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...the girl, but that almost feels born from the idea that "nobody" can truly understand the multi-faceted Dani.
At the mall, Dani navigates more layers of her identity–dutiful Cheyenne with worship to the land and "modern" teenager–as she comes up against a bully from her past.
...for having "given up" on the kids' recoveries.
The end goal of New Mutants #41 is to allow Dani to find permission to forgive both herself and her headmaster–something which, in its grief, it firmly accomplishes.
Dani's emotional distance from her parents further isolates...
...to these types of considerations as the identity aspects of the mutant metaphor become more central to the Run's wider narrative.
The book's other main tension, and the one that takes priority after her arrival in Colorado, is Dani's anger towards both Magneto and herself...
Rusty heads to Central Park to warn the team of another of Artie's visions, playing directly into Freedom Force's plot.
The teams fight; the tension between both group's abandonment of the safety of mutantkind for selfish–albeit unconscious in X-Factor's case–needs...
...that fear and hatred than it is borne of Mystique's opportunistic tendencies.
Mutants–good, bad, beloved, or rejected–are all in life-threatening danger in the dark times ahead; a reality certain even if X-Factor's personal drama's would distract them from it.
...the series finally turns its attention outward, introducing Freedom Force as its latest antagonists.
By including Freedom Force and referencing the X-Men's fight against Nimrod, X-Factor #8 finally feels like important reading to understand the full, grand design of the Run.
Rusty's participation in the rouse might have exposed him, but it also helped the forever-outsider feel more part of the team and more secure in his mutant identity than ever before.
That security is what calls his attention and suspicion to Hodge's performance of anti-mutant...
...Scott's secret even more notable when written by a female author in a primarily (even moreso at the time) male-driven industry.
Back above the tunnels, the team settles in around the TV to review the media coverage of their fight against Glow Worm and Bulk last issue.
...daughter, not a son, makes the drama feel lived in rather than artificial as it had earlier in the book.
Jean is quick to condemn Scott for leaving his wife and son; she wouldn't have expected Scott to wait around "just in case" she didn't actually die but the ugliness she...
...helped the book feel like it's progressing, rather than just treading water.
Whether or not the reveal last issue was plotted before Weezie's custody of the O5 began is a question I don't have an answer to, but the simple acknowledgement of Jean's belief that they'd have a...