Before now, she was at the treehouse crying due to her father Magneto's death, which took a year (real world time) after his death to happen on panel for some reason.
Within the story, saying this mainly for the casual lurkers, the treehouse was burned down shortly after this by Orchis, which led fans to wonder what might happen with her. Some speculation that maybe she died in that fire but we hadn't seen it, but there was also a scene teasing what's happening in Fall of the House of X now before that happened. So people also speculated things similar to what we're seeing now.
Starting with the more important stuff first, but under spoiler tags.
spoilers:
Throughout the issue, there's a few characters that Xavier directly contacts via telepathy asking them to leave an plan in action to break Cyclops out of Orchis' hold to take part in a different plan he has in mind that he says needs to be done right this moment. Lorna heads off to Knowhere before Kitty arrives to give her the go-ahead for pre-made plans. Now, where we're at right now with this first issue, we actually don't know what prompted Lorna to head to Knowhere. The running theme of characters running off for Xavier's plan suggests Lorna may be playing a part in it, but we have no actual confirmation one way or another. No scene showing Xavier reaching out to Lorna, no scene of Lorna saying or thinking that it's something Xavier asked her to do, etc. Maybe those things happened in the background after all and Duggan just didn't waste panel time on time. Or, it could be that Lorna is simply doing this of her own accord, using what she knows to hit Orchis hard. We'll have to see in future issues as they unfold.
A second key and interesting detail is how Kitty goes to find Lorna on the island where Magneto originally operated the Brotherhood, Island M. As you can see from the wikia article, there's other interesting details (repurposing for Krakoa into Cradle Two, a history with the Ancients/Great Old Ones, etc), but I think the Magneto Brotherhood elements are the most interesting and most valuable for Lorna. We've spent the time since Magneto's death seeing Storm used as the focal character for just about everything regarding Magneto's death and legacy, including running the Brotherhood, while Lorna was shown with no reaction at all to her own father's death until the gala. So I think touches like this are a way to tell us in the gaps of the story that Lorna's been thinking about and dealing with these things in-universe even though the company wasn't properly addressing it until now.
Kitty also finding Lorna's minidress ensemble is also a meaningful choice. They could've decided not to show that, but it's valuable for how it symbolically represents a change in attitude for her. From the laidback casual approach while on the X-Men book, to the warrior about to take on Orchis. Goes a long way to demonstrate Lorna as the multifaceted character she is. |
end of spoilers
And now for the eternal costume discourse that'll take up 5 pages.
I agree this is the best costume she's had yet. You can distinctly tell that it's Lorna due to the headgear design within her helmet and the cape, as well (of course) with the all green. The varying shades of green do a great job of giving her some color variation while retaining her most well known color. The helmet here is also great as an evolution from her tiara; retaining it in her design but moving it forward. There's an implication of Magneto to it without sacrificing her own visual identity in the process. I do still wish it looked more like battle armor, but doesn't change that it looks amazing, provides meaningful evolution to her look without killing her identity in the process, and is the best she's had to date.
All in all, good showing for Lorna already even with it being just a few pages. Looking forward to the next issue, and I encourage people to buy and read this one.