I haven't read an X-Men comic book in over two years, but the offer of a free comic got me Uncanny X-Men #482.  The Uncanny roster now comprises Professor X (Charles Xavier), Havok, Warpath, Marvel Girl (Rachel Summers), Nightcrawler, and Polaris.

The Shi'ar Empire, that star-spanning imperial power that is fixture in the X-Men mythos, is under assault again.  The ruler, Empress Lilandra, is in the custody of traitors within her regime.  Prof. X is the prisoner of Vulcan, a student he thought dead and one who is determined to destroy the Shi'ar.  With the help of a Shi'ar prisoner named Korvus, the X-Men race into Shi'ar space where they join The Starjammers in a bid to rescue Xavier and Lilandra and thwart the Shi'ar coup.  However, an old adversary makes his surprise return.

I've been a fan of current Uncanny scribe Ed Brubaker going back to his indie publishing days, but this is the first time I've read his take on the Uncanny X-Men.  The story moves briskly and the dialogue is crisp.  It's sort of a less heavy version of what longtime Uncanny writer Chris Claremont did in terms of dialogue.  Brubaker has created a fun, old-fashioned sci-fi serial as his framework and has nicely inserted the X-Men into it.

The art is good, but mainly because of the entire team; that includes the colorist as well as the pencil and ink artists.  Penciller Billy Tan tends to overwork the faces - too many lines and too angular, but he gives each character a distinctive look.  The inkers don't make Tan's art worse, but the colorist gives everything a candy-coated chrome look that is distinctive from any other visuals that have previously appeared in Uncanny X-Men.

This is definitely worth a look for readers who haven't tried Uncanny in a while.

6/10