Originally Posted by
Tycon
Bendis wasn’t setting up a world or even changing the entire status quo with the O5. He introduced a concept that not only had a limited run, but set an endgame almost immediately. They had to go back. We got story after story about different people reacting to them, then story after story of how they can’t go back. Powers of X set to basically show the audience, future marvel writers, editors why the X-Men were essentially broken as a concept and kept running into the same walls and pitfalls. The sheer scope of the storytelling while simultaneously building up a brand new world for all mutant characters ensured a very wide array of stories. It wasn’t as simple as bringing 5 mutants back from the past or putting a bunch of X-Men on a reserve, but literally breaking down the core concept of the X-Men and making something that can really last.
If Hickman said you don’t have to pick up these titles, then he’s probably learned from when he was working under the Avengers office. There is a direction for all these books and it’s been said multiple times, it’s to help build up the world of Krakoa. As for an endgame, why is that such a focal point? The whole point of HOXPOX was to not hold onto those cynical views of “when’s everything gonna crash and burn?” so we can actually unclench and just enjoy the stories being given to us. Also, all Cates stories bleed into each other because he’s writing everything and those titles keep ending so there’s really no choice.