I… didn’t see that coming and I’m not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand, it’s not like all queer characters should be paired up for life; we’ve got committed couples like Wiccan/Hulkling and Northstar/Kyle with which to explore the long-time partner dynamic, so let’s let others have some dating hijinks. On the other, I feel like the dynamic between Rictor and Shatterstar really hadn’t been explored all that deeply yet due to Marvel having a tendency to make their queer couples much less of a priority once they’ve gotten their GLAAD nomination out of the way. It feels like a hell of a cheat to go from “hey, we’re good and in love and working on things” to “this may be a done thing” without letting the readers see the emotional beats in between.
But anyway, this would at least explain why there’s Ric, but no Shatterstar in the upcoming New Mutants mini-series, and hopefully Rosenberg will follow up from here. (Tho’ I personally blame the facial hair for driving them apart.) Bless Sina Grace for making this the book in which we catch up on the status of 90% of the non-het mutants