I personally like Scott and Emma's relationship, and I love Emma. Of course it's a matter of taste, but I honestly think AXM would be worse for the wear withought Emma.
For one thing, Emma, Wolverine, and Kitty are the only real characters in AXM, and Kitty is only real when she and Emma butt heads. What do I mean by this? I mean, all the X-men except for Wolvie and Emma are essentially one character. They all more or less feel think and act the same way. Joss's manages to mask this somewhat by his very witty dialogue, but even when you factor in the wit, they're all still the same. Snappy lines or not-- except for Wolverine and Emma; and sometimes Kitty. And the reason I'm not impressed with Kitty is this-- why is she on the team? Well Issue 15 we know why, and really that's the only reason. Other than that, her being on the team is kinda like Plastic Man and Steel being in the main JLA-- Why?
Without Emma Frost, and/or a moderately strong roled Wolverine, AXM would kinda be doomed. A gorgeous, snappy, wity bannter kind of doomed, but doomed none the less. I mean, the comparison of characters, of actual different motivations and reactions between Morrison's New X-men and Astonishing is almost unfair to Whedon's. (Of course... the comparison to art is unfair to Morrison's... I can see Grant Morrison emailing Joe Queseda, "My writing will be so good I'll save the X-men and do it with the worst art you could possibly sell someone.")
Finally (yeah, I'm wrapping it up, sorry) my biggest problem with Emma-Scott complainers and complaints is this-- it is nine times out of ten done with reference to the Jean-Scott relationship and my answer to that is this-- get over it! Comics have been in the same place for ever and ever. And of all the big teams, the X-men have been hit the hardest. You all may like that but please, for the sake of the rest of us, let comics go somewhere. That's why I buy trades or hardcovers ontop of my issues because sometimes I like to go back to the way it was first given to me, but sometimes you've gotta go on. I don't hate AXM, I like it a lot, but I think people are bit over-enthusiastic about it, and about keeping x-men in stasis.
