THE CREATORS: Written by Chris Claremont.  Issues #90-95 are pencilled by Paul Pelletier, after which, it's rotating artists.

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2007: Two storylines in a row where Dr Doom rules the world and Reed Richards leads the resistance, culminating in the destruction of Earth.  And then the roster reshuffles, in preparation for New Exiles in 2008.

Chris Claremont was supposed to take over Exiles in mid-2006, but because of his health problems that year, he didn't get started until January.  When he finally returned to work, he was writing two monthly titles for Marvel - this book, and New Excalibur, both out on the fringes of the X-books.  Indeed, it's debatable whether Exiles properly counts as part of the line at all.

I still think that Exiles is a smart assignment for Claremont.  He's now at an odd stage in his career.  Most would agree that his heyday was at least twenty years ago, both commercially and creatively.  But what a heyday it was.  The entire X-Men franchise rests largely on the work that he did to turn the team from an obscure Marvel Universe curio into the defining team book of the day.  Even though he left the X-Men in 1991, the style that he established remained almost unquestioned until Grant Morrison showed up a decade later - and still continues to exert a major influence today.

But this is 2007, and after a couple of abortive attempts, it now seems clear that Claremont will not be returning to the core X-Men titles.  He is no longer the man for that job.  Yet he still has a loyal audience who will turn out to buy his comics in numbers large enough to justify hiring him.  So what do you do?

Well, you stick him in a continuity backwater and leave him to get on with it.  And Exiles is perfect for that.  Not only is it completely unaffected by events in other titles, but it gives the writer complete freedom to visit any parallel world that he fancies.  He can do whatever fantasy and swashbuckling homages he pleases.  The premise of Exiles under Chris Claremont is simply that it's a Chris Claremont book, where you can read his sort of stories.  Apparently, the upcoming relaunch is to make this even more explicit, as the editors have specifically requested that the cast should be made up entirely of his own characters.

In short, Exiles is as good a vehicle for Chris Claremont as you're going to get in 2007.  But it has to be said that this was a disappointing year for the title.  It ran two lengthy storylines, both making heavy use of the Fantastic Four and Dr Doom, but with no apparent parallels intended.  Both ended with the world being destroyed, and were frankly a bit miserable.  At the same time, a baffling subplot was introduced in which unnamed characters (intended as Dave and Paty Cockrum) showed up at the Exiles' headquarters as mysterious god-like figures, talking about the inspiration that they had provided to previous generations.  This never made a great deal of sense, and whatever point Claremont was trying to convey, it didn't come over.

Exiles still looks good on the surface, with professional and polished art from the likes of Paul Pelletier.  It's entirely readable until you stand back and think, hold on, what on earth was that all about?  I expect much the same from New Exiles - it'll be a book for his fans, and they'll be very happy to have it.

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