Exiles is entering a rather odd phase.

As you may have seen on the news sites, writer Judd Winick has signed an exclusive one year deal with DC.  But that's not the end of the world for the title, because he's already written a year of scripts in advance.  As a result, his run on the title can continue throughout 2003 despite him being, in theory, exclusive to another publisher.

However, Marvel have decided that they'd like to publish eighteen issues of this book in 2003, which poses a problem.  So while this issue ends with a reshuffle of the team roster, what we're actually going to get next is (a) a three-issue storyline featuring the Weapon X characters, written by Judd Winick; (b) a five-issue arc guest written by Marvel's favourite stopgap plugger, Chuck Austen, which will presumably be lumbered with the job of introducing new team member Magik; and (c) the return of Judd Winick to the core characters in issue #31.

All of this is rather odd and, when you realise that that's what's coming, makes it rather hard to get that worked up about the shake-up to the status quo at the end of the issue.  After all, it seems that the book's regular writer isn't going to be getting around to dealing with it for nine issues, and frankly, who really cares what a guest writer is going to do with the cast in five months of filler?  Exiles may be a second-tier X-book, but it does have a loyal core audience.  It'll be interesting to see what they make of the prospect of five straight issues of fill-in, even if it is going to try and buy itself some attention by featuring the book's first visit to mainstream continuity.

Now, I know what you're saying.  Am I reviewing issue #22, or am I just rambling upon about issues #23-30?  The honest answer is the latter, because it's far and away the most interesting aspect of this issue.  The story itself is competent enough, but despite a reasonable conclusion to the Mimic/Blink arc - and this is the second time Winick has used essentially the same story of a romantic couple being broken up when one team member is left behind, leaving the depressed and emotionally needy one behind - it still feels flat.

The Vi-Locks remain characterless villains, and the bizarre deus ex machina ending where the world is saved by a psychic summoning of the Asgardians feels like fanfic at work.  A bunch of random superheroes as the Avengers!  A group of villains based on a ten-year-old crossover in the X-Men!  And hell, let's throw in the gods of Asgard even though they have no thematic relevance to any of this whatsoever!  Yes, it hangs together more or less coherently.  But this title is giving the impression that, although Winick has put a reasonable degree of planning into the Exiles' character arcs, the characters are left floating around at the mercy of random plot elements that batter them around with little or no real relevance to their storylines.  One part character drama to two parts "Hey, Let's Use This Guy, He's Cool" is not a great formula, and it gets increasingly blatant as time goes on.

The existing audience will be pleased with the character arcs, but the Vi-Locks' storyline doesn't really work.

Rating: C+

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