THE CREATORS: Judd Winick writes issues #21-25 and #31-37.  Chuck Austen writes issues #26-30 and #38-39.  In theory the regular artist is Clayton Henry, starting with issue #26.  The operative words are "In theory."

THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Twelve.  Of which, Jim Calafiore did seven - as many issues as the nominal regular artist.

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2003: The conclusion of "Legacy" (the Vi-Lock) storyline; "With An Iron Fist" (the one where an evil Iron Man is president); the first Chuck Austen fill-in run; "Avengers Forever" (the one where the Avengers are vampires - does anyone even remember it?); the two "A Second Farewell" stories; "Fantastic Voyage" (the last Winick storyline); and the start of "King Hyperion".

You know those little machines you can buy for feeding your cat while you're away on holiday?  The ones where you fill up all the little compartments with cat food, and then every day the machine opens another one for the cat to eat?

Well, that's basically what Exiles was like in 2003.  By the end of 2002, Judd Winick had already signed a twelve-month exclusive contract with DC.  Most people would take this as a cue to leave Exiles altogether, but not Winick.  Instead, he hedged his bets, and wrote twelve months of scripts before his exclusive deal began.  That way, if he decided not to renew with DC, he could come back and pick up Exiles again.

However, Winick didn't allow for the fact that Marvel wanted to produce nineteen issues of Exiles in 2003, which left them a little short on material.  But never mind!  As any Marvel editor knows, when there are pages to be filled, and quality is a secondary consideration, it's time to reach for Chuck Austen's phone number.  As a result, we've also been blessed with seven Austen fill-ins.

What this meant, in practice, was a year of lacklustre stories interspersed with awful crap from Austen.  Exiles has always had an innate tendency towards formula, because the set-up requires the characters to show up, get a mission, and fulfil it.  By 2002 that formula had already become ossified, as Winick resorted again and again to the same old idea: it's a world conquered by the baddies!  Winick did at least depart from that approach towards the end of his run, and turned in one genuinely excellent issue with the Sunfire story in "A Second Farewell".  But the formula is still getting stale, and nothing this year was truly able to overcome that problem.

As for Austen, he gave us a rather pointless story bringing back Moses Magnum, and a truly diabolical effort where the Exiles visited the mainstream Marvel Universe.  Rather than doing anything remotely relevant to the characters, however, Austen decided to follow up on his "Dominant Species" storyline from Uncanny X-Men, which was very bad the first time round.  The Exiles arc was even worse, leaving the Exiles relegated to the status of guest stars in their own book while Austen's powers of coherent plotting deserted him altogether.  (Havok dies of a huge stomach wound as a central plot point, only to be back on his feet without a scratch a few pages later.)

In fact, Winick did renew his exclusive deal with DC this year, so he isn't coming back.  Judging from the solicitations, Austen will be writing the book for the forseeable future, which is a thoroughly unenticing proposition.  However, Marvel haven't actually announced anyone as the new regular writer, so it may be that they're holding off until the X-books overhaul scheduled for next spring.  Personally, I'd be tempted to just draw a line under the title and quit while it's ahead, but solid sales are unlikely to allow that.

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