![]() ![]() After the New Mutants dissolved, most of the team reformed as X-Force, a much edgier series that replaced the deeply felt interpersonal tenderness of the New Mutants with action hero dialogue and bombastic fight scenes. Overcoming religious indoctrination to build a happier life took center stage. In the New Mutants, Rahne’s central struggles were her shyness and the way her harsh upbringing set her apart from the others. New Mutants #26, written by Chris Claremont, art by Bill Sienkiewicz and Glynis Oliver, lettering by Tom Orzechowski Post-New Mutants Though Rahne lives in the States with Xavier, the scenes of her bonding with Moira and learning to let her guard down and love her as a mother after years of misery still provide some of the most moving moments of X-Men comics of the ‘80s. Moira shields the child and gives her sanctuary, snapping at Xavier’s reluctance to take her in until he agrees that he shall. Rahne only barely escaped certain death when Xavier’s liaison Doctor Moira MacTaggert stepped in and saved the child, giving Craig a piece of her mind in the process. When her powers manifested, he quite literally assembled a torch-wielding mob to murder her. ![]() There are a heck of a lot of questions and very few answers in that story, and the audience has no sense of what exactly happened with Rahne's mother, outside of a handful of lies told by Craig and what Rahne subsequently put together on her own.Ĭraig raised Rahne to hate herself, blaming her and her mother for his own actions. When the woman died during childbirth, Craig was left as her sole guardian despite being the absolute worst choice for the job. ![]() Rahne was raised by a man named Reverend Craig, who had a vaguely described encounter with a sex worker, during which time he fathered Rahne. Uncanny X-Men #167, written by Chris Claremont, art by Paul Smith and Bob Wiacek, lettering by Tom Orzachowski She was extremely timid and struggled to assert herself on a team of comparatively strong personalities. As such, she had a slightly more difficult time adjusting to life at the school than the others did. ![]() While Kitty and many of her New Mutants peers struggled with varying levels of social awkwardness, Rahne was genuinely convinced that she was a demon from Hell who deserved a fate far worse than death. We met Rahne Sinclair when she was 14 - the same age that Kitty Pryde had been in her early days as the X-Men, but the personality differences between the two of them are vast. Obviously, all this only drove the kids to dedicate themselves to becoming the X-Men they so admired. Xavier had recently lost many of his students when he believed most of the X-Men were killed in Texas, and he was afraid to repeat his mistakes. In the beginning, the New Mutants were assembled by Professor Xavier, who seemed to truly want to teach them to protect themselves with their powers, while avoiding and discouraging the idea that they would ever become superheroes. As with most of the original New Mutants, she started strong and won hearts only to be written wildly inconsistently for the next few decades after the original series had run its course. That was in 1982, so she’s been hanging out in the Marvel Universe for close to 40 years now. Wolfsbane was created by Chris Claremont and Bob McLeod along with most of the rest of the New Mutants, making her first appearance in Marvel Graphic Novel #4. Wolfsbane by Bill Sienkewicz Wolfsbane's Origins Joining the New Mutants, she found a family, but she has still not been given the chance to recover from the upheaval of her early life. for their intolerance.Īmong these many tales, there is the story of Rahne Sinclair, better known as Wolfsbane, a young lycanthropic mutant whose religious upbringing left her with lifelong pain that she has yet to fully work through. Stories like God Loves, Man Kills served as a metaphor through which to call out some religious leaders in the U.S. Though there are many positive portrayals of any number of different belief systems in the lives of our Merry Mutants, there are also a lot of takes that illustrate the dangers of organized religion when it becomes nothing more than a facade for bigotry to hide behind. With all things big and small in the X-Universe, there is seldom a definitive stance on anything, and much of the series has served as a morality tale against things like abuse of power or being blinded by good intentions. The X-Men have been around since 1963, and over the last 46 years, hundreds of creators have worked to give us several spin-offs, countless crossovers, and many seemingly conflicting takes on any number of characters both major and minor. ![]()
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