Because I was asked to, essaying: relationships/sexuality
I told someone I would write a not-essay about Rictor's sexuality and failtastic relationship history because apparently I was on crack. I am so not drunk enough for this. Also, none of this will ever come up in camp so I do wonder why I bothered. This contains spoilers as far as X-Factor #200 and the Nation X: X-Factor one shot.
Intro
The following not-essay mostly draws upon the following comics, the first three of which I have not actually read in a while: X-Factor v1, the last days of New Mutants v1, X-Force v1, the main theme of which is roid rage homoeroticism a paramilitary youth strike force led by a time travelling psychic cyborg jesus, and X-Factor v3, which is mostly about why you shouldn't have sex with your ex. That's right, this is mostly from memory, which means that all of this stuff is probably more cracked than I remember.
Bad Role Modelling
We know next to nothing about his family life before X-Factor, beyond that they were all criminals, so who knows what kind of example the relationship between his dad and his stepmother gave. However, within about the first day of being rescued by X-Factor Scott and Jean were having a fight that seriously compromised the structural integrity of the building, Scott was was going crazy after having left his wife and kid, and Rictor learned that Warren had killed himself (or so they thought...) because he couldn't handle life without his power when doctors cut his wings off. No wonder he's messed up. Cable and Domino and their on-off relationship while running X-Force as a teenage mutant terrorist group wasn't exactly the greatest environment to spend the rest of his teen years in, either. No wonder he wouldn't know a healthy relationship if he tripped over it.
The early days - Flirting with Tabitha and Rahne mark 1
Rictor first appeared in X-Factor #17, terrified and malnourished, shaking uncontrollably and wanting to die as the building collapsed around him, only to be rescued by X-Factor, the first mutants he ever met. It was while recaptured by anti-mutant terrorists that he met Tabitha. She talked him out of suicide - something he later recalled as a turning point for him - and after that, though they squabbled a lot, they were friends. With all the other kids rescued by X-Factor, they grew healthy and strong and had many adventures. They got to be pretty close and stuck together pretty closely when they first moved over to the New Mutants.
Tabby was sassy and kind of rough with a secret vulnerable side, so eventually Rictor developed a bit of a crush on her. I can't blame him as she had adorable hair and the outfit she wore circa the X-Terminators mini was super cute. He sent her flirty looks and tried to protect her from idk monsters and stuff during that interminable arc in Asgard that I still find super boring, but told Rahne that he figured Tabitha thought anyone dumb enough to like her wouldn't be worth the time.
They separated briefly in Asgard and Rictor spent a bunch of time getting closer to Rahne, letting her cry on his shoulder, and by the time they got back to earth he'd decided he had feelings for her instead. He even ignored Tabitha changing into a skanky little dress, saying she was like a sister to him, so he could tell Rahne she was cute. Ah, the flightiness of youth. Tabitha got super jealous and they all got into a silly argument about how badly they were all dressed.
Rictor and Rahne said a bunch of boring gooey crap to each other and were, in general, disgustingly sappy, even though she was secretly totally into someone else. He was so into her that he tricked her guardian, Moira McTaggert, into thinking he'd shaken her helicopter to pieces to stop Moira taking Rahne back home. Basically, they were super boring together until the X-tinction Agenda crossover when they got captured by Cameron Hodge on Genosha. Stuff happened, she totally bonded with someone else and changed into a giant wolf, and then decided to stay on Genosha because she'd changed too much, dumping him unceremoniously. Eventually he decided to run back to Genosha to rescue her and wasn't seen again for ages, saving him from having to be drawn from Liefeld for entire months.
He must have given up on that ridiculousness at some point because he turns up a while later, super muscly and with Fabio hair. Classy. He hooked up with X-Force and then there was a big old boring X-book crossover where all the teams inexplicably had to fight each other. He kissed Rahne, she bit him, stuff happened and then he threw down with Rahne. I can't remember what happened but they talked, things were civil, crossover was boring.
