Okay, I can now comment on Lorna’s appearance in Blue #24, thanks to this post of pictures by @marvelstars.

Keeping in mind that I lack full context, this is good.

Much better than I was expecting from Bunn given his track record and especially Blue #23. Blue #23 had me expecting Malice to be used as an excuse to have Lorna and Havok bone without being a couple yet, or one of several other possible bad approaches, most of them revolving around building Havok up at Lorna’s expense.

For the moment, I feel comfortable saying these pages of #24 show Bunn actually acknowledging who Lorna is and what she’s been through, and providing her some real development and story substance in her own right. They show Bunn putting real thought into Lorna as her own character, not just a character who can benefit Magneto and Havok.

It’s actual character development for Lorna to see her turn the mental possession back on AU Malice. To me, this is Bunn’s biggest accomplishment to date with Lorna.

That said… the potential for Malice use wasn’t fully realized. Because utilizing Lorna’s history with Malice was buried within a storyline that’s fixated first and foremost on Havok and Mothervine, Bunn did not utilize the juicy opportunities that would’ve come out in an issue or story arc dedicated to this.

Lorna fighting for control could have been drawn out so we would see reactions from a wide range of characters as “Lorna” does things she would normally never do. We could have seen a battle between them in the mental landscape – not just combat, but Malice trying to exploit “weaknesses” in Lorna’s thoughts and feelings, Lorna fending them off, etc. We could have seen how much care and respect other characters feel toward Lorna as they talk about what she’s going through and try to help her.

Yes, the end result that Bunn provided was exactly right for her, and I’m glad he went with it instead of a myriad of alternative bad options. But we still missed out on what could have been an amazing narrative journey, because Bunn chose to embed it within a Havok-and-Mothervine-centric story arc and give the greatly abridged version.

These pages change one thing for me: I now think it’s possible for Bunn to do good things with and for Lorna. I think if he puts in real effort, he can bring himself to care about Lorna enough to see her for who she is and work with it.

However, there’s a lot this does not change.

Bunn’s written Lorna poorly enough times that one good depiction isn’t enough. I still expect Lorna will be treated poorly in future issues. I still expect she’ll be written to look stupid and naive so Magneto can “correct” her. I still expect she’ll be written as Havok’s manic pixie dream girl, singing his praises and putting him on a pedestal instead of getting to be her own character.

One case of good writing for Lorna isn’t enough to make me think the trend of poor treatment has been broken and everything’s blue skies from here on out. I’ll need a lot more cases of good writing before that happens.

The cover for Blue #28 remains the big painful sticking point that suggests this issue was a fluke of good treatment before a lot of coming bad treatment.

Covers represent the contents of the comic within. This is a huge warning sign that things will go back to the “status quo” of “dumb rookie daughter” with Magneto and “manic pixie dream girl” with Havok.

No reason to believe #24 is a full-fledged course correction when the cover for four issues from now suggests it’s not.

And the good of #24 doesn’t change what happened with this page of #23.

I’m still miffed about that “haven’t been together in a long time” line, and how blatantly false it is. It’s sticking with me as a loud ringing bell of Bunn really wanting to force Lorna back into the role of Havok’s girlfriend, and all the character destruction that would entail. It reeks of trying to build a case to put them back together by skewing the facts or flat out lying. Same as how Brevoort argued against Lorna being Magneto’s daughter, and used his editorial power to try to exclude her from her family and replace her with other characters.

One good depiction in #24 isn’t enough for me to forget that. I need more. 

I’m still not reading Blue. I still think Bunn shouldn’t be writing Lorna. I still think she should go to another writer that cares more about her and what she can offer.

But I also think it’s possible for Bunn to change my mind and convince me she’s fine in his hands, if he keeps doing right by her. I’ll leave it at that.

Bunn’s going to screw up royally with the use of Malice. I know this because he keeps screwing Lorna over without Malice involved in any way. He keeps defining her almost entirely by Magneto being her father and Havok being her ex, and can’t seem to grasp (or actively doesn’t want to grasp) that she’s more than that.

Bunn screwing up is going to add fuel to the fire of perception that doing anything at all involving Malice is instantly bad. In advance of him screwing Lorna over, I want to go into what could be done in the hands of a writer that cares.

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First and foremost, Lorna dealing with Malice doesn’t have to mean Lorna getting possessed by Malice again.

