Real Name: Lorna DaneAfter being freed from this influence, Polaris joined the X-Men, and soon became involved with Alex Summers (Havok). When the second generation of X-Men was assembled, Alex and Lorna retired from super-heroing, and with a few short exceptions, spent their time pursuing each other and their degrees in geology. However, soon after the Mutant Massacre, the Marauders came calling, and Lorna was possessed by Malice. Under Malice's influence Polaris led the Marauders, but when Zaladane, who may be her sister, stole her powers, Lorna's bond with Malice was broken. Following that, she became a nexus for negative energies, and became super-strong and invulnerable as those energies powered her up. While traveling on a ship, her energies caused the crew to slaughter each other, but Lorna was saved by Banshee, who was expecting her arrival. Lorna remained on Muir Island, as the X-Men were presumed dead at the time. Unfortunately, her status as a nexus was perceived by the Shadow King, who used Polaris as a gateway to allow him access to our world from the astral plane.
After the Shadow King was defeated, Lorna's powers returned, most likely due to Zaladane's death a short time before. Polaris was then recruited into the government-sponsored X-Factor, and was a mainstay of the team until the attack by Sabretooth, when Shard merged with her. Following their separation, Lorna was left alone, without Havok, who had been captured by Dark Beast and brainwashed, and without the support structure of the team, which had been torn apart in Creed's attack. When Havok finally revealed that his "terrorist" activities had been a front for his true undercover work, Lorna forgave him, although she dumped him. She also rejoined X-Factor, only to watch as Alex was blown up in a faulty time machine. Lorna left X-Factor to grieve and the group disbanded. Months later, Nightcrawler ran into Lorna in a church, nad she confided in him that she felt she was being followed, and that she was sure Alex was alive because The Living Monolith hadn't returned. Little did she know that she was right on both counts. A group of Skrulls working with Apocalypse was indeed shadowing her, and broke into her apartment to retrieve the headgear from Alex's original costume. Lorna freaked, even after the X-Men set a trap for the Skrulls and found their base. However, she was then found to be listed as one of the fabled Twelve, and journeyed with the X-Men to Egypt to battle Apocalypse.
Lorna was captured along with the rest of The Twelve, but when Magneto's failing power short-circuited Apocalypse's plan and the Monolith burst free as well, Magneto somehow tapped into Lorna's power and was able to command the magnetic field with incredible force. After Apocalypse was defeated, Lorna returned to Genosha with Magneto to supply him with power and help him keep order. She believed she was doing it for the greater good, but also knew that she enjoyed the education in her powers that she was receiving. In the end, Magneto launched a full-scale assault on Carrion Cove, the last city opposing his rule, in order to gain access to technology that would restore his full abilities. Polaris decided to try and stop him, but was defeated and fled the country following Magneto's return to full power.
Later, when Magneto captured Professor X as the first step in a war against humanity, Polaris returned to Genosha to help evacuate the humans still living there. After Wolverine nearly crippled Magneto, Polaris stayed to help him recover and maintain order. At this time that Lorna began running genetic tests on Magneto and herself, while investigating the plane crash that killed her parents. To her shock, she discovered that all the metal on her parents' plane had been magnetized and that she was Magneto's genetic daughter! She left Genosha in a hurry.
After coming to terms with her discovery, Polaris returned to Genosha, and found out that Magneto had known of her research and its results and had proclaimed them to his people, so she was greeted as a returning princess. Lorna was still there when the Sentinels sent by Cassandra Nova decimated the island's population. Polaris fled the scene, and survived the radiation surges and power blasts. For months she struggled to contain the electromagnetic fields of the dead, nearly going crazy in the process, until the X-Men visited Genosha and found her. They managed to break through to Polaris, and rescued her from the ravaged country. A few weeks later, Polaris apparently heard that Havok had been located, and showed up at the Mansion to reunite with him. Finding Alex's nurse Annie Ghazakhanian yelling at his unconscious form to release her son Carter (who had become trapped in Alex's mind), Lorna attacked with scalpels, even bruising Northstar when he tried to stop her. Finally Lorna was calmed, though she blew Annie off with cruel abandon, and then launched herself at Alex when he regained consciousness moments later. Lorna was all over Alex, as if marking her territory, and then stunning everyone when she asked him to marry her. Alex accepted, and then the two of them left the Mansion to reconnect as they planned their wedding.
