Thanks! I appreciate your support. I didn't just want to focus on the issue itself. I think Cyclops and Jean's relationship is part of a much larger picture and too many readers these days don't realize just how iconic their story is. If you started reading comics in 2000, you'd have little clue that their relationship has a foundation that goes all the way back to 1963. But I think you touched on something that's both telling and strange.
Marvel and DC are going through this big shift where they're trying to favor strong female characters. They're trying to shake things up and add more diversity. In the process, they've basically regressed in terms of meaningful romance. Pretty much every romantic sub-plot these days can be reduced to three things:
-Will they or won't they hook up?
-Will they or won't they break up?
-Who will come out ahead/screwed in this love triangle?
It's a very flat, very boring approach to romance. It also tends to denigrate one or both characters in the process. We saw this in the X-men movies where Jean Grey was reduced to a prize for Wolverine and Cyclops was reduced to a rival for Wolverine. That sort of approach benefits nobody because it limits the depth of every character involved.
This is another issue that I think doesn't get discussed enough these days. There's no question that under Grant Morrison, Jean stepped up. However, despite Morrison's brilliance, he fell into an extremely common trap. He made it so in order for Jean Grey to step up, other men in her life, like Cyclops and Xavier, have to step aside or be marginalized. This is one of the reasons I have a hard time accepting the current approach to diversity and feminism, not just with Marvel, but with pop culture in general. There's this false assumption that in order for a woman to be strong, she has to denigrate or overshadow the men in her life. But that's just swapping one form of inequality for another. It doesn't fix anything.
Bowers and Sims succeed where Grant Morrison failed. They showed that it is possible for two characters to be on an equal playing field. Jean Grey can be a strong, independent woman without having to overpower and overrule Cyclops at every turn. In this issue, she doesn't force him to go along with helping Rachel. She doesn't have to. He just trusts her, as most people in a healthy relationship do. What a concept, right?