Lorna Dane: Polaris Appreciation 2021

[superjosh]

Hmm... I guess X-Factor didn't get someone too creative for the designs. Of all the beautiful ceremonial garb that Japanese men can wear, Daken is just in a black suit.

(Though I love Eyeboy's look. I hope those are supposed to be peacock feathers!)

[Phoenixx9]

I think the concept may be okay for Lorna, but not the execution of what we saw.

There is also no jewelry and I do not like those shoes either, lol. The face and hair do not even seem like Lorna to me, further making this a mess.

What a shame! I was hoping Lorna would be one of the best looking attendees.

[superjosh]

I think the concept may be okay for Lorna, but not the execution of what we saw.

There is also no jewelry and I do not like those shoes either, lol. The face and hair do not even seem like Lorna to me, further making this a mess.

What a shame! I was hoping Lorna would be one of the best looking attendees.

Yeah the dress itself is cool but there's no thought put into the rest. I don't expect all artists to be that interested in fashion, but they should all match each other's energy/effort.

[Vishop]

Yeah the dress itself is cool but there's no thought put into the rest. I don't expect all artists to be that interested in fashion, but they should all match each other's energy/effort.

I agree the shape and design of the dress is meh but still holo dress are really cool though.

[Project Initiative Cascada]

Holo dresses are pretty cool and her design will look stellar especially during dark, if it glows.

Definitely not denying it’s a stellar and innovative garb, but alone it’s kinda plain. Especially since this is Lorna Dane, who has never been afraid of getting extra and dressing campy from head to toe. I just think it needs a large magnetizing headpiece levitating around her head, some bracelets and accessories and better footwear and that’ll be a complete serve!

I can only hope it’s just the cover art for now, because she’s drawn so weird anyways.

[superjosh]

Definitely not denying it’s a stellar and innovative garb, but alone it’s kinda plain. Especially since this is Lorna Dane, who has never been afraid of getting extra and dressing campy from head to toe. I just think it needs a large magnetizing headpiece levitating around her head, some bracelets and accessories and better footwear and that’ll be a complete serve!

I can only hope it’s just the cover art for now, because she’s drawn so weird anyways.

YES all these things. Lorna, who wears an ornate headpiece and cape on a normal day, is left completely un-accessorized?? After Dauterman put so much time into all the details on his designs? A minimalist would be someone like Kwannon (though her kimono on the Hellions cover is pretty uninspired).

[superjosh]

A quick googling of Iris Van Herpen will show you a million things they could have done for Lorna to make it more grand:


INCLUDING those light rods in the back lollllll

[Phoenixx9]

A quick googling of Iris Van Herpen will show you a million things they could have done for Lorna to make it more grand:


INCLUDING those light rods in the back lollllll

The first one is hiding Ignorance and Want under her dress.

The second one carries her own lighting around with her.

[superjosh]

The first one is hiding Ignorance and Want under her dress.

The second one carries her own lighting around with her.

I hope those are good things! LOL

[Krakoa]

I love lorna but why can't most other lorna fans be happy with ANYTHING? she's got a huge role in a big series, a featured role on this cover with a great new outfit, and there's STILL stuff to complain about

[superjosh]

I'm just commenting on fashion. This is the first time X-Men comics and couture have collided and it's FUN.

[Phoenixx9]

I hope those are good things! LOL

But of course, lol.

I hope 2021 is a good year for Lorna.

[butterflykyss]

God her dress is ugly

your comments never disappoint me i screamed lol

[salarta]

Hi.

Here we go.

If I were to look at this dress in pure isolation, as if it's just a dress on a random person and nothing exists outside it at all, I would say it's excellent. I would say it's a bold, enticing, alluring look for any woman to have.

This isn't a random woman. This isn't a random event. It's Polaris. This is the Hellfire Gala. Both crucial bits of context make this a bad dress for her, and I'm going to say why.

Look at Storm. Her dress incorporates her mutant powers. Outright. She's using clouds and lightning generated with her powers as part of her aesthetic. Look at Rachel. Whatever thoughts anyone has about her costume, whether it's bad or good or whatever, it can't be denied that it's utilizing elements from her character history.

Now look at Lorna's dress. What do you see? Nothing. No usage of her powers. No concept whatsoever of her having any kind of history to her name at all. This dress is the absolute "safest" possible choice they could ever put on her by pure virtue that it says and does nothing for her tied to who she is, what she's done, and what she's about. All these other female characters are wearing dresses that harken back to yesteryear, and here's Lorna showing up in something rather generic. And I would say that the idea of its design being a callback to her powers is a big stretch, especially when you consider that if that was the case, she could be depicted actually using her powers as part of its aesthetic in the same way as Storm.

There are two points unspoken so far that add to this problem.

First, I need to really, really emphasize Rachel here. Out of all the characters on X-Factor that could have been highlighted for Entertainment Weekly, Marvel chose Rachel and only Rachel. They could have easily shown both Rachel and Lorna. They didn't. Which tells you a couple things. One, Marvel clearly doesn't have much (if any) respect for Lorna. Two, even they know it's a bad costume not worth their precious PR time. Otherwise they would've put it front and center alongside the others for Entertainment Weekly.

Second, she's not just a random person showing up to the party. She's one of 8 candidates for the team. You would expect all 8 candidates to show up in something VERY impressive. They're the biggest stars of the show, the characters everyone's keeping their eyes on to see who won and gets to be part of the team. Don't you want your stars to really stand out in a big way?

Which gets to my wrap-up. This design is simple. Too simple. So simple, in light of the Gala's context and what everyone else is wearing, that it's more insulting than exciting. This is going to sound like hyperbole, but even showing up naked would have been better. At least then it could be argued that it's a callback to when she was dug out of Genosha's ruins, or when Malice took control. This calls back to, and references, nothing. Marvel had a whole 52 years worth of character history to work with, looks ranging from Shi'ar to Malice to Austen to Pestilence, and they chose this. Something that stands for, and represents, nothing.

Its simplicity also really proves every single criticism I've made about her treatment over the past year. There's nothing of Lorna in this design, just as there's been nothing of Lorna in X-Factor except perhaps the most recent issue.

When I saw X-Factor slotted into the end of this gala, I had various theories as to what that could mean. One of which was that maybe it's last because Lorna won the poll and it's a send-off of her from full-time X-Factor. But this dress is a hard lean the other direction. That she didn't make it onto X-Men. Because why would Marvel put this little thought into her dress if she won the vote?

Maybe this isn't actually her dress after all. Maybe it's just what they drew for the cover while her actual dress will be much better, much more impressive, containing her multitudes in the same way we see done for Storm, Rachel, and so many other characters. But I doubt it.

It's bad. And while there are sure to be arguments for otherwise, I think within its context, that point's as plain as the dress itself.

[Phoenixx9]

Well, this is why I asked yesterday if we had any pics of Lorna, because I suspected she would be attending and was curious as to her look. This was not the look. I expected something spectacular for Lorna. Point of fact, other than the green hair, it did not even look like Lorna.