In X-Force #26, in what is possibly the ugliest art I have ever seen, in what is generally a giant train wreck of an issue, Tabitha talks with her boyfriend about something that has now been retconned away because it was just that stupid and then Rictor kisses her. She says she's not interested and he gets into a huff and storms off.
X-Force - Shatterstar and the epic gay
Ah, X-Force. There were some minor changes in characterisation during X-Force, most notably that someone in editorial thought 'oh shit, if Rictor speaks English all the time people might forget he's Mexican' and so suddenly with the random Spanish in the middle of sentences. Anyway, it is in X-Force that he met Shatterstar. Initially they didn't get along - Shatterstar thought Rictor was a reckless macho hothead and Rictor thought Shatterstar was an arrogant flashy show-off. They were both right and they haven't really changed.
Now, the character histories in X-Factor #200 claim that they hooked up early in their acquaintance, not long after Rictor kissed Tabitha and got brutally rebuffed. This makes no sense at all, given conversations they have later than this point. Therefore I choose to disbelieve. Unless it happened on-panel it's not canon.
Anyway, they often found themselves lumped together when they were fighting their enemies and worked pretty well together. Rictor got stuck being the one who took Shatterstar places. He was still treating Shatterstar like a mildly retarded child at this stage. (Let me pause to mention that at this point Shatterstar had a gravity-defying curly red mullet and wore boxing headgear, and his nick name was 'Shatty'. Sexy.) Rictor happened to be there when Shatterstar had his adventure with Arcade and Adam-X the X-treme (on the 90s), and so he was there when Shatterstar wanted to talk about his dead wife that he'd never met and yet somehow recognised on sight (this is the least ridiculous part of his backstory, for serious). That was pretty much their first civil conversation.
At that point Shatterstar must have decided he wanted to be buddies with Rictor because their next significant interaction was in X-Force #34 when Shatterstar revealed that he'd learned Spanish from soap operas just so they could have private, personal conversations. Coming on a bit strong, there. Rictor spent the rest of the issue talking about how they didn't know each other all that well (and yet didn't see anything weird about another dude he didn't know well deciding to learn Spanish for him) but from that point on they were friends. I think that, as Shatterstar was so clueless and socially maladjusted and making such a clumsy overture of friendship he made Rictor feel needed and that's hard to say no to.
They hung out together a whole bunch and then there was X-Force #43 where they go clubbing. Watching Rictor dance with girls and getting hit on made Shatterstar panic about having shocking! new! feelings! They talk about it and Rictor says it's okay because he's a socially maladjusted virgin, too, and then he asks if Shatterstar even has a penis. Shatterstar says, roughly paraphrased from memory, that he uh has the equipment but nobody ever bothered teaching him the emotional component. And oh hey, this is the period where Shatterstar has a blond perm.
Then their fearless leader Cable is all 'hey why don't we all link telepathically and hold hands and sing kumbaya as a team? :D :D' and Rictor is all 'screw you guys, I'm going back to Mexico'. Shatterstar is all 'noooo don't go I need you, what will I do without you'. Those might not have been the exact words but it's about that gay. He says that he hopes Rictor misses his flight and Rictor tells him that he has friends and will be fine and does the face of 'oh god be less gay for me'. Then Shatterstar causes trouble with security because he's too much an idiot to leave his swords in the car. Then in case you missed the extremely unsubtle message that Shatterstar is gay for Rictor, Shatterstar watches Rictor's plane fly away with a forlorn look and his hand pressed to the glass, and then when Cable makes them leave Shatterstar manages to jump stupidly into a fight where he gets shot point blank in the chest with a machine gun. He got better!
