Twenty Years of Exiles

[Captain Buttocks]

Twenty years of Exiles – the first few stories

Last year, I did a series of posts looking at Joe Casey’s 2001-2003 run on Uncanny X-Men (it can be found here for anyone interested). I’ve decided to try and replicate that with Exiles, which was twenty years old (incredibly) on 6th June this year. God I feel old.

2001 was a time of huge creative turnover and energy in the Marvel Offices, as the “Nu-Marvel” era of Jemas and Quesada was riding high and launching a writer-driven era of comics. The X-Books were undergoing a renaissance, with Morrison’s New X-Men topping the sales charts regularly and providing the focus of the line, as Casey and Chris Claremont wrote Uncanny and X-Treme (shudder) while Peter Milligan, Frank Tieri, Gail Simone and others were involved in producing books, to varying degrees of success.

Into that mix would come Judd Winick. Winick had found quasi-fame as a reality TV star on MTVs The Real World: San Francisco in 1994, where he came across as a reasonable (if slightly dull) member of the cast for a season, notably forming a friendship with fellow cast-member and AIDS educator, Pedro Zamora. Winick had expressed his desire to work in comics during the show, and would eventually break through with The Adventures of Barry Ween: Boy Genius which this author can heartily recommend. He was nominated for an Eisner Award for his September 2000 graphic novel Pedro and Me based on his friendship with Zamora, who had sadly passed away in November 1994.

SHH: Can you recall back to how that came about? Was it a series you pitched for or did they bring it to you?
Winick: No, they brought it to me with the very thread bare idea that Blink was the most popular new character to come out of “Age of Apocalypse,” so they wanted the idea that Blink should have her own team.

(Winick answering a question on how Exiles came about, courtesy of www.superherohype.com )

Winick was correct in that Blink - the main character of the series - had been an immensely popular character from Age of Apocalypse, possibly the most successful comics mega-event from the 1990s. The character had actually debuted in The Phalanx Covenant a year or so earlier. Blink spent most of that story ineffectually crying in the corner before sacrificing herself to beat a villain, and was inexplicably mourned by readers consistently in the letters pages of Uncanny and Generation X. The Blink in AoA bore little resemblance to the original character, and was a vast improvement.

Winick pitched a series that was “like if What If met Quantum Leap met Sliders”. I have to confess to having never seen an episode of either TV show, but hopefully we can muddle through.

If anyone reading this is thinking to themselves “hang on a minute – doesn’t a dimension-hopping X-book written by a writer known for his strengths with humorous dialogue sound a bit off for the grimdark nitty-gritty of Morrison-era X-books?” then they’d be 100% correct. You really have to squint at the book to consider it an X-Book, but this was in the golden time where the X-Men franchise was unquestionably Marvel’s hottest property and saying it was an X-book meant more sales and more cash (quite why they didn’t want to put it in the same line that was producing the snappily-titled Citizen V and the V-Battalion I will never understand).

With Winick’s pitch approved, he needed an artist, and he got one of the best. Mike McKone was chosen to pencil the book, and all the pieces were falling into place. McKone has bounced around both DC and Marvel doing the odd issue of JLA and The Punisher Warzone, but it would be with Exiles that he would make a lasting impression on a lot of comic fans. A fine comedy artist, with a good handling of expression, body language and able to frame action scenes that flowed effortlessly, McKone was an ideal fit for the book.

The original volume of Exiles ran for 100 issues, which is (to my recollection) the highest consecutive numbering for any X-book launched this century (Peter David’s X-Factor run went longer but was renumbered). It’s quite an accomplishment for what was certainly a C-level title at best.

When I did the Joe Casey Uncanny X-Men series I did it on an issue-by-issue basis, but that’s frankly far too much effort for a series that ran for 100 issues. I’ve initially just set myself the target of doing each storyline of the Winick run (which in itself is confusing for reasons of exclusive contracts and - in the spirit of Grant Morrison - accumulated script backlog).

Before starting on the Exiles series, it’s worth noting that Exiles was preceded by a Blink mini-series, written by Scott Lobdell and Judd Winick which is utterly, utterly skippable, failing in any and every way possible to set up any kind of interest in the Exiles series which would launch two months after the mini wrapped up. It’s also irrelevant to Exiles as Blink wanders around the negative zone for a bit and then returns to AoA before disappearing in the last panel.

I’m not sure how much interest there will be in this, but if anyone reading this did read Exiles at the time (or has explored it since) – what were your memories of the title? Did you have a favourite character or line-up? A favourite story? Was there a character or setting you’d like to see revisited? And is Sliders any good?

