Rusty’s place in this story needs a different introduction from the regular MLF operatives. Stryfe is using his imprisonment as a public cause before Rusty has had any meaningfu…

Rusty’s place in this story needs a different introduction from the regular MLF operatives. Stryfe is using his imprisonment as a public cause before Rusty has had any meaningful say in the organization invoking his name. By New Mutants #87, Rusty is in no position to make a clean, informed choice about joining a new team. He is injured, confused and dependent on help. Skids makes the decision to leave with the MLF while trying to keep him alive. Reducing that situation to a neat change of allegiance strips out the circumstances that make it troubling. He has fire powers, but the most important thing about him here is not what he can burn. It is how little control he has over the way other people are describing him. Authorities treat him as a threat, Stryfe makes him part of a demand, and his actual needs risk disappearing beneath both versions. That does not mean his involvement with the MLF should be ignored. It means the involvement needs to be described honestly. Escape, gratitude, dependence and agreement are different things. A young person can accept help from somebody dangerous without having made a considered endorsement of everything that person does. Keeping Rusty in the breakdown preserves that complication. He is already someone with a history of trying to help others. His circumstances have changed drastically, but the story has not earned a casual rewrite of that history into someone who always wanted to be part of a terrorist group.