I believe I’ve made posts on this multiple times, but I don’t mind making a post on it again. As always, thoughts be my thoughts.

Polaris has had a variety of costumes over the years, particularly in comics. This has similarly led to a variety of opinions on what costumes are best or worst for her, what aesthetically works or doesn’t work.

I believe what works best for Lorna is some variation of her iconic costume, with a secondary color added to it.

A lot of hardcore fans for Lorna seem to shy away from her iconic costume. They seem to prefer something reminiscent of the Austen era or when she was possessed by Malice, with black or other dark colors. Trailing that appears to be preference for something like her X-Factor costume. The X-Factor costume preference seems to be moreso people who aren’t hardcore fans of Lorna herself, but of X-Men as a whole, or perhaps they have a little history with that time period and like stuff reminiscent of it.

My assumption on why other hardcore fans prefer these looks is twofold.

I believe nostalgia plays a big factor. They love the look cause they love how Lorna was treated while wearing that costume or one like it. They associate that costume with good things for her. It’s a psychological hook.

However, I also believe those darker Austen era or Malice possessed type looks are liked because it makes her look like a darker character. Darker seems to be perceived by a lot of people as making the character more complex, vs characters like Superman who get mistakenly written off as simple and “boring.” The belief might go that in making her look darker, Lorna might have a better chance of being taken seriously as a character, and important traits to her (e.g. the Genoshan genocide) would have a better chance of getting acknowledged. Whereas “hey, she’s wearing something light” might make them think Marvel thinks she’s too light and soft and good to deal with trauma or hard stuff.

There may be other reasons as well. Beyond the simple “cause I like it” one. But that’s what I can guess as reasons. And they’re pretty good ones, in my opinion.

However, I still think the benefits of a variation of her iconic costume far outweigh those reasons.

Her iconic costume is better known, for starters.

Casual fans recognize her for it. There’s a reason that when Marvel put Enchantress on covers with Scarlet Witch, people kept mistaking Enchantress for Lorna and had to be repeatedly corrected. There’s a reason we see people find a portrait of a D&D sorceress in all green and mistakenly think she’s Lorna. The costume plays an important role in recognition. Without that costume, casual fans can very easily not know it’s Lorna they’re seeing. She’s not the only female character with green hair, and she’s not the most well-known either.

Aside from that, her iconic costume has been used enough that it’s become part of her identity in itself. The headgear and cape especially so. They go a long way toward establishing a sense of her as “mutant royalty” post-Genosha. Metallic shininess in some versions lends to noting what her powers are, too.

I think her iconic costume can and should be updated though. I was vehemently against the idea until I saw Anka’s redesign ideas.

Secondary color is a definite need. When you think about how White Queen is named after her color yet she has blonde hair to offset the white, and same goes for Scarlet Witch while she has brown hair, you start to see why it’s necessary. And Lorna even did have one when she started out: gold. Then that was taken away from her.

After that, I do think the rest of her costume, while needing to maintain familiarity, doesn’t quite capture who she is as well as it could. This is where I think Anka’s design shines. It gives her a nice warrior vibe that you’d expect from a survivor like her. She’s been in wars, she’s survived a genocide, and giving her an armored breastplate kinda look lends to that. And I think Anka’s design idea does a great job of taking what Lorna already has and evolving it to something more character-specific.

That’s where I stand. I don’t think the costumes that more hardcore fans of Lorna and/or X-Men prefer are the right way to go for her, both in best representing her identity and for her potential and opportunities in general. I think those darker looks may please hardcore fans, but as a consequence, it would hold her back.

An important balance needs to be struck between building off the past while moving toward the future. I feel keeping Lorna’s iconic costume but modernizing and adding on to it does that. I feel the darker Austen-like or Malice-like costumes do more to relive the past than forge a new future.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t possible takeaways from those darker looks. Just that if it’s a binary choice between iconic costume or that costume, I think iconic costume wins.