Ship is the team's home and support during this transition, not a member of the field roster. Making that distinction leaves room for how unusual the arrangement actually is. Th…

Ship is the team's home and support during this transition, not a member of the field roster. Making that distinction leaves room for how unusual the arrangement actually is. The young mutants have moved into a headquarters that can speak to them, examine them and disagree with what they are doing. The arrival in #74 immediately makes those qualities relevant. Ship scans the group, and the question of who is allowed aboard becomes more complicated than opening a front door. The newly de-aged Illyana does not fit the expectations behind the screening. Gosamyr's presence creates a different alarm. For the New Mutants, this comes just as their previous home has ceased to be dependable. A building can be destroyed, a teacher can become someone they cannot follow, and a familiar room can suddenly belong to the past. Ship offers somewhere to go without pretending their lives have returned to normal. The X-Factor connection gives the new arrangement a social structure too. Boom-Boom, Rictor, Rusty and Skids already know this world. The older New Mutants are entering space associated with the newcomers, which makes the merger feel less like four children simply being absorbed into an unchanged school. There are younger associates in that wider household, including Artie, Leech and Wiz Kid. Their connections belong in the account, but proximity to the team is not the same as membership. Likewise, Ship's usefulness does not make him another teenager in the uniforms. Calling this the Ship period captures a brief attempt to make a household after Inferno. Much of the adventure takes its residents elsewhere, particularly to Asgard. The refuge still matters: it is the place around which these different friendships start becoming a shared life.