Except, of course, the Apocalypse possession doesn’t actually matter. While it’s an underlying cause of Scott’s behaviour here that explains why he may be acting a bit differently from his normal comicbook personality, the love triangle subplot had, largely, been dormant in the comics for quite a while. It received a hint around the marriage of Scott and Jean and that’s about it. No, what brought it to the forefront, and is where both this cover and content of this issue was aimed at new readers, is X-Men, the movie that had come out the previous year. The Scott/Jean/Logan love triangle was an element of that movie and, if you’re going to play up the soap opera for new or casual readers, taking the one soap opera element from the wildly popular movie featuring the characters was the way to go. Along with the leather outfit costume designs, this was the big influence of the movie upon the Casey/Grant Morrison era with Morrison being the one that leaned heavier into the influence of the movie. After this issue, you wouldn’t know that Casey had ever seen it from the direction he took Uncanny X-Men. For one issue only, Casey dove into the movie influence and did the work to actually set up Morrison’s New X-Men run more than his own Uncanny X-Men run.
Depicting Scott as cold, obsessed-with-the-job guy actually falls mostly on Ian Churchill’s shoulders. Casey’s dialogue without Churchill’s body language wouldn’t land quite the same way. Throughout the opening scene where Scott watches the news broadcast and, then, learns of Warp Savant’s attack on Cape Citadel, Churchill plays up two things: a sour, almost scowling facial expression and the closed off arms crossed posture. At no point does Scott’s expression or body language change. The closest we see him move is turning his hand with his arms still crossed, standing up straight, and the same scowl on his face. He looks like he hates the world around him and doesn’t want it to let any of it in. Yet, he’s watching the news broadcast and setting up the mission to Florida, because the only thing he seems to care about is his role as leader of the X-Men. In fact, the only way he engages with the outside world is through that role as he mentions to Jean that they need to remember the world outside the mansion. If he isn’t actually closed off from the world and is actually trying to put the X-Men into it, what his look and posture are actually guarding him from is Jean.
When Jean and Logan leave to confront Warp Savant, she kisses Scott’s cheek, saying “LOVE YOU, SCOTT.” Stoically, he looks ahead, arms still crossed and responds, “LOVE YOU, WIFE.” It’s a cold thing to say, depersonalising her to the specific role in their relationship, as if his loyalty is to the arrangement rather than to her. The following panel is Wolverine looking on, clearly taking in the strained marriage. Wolverine’s role in this drama is one that I’ve always found odd to give a seemingly heroic character: the other man. Given what we know about Scott’s recent history, he’s actively taking advantage of the trauma Scott went through to hit on his wife... it’s really scummy. (Wolverine, though, shortly before Scott was possessed by Apocalypse was similarly under the spell of the ancient mutant, acting as the newest incarnation of the Horseman Death, so, you could argue, that puts them on similar ground.) On the plane to Florida, there’s a brief interaction between Logan and Jean:
Logan: PROBLEMS BETWEEN YOU AND CYKE?
Jean: ...
Jean: NO. WHY DO YOU ASK?
Logan: BACK THERE... YOU TWO DIDN’T SEEM TO COZY—
Jean: JUST MIND YOUR BUSINESS, LOGAN.
It’s a quick attempt to put himself into the situation met with an equally quick rebuff, which is what you’d expect in this situation. After all, Casey isn’t looking to actually explore the love triangle idea in depth, merely reintroduce it before Morrison does with it what they wish. It’s about laying the groundwork and, after the two are absorbed into Warp Savant’s psyche and battle their way through, they find themselves seemingly about to die. Just as reality dies around them, Logan takes advantage of the opportunity to passionately kiss Jean and they seemingly blink out of existence that way. Instead, they’re returned to reality as a result of Warp Savant’s seeming suicide and Jean is left shaken, seemingly unable to recall the experience. When Logan says “I REMEMBER, JEANNIE. EVERY BIT OF IT. / JUST ANOTHER DAY ON THE JOB, EH...?” her uncertain look back at him and response of “... / RIGHT.” leaves it unclear how much she does remember of the experience. Their kiss is left as a brief moment at the edge of seeming oblivion that, possibly, only one of them remembers – and a moment that Morrison and artist Phil Jimenez would later repeat in another near-death scene in New X-Men aboard Asteroid M.
While Jean and Logan were in Warp Savant’s mind, Scott was trying to subdue the young mutant alongside Archangel and, at the moment where the final blast from the weapon that temporarily disabled his powers, Scott stands over him, gives a little speech that ends with him asking “...WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY TEAMMATES? / MORE IMPORTANTLY-- / --WHAT DID YOU DO WITH MY WIFE?!” It’s actually the same question asked twice as the only X-Men Warp Savant used his powers on were Jean and Logan. The extra emphasis on Scott’s wife reminds us that he loves and cares about her beyond his role as team leader of the X-Men. The words “more importantly” places her as his wife above her as his teammate. Yet, it also echoes his “LIFE YOU, WIFE” line from earlier in the issue. Is it love or something more possessive? More about the formality of their relationship? Does he love Jean or is he committed to their marriage as a concept despite his struggling with what he feels? When she and Logan return to the real world, his concern for her seems genuine, bordering on panic when she’s weakened/injured coming back. There’s enough ambiguity presented to play into the idea that something is amiss.
The issue leaves it as all suggestive and, as I said, for Morrison to pick up again. Jean doesn’t appear again in Uncanny X-Men as long as Casey writes it, I believe. His instincts to introduce his and Morrison’s time on the books by playing off the movie and setting up Morrison’s title shows a shrewd commercial instinct that wouldn’t really show up again during his time on the title.