Exiles Ultimate Collection 1

Title: Exiles Ultimate Collection 1
Author: Judd Winick
Publisher: Marvel
My take: A few small problems weren't enough tog et in the way of my enjoying the story - action was weaker for me than the personal relationships

Spoiler-free thoughts:A group of young mutants are thrown together in the middle of a desert. It turns out they were all pulled from different realities, and the timeline in each reality has been changed to affect their lives for the worse. their only choice is to try to fix the timelines by going from reality to reality trying to set the timelines right.



It's not an easy or safe job. People will die. But along the waythe characters are also making great personal journies as well, learning to work together and coming to trust one another... as well as sone less wholesome changes. the actions they'll be asked to do are sometimes hard, sometimes against their very fiber, but it's the only way to get home again.

They really felt like a group might act in this situation - a little bit of freaking out, but only a little - they're X-men, and they're used to unusual situations. And then it's on from there. It's fun - a lot of people say it's like Sliders, and they're right. But that's not all - Exiles has a real sense of danger to the team members which gives a bit more bite to the story.


Spoilery part: I liked Exiles because it has the same feel I love about Nova – the mix of seriousness and fun and adventure.

I liked Exiles because it doesn’t seem afraid to kill off characters – and yet, the characters who’ve been lost so far have died in heroic ways, saving people – in one case saving a whole world.

I also liked it because it was generally well-written and had a pretty diverse cast. They explored a lot of important points in Marvel continuity through the alternate what-ifs presented in each mini-arc. It’s always intriguing to get to see, say, evil Professor X or Sabretooth the nurturer. While some of the characterizations fell flat for me (especially the other history-fixing group. Deadpool was just sort of flat and Peter Parker… I didn’t know if he was supposed to be generally a good guy, or bloodthirsty, or smart or what but the result just felt bland to me) I think a lot of the problem with that came from a simple lack of time and the story coming at things largely from the Exiles’ POV.

I’ll almost definitely be getting more. It was enjoyable, if not precisely funny, and they tried some interesting things, some of which I thought worked better than others.

For example, they ran one entire chapter without text – just a series of scenes of the dreams (or nightmares) of various members of the group. It was really interesting, and because the focus was entirely on the art to carry the scenes, every image was diverse and dynamic. Since a problem I had with parts of the book is that sometimes it feels as though the frames could get really static with no specific effect in mind, I felt this was a really strong chapter. I also sort of felt like they ruined it by putting that chapter’s script at the end of the book. I was torn between feeling like that addition was saying “PRAISE OUR AWESOME” and just not trusting that, through fault of either the artist or the readers, we just wouldn’t understand what was supposed to be happening if they weren’t holding our hands.

That being said, for me a lot of the strength of the story was in their non-fighting times. When they got down to battle, I found I wasn’t actually all that worried about the team members’ well being. They were somewhat stock fight scenes, and the heroes were going to win. If someone was going to die, the death was pretty well telegraphed at least a page or two ahead of time. But the interpersonal relationships, and the personality arcs each of the characters was taking as the job went on and on, were often really well done. I enjoyed, for instance, the development of Blink and Mimic’s relationship, since everyone acknowledges it for what it is – a relationship first out of necessity. They’re together because they’re there, and Mimic says at one point he’s not sure he loves her… but his actions suggest highly that he knows he doesn’t, but that they sort of need one another. And since they’re both going to hopefully go to their own worlds if all goes well, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it not being true, deep love.

Another of the items I really loved was a rare down time at the beach. It had been alluded to earlier in the story, but they actually fleshed it out several chapters later. The bulk of the story is Sunfire and Morph, as Sunfire is asked to run interference and take Morph into town so the members of the team who want to go bare can without his juvenile comments. It’s a little bit heavy handed at times but it was the first honest look into the character of either one we got. The awkward exchange when Sunfire let Morph know she was a lesbian started out a little cringey, but ended up really sweet. Getting a glimpse of Morph’s serious side also set the stage for the last major item in this particular compilation, where the group ends up in Mojoverse.

The timeline-hopping worked in that instance, but for me at least, it failed majorly another time they used it. The group’s on a world where Skrulls have taken over and turned superheroes into gladiators who fight for their amusement. While on that world, team member Noctourne at one point reveals that she’s pregnant. Now at this point, I had some horrified thought that they were going to play the rape card, but she reveals that Thunderbird, a teammate, is the father. And my main thought was, wait, what?

I get that there’s time between each glimpse we see. I understand that we won’t see everything. But in this case, it felt like we saw nothing. The relationship came out of left field and smacked into the side of my head – after which it became so stereotypical it hurt, and with one notable exception (that he disagreed with her joining the fight, but was man enough to let her make her own decision like a big girl, which I give the book points for) it was entirely clear that this was going to end with him dead.

Well, to be honest, it didn’t. It ended up with him sort of comatose, unresponsive and ultimately left behind (replaced on the team by the absolutely phenomenal Sasquatch). Later on we get a time-displaced look at their relationship, but it felt like too little too late. Like the relationship was thrown in to deepen the shock value of losing him. And it’s frustrating, because it was clear that even without romantic involvement, she would have deeply mourned his death anyway. Not only were they teammates and did they appear to be friends, but in her reality, she was dating his brother, and both brothers seemed to have a deep respect and attachment to the other as presented in Exiles (though in each brother’s reality, the other is currently dead). They didn’t need the romance, and since the pregnancy was lost soon after, they didn’t need it either. It was just useless drama. Friendship is love too, comic writers. Friendship is love too.

One thing that’s bothering me a little bit is the Timebroker, the being who gathered them and sends them from mission to mission. He claims to be some sort of amalgam of their consciousnesses, but he knows stuff none of them could possibly know, and seems to have abilities outside of what I’d expect some mere amalgam to have. I’m a little surprised there hasn’t been more questioning of him and his motives and his reality, but I suspect that’s just be being overly paranoid in general.

Something I’m curious about as well is how these people fit in if they do manage to fix their timelines and go back to their realities. Do they go back to the exact moment they left? Do they remember the time in the Exiles? Mimic in particular has been getting darker and darker, and I wonder how that would affect his leadership of the X-Men (assuming he gets home).