Lol, no issue of Excalibur were stellar at all. Excalibur is a bad written book.
With Rachel I always thought that since she's from an alternate future her mother is a different jean grey and with all the tragic backstory involving her family in her timeline, she always had difficulty connecting to this jean grey and jean never wanting to force anything. With recent years I'd like to think that as Rachel dealt with her past trauma she's kindled a relationship with Jean. But it is weird that no one seems to mind that kid cable just killed his older self when they all have a reconnection with him rather than teenage him.
They just don’t seem to know what to do with Cable as a character. Ever since they brought him back after his “death” in Second Coming. I actually loved his role running the mutant CIA during Spurrier’s X-Force run, but unfortunately that comic didn’t take off. I think largely because the art was a turnoff honestly. But now Beast and Logan run the mutant CIA, so that’s not a role that’s presently open for Nathan to fill.