Lorna Dane: Polaris Appreciation 2021

[Phoenixx9]

As I have mentioned before, I find the interesting thing to be the man who hires Jean as a Model whose last name is DANE. Then, they just throw it around as Lorna's last name. Can there be more than one "Dane" and with no relation? Sure. But not in comics, lol. One can read into it that this was placed there as a future plot, but one which was forgotten or not continued by other writers.

[jmc247]

It was written in 1968 the era of Acid rock and families divided over the war. The story has holes one can drive a truck through, but the core theme is timeless. Lorna's main choices in the story to side with and against Magneto didn't come from mind control. Bobby was really the main point of view character for the early part of the story.



Having some X-Men deeply divided about her was a good storyline idea that could have juiced her storytelling and interaction on the X-Men if they followed through with it. It definitely super charged the storytelling of quite a few other X-Men to have distrust (and not over possession or mental health fears) and contention built into their interaction.

Magneto was the big bad of the x-books something he hasn't been in two decades. Still I long thought there is good to be mined from the story if one thinks about it as a metaphoric divide. Lorna's storyline over two decades ago now which started the movement towards restoring her parentage was very much a better written take on that story even using Bobby again in the same role.

The core theme idea works optimally in the modern era when 'Magneto' is more of an idea then a person. He is no longer the big bad of the line, but the idea of Magneto and what he represents is always there even if Magneto himself is with the X-Men following Xavier's dream.

[Soulsword323]

I'm not too keen on Malice, however it appears in today's Excalibur:

spoilers:

Malice is given a body of her own, and an origin.

end of spoilers

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Lorna and Malice interact again, and at least this is a better way to deal with the Malice baggage without having Polaris possessed again. Kinda worried about how writers might approach their interactions though. Hopefully Lorna isn't just going to roll over and forgive Malice.

[salarta]

On the one hand, I think it's good that Marvel isn't making Malice exclusively something around Polaris and pushing another Malice story on Lorna when there's a lot of more important things (e.g. Genosha) that need to be covered.

On the other hand, it says a lot that they're doing more for Malice than for Lorna. At least from the sound of it, it sounds like the comics are giving a lot of attention to Malice's POV and background, putting some real thought into her perspective and history. By contrast, Marvel's treatment of Lorna has been to ignore her POV and background in favor of whatever helps the other characters around her, and hoping that nice words and a few nice covers will hide it.

Which gets to a notable point which has been said by jmc before: that Lorna's time possessed by Malice helped Malice and hurt Lorna.

Malice on Excalibur is seen as a worthy character for exploration into herself. Lorna over the past 5 years in the comics has not been seen that way by Marvel. Marvel's willing to dig into the character that possessed Lorna but not Lorna herself. Can't get much more proof of Marvel's stilted priorities than that.

[jmc247]

I'm not too keen on Malice, however it appears in today's Excalibur:

spoilers:

Malice is given a body of her own, and an origin.

end of spoilers

I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Lorna and Malice interact again, and at least this is a better way to deal with the Malice baggage without having Polaris possessed again. Kinda worried about how writers might approach their interactions though. Hopefully Lorna isn't just going to roll over and forgive Malice.

In terms of Malice if a writer wants to do something interesting with her great. If a writer wants to force her back into Lorna's story I am not hot on that score.

Does Malice work for a good nemesis for Lorna like the Red Skull worked for Magneto? No. Red Skull worked to accentuate Magneto's greatest fears about himself from his greatest trauma. Red Skull is also a well connected character at the heart of many Marvel events. Malice is not a well connected character at all and she can't tap into anything regarding Lorna other then her fearing being 'controlled' and recycled nostalgia pathos.

Writing this isn't going to dissuade the creative staff if they have a story in mind and if it is actually a good idea it shouldn't. I said all of this even believing there is a narrow path for a provocative story between the two and a ton of terrible paths I simply ask that whoever is considering such a storyline think about what they are going to get out of it and how its going to move the ball with Lorna and not keep her mired in nostalgia for eras that weren't good for her in the first place.

[Devaishwarya]

Yupp. Malice and Lorna need not ever interact with each other.

[Thirteen]

New discovery: Artist John McGuinness

Really liking his Polaris redesign for combining the classic lines of her first costume and the shape of her trench cloak from her under appreciated Madrox era X-Factor outfit...I'd give Lorna a higher ponytail hairstyle similar to the Ariana Grande-esque style that Dauterman draws storm as having.
https://twitter.com/mcguinnessjohn

[jmc247]

This isn’t a knock on X-Factor as the problem was just as much there under Bunn and certainly earlier last decade in every run Lorna had (with a slight exception of Prisoner of X which was AU) but Lorna has a big gun problem.

I have to thank X-Factor #6 for with one picture encapsulating the big gun problem. Things that are self evident don’t need to be told to the audience. In fact when someone says they are something or are not something like being a crook it’s typically a problem as it’s not self evident.

Magneto has no need to call himself a big gun. Neither does Storm or Emma or Mystique. It’s self evident. Lorna needed to because it’s not been self evident. I have appreciated the great comic covers she has had the past decade, but great comic covers do not give her credibility.

