Lorna Dane: Polaris Appreciation 2021

[salarta]

On the one hand, I'm glad something published by Marvel is acknowledging things have happened with Lorna further back than the last few years besides "dated Havok." Her origin story was good and among the better things to bring back.

On the other hand, if I was forced to choose between this or Genosha, I would choose Genosha 1000% of the time. Now to be fair, the setting of this specific comic is before Genosha happened, so it would be wrong and unreasonable to expect Genosha to come up here. But in the much broader scope of everything Marvel could do across her entire character history, Genosha is more important.

Emphasis here on "if I was forced." I can see ways to work with both this and her Genosha experience. Which I'm not saying publicly in the off chance someone from Marvel is looking here and saying it publicly would somehow prevent any of those ways from happening. Closest I think I could safely come is that any writer that takes her whole character journey into account (as in things she's actually done and that matter to her, not simply how useful she can be for other characters) could craft 53 years of comics history into an amazing cohesive tapestry.

[jmc247]

The X-Men Legends stories were fine and a cute tale. I picked up the variant cover for issue #5 which was well done as well. I don't have much to say about it beyond that.

On the other hand, if I was forced to choose between this or Genosha, I would choose Genosha 1000% of the time. Now to be fair, the setting of this specific comic is before Genosha happened, so it would be wrong and unreasonable to expect Genosha to come up here. But in the much broader scope of everything Marvel could do across her entire character history, Genosha is more important.

Emphasis here on "if I was forced." I can see ways to work with both this and her Genosha experience. Which I'm not saying publicly in the off chance someone from Marvel is looking here and saying it publicly would somehow prevent any of those ways from happening. Closest I think I could safely come is that any writer that takes her whole character journey into account (as in things she's actually done and that matter to her, not simply how useful she can be for other characters) could craft 53 years of comics history into an amazing cohesive tapestry.

Emotional and mental breakdowns have become a horribly overused component of the character to the extent its damaged her as a character that can be taken seriously.

Each writer who wants to own her mental pathos wholescale adds to the increasingly incomprehensible tower of babel that is Lorna's psychology. I am not a fan of Lorna being trauma girl where the core question of the character is when will she break down again or have an 'episode'. What the character needed and still needs is an actual core to the character and motivation from one writer to the next that exist regardless of her persona at a given moment.

Polaris fans being too loud on the Genosha issue has been a real part of why I think they have completely ignored it. The other part is each new writer wants to wholly own her emotional state and they think it forces them into a one way box that it really doesn't even given there is a wide range of impacts on Lorna's views that can be argued from it.

But, ignoring it has made Lorna come off not like a streamlined character with over a half century of history like most other X-Men of her era. When you have issues like X-Factor #4 #2020 the core idea may be sound of Lorna getting real upset at a mutants death, but taking it too far which the issue did and not including call backs to other much larger trauma makes Lorna come off like 16 year old sheltered trauma girl who really shouldn't be going on missions because she is just too emotional weak and fragile.

While I think in some areas Lorna is on the right track like a better persona I generally do think the disconnection of her story from her Genosha pathos has left a massive hole in the character and yes I do see it like taking away Uncle Ben's death from Spiderman or the Holocaust from Magneto.

[Soulsword323]

X-men legends 6 was another fun read, I like that Peter David retcon his own story into earlier canon.

spoilers:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]112429[/ATTACH

end of spoilers

This was the best part. It's nice seeing a reference to Lorna's origin happening in the past.

[salarta]

I can see reasons for why people at Marvel might look at Lorna fans talking a lot about Genosha as being too loud, and avoid or ignore Genosha as a result. I can see them thinking that going into it might look like they'll do all sorts of things if fans are demanding enough.

But one aspect of the issue that I think resolves those concerns and maybe hasn't been said enough is gravity of this specific event in both X-Men lore broadly and for Lorna specifically. Genosha wasn't an obscure footnote that hardly anyone remembers. It was a huge event with lasting ramifications, especially in the aftermath. Every concept of the mutants living on an island, including the current status quo on Krakoa, has its origins with Genosha.

In addition, if fans of Magneto get really loud about demanding that Marvel do more with his Holocaust history, or if fans of Wolverine get really loud about Weapon X, would Marvel seriously avoid those stories and never use them for 15+ years just because the fans were vocal about the need for it?

With events of this scale and importance, I would actually say Marvel never touching on them shows their work is almost entirely controlled by fandom. It would mean they're not basing their creative decisions on their own thinking, but on making sure they don't do anything fans talk about a lot. If all I have to do to stop Marvel from telling a story I don't like is to be vocal enough, and its importance has no impact whatsoever, how is that any different? Can I get Marvel to never have Lorna and Havok in the same comic for the rest of eternity if I spend all my time pretending they need to be together? If I pretend I want Marvel to do tons of comics set in 90s X-Factor, and say that incessantly, would that guarantee Marvel never does stuff like X-Men Legends?