Unfortunately, Alex left Lorna at the altar and Lorna went nuts, manufacturing a Magneto helmet out of flatware and attempting to kill Alex, Annie and Carter. Lorna was finally brought down by Juggernaut and upon being returned to the Mansion under restraints agreed to let Professor X into her mind to unravel the cause of her recent personality shift. Lorna goaded Annie into joining the telepathic party, and revealed to them the truth about her relationship to Magneto, as well as the horrific experience of living through the Genoshan Massacre. Lorna was under guard at the Mansion, her attitude drastically changed from a sweet loving woman into a more "shoot-first, ask questions later" fighter. After the fight with Magneto IV she played the devil's advocate, supporting Magneto's view on humans and mutants. She even went as far to trying to convince Xavier of Magneto's view at Magneto's funeral in Genosha, by threatening to kill him just so that he would fight for his own survival and prove his own dream of peaceful coexistence wrong. However, Xavier didn't go down that line and would have rather died than kill his former student. Not being able to say anthing else she showed her respect for Xavier and her father by making a statue of Magneto and Professor X out of the giant Sentinel-turned-Magneto statue that Logan had ripped down.
During the recent X-team reorganization, Polaris was added to Havok's team, causing a significant amount of conflict because she and Iceman have become a couple. Furthermore, while in space battling the Golgotha entities, Lorna saw something that shook her to the core. Lorna became very distant, and somewhat concerned for her own sanity, due to her recent traumas.
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| Polaris was a member of the House of M, but not really an active participant (as far as we know). She appeared to have children, but the father is unknown. When the wakened heroes attacked Genosha she defended her family, until Wanda reversed the reality warp. |
Following M-Day Lorna was rendered powerless, though she hid that fact from her teammates while they dealt with the arrival of the Sentinels and Iceman's apparent power loss. Soon her status was revealed, and though the X-Men offered her sanctuary, Lorna opted to leave to search for what she had seen in space, which she somehow sensed was due to arrive. Havok chose to go with her, over Bobby's protests.
After spending some time in South America, Lorna and Alex finally witnessed the landfall of an extra-terrestrial entity, with which Lorna seemed to be able to communicate. Calling it "Daap" she seemed to think that it could help restore her powers. However, Havok was scared of it, and blasted "Daap" to bits. Just then they were attacked by the Leper Queen, and then suddenly both women were tractor beamed aboard a flying Sphinx, which apparently belonged to Apocalypse.
Lorna was transformed into the new Pestilence, and her face was pockmarked by scars. She appears to have been given the ability to ingest and synthesize new plagues, controlling the virulence and particular genetic markers. Pestilence was a critical part of Apocalypse's plan, which was to infect all humanity with a deadly disease and only offer a cure to 10% of them, to bring the numbers of humans and mutants back into balance. However, Apocalypse delayed, and the X-Men attacked his ship, forcing it down into the East River. After Apocalypse's defeat and escape, Wolverine found Pestilence and unmasked her as Lorna. She was choking on something, but Havok gave her mouth-to-mouth and revived her. Polaris was brought back to the Mansion for treatment, where it appears that Beast and Emma were able to clean out all the diseases, and reverse the brainwashing.
Sometime later Lorna woke up screaming, and burst though the ceiling into the food court. She was returned to the lab where Emma ran more tests to find that Apocalypse had given Lorna technological replacements for her lost mutant powers. Just then, Sunfire and Gambit came to collect Polaris, believing that as a former Horseman she belonged with them. While they fought the X-Men, Lorna woke up, declaring that she belongs to no one and it's been sometime since she has been able to say that. Afterwards Lorna told Havok, Beast and Iceman that she will be leaving to find out why Apocalypse has given her new powers.
Shortly afterwards, while in Al Dutay, Egypt Lorna was attacked by an anti-Apocalypse Cult, but was saved by Havok, Warpath, Nightcrawler, Marvel Girl and Professor Xavier. While Lorna thought that her new powers were hard to control and that she is too dangerous and should be in prison, Havok reassured her that she did deserve a second chance. After being brought aboard Professor X's plane, Lorna agreed to help the team travel to Shi'ar space to stop Vulcan.
On the trip, Polaris seemed more in control of herself and re-kindled her relationship with Havok. Unfortunately, after contacting the Starjammers and freeing Lilandra from imprisonment after a coup, Polaris couldn't stop Vulcan and Havok saw Vulcan kill their father Corsair in the final battle. As the other X-Men (except herself, Havok and Rachel Grey) were already sent home by Lilandra, Polaris stayed with Havok as he vowed to lead the Starjammers against his brother and stop him by any means necessary.
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