People seem to be missing the point.
Cyclops leads the core. That is, even when it's broken into separate teams, as it was around the Relaunch and Uncanny, Astonishing, and Adjectiveless had separate teams, Cyclops was the Headmaster and the one who said who went where.
And people listened to him, because he's Cyclops, and he's the leader. Why? Because he was placed there by Xavier, after being bred and groomed by Xavier to be that.
Storm doesn't have that kind of call or claim to leadership. And she doesn't have that much ability, either, frankly, unless she's being written by Claremont, and really. That doesn't count. At all. Not a bit. Except against her.
Storm could lead an individual team, I guess. Whatever. But not the whole.
Nor could Havok. Even if he worked out all of his issues, he's not his brother. And while Havok is a fine leader in his own right, and an even better one without the baby brother issues that Milligan deemed fit to put back in, he's not a leader of the same calibre as Cyclops.
Xavier and Cable would be awful joint-leaders, I'm sorry. Xavier's all about peacetime. Cable's been fighting his entire life. There'd be no meeting of minds, and Xavier would pretty much do the same thing to Cable that he was doing to Cyclops. Cable might respect Xavier a lot, but it doesn't mean he'd listen to him or put up with him. In fact, Cable's made a general point in the past of not listening to Xavier's counsel.
These characters, and others, could manage fine being team heads. They'd all lead differently, but they'd be leading their own people. Not the whole. They couldn't lead the whole.
But yeah, I agree with Harlekin. If anyone can come close to Cyclops that isn't Havok, it's Cannonball. And it's really a shame that he's never had the opportunity to blossom into Cyclops-lite. That should be rectified.
Soon as I start writing comics, people.
