The first official X-Men team since the events of House of X has finally been announced, and the roster is stacked with some powerful X-veterans. However, two members, Polaris and X-23's Wolverine, couldn't be further apart, but both are carrying on the legacies of their fathers' tenure on the team. Individually, they have each proven time and time again that they more than deserve their place on the new team, but they will always be partially defined by their relationship to their parents.
When she was first introduced in 1968's X-Men #49 by Arnold Drake, Don Heck and Werner Roth, Lorna didn't know what to believe about her parents. She had been told that Magneto was her father, which seemed to be the case until Iceman proved that her real parents had been killed in a plane crash.
Years later, this turned out to be a lie when Magneto was revealed to have been her father all along. Though their history is complicated, Magneto has entrusted Polaris with every opportunity he can give her, including the care of the time-displaced young X-Men when they first arrived in the present day. Even though Polaris has a long history with the X-Men and X-Factor that didn't really involve Magneto in any meaningful way, she still finds herself carrying on one of the most complex legacies in the Marvel Universe while carving her own path too.
Much like Polaris, Laura's own history is a dark and tragic one. First introduced in 2004's NYX #3 by Joe Quesada and Joshua Middleton, Laura was the creation of the Facility, the spiritual successor to the Weapons Plus Project that created Wolverine. Using Logan's DNA, as well as some of her own, Doctor Sarah Kinney was able to give life to young Laura even after the program had been shut down. From her youth, Laura, then known as X-23, was trained and abused into becoming the perfect killing machine, even being brainwashed with a trigger scent that would send her into an uncontrollable bloodthirsty frenzy.
Since then, X-23 has fought alongside other heroes as part of X-Force, been imbued with the powers of Captain Universe and most recently took on a time-bending suicide mission with Synch and Darwin into the Children of the Vault's impossible compound. There have been plenty of imitators before, but Laura truly is the first since Logan himself to carry the Wolverine mantle to his liking.
With the very future of mutantkind on the line, Polaris, Wolverine and the rest of this team have a tall order ahead of them, especially in a world that hates and fears the mutants of Krakoa more than ever before. However, these veteran heroes are the best champions that Krakoa has to offer. and they'll doubtlessly add impressive new chapters to their family legacies.
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