I find it's a lot more common with company IP that folks will be willing to drop it until their favorite writers or characters are involved than, say, stepping away from something like GoT because their favorite character died. I think it's just a natural consequences of round-robin stories only mattering as much as the next writer says they do - by the nature of the beast, there's no actual endpoint to the narrative, and there's no consistency to the narrative. So some readers will focus in on the parts of the franchise that are especially meaningful to them for whatever reason and let the rest fall by the wayside until there's a reason to pay attention again. Even with something like HoX/PoX, if you're not that attached to the spotlight cast, you probably wouldn't feel you'd missed out on much just reading the plot points afterward.
Seems to me you read an entirely different interview. Nowhere does he say he is control of the entire line, he clearly says he had to go back and make changes after his ‘argument’ with the senior editors. You may understandably be cynical that this will fail like every other attempt since at least Marvel Now but I don’t see any cause for undue pessimism.
Is anyone making an undue deal out of it? The interview basically admits this. All that talk of delineated change was Hickman saying ‘yep Marvel have done this before, that’s how comics work’.
We are excited because it is Hickman. I have been excited since before Secret Wars when he only casually suggested he would work on X-Men but that Marvel were not prioritising it. That to me always held a promise that one day he would be allowed to do whatever he had in his head.
He focuses on the characters he wants to focus on. He's re-launching the x-men, why would wolverine and Scott not be front and center. Also, you're complaining about jean's costume, Hickman said there is a reason why people are wearing wht they are. Instead of wigging out, let's just wait and read it.
So this vertical integration opportunity thing. Hickman is into economics. He is not going to use a term like that lightly. It usually means a company that integrates its supply chain or takes more control of its distribution. In this media context it heavily hints that the comics will be more integrated with the other Media.
It may not please comic book fans, especially the ones that believe the direct market voices, but Marvel undoubtedly sell a lot of trades to movie goers. They just don’t buy them in comic stores. This may be an indication that Marvel are finally considering proper synergy. It could even hint that Feige is not getting the X-Men but that might just be me projecting because I don’t want him anywhere near them.
That's pretty much still the case, as far as I know. Feige answers directly to Iger. I doubt Buckley could be on the same position, because I don't think that's even possible, but there might be some change regarding the relationship between the comics and the other media. Hard to say for now.