Rahne Sinclair’s wolf forms can make her look much more threatening than the girl her teammates know. Heightened senses, tracking and physical agility give her clear jobs in a m…

Rahne Sinclair’s wolf forms can make her look much more threatening than the girl her teammates know. Heightened senses, tracking and physical agility give her clear jobs in a mission, but her emotional life is every bit as important to this part of the book. Her upbringing has left her carrying fear and guilt about what she is. Being among other mutants gives her friendship and room to grow, yet it does not instantly remove those old judgments. That tension helps explain why she responds so strongly to somebody being isolated or treated as a creature rather than a person. New Mutants #45 gives Rahne a particularly painful experience with Larry Bodine. She discovers that he is a mutant after the school dance, but the chance to reach him is lost before the following morning. The story deals with his suicide and the cruelty directed at him. Rahne’s grief and anger belong to the actual loss in front of her, rather than a routine superhero problem that can be solved by winning a fight. Her senses give her information other people do not have. They cannot tell her everything somebody is feeling or guarantee that she will understand it in time. The issue leaves that limitation painfully clear without making her responsible for another person’s death. Within the class, her closeness with Dani and her developing connection with Doug provide different kinds of support. Rahne can be shy, judgmental, compassionate and brave, sometimes in the same situation. The strongest way to understand her in this era is to keep those qualities together. The wolf is part of her, but so is the young person learning how to live with other people after spending so much of her life being taught to fear herself.