I was fairly restrained last week when writing about  Chris Claremont's X-Men: Die by the Sword.  Quite a few of you e-mailed to suggest that I was being excessively forgiving.  To be honest, that came as something of a surprise - if anything, I'm used to being told that I'm too harsh on the guy.

So, Exiles #100.  This is a curious issue that bears the hallmarks of editorial mandate.  Even though Claremont has been writing the book for a while now, for some reason it's about to be relaunched as New Exiles, with exactly the same creators.  What we get to justify it is a roster reshuffle, but not an especially drastic one (given that Claremont's been shuffling his characters around for a few months now).

According to Claremont, his remit for New Exiles specifically requested that the book should feature entirely characters of his own creation.  This is presumably why Blink, Thunderbird and Nocturne get kicked to the curb in issue #100.  The latter two have only just rejoined the cast - in Nocturne's case, she rejoined last week in Die by the Sword #5.  Writing them straight out again comes across as weird.

As for Blink, for want of a better reason, she just decides to take a holiday.  To be honest, I don't really have a problem with that.  She's been with the team for a hundred issues and it's time to cycle her out for a while.  She doesn't really need a more powerful reason to leave.  At least all three of these characters are getting something approaching a happy ending, and that's no bad thing.

The rest of the issue is basically a downtime story, light on plot, as most of the Exiles enjoy a barbecue, while some of the newer characters explore the Mansion.  Tom Grummett's art is rather good, and there's at least a belated attempt to flesh out the hazily-defined new characters, Rogue and Mystiq - although not to the extent of giving them a compelling motivation to stick with the team, now that it's evidently become optional.

It's a light issue that seems to be completing an editorially-mandated cast reshuffle, while holding off on the plot developments that can't really begin until New Exiles #1.  In other words, it's filler.  But Claremont makes a reasonable fist of including moments of reflection on a hundred issues of Exiles, and there's certainly some sense of closure here.  For what it was, I thought it was perfectly alright.

Rating: B

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