Kamikaze appears with Dragoness and Sumo in New Mutants #93. His approach to a fight combines flight with an explosive impact. Getting hit is therefore more than a matter of abs…

Kamikaze appears with Dragoness and Sumo in New Mutants #93. His approach to a fight combines flight with an explosive impact. Getting hit is therefore more than a matter of absorbing the force of someone flying into you. That makes him a particularly useful opponent for this group of heroes. Cannonball and Boom-Boom already give the New Mutants different relationships with motion and explosions. A villain working in that same general territory lets the story compare how those abilities actually behave rather than treat every bright blast as interchangeable. Warlock’s ability to change shape gives them another answer. In the first Madripoor clash, the attempt to contain Kamikaze prevents him from using a straightforward collision in the way he wants. The tactic comes from paying attention to what triggers the dangerous part of his attack. Cannonball’s later confrontation with him works for a related reason. Sam understands what his own blast field can protect him from. He can choose a confrontation that would be a much worse idea for somebody else. Kamikaze remains a fairly narrowly drawn antagonist in this stretch. That makes it better to stay with the actual fights than to give him a long invented philosophy. His contribution is to make the team solve an airborne problem with a specific rule. The New Mutants do not all have to answer it in the same way, and that variety is what keeps the encounter from becoming a contest of who can produce the biggest explosion.