The New Mutants #21

After a rather dramatic trilogy, the New Mutants get a bit of down-time with a female slumber party (while the guys walk around the campus for a bit of a chat). Dani is recovering nicely from her mauling, thanks to the Morlock Healer, enough to enjoy the atmosphere if not actual participation in the events. Rahne gets a much-needed makeover, and finally at the end shows enough gumption to make her character more than the wishy-washy mealy-mouthed "Oh, I'm such a simple Christian girl - everything is against my Scottish upbringing!" she had become. It was starting to get a bit tedious, all of her filtering everything through what she had been taught to believe by the heretical tyrant who also tried to kill her. Illyana is the life of the party, which is an odd situation considering all of her introspection and out-of-place feelings lately; she is still recovering (and never will) from her Limbo ordeal, but she can at least kick back and party with some strange townies. Amara likewise goes through a bit of a rough situation with these strangers, though she soon overcomes her frustration (it appears). The guys, being exiled from the sleepover, spend a few panels of quality talking, though it is short-lived, since both of their tempers flare easily. Sam is uncertain of his place on the team, and wonders if he shouldn't go back to his family - Professor X's "diary entry" in the back of the issue mirrors these sentiments. Roberto is likewise uncertain of his place, since his idol father is currently a very bad man - Xavier wonders if Roberto will be able to keep away from the dark path his father took. While all this is going on, Warlock finally comes to land (after blasting through Magneto's orbital hideaway) among the New Mutants and causes quite a ruckus. Sam takes the lead in the assault, after a few initial skirmishes with others as everyone tries to keep the action away from the slumber party. Sam makes more mistakes than he does correct decisions, abetting his worried self-understanding. Before Illyana can become the go-to mystical solver of all their problems, Claremont provides a much better end to this conflict: communication. (She does provide a nice comedic moment, though, once all the brouhaha is over, a nice "let me at 'im!" scene.) A lot of rapid sacrifice is made (almost impetuously) during the slam-bang finish of the issue: the New Mutants recruit Doug Ramsey and his linguistic skills, sacrificing their mutant anonymity to him (leaving Xavier and everyone wondering what he will do with this information, since he is aligned with the Hellions); Rahne is willing to sacrifice herself to Warlock to aid his health and augment their communication, which is a great development of her earlier awakened self-respect and self-worth. Warlock accepts their offers of understanding, and the final decision is left to Xavier. Xavier, initially irritated at what he perceives to be the audacity of his students at making all these choices alone (though, considering how absent he has been from their schooling, in that most of the series they have been on their own, he doesn't have too much room for such irritation), quickly makes the right decision in favor of his dream of harmony: he accepts Warlock's hand in friendship - the new era of the New Mutants is born. The dream lives on.