X-Factor brings Scott back together with the original five, but it doesn’t put them back at the beginning. They have years of history now, and the problems they bring with them…

X-Factor brings Scott back together with the original five, but it doesn’t put them back at the beginning. They have years of history now, and the problems they bring with them are much bigger than they were when they first walked into Xavier’s school. The original mutant-hunter cover is a complicated idea on its own. They present themselves as people who can deal with a mutant problem, while secretly trying to find and help mutants. That means Scott is leading a rescue effort through a public image that also encourages people’s fear. Cameron Hodge makes that situation worse, and the team eventually has to confront what their operation has become. Meanwhile, Scott is trying to find out what happened to Madelyne and Nathan. Inferno forces those personal problems into the middle of a catastrophe involving the X-Men, X-Factor, Sinister and the demons overrunning New York. He can’t separate his family from the mission anymore. Saving his son is part of the mission. Where I am in the reading, Scott has already been a student, a field leader, a grieving partner, a husband and a father. His competence in one of those roles doesn’t guarantee that he handles the others well. There’s plenty left for me to read, but even within this stretch, he’s accumulated enough history that a decision he makes in one book can keep affecting people several titles away.