Article: Amazing X-Men #11 Solicitation

[Phil]

It did contradict. When last seen, Heather had run away from Mac with their daughter. Now they've apparently been living together again for some time. It's totally opposite to what we last saw of the characters (Heather at least).

That's not a contradiction though; that's unspecified, off-panel development.
Contradiction would be saying that Volume 4 never happened and that Mac & Heather have never fought before, or don't have a child.

Even a splash page recap would take no more space

That I agree on.

I disagree because we actually don't know what the fight was about. We're just told that there was one.

That's the point though; we don't need to know what the fight was about to understand what a fight is.
If Heather says 'we had a fight' a new reader knows what a fight is because it's a commonly shared occurrence - they don't need to know the backstory.

They can't even be bothered with a basic mention. "We fought over Clare again". Five words solve several complaints; you know why, you ackowledge their kid, and you indicate that it's fairly common.

I agree. They SHOULD have done that in #8.
They didn't so it will be awkward to do so in #9-12

No, you don't need all of that stuff because if someone wants to find out, the material IS out there.

If Amazing X-Men #8 was your first ever comic, how would you know where to look though?

I don't know if Marvel never ever does footnotes anymore, but restoring it to say "see Alpha Flight volume four" is hardly an insurmountable barrier, if the dialogue alone doesn't do enough to explain that she took off under a bad situation, came back, and the whole thing put a strain on their marriage.

Again, I agree; footnotes, like recap pages, solve this issue so easily. I'm a big fan of footnotes.
Marvel doesn't use them though. Possibly because most readers these days are edging towards trades and digital comics where the footnote becomes obsolete.

The things I refer to, that I feel should have been handled better, are things that are NOT stated anywhere. There was nothing to suggest that Mac and Heather were back together or that Heather had a change of heart about Mac being a suitable father. It's just thrown out there out of nowhere.

You're saying that as a Mac & Heather fan, and someone who read Volume 4.
The small detail doesn't change the plot of the story; yes it makes 18,000 continuity fans (myself included) sleep a bit easier, but it isn't essential to the plot. Unfortunately.

There's no point in having a shared universe if things that happen to a character in one book are ignored in others.

Not bringing something up is different to ignoring something though.

I'm not expecting the writers to build on what happened in AF v4, but I do expect them to recognize that it happened and write accordingly.

It is still accordingly though; until the moment it specifically contradicts it - If the characters suddenly announced they'd never had a baby or that they'd never had a fight, I'd be screaming from the rooftops.

I agree with a lot of what everyone, including you, has been saying - there are things that should have been handled better. It wasn't. This was why I didn't like the issue.
However, now that it hasn't been mentioned trying to mention it later in the arc will just tie the story in knots.