Uncanny #492 picks up right where Messiah Complex left off. The X-Men have recently arrived home and they’re watching coverage of the destruction of Cooperstown, Alaska, destroyed by the recent mutant birth and subsequent battle between Sinister’s Marauders and the mutant-hating Purifiers. The X-Men arrived just in time to earn some good PR by rescuing some of the victims, but they’re wondering why no-one is blaming the violence on mutants, as expected.

The answer isn’t stated on the page, but it should be fairly obvious to readers – it’s because Predator X, the genetically engineered mutant-hunting beast, has EATEN the corpses of the dead marauders found at the scene, meaning there’s no clue that this was a mutant-based affair. Lovely.

Brubaker shows why he’s a great choice for X-Men with a great scene between Cyclops and Professor X, where the former reminds his old mentor that, after all the crap he’s put up with, he doesn’t feel like he needs permission to take a team of X-Men out. This builds nicely on storylines that you can read in Brubaker’s miniseries, Deadly Genesis, as well as Joss Whedon’s work in Astonishing X-Men. The Professor is certainly not okay with a large proportion of the team, and the pages of him wandering aimlessly around the mansion are surprisingly poignant.

Meanwhile, Wolverine’s out tracking down the Marauders by way of Exodus, and Jamie Madrox (of X-Factor) checks in. Relations between the X-Men and X-Factor are frosty right now, but some telepathic coaxing brought Jamie in and the crossover’s going to be in X-Factor this week, so it’s lucky he turned up. Layla Miller is proving to be a great character, as ever, and between Rictor’s assignment to go undercover with the Purifiers (he is, after all, human now) and Madrox’s task to go talk to Forge, the crossover feels remarkably organic, which is definitely something you want. At this point in the story, the X-Men are definitely playing catchup, but for the first time in decades it feels like Cyclops might actually be the leader they need to get ahead of the game.