Emma Frost psychoanalyses Scott for an issue. ...........Whedon does have some great ideas for Cyclops, who gets ripped apart in this issue. Emma's complaints about him are pretty much valid. Everyone else gets a properly inspiring leader like Captain America or Reed Richards, but the X-Men are stuck with Cyclops. He's a character who made reasonable sense when he was merely the field leader and Professor X was there to set the direction. But without him, poor Scott is just a competent, decent tactician who keeps the show on the road but has no big ideas of his own. He's an honest, hardworking middle manager. It's a view of the character I basically agree with......
Yeah, but we know that this is the breaking down part so that Whedon will build him up. We're not supposed to think that Emma's telling the truth. IMO this a set up so we get to Cyke being happy with his choices, realizing his inner strength, etc. The thing is if Cyclops is as bad as you or Emma say he is. It really reflects badly on X for choosing someone like that as leader when he's gone. To make someone leader because they have "nothing else" is just colossaly stupid. Particularly when you have such a dramatic vision as X does.
Leadership is a burden, not a blessing. And I think as a character Cyke suffers from that, and only when you pull him out (like X3) does the fandom realize how important he was. Cap has the obvious American Dream symbolism so he's immune from that. It's not really a fair comparison.