Rictor is out of the book for something like 15 issues and in that time Shatterstar's extreme levels of gay and mope for Rictor continue to be extremely unsubtle. Then, in a two part story that makes no sense whatsoever, Shatterstar starts going crazy! Then Rictor turns up out of nowhere, compares Shatterstar to a losing sport team, and says that he came back because he knew that 'Star needed him. Aw. Stuff happens that doesn't make sense and Shatterstar is killed by a pointy thing through the chest! Yes, even though he survived gunfire point blank to the chest that one time. Then they take his soul and put it in the body of someone in a coma who looks exactly like him, I think, and then he's alive again, somehow. They're so happy to be reunited that, in a touching scene, they hold hands under the moonlight - in the middle of the day.
So something like ten issues later Rictor decides he doesn't want to go on the team any more and Shatterstar decides to follow him back to Mexico. Next comes the X-Force '99 Annual, which is just one long gay joke. Stay classy, Marvel. The artists draw Shatterstar like he's Stone Cold Steve Austin wearing a wig. The goatee was a bad idea. We discover that Rictor has learned Shatterstar's language, totally for strategic purposes, and they choose to share a one bed hotel room. I'm pretty sure the point of the scene with Rictor waking up shirtless to watch his shirtless buddy exercising was to show that they were totally fucking but some people missed that epic clue.
Anyway, they were obviously super close. And then they weren't seen in a comic together for ten years.
X-Factor v3 - Is it ever okay to do a relationship repeat?
M-day - the big event that turned huge chunks of the mutant population into baseline humans - happened, and Rictor turns up on a building ledge preparing to jump. Rahne turns up and yells at him that suicides go to hell. Stuff happens, he joins X-Factor Investigations and he becomes buddies with everyone. Quicksilver shows up to be morally ambiguous and causes a bunch of other stuff to happen.
It's worth noting that in issue #14 after Madrox sleeps with Theresa and Monet he and Rictor go for a drink and Rictor makes a joke about sleeping with Quicksilver, which causes Madrox to spit his drink all over the table. The following conversation, which I actually went to the effort of transcribing from TPB 3, occurs:
Madrox: So ... So it was a joke...
Rictor: 'Course. Not that the guy/guy thing is...it's just that Pietro's semi-evil, and-- gimme a little credit, huh?
Madrox: Hey, look... At this point I'm ruling nothing out.
[...]
Rictor: To X-Factor: putting the "fun" in "dysfunctional." But, hey, at least y'know Pietro and I aren't an item, so that's good, right?
Madrox: I suppose. I mean, god knows you wouldn't want to make Shatterstar jealous.
And then Rictor spits his drink everywhere, lending a charming symmetry to the scene.
The marvellous mess that is Ric/Rahne mark 2
So not long after that Rictor accuses Rahne of being upset that Madrox didn't think her good enough to sleep with, because he is truly an insensitive clod. Then, in his macho need to protect Theresa, he gets knocked out while not looking where he's going and gets dragged back to Quicksilver's lair. Quicksilver implants him with fancy rocks that briefly give him back his powers and when Quicksilver turns out to be a lying user they fight! Rahne jumps through the window to see Rictor the worse for wear. He puts a hand on her cheek and says that he's not worth saving and thinks he's dying. She disagrees and obviously drags him to safety off-panel.
Getting his powers back only to lose them again makes Rictor mope harder than ever. Rahne tells him he's not alone and then gives him some hot hot pity sex. The next day he feels better! She breaks it to him that she just felt sorry for him, and he basically says 'so what?' They argue and he basically taunts her into kissing him, and in the heat of the moment her sharp claws manage to scratch his back something rotten. Then a giant X-book crossover happens, she leaves the team without telling him and he mopes oh god how he mopes for something like 15 issues.
Once more with Shatterstar
So in issue #43 after Rictor has moped his way across the country and nearly gotten himself killed once, Shatterstar shows up (first panel - of his behind. That artist is ridiculously fond of butt shots), only he is - surprise! - mind-controlled and trying to kill Rictor and Guido. Rictor makes a bunch of vague statements about knowing Shatterstar really well and pauses to admire his awesome skillz in the middle of Shatterstar trying to kill him. Shatterstar gets out from under the mind control and, overcome with relief, he and Rictor kiss. Guido, being the only person in the 616 universe who didn't know about them, is surprised. And gets to stand there awkwardly while they kiss for like hours. Seriously, the sun has gone down by the time we see them again.
