I'm going with the majority here, I believe Northstar is going because he's underused and the repercussions of his death will have bearing for months to come, given the history Wolvie has with both him and Alpha.

Suzene raised some very good points in her post, but I guess we are just going to have to differ, but that doesn't mean I don't respect her position. I personally don't believe that Marvel are overtly or covertly pursuing some kind of homophobic agenda. Given the amount of gay readers it would seem to have, it would be financial suicide to alienate them. As for Mark Millar, he's outrageous and controversial, but never to my mind homophobic in any size shape or form. Every now and again the MU needs a shake up, a major incident to get the readers buzzing and buying books they wouldn't normally. I don't normally read Wolvie, but I shall be picking up #25 and a few issues after to see where this goes.

As for Northstar, I have always considered him my least favourite original Alphan, however his demise saddens me, but I do expect his return, I mean this is Marvel.