Their powers make the connection obvious, but shared abilities can only do so much. Sean can understand things about her voice and her flight that most people around them can’t.…

Their powers make the connection obvious, but shared abilities can only do so much. Sean can understand things about her voice and her flight that most people around them can’t. He still wasn’t there for her childhood. Knowing how a sonic scream works isn’t the same thing as knowing what your daughter has been through or how she reacts when she’s frightened. There’s a lot of potential in that gap. He has a relationship with her that means something immediately, but familiarity still has to be built. She gets a father, but she doesn’t suddenly lose the history she had before he entered her life. Moira’s response adds another part of that family situation. She’s happy for Sean, but the story also lets her admit to Storm that Theresa’s arrival brings up insecurity. After what happened with her own son, the idea of children and a future with Sean isn’t a simple, comfortable subject for her. I appreciate that the comic gives her room to have that reaction without turning the reunion into something cruel. People can be genuinely glad for someone and still have an unexpected feeling they’re not proud of. Moira talks about it privately rather than making Theresa responsible for sorting it out. So this reunion reaches beyond just two people finding each other. It affects Sean’s relationship with Moira, changes Theresa’s place in the mutant world, and leaves Black Tom as an uncomfortable part of the family history rather than somebody who can be neatly erased from it. At this point in my reading, the father-daughter relationship is still something I want to see more of. The affection is there right away. What I’m interested in is everything that has to develop after that first moment, once they’re actually spending time together and learning who the other person is.