In Left Unresolved, I spotlight storylines that have been, well, left unresolved.

Today, we look at how Rictor left the New Mutants to save Wolfsbane and then, well, didn't do anything of the sort.

Okay, so Rictor was one of the later members to join the New Mutants. He initially was one of the mutants who was rescued by X-Factor and they kind of sort of trained them. A few of them formed a kind of sort of team called the X-Terminators. Eventually, they hooked up with the remnants of New Mutants when New Mutants had been pretty decimated by various plot points (the New Mutants were down to Cannonball, Sunspot, Warlock and Wolfsbane). Soon after joining up, however, Rusty and Skids from the X-Terminators were taken by the Mutant Liberation Front, so just Rictor and Boom Boom joined the New Mutants.

Rictor had a crush on Wolfsbane. Meanwhile, though, the New Mutants (who were kind of wandering through life aimlessly after their last headmaster, Magneto, kind of went evil again) hooked up with Cable as their new leader.

Rictor, though, had a problem with Cable. He thought Cable killed his father!

What the what? This isn't how you react if you think your new team leader MURDERED YOUR DAD!

Rictor pooh-poohed the Danger Room, but then he freaked out under its programming...

He ran away and was almost killed by Sabretooth. The New Mutants saved him. Later, he spotted Cable in the Danger Room...

How does that work? "Okay, you murdered my dad, but you train hard. I have to respect that." YOU MAKE NO SENSE, RICTOR!! Right down to your superhero name, which is just your last name! Which matches your powers, which doesn't make sense, because mutant powers don't WORK LIKE THAT!

Okay, soon after this, the New Mutants were kidnapped by the Genoshan government, who were now working with Cameron Hodge, the psycho who X-Factor rescued Rictor from way back when.

Rictor and Wolfsbane manage to escape, even as Hodge tortures their friend Warlock. They have no powers, so discretion is the better part of valor here and they share a moment before Rahne totally goes back for Warlock anyways...

She is captured, of course, and they experiment on her, turning her into a Genoshan mutate. She also has to watch them torture Warlock to death.

When she is freed, she is now mutated further and wants to kill Hodge...

Rictor and Wolfsbane help the other healthy X-Men take on Hodge...

In the end, it is actually Wolfsbane and Rictor who deliver the final blows to Hodge...

However, Rictor is shocked when Wolfsbane decides to remain in Genosha...

The next issue, with Louise Simonson gone, Rob Liefeld and Fabian Nicieza write Rictor off, by having him leave the team to go rescue Rahne...

That's all well and good, but is that actually what happened?

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Nope.

He next shows up being recruited by Weapon P.R.I.M.E., a Canadian mutant strikeforce designed to take Cable down...

He shows up to fight X-Force in X-Force #13...

However, Cable had split from the team at that point, so Rictor's, like, "Okay, I guess I'll hang with these guys."

When Cable seemingly tried to assassinate Professor X (it was Stryfe trying to frame Cable), X-Force was hunted down by the X-Men and X-Factor working together. This is the first time Rictor has seen Rahne since Genosha and it's, like, "Oh, hey Rahne"...

And then he knocks her out!

Cable returned to X-Force in X-Force #25 and he quickly put the whole "you murdered my dad" thing to rest with his, "Duh, it was obviously Stryfe. He JUST impersonated me to try to kill Professor X!" and Rictor was all, "Oh, yeah, that makes a lot more sense."

But we've never learned how Rictor went off to try to go to Genosha and ended up in Toronto, instead.

Weird, weird stuff.

If anyone has a suggestion for an unresolved comic book plot, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!