u/Any-Direction-743

Image 1 —
Image 2 —
Image 3 —
▲ 9 r/xmen

Look, I understand that the whole squadron thing went a bit off the rails because of the decimation, and as someone who's followed Moonstar through almost all her stories, I can see how empathetic she is and why many characters consider her a "good teacher" (even Apocalypse praises her, even if he was perhaps just trying to manipulate her). But there are moments that really make me question it, like when she completely abandoned the Elixir storyline and didn't have anyone who could call her her "star pupil." I mean, you can criticize Xavier a lot, but Scott will always be his greatest success and failure. Mirage has many facets explored throughout her run, but curiously, I'd say that's why most of them are rarely explored properly. The only aspect I'd call "well" explored is Valkyrie's, but as for her mentor role, we have New Mutants Vol. 2 and a little bit of New X-Men Vol. 2. Beyond that, it seems they tried to make Blink her apprentice in New Mutants Vol. 3, but it didn't go anywhere, and in New Mutants Vol. 4 she had a decent storyline with Cosmar. But that volume focused more on her role as a friend and empathetic leader with characters like Rahne and Karma, which isn't bad, but it makes it hard to find a "great example" of why I'd call Moonstar a good mentor.

Again, I understand that there could have been things beyond her control, but abandoning Elixir, not reflecting on or exploring her reaction to the conclusion of Icarus, and having her first solo run again revolve solely around Valkyrie, feels like it distorts the idea somewhat. I know that many other X-Men may have failed due to narrative flaws, but Dani is heavily marketed as "the master," which is why I see it as a mistake that she doesn't have anyone who could be considered her greatest success or something similar.

u/Any-Direction-743 — 8 days ago