Robin Aldrif

Here we go.

Lorna was on Genosha when the genocide happened. A lot led into that, and a lot happened preceding the genocide itself. The short version is, she had a vested personal interest in keeping the mutant nation going. She cared about the mission. And more importantly, she cared about its people.

Which is important to know. Because this is how the X-Men found her.

Naked. Alone. But... not alone. No, not alone at all.

Because she was carrying millions inside her. Millions of people who had died in the genocide. She carried their magnetic patterns like a black box. She stored their last moments, fully aware of them. All the pain, the fear, the misery. She carried that.

This was New X-Men #132. And it was and still is a tear and heart jerker.

Carrying the voices of Genosha's dead and their final moments, Lorna amplified that signal for everyone present to bear witness to a small taste of the horror she experienced firsthand. It was a memorial. And a mourning.

How would you deal with that? Think you could carry on as if nothing happened? Go back to being a 90s X-Factor supporting character girlfriend?

Yeah, no. She had PTSD from it. As you might expect. She spent her subsequent time in the flagship X-Men book being a lot more vicious, a lot more "unhinged," a lot darker as a person. She didn't run away from the world - though there are many ways one deals with trauma, and that one is perfectly valid for a person's response. She remained active despite what she was going through.

On that book, we eventually got a firsthand view of her experience with the Genoshan genocide. Xavier enters her mind to try and help her with her trauma, as he had previously, and this time we got to see what she saw.

Horror. Lots and lots of horror. In the grand scheme of things, she did not have enough power to fight off the Sentinels. She WANTED to be a hero. Save and protect everyone. But, in the face of that assault, the best she could do was save herself.

She still heard the screams. She still knew that people she'd grown to know and care for were getting murdered all around her, and she could do nothing about it. All the good intents and high minded philosophies weren't enough on that dark day.

There was another, compounding element in this issue. This issue confirmed that Lorna was Magneto's daughter, and said Lorna was greeted as a sovereign princess by Genosha's people right before the genocide happened.

So consider. Not only had she contributed greatly to Genosha, got close to these people, cared about it all and witnessed them all dying. She was also seen as an authority figure that the people could expect to trust with their lives mere seconds before she failed them in that role.

The rest of the run happened. And at its end, with Uncanny X-Men 442-443, we got to see the end point of Lorna's philosophical wrangling through her past as an X-Men member vs her PTSD after the genocide.

She's pissed. Humans were ultimately responsible for what happened, because they created the weapons of war in the Sentinels that made such a tragedy possible. She no longer thinks that Xavier's philosophy alone cuts it in a world with countless genocidal monsters eager to murder innocents because of their bloodthirsty bigotry. Dreams are ideals to aspire toward, but they can only go so far.

The issue ends with this.

She's not saying and doing all of these things out of hatred or rage, or out of a desire for vengeance. Ultimately, it comes from one place: love.

She wants the people she loves and cares about to live. She wants them to be in a place to save and protect themselves if necessary. Xavier's ideals did not save her on the darkest day of her life. She clearly does not want anyone else to suffer as she had, or worse than her. She wants them to have the tools to live another day.

This is Lorna Dane following the Genoshan genocide. This is why it's so, so important for her as a character, in any fiction where the genocide happens and she exists, to have this experience acknowledged. This isn't just some random minor event in the tapestry of her life. This is the biggest thing to ever happen to her. It critically impacted her on every level, and a proper representation of her recognizes and appreciates this.

... Unfortunately, Marvel's comics have spent the past 2 decades pretending she wasn't even there. I deeply, deeply hope X-Men 97 is the start of a change in that vein, to genuinely caring about Lorna and this part of her.

The Wolverine and the X-Men cartoon in the late 00s is the last time any form of Marvel media properly acknowledged her as a Genoshan genocide survivor. We will see how X-Men 97 compares.