Uncanny X-Men #492 - Marvel

Man-0-man is this story starting out at a breakneck speed. It's like riding a roller-coaster, but starting out at the top of the hill. In the first chapter, a new mutant had been born in Cooperstown Alaska. The Marauders, lead by Sinister, and the Purifiers were the first on the scene. One to capture the child, the other to kill what they viewed as the mutant Antichrist. In the process, they pretty much wiped out the town. The battle was so brutal that they actually left a few of their own behind when they left. Which is what the X-Men discovered when they arrived, shortly after the conflagration. They assessed the situation, did what they could for the survivors, and then immediately set out after Sinister, whom they felt was the surest bet for the location of the child. But then, Predator-X arrived. This being was created by the Purifiers. Sensing a new food source, it had come to devour the child. Lacking any other food source, I believe, it ate the Marauders that had been left behind. Now Scott is doing what he does best. He's got Wolverine, Angel, Night-Crawler and Colossus out looking for Exodus' followers. They know he's with Sinister, so maybe his people know where he's at. Charles and Hank are trying to fix Cerebra and Hank is looking in to the tech that the Purifiers left behind. He's also called in Jamie and Rictor, and by association Layla, from X-Factor for support. He wants Rictor to infiltrate the Purifies, since he's technically not a mutant any more, and Jamie and Layla are off to see Forge. Meanwhile, all of them are in the cross-hairs of Predator-X, who is racing savagely towards them. This was a fantastic issue by Ed Bubaker and Billy Tan. Both covers by David Finch and Marc Silvestri were also amazing. Billy Tan is an incredible talent and has an amazing eye. But, his style is just not my favorite. It's got everything I like, but for some reason has never really been my cup of tea. That was . . . until this issue. I thought that his work, his style, and his framing were brilliant. His action sequences on pages 7,8,9 and 10 were some of the best I've ever seen. Anywhere! And I'm really appreciating how he uses the out of focus technique in some of his frames. Fantastic issue, and fantastic story-line. I'll definitely be riding this coaster to the end.