Guido and Rictor have a most awkward conversation in the car on the way home about Guido's shock that Ric swings both ways. Shatterstar stops napping in the back seat long enough to talk about how he while they were apart he kept thinking how he missed their 'friendship' and then he teleports them all back home, because he can do that now apparently. Then Shatterstar kisses Val Cooper, because he can.
Skip forward to X-Factor #200 and Rictor and Shatterstar have fallen into old patterns and Madrox expresses surprise that anyone didn't know about Rictor and Shatterstar. Because truly they were subtle as a brick to the head. The X-Factor Nation X one shot is set somewhat further in the future than that - Shatterstar is trying to flirt with everything in sight, because he does that now, and Rictor tells him to knock it off. In a spectacular douche move Shatterstar suggests that Rictor feels insecure about their relationship and in general because he lost his powers and his father died and ex-girlfriend left him (all true!) and then kisses Tabitha right in front of Rictor. Because when you're with someone who feels like they mean nothing the sensible thing to do is make sure they feel that they mean nothing to you. I gotta say, this train wreck of a relationship is tremendously entertaining.
Oh right the sexuality thing
I totally did promise to actually essay on that. Well, he's bisexual, it's canon, what is there to really say? He's obviously not shouting it from the rooftops but it's not a secret either. He doesn't like talking about it, as he makes pretty clear in X-Factor #49 when he talks to Guido, and he sort of feels his way around talking about it in X-Factor #14 with Madrox, but he does get defensive if he thinks someone has a problem with his sexuality. More to the point, he's shagged a werewolf and an inter-dimensional alien from the future. How's that for open-minded?
He's obviously into being friends first and likes to go back for a second helping of romantic fail. He likes them a bit rough and snarky, yet secretly vulnerable, because he has crap self-esteem and wants to feel needed. That's probably also why he goes for people who treat him like an afterthought.
I have no real conclusion for this. I am just sick of writing it now.
Intro
The following not-essay mostly draws upon the following comics, the first three of which I have not actually read in a while: X-Factor v1, the last days of New Mutants v1, X-Force v1, the main theme of which is roid rage homoeroticism a paramilitary youth strike force led by a time travelling psychic cyborg jesus, and X-Factor v3, which is mostly about why you shouldn't have sex with your ex. That's right, this is mostly from memory, which means that all of this stuff is probably more cracked than I remember.
Bad Role Modelling
We know next to nothing about his family life before X-Factor, beyond that they were all criminals, so who knows what kind of example the relationship between his dad and his stepmother gave. However, within about the first day of being rescued by X-Factor Scott and Jean were having a fight that seriously compromised the structural integrity of the building, Scott was was going crazy after having left his wife and kid, and Rictor learned that Warren had killed himself (or so they thought...) because he couldn't handle life without his power when doctors cut his wings off. No wonder he's messed up. Cable and Domino and their on-off relationship while running X-Force as a teenage mutant terrorist group wasn't exactly the greatest environment to spend the rest of his teen years in, either. No wonder he wouldn't know a healthy relationship if he tripped over it.
The early days - Flirting with Tabitha and Rahne mark 1
Rictor first appeared in X-Factor #17, terrified and malnourished, shaking uncontrollably and wanting to die as the building collapsed around him, only to be rescued by X-Factor, the first mutants he ever met. It was while recaptured by anti-mutant terrorists that he met Tabitha. She talked him out of suicide - something he later recalled as a turning point for him - and after that, though they squabbled a lot, they were friends. With all the other kids rescued by X-Factor, they grew healthy and strong and had many adventures. They got to be pretty close and stuck together pretty closely when they first moved over to the New Mutants.
