Does it?
They're powerful and intelligent in theory but as they're written Xavier and the council are idiots.
counterpoint:
complete idiots, surely.
They blunder their way through things and their motivations are transparent. This encounter was an example of it with them being obvious they want Franklin for his powers and only (potentially) getting what they want because of Reed's blunderous approach to parenting.
They want Franklin because they're aware of what's coming, and Franklin is one of the few mutants powerful enough to shift that tide. In every other scenario NOT involving a united mutantkind, Franklin dies with the rest of the Earth's mutants when AI rises in a couple of years. So again, Reed is wrong, X is right.
With regards to the feats you've outlined: A group of retired fanatical botanists cracked the Krakoan gates so please don't give me a speech on how Reed could never figure out Krakoan technology.
That group of botanists was years away from completely controlling the world's food supply and deciding who lives and who starves to death, eliminating 7 bilion people. The Xmen's work with Krakoa disrupted that. Yes, Hordeculture determined how to hack the gates, but the only reason they aren't all dead is because the Xmen didn't want to murder a bunch of little old ladies outright and tried to talk sense into them instead.
Reed on the other hand is a polymath, but frequently admits that there are other people on the planet who specialize in one field who are better than he is. Reed isn't the best geneticist on the planet, that would be either Sinister or Wyndham. Reed has ALSO admitted that Banner and Octavius are better in the field of radiation than he is. Likewise, Reed isn't a botanist, and has no significant achievements in those fields. Hordeculture is a group of genius botanists with 200 years in the field. He's outclassed there, and assuming he can simply hack the gates in minutes when they're tech he doesn't specialize in is ridiculous.
And the X-Men were required by power of plot to magically have drugs to enable their enterprise to work.
Ah, so plot is great when it serves your argument, not great when it doesn't. I'll keep that in mind.
When given the same privilege in "Fantastic Four: The End" Reed Richards extended human life by centuries and solved many of the Earth's problems (all after the mutant war of course). However he didn't have his children and in the end he puts aside logic and science in favour of (SPOILERS) his children who Sue Storm returns through her own plan.
which is non canon, just like every other "The End" book marvel prints.
Family is the central aspect of the F4 (again, Sue Storm was - or would have been if she knew - the calming influence on Reed's controlling mad scientist ways) and Xavier tried to manipulate an underage teenager because he wanted him for his powers. Now both of his children have run away. Please refer back to the comic where Sue is afraid of what she'd be willing to do for them. The combined effort of both of them is a fearful thing.
Franklin isn't an "underage teenager" and many of the Xmen were his age or younger when they freely made the decision to join the team. Reed and Sue treating him like a child and not enabling him to make that decision for himself is the problem, not X and Magneto. Without Reed's interference, Franklin RAN straight for the krakoan gate and would have made it through. So who's approach was right? Xavier's. He got what he wanted either way. Either Franklin would have joined of his own free will and ended up on Krakoa, or Reed abuses the trust of his own child by manipulating his body against his knowledge, and Franklin and Valeria end up on Krakoa ANYWAY.
Reed got outplayed.
And as far as I understand humans weren't wiped out. They evolved to a point past the biological limitations to which mutants are capable. The AI technology simply gave them time to achieve it. Ultimately what they, or what that one sketchy looking guy, wanted to achieve was a type of technological transcendence. But that whole thing is still up in the air currently and I'll suspect we'll see the return of "The Dominion" given that it transcends time.
your understanding is wrong. Humankind no longer exists, it's replaced by whatever machinekind evolves into, and anything that is NOT pure AI is wiped out when the Phalanx arrives. Humanity dies.
In short I don't think the X-Men are far beyond the F4. They're only capable of what they are because of Krakoa which they still don't fully understand, and co-opted alien tech to enable the backup aspect of resurrection (which - again - few understand). They couldn't even stop people parachuting in for crying out loud. Most of the things they'd doing now are reactive and come after others exposed their weaknesses.
See the above re: your understanding is wrong. The X-men perfectly understand what Krakoa is and the tech behind it. It's everyone ELSE that struggles to understand it. The Xmen completely understand the resurrection process as well and have backup plans in place to prevent it from being compromised, so I don't know what you're on about there.
As for "people parachuting in" There are MANY ways to stop that, but Xavier and crew literally didn't predict the possibility that their adversaries would vivisect a known Xman, and graft her flesh onto themselves to mimic a friendly operative. The error was detected the first time, but dismissed. The island's defenses can anticipate that now.
Also, the mutants are in a precarious situation and their central way of life hinges on a few things with their significant one being resurrection. The backup copies wouldn't even need to be found, just kill the individuals required to enable it to happen. That's it. At that point you're just left with another Genosha (as The Thing pointed out).
you should read more closely, as Hickman has already addressed this possibility. Of the five, Elixir is inherently immortal and cannot be killed. It's been tried, he will self resurrect even without the process. Proteus is nearly in the same boat, he's just using a cloned body of Xavier and can occupy ANY body at any time. Kill that one, he just occupies another. Of the rest, there are other mutants (such as synch) that could be slotted in to replace any of the remainder as a backup should they be eliminated, and Omega Mutants such as Jaime Braddock (and Elixir, again) can straight up resurrect the dead regardless. And good luck doing *anything* to that one mutant with complete control over time.
Xavier himself was shot and killed, but Jean easily popped in to replace him when that happened. It's just a matter of training, not power. You can't "just kill" the five and compromise the resurrection process (which of course no one but the Xmen are aware of!), because that has been planned for.
