I’ve said fairly often what things I would and wouldn’t like to see in comics that involve Lorna, but I don’t think I’ve said them in a comprehensive list on Tumblr before. I’ve decided to make that list right now.

These are pretty much things that either Marvel hasn’t done anything with, or hasn’t done nearly enough with.

Genosha

This is the biggest, most important one. Lorna nearly died during the Genoshan genocide. She had to endure hearing the death wails and voices of millions of her people murdered around her, not just in that exact moment, but on repeat because her powers “stored” all of it like a recording. The whole experience made her darker and harsher.

… And Marvel never does anything at all with it. What she went through is something that should never, ever be forgotten, and Marvel acts like it never happened. This is the #1 top priority thing that needs to be covered in the comics, badly. Not covering it is like ignoring Magneto survived the Holocaust. It’s a major flash point for the character that had major implications on who they are and their development.

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver

Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver are Magneto’s kids. I don’t accept the forced retcon saying they’re not. Marvel only did it because Fox owned the film rights to X-Men, and Marvel didn’t do nearly enough with the whole family before the forced retcon. It needs restoring ASAP.

AU versions like Secret Wars House of M are not sufficient. The 616 versions need to be family again.

Specific to Scarlet Witch, I personally would like to see the consequences of M-Day addressed in relation to its effect on Lorna and their relationship. Wanda seemed to target Lorna for definite power loss purely because she was part of the family. That power loss came not long after Genosha, when being a mutant was practically the only thing Lorna had left to keep herself together. It led to her nearly killing herself to deal with identity crisis, then getting abducted by Apocalypse and tortured into becoming Pestilence, then chased off to space (cause of an anti-Apocalypse cult) where she once again got tortured and then mind-controlled.

Wanda’s actions brought a lot of suffering into Lorna’s life; this is something I’d like to see covered. Not “hammer it into oblivion” addressed, but just one real good story.

Lorna also had a good brother-sister dynamic with Pietro even when they weren’t known to actually be half-siblings.

Even if we act like they can’t still be a family, there are things they’ve done together that mean they could very well interact more in the future.

History with Malice, Zaladane

I know some people are very concerned about Malice in the coming X-Men Blue arc, and they’re complaining a lot, specifically because it’s Malice.

Here’s the thing with me: I actually WANT to see that history explored. Last time it was really addressed in any significant way was the early to mid 90s. That’s 20-30 years ago. If the history with Malice was a constant problem that spanned multiple decades of use, and was done poorly recently, then yeah, I’d say stay away from it. But I think enough time has passed that it’s safe. The only thing that worries me about the coming arc isn’t Malice, but how Havok’s presence could mess up the use of Malice. Without him, I’d have no concerns right now.

Likewise, with Zaladane, it’s been 30 years or so. I think there’s potential, NOT as another sister, but as an archrival. IMO, the “family” stuff from the late 80s can be explained as her trying to screw with Lorna and possibly Magneto, and that they aren’t actually family at all.

With Malice, there’s a lot to be said and gathered from the experience of another entity controlling you. A more empathetic look would be big. I also kinda headcanon the idea that Malice brings Lorna’s darkest, cruelest impulses and desires to the surface, but she’s weaker than Lorna would ever be with them because Lorna is resisting her from within. I think possession/”mind control” stories can be good IF a writer knows what they’re doing. And that generally requires a hard focus on that specific character, not diluted by tons of team stuff.

In both cases and many more, there’s a lot of poor treatment in Lorna’s history that I think can be rehabilitated into something great if modernized. It’s all about the writing. I’d like to see that history on show and done well. And I think people opposed to it without giving it a shot unintentionally give Marvel an excuse to ignore that she has a long, storied history, which then allows Marvel to act like she didn’t exist until the 90s.

When I say this, think of M’Baku from Black Panther. In comics, a very problematic character, codename Man-Ape, generally seen as racist depiction. The Black Panther film rehabilitated the character so well that his film version is very popular.

I think the same could be done for Lorna with things like Malice and Zaladane.

More acknowledgment of her LONG history and milestones in general

This year is Polaris’ 50th anniversary of her creation. Marvel’s done nothing. Polaris was the second female X-Men member to join, after Jean Grey. Marvel ignores that.

When Marvel made an X-Men comic of all women, she was excluded. When Marvel had events like Avengers vs X-Men, where she had a huge stake because of Genosha and Wanda removing her powers, they excluded her. When Marvel celebrated the X-Men franchise’s 50th anniversary in 2013, they excluded Lorna from everything – yet somehow found a place to highlight Havok.

Marvel needs to do more to acknowledge her history, value and development. They treat her like a random character made in the early 90s that has little value. She deserves better.

Romance

Havok is the only character Lorna’s ever been allowed to have as a romantic partner, in all 50 years of her character history, while Havok’s had several women as partners (Rahne, Goblin Queen, Wasp to name ones I remember immediately). Closest Lorna ever had was a love triangle with Iceman in the real early years, and some very light flirtations with possible romance with Gambit on All-New X-Factor.

I’d like to see Lorna in a romantic relationship with someone new, as long as she’s written well and respectfully as her own character while in it.

Friendships

Lorna doesn’t have any really clear roots where she’s able to interact with characters regularly. As noted above, she’s largely forced into a pigeonhole of Havok and only him.

But she used to be Jean Grey’s closest friend, before Claremont put Storm in that position AND bent over backwards to push Lorna out at the same time. She was close to Iceman, but decades of them not getting to interact much means that when the Iceman solo was made after both Icemen came out as gay, the writer decided to keep Lorna only at a single text bubble as her contribution to the story.

She needs her old friendships restored, badly. They’re a vital part of her history that’s been erased. And it wouldn’t hurt to forge or strengthen new ones. With adult Jean Grey back, now’s a perfect time to rebuild those needlessly burned bridges.

Expanded Power Use

In a series of posts I used to make called What Could Polaris Do, I shared articles and pics of things to emphasize how Lorna’s powers could be used. The point was to note how much more could be done than what we were seeing.

With what we know about electromagnetic power, Lorna could intercept communications. She could make herself and people around her “invisible.” She could use her powers as sort of low-level psychic powers, reading minds, altering memories, relaying messages via telepathy.

Marvel tends to relegate her only to throwing metal around, but she could do so much more.