Could I sue Marvel for doing these things with their own IPs? Can I de facto own the entire X-line just by talking enough?

I've seen writers say "If a fan gives us a story idea then we can't write it," but that has limits. You may not be able to write a specific story idea of "How about an AU miniseries where Magneto travels back to the Holocaust and kills all the Nazis," but there's no reason you can't write a story that has something to do with Magneto's history with the Holocaust. Avoiding the Holocaust just cause fans are talking about it a lot wouldn't be a matter of being legally safe. It would be personal. Either personally not liking the character or that history, or not liking that fans are catching and talking about something that's been ignored for too long.

[jmc247]

I broadly agree that the impact on the line to this day is what sets it apart and has made Marvel's tact on it with Lorna that it never happened wholly unreasonable. We have seen in the House of X era a laundry list of characters discuss Genosha and most of the X-Men even come to Genosha last year for a mini series with Lorna front and center on the cover of the trade and who in the end never appeared.

The core argument of it was a small event that happened a long time ago and the comics can't focus on everything is belied by the fact Marvel can remember each and every half baked crappy mind control story Lorna has had since the 70s and bring that up with the character every other year. They also very much remember Genosha as well for just about all the other X-Men impacted and not impacted.

I will say cutting out very significant parts of Lorna's history has made Lorna and Magneto's relationship utterly impossible for me to understand and downright incomprehensible. The angry disappointed father routine might make a bit of sense if he was expecting her to take on a leadership role on Krakoa as she did Genosha, but she is afraid to commit. However, Magneto himself hasn't really had an I want to rule Krakoa vibe to him and there is no reason to have high expectations of Lorna on the island if white hat X-Factor and occasional X-Man is her whole history.

I don't understand why Lorna cares about him at all really positive or negative given how much of her history has been excised from her. She has been treated the past few years as a teenage or 20 something white hat who never had a philosophical edge to her and her own history with Magneto has been scrubbed out so why is she putting up with some guy she just met and has no real ties to outside of blood?

[salarta]

Behold, Marvel's Polaris!




Edit: I'd like to note that I think Duggan's run is dipping into the parts I jokingly cut out in this edit. Which is good, of course!

[jmc247]

Jim Steranko’s art was and still is quality. Her political side which long has been greatly underused was quite present in those issues.

Anyway art.



Link

[jmc247]

Gambit is getting an ANXF funko figure.

[salarta]

While I'm glad Lorna was added to Strike Force, that the game a) didn't give her the X-Men trait, and b) did apply the X-Factor trait, really put me off from wanting to do anything with it. I just couldn't bring myself to try the game. By contrast, I played Marvel Puzzle Quest (and bought quite a few microtransactions for it as a result, something I normally don't do) and tried to play Marvel Super War. I say tried because it's not available here normally, and my attempts to make it work here failed.

People who have seen my online activity here and elsewhere know I've been annoyed with Marvel ignoring Lorna's history with the X-Men franchise. It was during last year's run of X-Factor that I started to realize Marvel tends to act like she's an X-Factor only character who started in the 90s and hasn't done anything outside of that book, rather than an X-Men franchise character that's been around for 53 years. This matters because it results in Lorna excluded from important events she should be part of, and getting limited only to being on X-Factor even when she shouldn't be there and should be doing other things. Before last year, I didn't mind Lorna being on a book titled X-Factor given a good setup for her (e.g. leading the team), but now I think the title itself regardless of writer or scope or team comp is a problem for her. Havok's spent the past decade on all sorts of books, including as a leader on Uncanny Avengers and Astonishing X-Men, while most of Lorna's use has been restricted to X-Factor.

But it bears repeating again that I'm glad Lorna's on X-Men right now, and I hope it's the start of better things for her going forward.

[juan678]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CShgunYLEgZ/

[Stormy]

https://www.instagram.com/p/CShgunYLEgZ/

because I loved!!

[From The Shadows]

Gifted PARTE 1 OF 3 Polaris Medical

Yick. (ten chars.)

[Lucyinthesky]

Lorna Dane by Lucas Werneck

[Phoenixx9]

Lorna Dane by Lucas Werneck

I love these two looks for Lorna.

Coincidentally, I think they would also be something Jean would wear and would look great on her too.

[Lucyinthesky]

He did some art for Jean too, I will share them on Jean´s thread