Scott's absence from the opening lineup is important. After Jean's funeral, he needs a life that isn't simply the next X-Men mission, and the comic follows him as he tries to fi…

Scott's absence from the opening lineup is important. After Jean's funeral, he needs a life that isn't simply the next X-Men mission, and the comic follows him as he tries to find one. His time with Lee Forrester gives him a setting outside the mansion, with work, travel and a relationship to navigate without the familiar team structure. Trouble still finds him. By #150, the confrontation with Magneto brings Scott back together with the X-Men, and the old tactical instincts are plainly intact. Returning doesn't put everything back where it was. Storm has been making the decisions, Kitty is part of the household and the team has continued developing while he was away. Scott can be valuable without the months of change around him becoming a temporary interruption to his own story. The revelation about Corsair adds another kind of unfinished business. Discovering that his father is alive does not produce instant closeness. In #155, Scott's anger comes from years of abandonment as he understood them, while Corsair has his own history of loss. They have to decide whether to begin knowing each other as the people they actually are. Those personal possibilities continue beside the superhero responsibilities. Scott can lead a fight, help save Xavier and still want a future that contains something more than another emergency call. The desire is especially understandable in a man who has spent so much of his life being needed. After the Brood crisis, Scott takes another leave and travels with his father. His marriage to Madelyne Pryor in #175 gives that movement toward an outside life a hopeful conclusion. The wedding is allowed to stand without recounting everything that will later complicate it. Scott has helped hold the team together. He is also trying to find out what he can build beyond it.