Rictor already knows what it is like to have adults look at his power and see a useful weapon. Joining the New Mutants brings him into a group with similar experience, but that…

Rictor already knows what it is like to have adults look at his power and see a useful weapon. Joining the New Mutants brings him into a group with similar experience, but that does not make the adjustment automatic. These kids have a shared history he was not there for. He has an advantage in the friends who come with him. Boom-Boom, Rusty and Skids know him from X-Factor's circle, so he enters the new household with people who understand something of his past. The merger in #76 expands his world without completely cutting him away from the familiar. His seismic ability can make him look like the obvious person to bring to a fight. The Asgard story also finds room for him to notice other people's feelings. His growing affection for Rahne complicates his place in a group where she already has powerful attachments, including Dani and Hrimhari. In #82, Rictor helps Rahne understand why Boom-Boom behaves the way she does. He can recognize fear beneath Tabitha's bravado because he knows her well enough to see the pattern. That is a useful contribution in a newly combined team. People need interpreters for one another as much as they need another powerful attack. He also has to act against Dani during the final confrontation with Hela's scheme. Joining a team and then fighting one of its beloved founders is an exceptionally uncomfortable way to settle in, especially when that founder is not acting freely. Rictor's place emerges through those competing pressures. He is a newcomer, an old friend to some of the recruits, a possible romantic interest and a capable fighter. The book lets those roles overlap messily, as they would when teenagers start sharing a home under these circumstances.