Dani is still a New Mutant when this stretch begins. She helps the group face the end of its old arrangement with Magneto, and her powers remain part of how they protect one ano…

Dani is still a New Mutant when this stretch begins. She helps the group face the end of its old arrangement with Magneto, and her powers remain part of how they protect one another. The illness that follows is so alarming because it interrupts someone who usually helps the others find their footing. In #77, Dani and Brightwind are burning with a fever the team cannot handle through ordinary care. The search for help involves Doctor Strange, and Dani tries to contain the heat with a manifestation of ice. It is a strange, desperate use of an ability that has already become more substantial than simple illusion. Her connection to the Valkyries brings Hela's attack into the team's life. As the Asgard story unfolds, Dani's body and abilities are used against people who love her. Her friends have to fight her while remembering why they came: they want Dani back. That makes her absence from ordinary team conversation matter. The familiar co-leader is physically present for much of the crisis, but the others cannot rely on her judgment or expect her to answer as herself. Rahne's attempts to reach her carry the weight of their long friendship. The resolution and the departure should not be collapsed into one event. Hela's control is broken during the climax in #85. Dani's choice to stay in Asgard with the Valkyries comes in #87, cover-dated March 1990, after the #74–86 window used here. Keeping that distinction preserves her place in this group. She does not simply vanish when the team moves into Ship, and she does not leave because the newcomers arrive. An existing responsibility, carried from an earlier adventure, grows until it takes her somewhere her classmates cannot follow.