Polaris

Origin

Lorna Dane, the girl who eventually becomes Polaris first appears in issue #49 of Uncanny X-Men, when the villain Mesmero uses his "psyche-generator" to summon mutants in North America with latent powers^[2]. Lorna finds herself compelled to travel to San Francisco, where Mesmero is. There she randomly encounters Bobby Drake (the X-Man Iceman), who trips her with a piece of ice and convinces her to come to his apartment. Soon after she discovers the X-Men, and they in turn learn she is a latent mutant. Mesmero and his androids capture her and take her to their desert headquarters, with the X-Men in pursuit. They place her inside a "genetic stimulator," which alters her genetic structure so as to allow her to exercise her previously latent powers.

When the X-Men attempt to rescue her, Magneto seemingly reveals himself as the leader of the group behind her abduction--and, more importantly, claims to be Lorna's father. Despite the X-Men's assertions that Magneto is evil, Lorna cannot bring herself to fight her own father. Magneto's ruse does not succeed for long. Iceman provides evidence that convinces Lorna that her birth parents had died in a plane crash years earlier. She then turns against Magneto and joins the X-Men^[3]. Unbeknownst to Lorna, the Magneto who claimed to be her father is revealed to be an android, and when Lorna first encounters the real Magneto in the Savage Land, she is surprised that he does not know who she is.

Lorna Dane's first "code name" is Magnetrix^[4], but she quickly decides that that is a bad idea. This does not keep Havok from continuing to use that name as a way to annoy her and flirt with her.

When the old and new X-Men fight the island Krakoa together, Lorna displays her major power potential for the first time when she disrupts the Earth's magnetic field, flinging Krakoa into deep space.

For a while, Iceman has a crush on her but Lorna doesn't truly reciprocate the feelings. She does however, fall in love with her teammate Havok^[5] (Alex Summers, the brother of the X-Man Cyclops). The two leave the X-Men to pursue their mutual interest in geophysics. They move to the Diablo mountain range in California, then eventually join Moira MacTaggert at her facility for genetic research on Muir Island.

Mind controlled

Polaris in her Shi'ar-designed outfit, while under the control of Erik the Red. Art by Dave Cockrum and Sam Grainger.

Lorna receives a new costume, which is of Shi'ar design, when her mind comes under the domination of the Shi'ar Intelligence agent Davan Shakari, also known as Erik the Red. It is he who gives Lorna the codename Polaris, in The X-Men #97 (1976). At the time, Shakari serves D'Ken, the now-deposed emperor of the Shi'ar Galaxy. This is previous to the reign of D'Ken's sister Lilandra. Shakari kidnaps Alex Summers and Lorna, and subjects them to a powerful form of mind control: they are turned against the X-Men and attempt to assassinate Professor Charles Xavier. A massive battle ensues at Kennedy International Airport with the duo battling the X-Men. Polaris is defeated by Storm, but Shakari manages to escape with both her and Alex. Charles Xavier eventually frees her from Shakari's control.

Lorna and Alex return from time to time to assist the X-Men. For the most part, they remain in civilian life for a number of years, and lead a happy life. They settle down in New Mexico and complete their degrees. This life is interrupted when the Marauders ambush them around the time of the Mutant Massacre. Lorna's mind is overtaken by an evil being known as Malice^[6]. Malice's energy matrix is very compatible with Lorna's powers, and the two become inseparably grafted together.