[salarta]

I want to add on the past comics front this part specifically from X-Men Blue.



Like with the image from X-Factor #6, it does this thing of Lorna proclaiming she's powerful and dangerous... but it's undermined by the story and other elements of framing. Story-wise, the entire issue leading up to this moment was heavy on giving Havok all sorts of tangible bonuses to show him as powerful and meaningful. Havok's leading his own team? Check. Havok gets to interact with Emma Frost about his own goals (even though they're inverted ones)? Check. Havok poses a serious threat to the teen O5? Check. You don't get all of that if you aren't worth something in the eyes of Marvel.

By contrast, all Lorna had was showing up to insist she's strong, and beating Havok. Nearly all the following issue framed Lorna in terms of her relationships with Havok and Magneto, entirely defining her by them. This can be seen clearest with the "Daughter of Magneto" descriptor under her name in the image above. In the comic, all the other characters were introduced by mentioning their powers, and sometimes other important elements particular to their characters. Lorna? Nothing but who her dad is. The net effect was that even though Lorna "won" in the fight, it was still in service to the men around her and a detriment to Lorna herself. She was fighting her ex-boyfriend on behalf of her father. Not because she believed in a cause, as she did when she joined Genosha, but because "this man wants me to fight this other man." It made her an object to be influenced by "better" characters rather than her own character.

But I also want to add this moment, much later in X-Men Blue's run.



There were still definitely problems toward the end, but one of the few pros was that it started to do better by Lorna and Magneto's relationship (the X-Men Blue #28 cover was atrocious bordering on sexist but not a fault of the writing, I believe). This moment is the most vivid single-image sign of improvement for the run, and it paid off for the book, because it's the image of her I see most often out of everything in X-Men Blue.

It acknowledged that Lorna is Magneto's daughter. But it noted that she shouldn't be defined exclusively by that. That there's more to her than just who her father is. That being his daughter shouldn't mean she's his puppet, nor that she wants nothing to do with him either. In the same way that typical real world relationships between a parent and a child mean the child cares about their parent, they have areas where they agree and have the same interests, but the child isn't going to live their life as if they're just an extension of their parent dedicated exclusively to pleasing them (or the opposite).

My bottom line here is adding another example where Lorna claiming she's powerful isn't good enough, and why it's not. Lorna beating Havok down means nothing if the motivation written for her doing it is bad. Any impressive feat rings hollow and loses all worth when its actual purpose is to funnel that feat into talking up how "important" and "powerful" and "influential" some other character is. And writing Lorna for other characters to take "real credit" for anything she does is a perpetual problem with these comics.

It's even worse when the character proclaims they're dangerous only to be proven not a second later, as happened with X-Factor #6.

[jmc247]

Lorna has little depth or character when she has no outward motivation bigger then her own little life. She hasn’t had that on either X-Factor, Blue or really anywhere in a very long time.

She is always going to be responding to others as long as there is no core agenda for her she wishes to achieve. One can cheer Lorna verbally demonstrating her independence or even telling Mags to screw himself, but if she has no goal or motivation she is just responding to other more well rounded characters without a center of her own.

Real empowerment comes from having an overarching goal and fighting for it. Milligan and Mackie had several strong women’s empowerment one liners from Lorna. She was ultimately a vacant character for most of their runs because there was nothing deeper to be found and no motivational core to the character.

[juan678]

[jmc247]

It is the same artist who did the bad ass variant for X-Factor #2 that was canceled. He also did a pretty similar Wanda design recently.



Also official Marvel Strike Force synopsis of Polaris.

[Soulsword323]

So it appears that Duggan will be the one writing the elected X-team. I know a lot of us assumed it'd be Hickman.


Even though it isn't guaranteed, I still feel pretty optimistic Lorna's gonna win. I'm curious as to how Duggan will approach Polaris, and what he could have in store for the character. I've really enjoyed Hickman's Lorna personally, so I'm kinda bummed not to get more, but I'm hopeful that Gerry will do a good job.

[jmc247]

So it appears that Duggan will be the one writing the elected X-team. I know a lot of us assumed it'd be Hickman.


Even though it isn't guaranteed, I still feel pretty optimistic Lorna's gonna win. I'm curious as to how Duggan will approach Polaris, and what he could have in store for the character. I've really enjoyed Hickman's Lorna personally, so I'm kinda bummed not to get more, but I'm hopeful that Gerry will do a good job.

I thought Hickman was going to write it and my first response was admittedly unhappy to learn that he wouldn't be writing it. I still have hope that as long as Lorna's thinking is presented broadly with the conceptual outline that laid out in the start of House of X she could have a successful run.

If she ends up there and is reduced to daddy, mind control, and shipper issues the run will end up like all the others that reduce her to that. Brubaker and Bunn weren't able to break out of 80s and 90s nostalgia and themes with her.

If Duggan ends up being the one to write her I wish him the best.

[rhaenylis]

PAD will write Lorna again in X-Men Legends