Entirely irrelevant. If someone were to appear in an Alpha book, I would expect that character's most current situation to be taken into account.
If it's done properly, it's not at all a problem. Do you believe that the dialogue I described earlier will cause mass confusion among X-Men fans or first-time readers? No more than what was actually there, except that mine considers people who buy Alpha Flight as well. The writers should have applied the same consideration.
It's not suddenly though; it's been a year.[/QUOTE]
It IS sudden to readers who are aware of the past. I went in having every expectation that they were no longer a couple, just to find out that they were, but the other one had walked out. Totally different situation, so it felt sudden. Why? Because a writer couldn't be bothered to alter his dialogue slightly to explain it, while not alienating X-Men readers or someone picking up the book for the first time.
Telling me it's been a bad year does me no good at all in explaining why what I thought was true no longer is, something that could have been done without impact to other readers. It's just a lazy way out.