Lorna Dane has been through a ridiculous amount by the time she reaches this version of X-Factor. Looking back through her history, the repeated loss of control over her own lif…

Lorna Dane has been through a ridiculous amount by the time she reaches this version of X-Factor. Looking back through her history, the repeated loss of control over her own life is hard to miss. People keep deciding what her powers are for, who she belongs with, even who she is supposed to be. And the details matter, because hypnosis, possession, having your powers stolen, and being held captive as somebody else's power source are different things. Calling all of it “Lorna went crazy again” gets her story badly wrong. It starts immediately in X-Men #49–52. Mesmero's hypnotic summons draws Lorna into his scheme before she even understands what is happening to her. His machine brings out her magnetic powers, and he presents her as Magneto's daughter and a queen for mutantkind. Her first big introduction to being a mutant comes with other people assigning her an identity and a purpose. There is more going on than a continuous hypnotic trance, though. Bobby can reach her, and the supposed family connection becomes its own kind of leverage. She has to sort out what she believes about herself while these people are trying to recruit her against the X-Men. In #52, Bobby brings evidence about her adoption and the death of her parents in a plane crash, and she turns against Mesmero's side. That is the information this early story gives her. There is no reason to drag later revelations backward into it. She gets captured by the Sentinels soon afterward, meeting Alex while they are both prisoners. Even the beginning of that relationship grows out of being hunted. Then there is Krakoa, where she is among the captured X-Men before helping turn the battle around. Lorna's magnetic power is central to getting the island off Earth. She has been capable of something enormous long before she joins this X-Factor team. That makes the civilian life she tries to build with Alex worth remembering. She has already seen what being a superhero can cost. Wanting to study, work, and have a relationship makes sense. She and Alex actually try to make that life happen. Then X-Men #97 brings Erik the Red to their home. He attacks Lorna, brainwashes her, and uses her to help capture Alex. The two of them are sent against Xavier and the X-Men. This is also where she first uses the Polaris name in the original published series. Even that familiar superhero identity arrives during a story where somebody else is directing her actions. Erik keeps treating them as tools. In #105, he uses the brainwashed pair to stage an attack on himself so that Firelord will believe his story about the X-Men. He is willing to put their bodies in front of a vastly more powerful opponent to sell his lie. The Proteus story adds another ugly encounter with a body-stealing enemy. Lorna is attacked on Muir Island, but Proteus takes one of Jamie Madrox's duplicates rather than taking over Lorna. That distinction matters when counting her possessions. She is endangered and fights back; this is not another completed possession of her. She also helps fight Proteus, including rescuing Wolverine during the final battle. Her history includes surviving these situations and helping other people survive them. Then comes Malice. In Uncanny X-Men #219, Malice reveals that she took Lorna over when Alex left. The Marauders' attack on the house becomes a demonstration of what Malice can do with Lorna's body and magnetic abilities. By the end, she has imposed herself as their field leader. Lorna's power is still there. Somebody else is making the decisions with it. The cruelty gets very personal in #222. Psylocke briefly helps Lorna surface, but Malice takes control again and turns Alex's desperation into another weapon, provoking him to fire at the woman he loves. Their relationship becomes something Malice can use against both of them. This is a long-running occupation of Lorna's body. It is easy to say “Polaris led the Marauders” and leave out the most important part of that sentence: Malice was possessing her. The attacks on her friends belong in that context. Uncanny #239 makes the situation even worse. Malice discovers that she cannot simply leave. Sinister explains that Malice's energy form and Lorna's magnetic nature have interacted so that they are bonded together. The villain who thought she had acquired a useful body finds herself trapped in it too. Lorna, meanwhile, still has to exist inside a body that another mind is using. Sinister's explanation also leans on the anger and hatred within Lorna. That is his interpretation, delivered by the man arranging this exploitation. Having anger does not mean Lorna consented to being possessed or wanted her friends attacked. A person can have an ugly feeling without authorizing somebody else to build a life out of it. During Inferno, Malice continues using her against the X-Men and X-Factor. After Sinister's apparent destruction, Lorna says in #249 that Malice's control weakened enough for her to regain the upper hand and call Alex for help. That should be a chance to get somewhere safe. Instead, Zaladane captures her. The sequence is brutal when it is put together. Lorna gets enough of herself back to ask for help, then immediately becomes somebody else's prisoner. By this stage, simply being able to speak in her own voice is a victory the story can take away again. This is the history behind the Lorna who eventually turns up in the government X-Factor team. Her confidence, her relationship, her ability to make choices, and her trust that her own body will remain hers have all been repeatedly interfered with. She has also kept fighting back. Both parts belong in a discussion of her.