Kurt Wagner brings an appetite for ordinary happiness into a book that can become very serious about duty. He wants to go out, see a film, spend time with Amanda and enjoy being…

Kurt Wagner brings an appetite for ordinary happiness into a book that can become very serious about duty. He wants to go out, see a film, spend time with Amanda and enjoy being young. After surviving another trip into danger, those plans are part of what makes returning home worthwhile. His conversation with Cyclops in #109 is a good example of how much he contributes without teleporting anybody. Kurt can see that Scott is retreating into the role of leader. He presses him to recognize the people around him and stop treating every part of life as another burden to carry correctly. The warmth has a particular weight coming from someone whose appearance can make strangers recoil. Kurt's blue skin, tail and unusual hands are always visible to the reader, even when an image inducer lets him move through public spaces under a different face. He can love people without being naive about what people might do to him. Mesmero's circus in #111 turns that vulnerability into something especially ugly. The team has been stripped of its sense of self and made into entertainment. For Kurt, who knows what a circus can mean as a home and a place to perform willingly, the exploitation is personal. Enjoying an audience and being reduced to an attraction are very different experiences. In a fight, his movement gives the whole team possibilities. A wall stops being a reliable barrier. An enemy who has everybody in sight can suddenly discover somebody behind him. His acrobatics make those changes feel playful even when the stakes are grim. Kurt helps give this incarnation of the X-Men its social life. There are people in the mansion who can survive together. He keeps reminding them that they might also enjoy one another's company.