Bobby's friendship with Hank also gives him some uncomfortable moments. During the Infectia story, he doesn't take the warnings seriously enough. Hank and the younger mutants ar…

Bobby's friendship with Hank also gives him some uncomfortable moments. During the Infectia story, he doesn't take the warnings seriously enough. Hank and the younger mutants are trying to protect him, while Bobby thinks the kids are interfering with his date. Then Hank puts himself between Bobby and Infectia, and Bobby has to face how badly he misread the situation. His friend was struggling to think and communicate, but the danger he was trying to describe was real. Bobby being more confident about what was happening didn't make him right. That gives their friendship something beyond easy banter. They can worry about each other, misunderstand each other, and still be the person who shows up when things go wrong. Later, while Hank's condition remains uncertain, Bobby's anxiety comes through in the way he behaves around the children. The children themselves also change his place in the group. He's no longer just the youngest student around. X-Factor has younger people to supervise, protect, and prepare for lives that are already complicated. Bobby gets impatient, and he doesn't always handle that responsibility perfectly, but it's his responsibility anyway. There is something very recognizable about Bobby getting annoyed at younger people when he used to be the one doing the annoying. He hasn't become a completely different person. He's been given a different role, and now he has to figure out how to do it. That awkwardness belongs in his story every bit as much as the moments when he comes up with the right solution during a fight.