[Captain Buttocks]

Exiles #1&2 – Down the Rabbit Hole

Exiles #1 was released on the 6th of June 2001, written by Judd Winick with art by Mike McKone. The North American sales charts had it selling 59,786 copies, coming in it at number 17 on the monthly sales charts. Issue 2, released one month later sold 59,139 and charted at number 20. A strong start for the series at a time when a lot of big X-book re-launches were going on.

There has always been a rich appetite amongst X-Men fans for “alternate” versions of characters. The hugely successful Age of Apocalypse crossover introduced Blink, the main character for this series and other memorable characters like AoA Sabretooth and X-Man would have storied careers in future X-books. Winick had wanted to use AoA Morph, but as he perished during the original crossover, basically just used an identical version of the character from a happier alternate universe.

Elsewhere on the team we have Winick-created versions of Thunderbird and Mimic, and also Magnus, son of Magneto and Rogue in his universe, with the unfortunate ability to turn anyone he touches into metal.

The cast is rounded out with Nocturne, an alternate universe daughter of Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch created by Jim Calafiore (more on whom later) in the book MiIlennial Visions.

The fundamental problem with a lot of alternative universe characters is in getting the reader to actually give a damn about them. Often writers use the chance to write such characters by either making them “mirror” versions of themselves (evil Superman, tall Puck, well-adjusted considerate lover Batman) or by adding a twist to them – who could forget the Mutant X version of Sebastian Shaw? Regular Sebastian Shaw - but in a box.

Thankfully, Winick spares us the usual negatives of such characters by using popular yet unexplored characters (Blink, Morph for all intents and purposes), new creations or characters who haven’t been used much in the regular universe like Thunderbird and Mimic. Magnus probably comes the closest to being YOUR horrible fanfic character but there’s enough back-story teased out in the first two issues to see that at least a modicum of thought has gone into him.

The issue starts with the cast being teleported into a desert and meeting a character called the Timebroker, who explains the series central premise – the cast have become unhinged from time and have to hop around dimensions fixing things that went wrong. The Timebroker is apparently “a manifestation of their collective consciousness” which the seasoned observer may realise is absolute codswallop.

2001 was a different time. We had faith in our writer-driven comics and obvious gibberish like this was assumed to be something that would be brought up later (it was, but not by Winick and I highly doubt in the way he had planned). The other main plot device brought in is the Tallus, a gizmo that teleports the team and provides instructions on what they need to accomplish in each universe they arrive in to repair it. Much like the Timebroker, this also presents difficulties as the Tallus would give sometimes bizarrely cryptic instructions, as it does in this mission.

This particular issue with the Tallus would rear its ugly head over and again during the first thirty or so issues of the book, as sometimes it would be straightforward and other times annoyingly cryptic. Later runs on the book would even the variation out before doing away with it entirely, but at the moment it leads to a Trademark Misunderstanding™. The team arrive in a universe where superheroes are incarcerated and tortured and decide to free Xavier. Only problem is he’s a murderous psycho and then they have to release peace-loving Magneto, but there’s a bomb and Magnus dies saving everybody.

It’s all competently done, aided by some wonderful artwork from McKone and (whisper it) the fact that our heroes come across as a fairly likable bunch. Winick has a gift for humour and dialogue and this makes the book a very pleasant and engaging read. Likable characters was definitely a shift from the grim anti-heroes of the 90’s, and despite Mimic and Thunderbird in particular being powerhouses, they come across as decent sorts, even though Mimic gives Xavier the old Wolverine claws through the cranium.

The ending, where Magnus sacrifices himself to save everyone is competently done, and we’d had enough of Magnus to feel a bit sorry for the bloke, but it highlights one of the biggest problems this book would face – it’s very hard to get invested in the fate of the worlds we encounter and the supporting characters that occupy them.

So it’s a competent start, with a distinctive comedic art style, and an emphasis on snappy dialogue, which rises above the slightly formulaic nature of the book’s premise. Excellent art, and whilst it may be a formulaic purpose the slight hints at things being not-all-they-seem makes for an easy jumping on point to the book and the characters and it’s all done and dusted inside two issues, which is the sort of thing we wouldn’t see for much longer beyond Exiles as decompressed storytelling was coming into vogue.

Death Count – Magnus bites the big one.

Tallus Crypticometer – definitely 8 out of 10 on the cryptic instructions scale here.

Roster Count – Sunfire shows up at the end to take us to having had seven Exiles in total at this point.

Did anyone else read this when it came out? Can you remember what you thought? Or if you read it later – thoughts?

[FFJamie94]

Interesting thread, and I've been wanting to do a retrospective with this format for a few comics myself.

