Exiles ships its third issue in as many weeks, as it claws its way back onto schedule. 

This is the second half of the "Avengers Forever" storyline, and boy, it's underwhelming.  Last issue, you'll recall, the Exiles visited a world where the Avengers were vampires.  This was meant to be interesting because vampires were kewl.  There are two obvious reasons to do vampirism in this series - to continue the angle of Mimic meeting corrupted heroes, and to give Magik a mystical enemy.  One of those is ignored entirely in this issue, and the other is simply reduced to "We need item X / Oh look, I'm already carrying it."

It's a hollow and empty issue.  If you find the idea of the Avengers as vampires so utterly enthralling that no other content is required, you'll enjoy it.  For the rest of us, it's two issues based entirely on one idea which wasn't all that exciting to start with.  Winick constructs the plot competently enough, with a passable bait-and-switch about Union Jack's loyalties.  The art's okay, but not Calafiore's best.

From an editing perspective, it's faintly irritating to see that we're now being told Magik's sword is (oh so conveniently) a rare Soul Sword from Hades.  Only two issues ago it was something that she could happily replace at will, which suggests that it isn't all that rare after all.  You'd have thought the editors ought to be looking out to stop these sort of glitches in fill-in issues, but whatever.

Ultimately, this is another story where the Exiles sit around in the background while Winick entertains himself by producing a serviceable plot designed primarily to showcase a fanfic-level alternate reality idea.  It's competent, but it's not special.

Rating: C+

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