Tabby was sassy and kind of rough with a secret vulnerable side, so eventually Rictor developed a bit of a crush on her. I can't blame him as she had adorable hair and the outfit she wore circa the X-Terminators mini was super cute. He sent her flirty looks and tried to protect her from idk monsters and stuff during that interminable arc in Asgard that I still find super boring, but told Rahne that he figured Tabitha thought anyone dumb enough to like her wouldn't be worth the time.
They separated briefly in Asgard and Rictor spent a bunch of time getting closer to Rahne, letting her cry on his shoulder, and by the time they got back to earth he'd decided he had feelings for her instead. He even ignored Tabitha changing into a skanky little dress, saying she was like a sister to him, so he could tell Rahne she was cute. Ah, the flightiness of youth. Tabitha got super jealous and they all got into a silly argument about how badly they were all dressed.
Rictor and Rahne said a bunch of boring gooey crap to each other and were, in general, disgustingly sappy, even though she was secretly totally into someone else. He was so into her that he tricked her guardian, Moira McTaggert, into thinking he'd shaken her helicopter to pieces to stop Moira taking Rahne back home. Basically, they were super boring together until the X-tinction Agenda crossover when they got captured by Cameron Hodge on Genosha. Stuff happened, she totally bonded with someone else and changed into a giant wolf, and then decided to stay on Genosha because she'd changed too much, dumping him unceremoniously. Eventually he decided to run back to Genosha to rescue her and wasn't seen again for ages, saving him from having to be drawn from Liefeld for entire months.
He must have given up on that ridiculousness at some point because he turns up a while later, super muscly and with Fabio hair. Classy. He hooked up with X-Force and then there was a big old boring X-book crossover where all the teams inexplicably had to fight each other. He kissed Rahne, she bit him, stuff happened and then he threw down with Rahne. I can't remember what happened but they talked, things were civil, crossover was boring.
In X-Force #26, in what is possibly the ugliest art I have ever seen, in what is generally a giant train wreck of an issue, Tabitha talks with her boyfriend about something that has now been retconned away because it was just that stupid and then Rictor kisses her. She says she's not interested and he gets into a huff and storms off.
X-Force - Shatterstar and the epic gay
Ah, X-Force. There were some minor changes in characterisation during X-Force, most notably that someone in editorial thought 'oh shit, if Rictor speaks English all the time people might forget he's Mexican' and so suddenly with the random Spanish in the middle of sentences. Anyway, it is in X-Force that he met Shatterstar. Initially they didn't get along - Shatterstar thought Rictor was a reckless macho hothead and Rictor thought Shatterstar was an arrogant flashy show-off. They were both right and they haven't really changed.
Now, the character histories in X-Factor #200 claim that they hooked up early in their acquaintance, not long after Rictor kissed Tabitha and got brutally rebuffed. This makes no sense at all, given conversations they have later than this point. Therefore I choose to disbelieve. Unless it happened on-panel it's not canon.
Anyway, they often found themselves lumped together when they were fighting their enemies and worked pretty well together. Rictor got stuck being the one who took Shatterstar places. He was still treating Shatterstar like a mildly retarded child at this stage. (Let me pause to mention that at this point Shatterstar had a gravity-defying curly red mullet and wore boxing headgear, and his nick name was 'Shatty'. Sexy.) Rictor happened to be there when Shatterstar had his adventure with Arcade and Adam-X the X-treme (on the 90s), and so he was there when Shatterstar wanted to talk about his dead wife that he'd never met and yet somehow recognised on sight (this is the least ridiculous part of his backstory, for serious). That was pretty much their first civil conversation.
At that point Shatterstar must have decided he wanted to be buddies with Rictor because their next significant interaction was in X-Force #34 when Shatterstar revealed that he'd learned Spanish from soap operas just so they could have private, personal conversations. Coming on a bit strong, there. Rictor spent the rest of the issue talking about how they didn't know each other all that well (and yet didn't see anything weird about another dude he didn't know well deciding to learn Spanish for him) but from that point on they were friends. I think that, as Shatterstar was so clueless and socially maladjusted and making such a clumsy overture of friendship he made Rictor feel needed and that's hard to say no to.