Exiles was always an interesting concept for me, and I got into comics around the time it came out, but I never really knew about it (in 2001, I was about 7 and only really knew Spider-man and the main X-Men line-up).
I did get a chance to read the newest volume that came out a couple of years ago.
I shall be following this thread.

[Malachi]

I followed Exiles through the first 2 volumes. It was it's best under Winnick, ok under Austen and better with Bedard. At least o my recollection.

Exiles was published when What If was still old enough that the Exiles was both fresh and safe at the same time. Seeing different worlds or sometimes different moments in time made for good twists and turn. Sort of X-files monster of the week episodes. That concept in itself, while strong, wouldn't have made the Exiles reach 100 issues. It was the characters. Witch both became it's selling point and eventual downfall. The characters are made to be replacable. That was from the first arc one of Winicks pillars that the comic was built on. On the flipside we where suppose to be emotionally invested in them. With plenty of issues showcasing deep dives in their history and the evolving group relationships. Ideally a character would die just before they overstayed their welcome. Witch to an audience used to decade spanning ongoings might be a bit of a missmatch. Exiles problem soon became apparent. The original cast(not Magnus) was it's best. All replacements never got up to that level witch made it harder to replace them and still publish the comic.

So the comic sort of ran into a creative dead end. Witch happened to What if also.

Best arc: Weapon X - Masada. One reason it worked was becasue it was a contrast to the usuall Exiles missions. Those issues are still with me. A rare exception of floppys issues I haven't thrown away.

[Mutant_Lover]

I adored Exiles! It was weirdly one of the first books I read and, even though I didn’t get some references, I just loved the characters! Having reread it many times now, I am always hoping marvel will do another book for them - yet whenever they do, it doesn’t capture the originals greatness - the closest was Dazzler’s Xtreme X-men.

The first arc: I gotta say I wanted to see more of Magnus when I first saw, and was sad he died - though I do agree he was least exciting. Actually I take that back, at the start I found Thunderbird least exciting. However, I did like the whole ‘who knows if they’re safe and they’ll get replaced right away) angle - and Marika joining to make an even 50:50 split is great. (More on her later but she did become my favourite)

Thanks for creating this thread! Looking forward to the journey!

[Captain Buttocks]

Interesting thread, and I've been wanting to do a retrospective with this format for a few comics myself.

Exiles was always an interesting concept for me, and I got into comics around the time it came out, but I never really knew about it (in 2001, I was about 7 and only really knew Spider-man and the main X-Men line-up).
I did get a chance to read the newest volume that came out a couple of years ago.
I shall be following this thread.

Welcome aboard. I can heartily recommend this run, it reads very easily and has some lovely art!

I followed Exiles through the first 2 volumes. It was it's best under Winnick, ok under Austen and better with Bedard. At least o my recollection.

Exiles was published when What If was still old enough that the Exiles was both fresh and safe at the same time. Seeing different worlds or sometimes different moments in time made for good twists and turn. Sort of X-files monster of the week episodes. That concept in itself, while strong, wouldn't have made the Exiles reach 100 issues. It was the characters. Witch both became it's selling point and eventual downfall. The characters are made to be replacable. That was from the first arc one of Winicks pillars that the comic was built on. On the flipside we where suppose to be emotionally invested in them. With plenty of issues showcasing deep dives in their history and the evolving group relationships. Ideally a character would die just before they overstayed their welcome. Witch to an audience used to decade spanning ongoings might be a bit of a missmatch. Exiles problem soon became apparent. The original cast(not Magnus) was it's best. All replacements never got up to that level witch made it harder to replace them and still publish the comic.

So the comic sort of ran into a creative dead end. Witch happened to What if also.

Best arc: Weapon X - Masada. One reason it worked was becasue it was a contrast to the usuall Exiles missions. Those issues are still with me. A rare exception of floppys issues I haven't thrown away.

Looking forward to writing about the Masada arc - given the prominence/reverence Tony is held in today against when it was printed, I reckon it would do gangbusters these days in a "What If" type storyline. You've made some great points on the casts expendability versus likeability, which is a tight balancing act for Winick and subsequent writers.

I adored Exiles! It was weirdly one of the first books I read and, even though I didn’t get some references, I just loved the characters! Having reread it many times now, I am always hoping marvel will do another book for them - yet whenever they do, it doesn’t capture the originals greatness - the closest was Dazzler’s Xtreme X-men.

The first arc: I gotta say I wanted to see more of Magnus when I first saw, and was sad he died - though I do agree he was least exciting. Actually I take that back, at the start I found Thunderbird least exciting. However, I did like the whole ‘who knows if they’re safe and they’ll get replaced right away) angle - and Marika joining to make an even 50:50 split is great. (More on her later but she did become my favourite)

Thanks for creating this thread! Looking forward to the journey!

