Rogue joining the X-Men is awkward in a way that a new costume or a training session can't fix. The team knows her as an enemy, and Carol Danvers has every reason to see her pre…

Rogue joining the X-Men is awkward in a way that a new costume or a training session can't fix. The team knows her as an enemy, and Carol Danvers has every reason to see her presence at the school as a betrayal. Rogue needs help with what is happening inside her own mind, but needing help doesn't undo what she did to somebody else. That leaves Xavier making a decision the others have to live with. His school is supposed to offer mutants a way forward. Refusing somebody because helping her will be uncomfortable would put a very convenient limit on that promise. At the same time, Carol isn't obligated to feel better about any of it. Rogue's place develops through what she does after that first decision. The Japan adventure with Wolverine in #172–173 is important because these aren't teammates who begin with easy trust. Working together gives them something more concrete than Xavier's assurance that accepting her is the right thing to do. Her powers also make closeness difficult. Touch can take somebody else's abilities and memories into her, so ordinary affection carries a danger the others don't have to think about every second. Being accepted into a household doesn't automatically mean she can relax inside it. By the Nimrod fight in #194, she is able to bring several teammates' abilities together in a crisis. It's an impressive display, but the practical point is that the group can work through her. The woman they once didn't want in the mansion has become somebody they rely on when the situation falls apart. That development takes actual time, which is why it lands.