Polaris is dealing with a particularly unsettling change when the Reavers attack. Her magnetic powers are gone after Zaladane’s intervention, while her body has become larger an…

Polaris is dealing with a particularly unsettling change when the Reavers attack. Her magnetic powers are gone after Zaladane’s intervention, while her body has become larger and stronger. She comes to Muir Island with questions about herself, then has to use those unfamiliar abilities to help defend it. That distinction is important to this version of Lorna Dane. The green hair and familiar name do not mean she is fighting in her usual way. The strength she now possesses changes the physical possibilities available to her, but it does not supply an explanation for what is happening. The opening tests in #254 leave that explanation unfinished. Moira can investigate the change without immediately solving it. Lorna’s circumstances therefore place the patient and the defender in the same person: the island is supposed to help her, and now she has to help keep it standing. She fights alongside Tom Corsi during the assault. Their pairing is a good example of how this temporary group works. Two people with very different backgrounds can contribute to the same immediate task without having trained together as a settled X-Men unit. Cooperation has to begin with what each can actually do in front of them. There is also an emotional cost to being useful through a transformation you did not choose. A crisis rewards the new strength because somebody needs it. That practical value does not make the loss of familiar powers less disturbing, or make every question about the change suddenly irrelevant. Lorna’s presence gives this lineup a returning X-Man whose own footing is uncertain. She has experience to offer, but the battle does not wait for her to recover a familiar relationship with her body. She contributes while that work is still unfinished.