Thanks for coming with me - bit more on Mariko coming up in the next few stories!

On "rebooted" Exiles. I think Marvel tend to just over-complicate the concept every time they try to bring it back. The short expected lifespan of series (entirely their own doing) doesn't help for the kind of slow burn we are looking at here either.

[Malachi]

Looking forward to writing about the Masada arc - given the prominence/reverence Tony is held in today against when it was printed, I reckon it would do gangbusters these days in a "What If" type storyline. You've made some great points on the casts expendability versus likeability, which is a tight balancing act for Winick and subsequent writers.

Winicks run is a good example of how to build a team. Some times it gets to much soap opera but many moments hit. Overall there is care and heart put into the interactions. Thunderbird and Shaman is a good example. The timing of the arc and the work put into it. It's all very good.

Looking forward to this thread. It's been a while since I read many of these issues.

[hairys]

Last year, I did a series of posts looking at Joe Casey’s 2001-2003 run on Uncanny X-Men (it can be found here for anyone interested).

Thanks. Coincidentally, I just recently re-read that run, and your thread on it was excellent. I was also pleasantly surprised that Joe Casey participated in the thread himself and gave input.

One nit. In your final post in that thread covering the last issue, you wrote: "I think, crucially, that this story appeared to be the kind of story Casey wanted to tell, rather than the kind of story he felt he should tell. We'll discuss that theory a bit more in depth next time." But then no more posts from you :-). Do you remember what you wanted to say and want to share it belatedly? Obviously I only ask because, again, your retrospective was so excellent, so I'm interested to read this final opinion from you. Thanks either way.

[Factor]

I absolutely loved this series. It was one of the first X-books I read, so it actually introduced me to many X-characters like Blink, Namora and Magik before I got to read the regular versions.
It was an incredibly fun and inventive comic and surpringly high stakes for a book most readers today would avoid for not being set in 616.
It also managed to keep a pretty consistent level of quality until Claremont, I think. Then the book went downhill, got a terrible relaunch (New Exiles) and all the versions since were canceled really soon

[Captain Buttocks]

Thanks. Coincidentally, I just recently re-read that run, and your thread on it was excellent. I was also pleasantly surprised that Joe Casey participated in the thread himself and gave input.

One nit. In your final post in that thread covering the last issue, you wrote: "I think, crucially, that this story appeared to be the kind of story Casey wanted to tell, rather than the kind of story he felt he should tell. We'll discuss that theory a bit more in depth next time." But then no more posts from you :-). Do you remember what you wanted to say and want to share it belatedly? Obviously I only ask because, again, your retrospective was so excellent, so I'm interested to read this final opinion from you. Thanks either way.

Thanks for the kind words!
Regarding the Joe Casey run - I was going to do an "Aftermath" sort of post, looking at the future for Casey, the X-Books and the associated major artists, however (I think another commenter mentioned it) work in the Health Service over here just went a bit crazy, and I found myself going six weeks without finishing the piece. By then the thread had become kind of buried and I decided to just leave it as it was. I still have a draft saved somewhere (possibly on a work computer!) so I might hunt it out!
Also - yes, it was incredibly kind and gracious of Joe to contribute to the thread. Shame he dropped out around the X-Corps storyline, as I'd have been fascinated to know what really happened there!

I absolutely loved this series. It was one of the first X-books I read, so it actually introduced me to many X-characters like Blink, Namora and Magik before I got to read the regular versions.
It was an incredibly fun and inventive comic and surpringly high stakes for a book most readers today would avoid for not being set in 616.
It also managed to keep a pretty consistent level of quality until Claremont, I think. Then the book went downhill, got a terrible relaunch (New Exiles) and all the versions since were canceled really soon

Much as I love CC, I agree with you. I felt Exiles was a poor fit for him, and magnified some of his weaknesses (repetitive mind control plots, obsession with Captain Britain concepts, and his "pet" characters being focussed on at the expense of the group) whilst also not providing any particularly fulfilling storylines.

I dont plan to go as far as Claremont in this run, mainly because I love the man too much to want to bash several issues of his! Really pleased to read that you enjoyed this book early on though - your enjoyment seems the perfect level for where this book was pitched!

[FFJamie94]

By the way Cap, do you mind if I steal this review format on this forum?
I've been thinking of doing a few retrospective reviews for a while now and I think this format is perfect for it.

