THE CREATORS: Tony Bedard writing, with Jim Calafiore and Mizuki Sakakibara providing art on alternating storylines up to issue #68, after which Paul Pelletier took over

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2005: The last part of "Bump in the Night", the Kulan Gath story; a Tanaraq issue; a very loose tie-in with the Age of Apocalypse; the Timebreakers arc that changed the status quo; "Destroy all Monsters", which speaks for itself; and the start of the World Tour, including House of M and a version of the New Universe.

Exiles is a workhorse title, churning out a mighty eighteen issues in one year.  And when you look at the sales figures, it's easy to see why Marvel are so keen on it.  It may not be a top seller, but it's an exceptionally solid performer in the mid table, reliably selling 33,000 copies month after month.

It's very debatable whether Exiles truly belong in the X-Men stable at all.  The concept has nothing whatsoever to do with the X-Men.  The link boils down to the team being largely composed of alternate versions of X-Men characters, but since they tend to be minor ones like Blink, the Mimic and the Changeling, it's doubtful that it makes much difference.  You could detach this book from the X-Men fold quite happily, and with a view to refocussing the X-Men's flailing brand, that might not be such a bad idea.

Perhaps ironically, Exiles succeeds largely by being reliably good at a type of story Marvel has generally been backing away from over the last few years.  It immerses itself in the playpen of Marvel continuity, plays with old characters for the sake of doing so, and generally acts as though the last ten years had never happened.  Crucially, it's also usually good fun while it's doing this.  It has the inherent appeal of What If? while largely dodging the angst.  Simply, it's good old fashioned entertainment which isn't embarrassed to be a superhero book.  There is no pretence to deep inner meaning in Exiles.  It's all about stringing cool ideas together.

The biggest limitation of this book has been its original, with the characters jumping from world to world and getting arbitrary missions each time.  Flagrantly pinched from Quantum Leap, it limits the ability of the characters to develop, and dooms the book to be extremely formulaic.  After several years it was wearing rather thin.  Tony Bedard has wisely acted to solve the problem by shaking up the format and giving the Exiles control of their destinations.  Now, while they've still got a mission to solve problem universes, the characters are free to do other things as well - such as check up on things at home.

That leads us to the current World Tour storyline, in which the Exiles visit various pre-established alternate worlds.  It's perhaps the most explicitly fannish thing Exiles has done, but there's nothing wrong with that - after all, that's precisely the level on which this book appeals.  I'm not sure how many readers were really hanging on for a New Universe revival, but I suppose with the planned Newuniversal title next year, it makes a little more sense to get those characters back onto the page.

A fun year, anyway, as the book successfully escapes its formula without losing sight of its core appeal..

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