That doesn’t mean getting possessed again is an inherently bad idea. I think it can be a very good one in an issue, arc or book dedicated exclusively to how Lorna deals with it. The problem with Bunn’s X-Men Blue approach right off the bat is that he’s doing it embedded within an arc dedicated to Havok. It’s a minor subplot to a story that’s all about a male character he actually cares about.

Lorna’s history with Malice is a bad one. Claremont depicted Lorna poorly in starting it off, as a scared weakling crying for Havok to save her. The juxtaposition Claremont tried to create was “Lorna was good but fearful, Malice was bad but bold, and she’s weak and pathetic in both cases.” Strong moments were attributed to Malice, weak ones attributed to Lorna.

So here’s how a modern revisit to Malice COULD work well in the right hands.

Use of modern possession

What Malice did in Lorna’s body could be specifically geared toward what it says about Lorna herself.

This is what could be done with Malice possessing Lorna, today.

Malice could be evil, crueler, the sort of monster that demonstrates just how bad Lorna could make everyone’s life if she was a bad guy. People in and out of comics have been writing Lorna off as a “low-rent female Magneto” for a long time. Malice murdering innocent people, psychologically torturing Lorna’s friends and allies, abusing areas of trust or faking being Lorna to cause damage. If done well, these can be done to highlight who Lorna is by showing who she isn’t.

She could also be used to make Lorna reveal thoughts and feelings she would never, ever say openly. Marvel doesn’t use thought bubbles anymore. Malice is a caveat. She could pick up on how Lorna feels about Wanda, about Jean Grey, about (of course) Magneto, and then say those actual words.

At the same time, Malice can be weaker than Lorna’s full potential. But it has to be framed right. This is why it needs the entire story focused squarely on Lorna’s situation. The point would be that from within her body, Lorna is fighting back. She’s resisting Malice’s attempts to use her, and in that struggle, Lorna’s keeping Malice from being able to give it her all. Powers are weaker, or Malice will fail to exploit an opening, or fail to use something cruel. Because Lorna stopped her from within.

It would show her strength of will, in other words.

Use of past possession

There’s a lot that can also be done without Lorna being possessed at all.

Bluntly: not being in control of your own body is a fucking horror show. It’s one of the worst goddamn things you can go through. That in no way means someone who’s paralyzed has no quality of life, or anything to that effect. The point is that just not being able to do or say the things you want to do or say is awful.

Malice didn’t just keep Lorna from doing and saying what she wanted. She made Lorna do and say things she didn’t want to do or say. Lorna had so little control of her own body that she couldn’t even be herself.

Bringing Malice back, without Lorna getting possessed at all, can be a major flashpoint about how far she’s come. About how she’s sick of letting people tell her what to do, and she’s going to be in control of her own life and her own actions. She’s not going to let anyone turn her into their puppet. She’s been forced to live as one enough already.

She can also be a hell of a lot more empathetic to other characters getting possessed or mind-controlled.

She’s been through it. She knows how horrific it is. She knows how badly the person needs others to support and help them, because when she needed it back in the Claremont era, she didn’t get it. They acted shocked but then proceeded to treat her (and let her be treated) like a punching bag, perfectly expendable if the means justify the ends.

Hell, this last point could even be a positive sign for characters that aren’t Lorna. It can show they actually care about other people and want to help them. But, in Lorna’s particular case, it would show how much she’s valued by the people who would help her. Killing Lorna and beating her up because Malice possessed her is the easy way out. Finding a solution that helps her defeat Malice is harder.

Conclusion

Malice, like a lot of stuff done poorly in past decades, isn’t a lost cause. Isn’t inherently bad. A lot could be done with it. It could do amazing things in magnifying Lorna’s identity and showing who she is.

Bunn is going to screw that up. It’s highly likely the only thing he sees in having Lorna possessed by Malice is a chance to have “Lorna” back with Havok, and hanging on him. Possibly even having Lorna fight with Emma over who gets to be Havok’s girl. Is that last one likely? I don’t know. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Bunn pulled that, anymore. Assuming two women talking to each other about a man instead of talking to a man isn’t too much independent female action for Bunn.

I say that, continuing to sincerely wonder if Bunn has ever once passed the Bechdel test. He may have, but if he has, I don’t recall ever having seen it.