Kitty Pryde arrives at a school that has just buried someone. She is excited, frightened and eager to belong; the people welcoming her are still learning how to carry on after l…

Kitty Pryde arrives at a school that has just buried someone. She is excited, frightened and eager to belong; the people welcoming her are still learning how to carry on after losing Jean. That is the starting point for the X-Men in #139. Storm leads Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Colossus, the returning Angel and new student Kitty, initially called Sprite. Charles Xavier remains their mentor. Cyclops has taken leave. When he returns, he finds a team that has kept changing without him. The change in atmosphere is immediate. Having a thirteen-year-old in the mansion gives the older characters a new responsibility, and Kitty doesn't respond to them with the distance of an admiring audience. She gets attached, makes judgments, feels jealous and expects answers. These extraordinary adults are becoming people she has to live with. Storm has to make decisions for the group while maintaining those individual relationships. Wolverine and Nightcrawler take their friendship out into the world. Piotr has both a teammate's responsibility and a brother's life to consider. Warren discovers that coming back to the X-Men doesn't mean returning to the team he remembers. The stories move from Canadian wilderness to a possible future, from a demon loose in the mansion to the horror of the Brood. Through it all, the domestic relationships continue developing. Getting home matters because home now contains a child learning the controls, a dance teacher, people who have lost someone and people newly learning to trust each other. The team keeps changing through these years, with departures, returns and unexpected new companions. Rogue's arrival in 1983 will open another chapter. Here, the starting point is a grieving household trying to welcome somebody new.