Exiles # 90

Exiles # 90: Fresh Blood [Enemy of the Stars - Part 1 (of 5)]

Claremont/Pellitier/Magayar/Quintana/Sharpe/Cosby/Paniccia
March, 2007 (released January 17, 2007)
Marvel
$2.99

Plot Highlights: Morph rampage.... Power Princess decides whether or not to leave the team. Some practice. System tampering by a strange being. A tough mission is undertaken. A potential new member is summoned.

Neither of my two previous encounters with this title, issues # 16 and 26, lead to any continuing interest.

This issue has an appealing combination of factors that lead me to give this series another try. Writer Chris Claremont, recovered from a recent illness, takes the reigns as of this issue. The art looked appealing enough, and I had seen competent efforts from Paul Pellitier in the past. Current characters include Longshot and Spider-Man 2099, both of whom I thought might be fun to see again. And finally, Psylocke would be joining the book.

The cover is not terribly exciting nor germane to the events inside though there's nothing really wrong with it otherwise. At the very least I could easily tell which characters are in the book. And no mater how I turn it around in my hands they are all still looking at me. Well, I bought the book. What more do they want from me now? Well?!

Since I am using this issue as a potential springboard to reading this title more regularly, I appreciate the dialogue devoted to explanations about the team, their mission, and headquarters. Essentially, the team members have been selected and plucked from their own realities to help keep realities that are becoming unstable or dangerous from damaging other realities. Taken seriously it would be almost preposterous. How could a few people safeguard an infinite number of realities from each other unless very few of them ever got really out of control? Regardless, I think this is the kind of thing that might prove fun and exciting yet largely free from the events of the usual Marvel Universe.


As you can see, there is perhaps a little bit too much of updating the reader by the characters talking to themselves or explaining things others in the room would already know. Honestly, I was expecting this and welcome it since I am new to the series. I'm just pointing out because some might not care for it.

We don't really get to see what the difficult mission is for the team even though Sabretooth returns beaten and wanting reinforcements at one point. Most of what we see in this issue happens in the Crystal Palace headquarters. No, not the English soccer club, but a presumably unrelated observatory outside space and time.

I'm not sure exactly how the Marvel ratings system works. Is A for All Ages? This next scene is a little gruesome, so take the kids out of the room for a moment:


Talk about stamping out a character. Taunting a guy with his own blood splatter and compressed body parts just isn't right.

There was possibly some temptation at Marvel to restart and publish this as a # 1. I'm glad they didn't. I usually find that irritating.

I will not go so far as to recommend this issue. I personally enjoyed it, and it was pretty much everything I was expecting though I recognize it was nothing amazing. I also don't generally recommend a book until I've read at least three issues unless the issue worked as an incredible stand alone wonder. This looks like a decent primer on the current state of Exiles to me though, so feel free to check it out if that interests you. I expect to get the next issue myself.