Hickman planted a lot of storytelling seeds in HoX/PoX to unfold over his run. What’s interesting is with all of the second issues out now it appears Hickman won’t be tackling all of his ideas in the main X-Men book. X-Force is doing some heavy lifting right now. Even Fallen Angels I don’t think people realize how it’s playing directly into ideas Hickman set up, using the artificial machine evolution idea. Excalibur to a smaller extent with its focus on magic but that will tie Apocalypse back into what Hickman is doing.
I’m not enjoying Marauders as much but it does have a quarter of the Mutant Council members in it. Still it doesn’t feel as essential. New Mutants doesn’t feel as essential either but Hickman used the Shi’Ar throughout his FF and Avengers runs and I think what will happen was teased on a PoX variant cover...
Still, the teased plots I’m most interested in are in no particular order:
1. Hickman fully addressing the Cyclops/Jean/Wolverine thing. Enough hints, be bold, just show and tell what it is you’re doing with them.
2. Wakanda was in red font on the list of Nations not supporting the treaty. Everything in red font was emphasized for importance during HoX/PoX. Hickman has done a lot with Black Panther between his FF run and Secret Avengers/Infinity. I’m hoping there won’t be a Wakanda/Mutant War and that something of more significance is being built towards.
3. “Make more mutants”...aside from the resurrections, curious how this will play out. It’s one of their laws so there has to be more to it than that.
4. The Sinister secrets...the original Horseman have been teased several times, there was a reference to what seems to be Madelyn Prior? A reference to more Summers brothers...a lot of stuff there
4. And this tidbit:
Krakoa is infected with the TO virus. Or something like that. Maybe that’s why Mondo finds it unpleasant to face with Krakoa? Maybe why Black Tom has a hard time? This may tie into the whole machine enemy idea and eventually the Phallanx. Also the fact of how much do they know about Krakoa anywaY? It was originally an enemy, and it was launched into outer space by Polaris in Giant Size X-Men #1. Wolverine and the X-Men used the mini Krakoa which I figured is the Krakoa that turned into this island, but then there’s the whole history with Apocalypse thing and splitting of the island into two parts...either I missed reading something or there’s conflicting retcons.