That's a good point, and I don't know offhand how many months there were between NM98 and X1 but I don't think it's too many, so there must have been plans for him. I just recall reading it and it didn't seem like a big character rollout. He just seemed, in that issue, like a mercenary who could have not showed up again. I just didn't get that "big plans for this guy" feel from the story.
Just a kind of humble beginning for a character who turned out to be widely popular. I read it much later as a back issue, so he was already established, so maybe that had to do with my expectation of a "Look! Here he is! Our newest sensation!" kind of story. I was expecting that kind of first appearance (eg -- like reading Nova 1 or Darkhawk 1 -- that feel of here's a new guy we have plans for) and I just got the feel from that story that he was rolled out in a rather minor way.
Of course, he has turned out bigger than a lot of characters that were obviously rolled out with big plans, but that's the neat part.