Chapter eleven of thirteen, and I have to admit I’m starting to get a bit worried about where the Predator-X story is going. It’s supposedly been tracking the “messiah” baby, to the point where its masters pointed the Predator at the mansion and it just ran the other way to find it, so… why is it now back at the mansion and about to eat the cast of New X-Men? Hilariously, the X-Men are so worried about whether there’s going to be a next generation of mutants, they’re not paying attention to the fact that the current one is about to get ripped into bacon.

The connection the baby has to Bishop’s future is revealed and, even though it requires a bit of continuity fudging based on what we already know about him, I welcome the attempt to simplify the X-Futures into what appear to be the “bad” future, where Bishop grew up, and the “good” future, where Cable grew up. The specific identity of the baby messiah isn’t identified yet, but at this point it’s hard to imagine it being especially relevant. If it’s not Phoenix, they’ll need to come up with a really good alternative because that seems like the most logical choice right now. 

There’s a nice nod to continuity where the Professor and Cable reminisce about the events of a previous crossover, the X-Cutioner’s song, a story this specific crossover owes a fair amount to. The reason why Cable didn’t go to the X-Men is fairly believable - Rogue’s team was full of Marauders - though with Mystique and Gambit apparently working outside of Sinister’s command, it seems that they might’ve been a good choice after all - it’s a nice reversal of the marauders infiltrating the X-Men, if so.

At the moment, the question worrying me most is how Layla’s going to get back from the future. At least readers of X-Factor do have a fair amount of the regular cast show up in this issue. To Peter David’s credit once again, he makes it feel almost like an issue of X-Factor, albeit one embroiled in a crossover. With the end for Messiah Complex now well in sight, one can only wonder what revelations are coming.