They hung out together a whole bunch and then there was X-Force #43 where they go clubbing. Watching Rictor dance with girls and getting hit on made Shatterstar panic about having shocking! new! feelings! They talk about it and Rictor says it's okay because he's a socially maladjusted virgin, too, and then he asks if Shatterstar even has a penis. Shatterstar says, roughly paraphrased from memory, that he uh has the equipment but nobody ever bothered teaching him the emotional component. And oh hey, this is the period where Shatterstar has a blond perm.
Then their fearless leader Cable is all 'hey why don't we all link telepathically and hold hands and sing kumbaya as a team? :D :D' and Rictor is all 'screw you guys, I'm going back to Mexico'. Shatterstar is all 'noooo don't go I need you, what will I do without you'. Those might not have been the exact words but it's about that gay. He says that he hopes Rictor misses his flight and Rictor tells him that he has friends and will be fine and does the face of 'oh god be less gay for me'. Then Shatterstar causes trouble with security because he's too much an idiot to leave his swords in the car. Then in case you missed the extremely unsubtle message that Shatterstar is gay for Rictor, Shatterstar watches Rictor's plane fly away with a forlorn look and his hand pressed to the glass, and then when Cable makes them leave Shatterstar manages to jump stupidly into a fight where he gets shot point blank in the chest with a machine gun. He got better!
Rictor is out of the book for something like 15 issues and in that time Shatterstar's extreme levels of gay and mope for Rictor continue to be extremely unsubtle. Then, in a two part story that makes no sense whatsoever, Shatterstar starts going crazy! Then Rictor turns up out of nowhere, compares Shatterstar to a losing sport team, and says that he came back because he knew that 'Star needed him. Aw. Stuff happens that doesn't make sense and Shatterstar is killed by a pointy thing through the chest! Yes, even though he survived gunfire point blank to the chest that one time. Then they take his soul and put it in the body of someone in a coma who looks exactly like him, I think, and then he's alive again, somehow. They're so happy to be reunited that, in a touching scene, they hold hands under the moonlight - in the middle of the day.
So something like ten issues later Rictor decides he doesn't want to go on the team any more and Shatterstar decides to follow him back to Mexico. Next comes the X-Force '99 Annual, which is just one long gay joke. Stay classy, Marvel. The artists draw Shatterstar like he's Stone Cold Steve Austin wearing a wig. The goatee was a bad idea. We discover that Rictor has learned Shatterstar's language, totally for strategic purposes, and they choose to share a one bed hotel room. I'm pretty sure the point of the scene with Rictor waking up shirtless to watch his shirtless buddy exercising was to show that they were totally fucking but some people missed that epic clue.
Anyway, they were obviously super close. And then they weren't seen in a comic together for ten years.
X-Factor v3 - Is it ever okay to do a relationship repeat?
M-day - the big event that turned huge chunks of the mutant population into baseline humans - happened, and Rictor turns up on a building ledge preparing to jump. Rahne turns up and yells at him that suicides go to hell. Stuff happens, he joins X-Factor Investigations and he becomes buddies with everyone. Quicksilver shows up to be morally ambiguous and causes a bunch of other stuff to happen.
It's worth noting that in issue #14 after Madrox sleeps with Theresa and Monet he and Rictor go for a drink and Rictor makes a joke about sleeping with Quicksilver, which causes Madrox to spit his drink all over the table. The following conversation, which I actually went to the effort of transcribing from TPB 3, occurs:
Madrox: So ... So it was a joke...
Rictor: 'Course. Not that the guy/guy thing is...it's just that Pietro's semi-evil, and-- gimme a little credit, huh?
Madrox: Hey, look... At this point I'm ruling nothing out.
[...]
