Men costumes?
As this is a brand new iteration of the X-Men team it would be coolz if they went the way of GSXM #1, X-Men #1, Astonishing X-Men #1, Xtreme X-Men #1, New X-Men #114 and give the team members brand new looks.

I think the new run will follow what all the X books are currently doing, just letting the artists draw whatever costume they want..

[salarta]

I'm pretty much just repeating what I've said before here on the costume topic.

As a general rule, I'm only really fine with Lorna wearing some variation of her iconic costume. Some variation includes the idea of modernizing it. I've supported Kris Anka's redesign concept multiple times, since it really manages to get at who she is as a character and show it visually. Anka's concept made her iconic costume look more like battle armor and gave it metal gray as a secondary color, while retaining all the important elements of her headdress, cape, and mainly using green.

My core reason for my stance on the iconic costume is that it's the only way casual readers will recognize it's her when she's on a typical book. She doesn't have the decades of heavy usage and respect out of Marvel that other characters like Jean and Storm and Magneto have, so a casual fan is less likely to recognize it's her without the iconic costume.

I've run into plenty of situations where people assumed everyone from Abigail Brand to Aphrodite IX to a random Dungeons & Dragon mage were pictures of Lorna because their definition was "green hair = Polaris." Including the only bachelorette party (I think for Kitty, maybe for Rogue) years ago that had a random green haired woman in it, people thought it was Lorna, and the writer had to come out and say it's not. The flipside is also true - people may end up not reading something because they're not aware Lorna's in it.

That in mind, I've also said I'm open to Lorna wearing things that aren't some version of her iconic costume under the right circumstances. I was fine with her costume in All-New X-Factor because 1) she was leading the team, and 2) there was an actual reason for the costume. I believe I would feel the same way over Lorna wearing something different if she's a team member on the new X-Men team.

Though I do want to add that I would have a problem if she's wearing a costume meant to be nostalgia fuel for 90s X-Factor and the look's not shared by the rest of the team. For reasons I've said before.

[jmc247]

The election winner thanks to all the various Krakoans who voted.

If Lorna sees herself as the representative of the people perhaps this can succeed. Lorna does politics well in the few times she has been allowed to do politics.

[Soulsword323]

I'm happy that Lorna will be getting shine on one of the main X-titles. Hoping that Duggan does right by her.

[sallyblevins]

Super happy for Lorna. Larraz always do an awesome and beautiful Polaris

[Devaishwarya]

As expected and predicted. I can't wait to see what Dugan does with her and the others. And she will look stunning illustrated by Larraz.