As Malice, Lorna leads the Marauders for several years. After Mister Sinister is seemingly killed, Malice's hold over Polaris weakens. Temporarily regaining control of her own mind, Lorna is able to place a phone call to the X-Men in Australia for help, but they arrive too late. Lorna had been taken to be with her alleged half-sister Zaladane, a priestess for the Savage Land's Sun People. The X-Men arrive in time to witness Zaladane's getaway, but Havok manages to infiltrate her army in disguise while the X-Men follow. There, in the Savage Land, the X-Men find that Zaladane has amassed an army of Savage Land natives who are being mentally controlled for her by Worm, one of the Savage Land Mutates. Zaladane reveals that she is in fact Lorna's sister, and, using the High Evolutionary's machinery, strips Polaris of her magnetic powers, taking them as her own^[7]. In addition, the process manages to finally separate Lorna and Malice. Zaladane and her forces clash with Ka-Zar and the X-Men, who are trying to free Lorna. During the encounter, Polaris' secondary mutation kicks in. She grows in height (towering over Alex Summers), becomes invulnerable, and gains superhuman strength. Zaladane's army is released from Worm's control, and Lorna regains her freedom.

Having nowhere else to go, Lorna heads for Moira MacTaggert's mutant research station on Muir Island. On her way there, her secondary mutation kicks in again (as is evidenced by her increased size). At this time, she discovers that her new mutation also affects those around her, amplifying negative emotions such as anger and hate.

Upon examination, Dr. MacTaggert is at a loss to explain Lorna's new mutation, although she does confirm that the only way Zaladane could have taken her powers away was if she had been a biological sibling. Shortly after her arrival, Lorna was on hand to help Moira and Banshee defend Muir Island from the attacking Reavers, who are there looking for Wolverine.

Prior to this time, it had not been clear that Polaris draws her strength from being a nexus for negative emotional energies. Lorna's status as a nexus, however, is perceived by the villainous Shadow King. The Shadow King uses Polaris as a gateway to allow him access to the physical world from the astral plane, causing a world-wide increase in anger, hatred, and violence in the process. Lorna is freed of his influence with the help of X-Factor and the X-Men during the Muir Island Saga. Upon the defeat of the Shadow King, Lorna's powers return^[8] due to a combination of Zaladane's death a short time before and the neural-disruptive psionic blade of the X-Man Psylocke, leaving no trace of her increased size, strength, or emotion-control powers.

X-Factor

During her time with X-Factor, Polaris changed costume frequently, and unlike the primarily green or purple costumes from the rest of her career, her X-Factor suits tended to be blue and yellow (as with this one, her third costume from her time with the group) or red and yellow. Art by Greg Luzniak.

She was then asked to join the newly formed X-Factor by Valerie Cooper, and tired of hiding out on Muir Island, she accepted^[9]. Lorna and Alex were set as its leaders. Her joining X-Factor offered her the chance to reunite with Alex, but their relationship remained largely unresolved. Since this time X-Factor has changed dramatically, and so has Polaris, growing stronger and more sure of herself, and more independent from Alex. They tried to maintain the relationship but they broke up and reconciled multiple times. Polaris became a mainstay of X-Factor and became the government's secret weapon against a possible attack from Magneto. Malice returned to bother her once more but Havok and Polaris, out of their love for each other, each tried to absorb her, preventing the other from being possessed. In the end, Malice perished at the hands of Mister Sinister.

X-Factor's atmosphere changed as criminals Mystique and Sabretooth were forced by the government to join the group. Lorna began to question her place on the team and finally found her suspicions to be justified after Sabretooth ran amok almost killing the whole team.

When Havok finally revealed that his "terrorist" activities had been a front for his true undercover work, Lorna forgave him although she rejected him romantically. She also rejoined X-Factor only to watch as Havok was seemingly killed in the explosion of a faulty time machine constructed by the mutant from the future, Greystone.

Weeks later, Nightcrawler encountered Lorna in a church and she confided in him that she felt she was being followed and that she was sure Alex was still alive.

A group of Skrulls working with Apocalypse were indeed shadowing her and broke into her apartment to retrieve the headgear from Havok's original costume. Lorna then learned that she was one of "The Twelve"^[10]; a team of mutants supposedly destined to usher in a new golden age for mutantkind.

Polaris journeyed with the X-Men to Egypt to battle Apocalypse. During the encounter, Magneto, another member of The Twelve, discovered that he could use Lorna to tap into the Earth's magnetic field with incredible force, effectively hiding his current reduced-power state.