Forge enters this rebuilding period with more than technical skills to offer. His relationship with Storm already connects him deeply to the X-Men, and his experiences with war…

Forge enters this rebuilding period with more than technical skills to offer. His relationship with Storm already connects him deeply to the X-Men, and his experiences with war and loss affect the way he handles a dangerous search. The people missing from the story are not abstract problems for him to solve. In Uncanny X-Men #255, his involvement on Muir Island leads to two responsibilities: helping improve the island’s security and accepting Banshee’s invitation to search for the X-Men. One concerns the people still there. The other concerns the people nobody can locate. That gives his inventiveness a useful place in the story. Equipment can help protect a home, follow a trail or make sense of unfamiliar surroundings. It cannot guarantee that the person at the end of the trail will be safe, recognizable or willing to be found. The Morlock tunnel sequence in #262 brings that problem directly into view. Forge encounters distorted figures with familiar X-Men faces while trying to help Jean and Banshee. The uncertainty becomes especially painful when he is forced to act against a creature resembling Storm. His memories of Vietnam run through the confrontation, connecting the immediate danger to violence he has already lived through. That material gives him more to carry than the usual job of producing a convenient invention. His judgment, fear and ability to keep moving become part of the rescue. This is also a gradual change in his relationship with the team. Forge has been an important ally before now, but searching alongside Banshee places him in the continuing work of bringing the X-Men back together. The connection develops through decisions and shared danger, rather than through a single introduction and a new costume.