[Captain Buttocks]

By the way Cap, do you mind if I steal this review format on this forum?
I've been thinking of doing a few retrospective reviews for a while now and I think this format is perfect for it.

Absolutely dont mind at all! Look forward to reading your reviews!

[twiztor]

i read this whole run way back when. Really loved it at the beginning but became very disinterested towards the end. don't remember when the break happened.

what really got me to check this out was the inclusion of Morph. He's one of my favorite comic characters (even though it was X-Man: The Animated Series that introduced me to him), so anything that he's in, i will check out. Blick was excellent as the focal point of the series.

[Captain Buttocks]

Old Wounds, New Battles

Issue #3 and #4 of Exiles were released on 8th of August and 5th of September 2001 respectively. In the North American market issue 3 sold 54,874 copies and issue 4 sold 47,687, charting them at twenty-fifth and thirtieth place in successive monthly sales charts. A solid enough showing for what was essentially a C-level title, with sales attrition looking encouraging by the standards of the time.

Unfortunately, this is a far weaker story than the first one, and some alarm bells could be ringing already for the book threatening to become formulaic. The plot is fairly straightforward - at the end of issue 2 the Exiles teleport straight into the trial of the Phoenix. The Tallus informs them that they have to kill Jean Grey. This is where awkward plot mechanics start to kick in.

For any long-term readers (which Mimic clearly is as he helpfully explains) we know Jean isn’t *really* the Phoenix, so fine, let’s get on with it. This causes a very forced explanation of “ah, but here she actually is” to try and force a bit of drama into the storyline and it feels very clunky. The Tallus - from being a cryptic seer in the last issue - is now giving all of the team full-on post-apocalyptic visions of what will happen if they fail to comply with their mission. It’s pointing out that Jean dying is for the greater good (rejoice T’au players) and the team quite frankly are just gonna have to get on with it.

One of the casualties of this hand-wringing is Mariko Yashida, a.k.a Sunfire, who gets to stand about doing nothing following her introduction at the end of the last issue. For a book which aims to get by on the strength of its characterisation and inter-cast dynamics, this is a remarkable oversight, but let’s be charitable and put it down to early teething problems.

The rest of the team have some nice moments, such as Nocturne wanting to interact with Nightcrawler and Blink and Mimic growing closer, with Mimic ultimately giving Blink his stamp of approval as leader of the team. Morph remains an amusing presence, and his powers are well-used during action scenes.

The original source material is treated with the reverence you would expect, and Mike McKone has some lovely little touches in drawing the classic X-Men and Imperial Guard designs, the book really looks lovely. Unfortunately, it just makes me want to read the original Dark Phoenix storyline again, as it’s one of the greatest stories ever written. Overall, from the clunky plot to the lack of investment in the original Jean Grey, this story – whilst still perfectly decent reading that looks lovely – doesn’t really build on the promise of the first two issues and the book feels like it is already treading water. Popping the Exiles into a “cornerstone” event of the Marvel Universe is a concept Winick would revisit to much better effect later on in his run, although if you’re only an X-Men reader your mileage may vary on that one.

The covers to both of these issues are fabulous by the way. Sod it – I’ll add best cover to our recurring features.

Next time – we’ll do three issues, a two-parter and an ill-advised standalone.

Death Count – just Magnus still.

Tallus Crypticometer – 0 out of 10. The Tallus is on full-on helpful mode this story. Clear mission, nightmarish visions of doom, the works. It probably cooked some meals off-panel.

Roster Count – seven.

Best cover – Issue 4 has a lovely Scott and Jean homage using Mimic and Blink, but Issue 3’s cover, with the team reflected in Wolverine’s claws is just magnificent. Issue 3.

[Uncanny X-Man]

Captain Buttocks,

I always enjoy your deep-dives and this is no exception, another well-written and thought-out topic.

It’s been an age since I read Exiles but I definitely have some very fond memories of it. The Mimic, Nocturne and Morph always stood out as favourites for me. I also loved the work Winick did over at DC on the relaunched Outsiders and always wanted him to get a shot at a main X-Men book one day. Bummed his comic output is very limited these days.

The original volume of Exiles ran for 100 issues, which is (to my recollection) the highest consecutive numbering for any X-book launched this century (Peter David’s X-Factor run went longer but was renumbered). It’s quite an accomplishment for what was certainly a C-level title at best.

I never thought about this but it's absolutely true and absolutely impressive too. Obviously there are a few other satellite X-titles that passed the 100th issue mark but they're mostly the historical spin-offs like New Mutants, Wolverine, etc. For a C-level title as you say to accomplish that I believe is a testimony to the strength of the concept as well as the strong foundations laid by that original run by Winick, McKone and Calafiore.