Rictor: To X-Factor: putting the "fun" in "dysfunctional." But, hey, at least y'know Pietro and I aren't an item, so that's good, right?
Madrox: I suppose. I mean, god knows you wouldn't want to make Shatterstar jealous.
And then Rictor spits his drink everywhere, lending a charming symmetry to the scene.
The marvellous mess that is Ric/Rahne mark 2
So not long after that Rictor accuses Rahne of being upset that Madrox didn't think her good enough to sleep with, because he is truly an insensitive clod. Then, in his macho need to protect Theresa, he gets knocked out while not looking where he's going and gets dragged back to Quicksilver's lair. Quicksilver implants him with fancy rocks that briefly give him back his powers and when Quicksilver turns out to be a lying user they fight! Rahne jumps through the window to see Rictor the worse for wear. He puts a hand on her cheek and says that he's not worth saving and thinks he's dying. She disagrees and obviously drags him to safety off-panel.
Getting his powers back only to lose them again makes Rictor mope harder than ever. Rahne tells him he's not alone and then gives him some hot hot pity sex. The next day he feels better! She breaks it to him that she just felt sorry for him, and he basically says 'so what?' They argue and he basically taunts her into kissing him, and in the heat of the moment her sharp claws manage to scratch his back something rotten. Then a giant X-book crossover happens, she leaves the team without telling him and he mopes oh god how he mopes for something like 15 issues.
Once more with Shatterstar
So in issue #43 after Rictor has moped his way across the country and nearly gotten himself killed once, Shatterstar shows up (first panel - of his behind. That artist is ridiculously fond of butt shots), only he is - surprise! - mind-controlled and trying to kill Rictor and Guido. Rictor makes a bunch of vague statements about knowing Shatterstar really well and pauses to admire his awesome skillz in the middle of Shatterstar trying to kill him. Shatterstar gets out from under the mind control and, overcome with relief, he and Rictor kiss. Guido, being the only person in the 616 universe who didn't know about them, is surprised. And gets to stand there awkwardly while they kiss for like hours. Seriously, the sun has gone down by the time we see them again.
Guido and Rictor have a most awkward conversation in the car on the way home about Guido's shock that Ric swings both ways. Shatterstar stops napping in the back seat long enough to talk about how he while they were apart he kept thinking how he missed their 'friendship' and then he teleports them all back home, because he can do that now apparently. Then Shatterstar kisses Val Cooper, because he can.
Skip forward to X-Factor #200 and Rictor and Shatterstar have fallen into old patterns and Madrox expresses surprise that anyone didn't know about Rictor and Shatterstar. Because truly they were subtle as a brick to the head. The X-Factor Nation X one shot is set somewhat further in the future than that - Shatterstar is trying to flirt with everything in sight, because he does that now, and Rictor tells him to knock it off. In a spectacular douche move Shatterstar suggests that Rictor feels insecure about their relationship and in general because he lost his powers and his father died and ex-girlfriend left him (all true!) and then kisses Tabitha right in front of Rictor. Because when you're with someone who feels like they mean nothing the sensible thing to do is make sure they feel that they mean nothing to you. I gotta say, this train wreck of a relationship is tremendously entertaining.
Oh right the sexuality thing
I totally did promise to actually essay on that. Well, he's bisexual, it's canon, what is there to really say? He's obviously not shouting it from the rooftops but it's not a secret either. He doesn't like talking about it, as he makes pretty clear in X-Factor #49 when he talks to Guido, and he sort of feels his way around talking about it in X-Factor #14 with Madrox, but he does get defensive if he thinks someone has a problem with his sexuality. More to the point, he's shagged a werewolf and an inter-dimensional alien from the future. How's that for open-minded?
He's obviously into being friends first and likes to go back for a second helping of romantic fail. He likes them a bit rough and snarky, yet secretly vulnerable, because he has crap self-esteem and wants to feel needed. That's probably also why he goes for people who treat him like an afterthought.
I have no real conclusion for this. I am just sick of writing it now.