At a writer's retreat held by the X-Men writing staff in 1992, the writers began to plan which direction for the X-Men. A massive crossover had been decided upon prior to the formation of Image Comics and it was decided by the new writers to continue with the plan as a means to keep attention on the X-Men books at the time. The subject of the crossover was having the X-Men face their biggest enemies at the time, Stryfe, Apocalypse, and Mr. Sinister, and revealing the origin of the popular X-Force leader Cable.