Exiles #33 is billed as part 1 of a two-part story called "A Second Farewell", which is odd, since it appears to be entirely self-contained.  Since the set-up here is to split the Exiles up, and do a story with only Sasquatch and Morph, I assume the plan must be to do some kind of parallel story with the other members of the cast in issue #34.

It's a basic plot which doubles as an opportunity to fill in some of Sasquatch's back story.  She and Morph blunder into the aftermath of Wolverine's escape from Weapon X, and not surprisingly he attacks on sight, because he's nuts.  The heroes spend most of the issue trying to get away from him, until Sasquatch manages to calm him down.  The big revelation, if they count as such in this book, is that in Sasquatch's home timeline, Wolverine was her first husband and she killed him after he went nuts.

All of that back story is shoehorned into a three page flashback.  That's fine for a recap but insanely dense for something which is meant to be the key events of a main character's life.  I always get the sense from Exiles that Winick is more interesting in sketching out some ideas that it might be fun to write, rather than actually writing them.  Maybe it'd be a nice idea to deviate from the format once in a while and do some flashback stories set in the characters' home timeline, in order to set up material like this in a less awkward way.

Still, the hunting sequences are quite well written, and guest artist Tom Mandrake turns in some very good panels of Sasquatch and Wolverine - though there are a few really clunky moments, especially in the flashback, in a very inconsistent art job.  The finish is perhaps a little corny, but Winick and Mandrake do pull it off.

I can't move on without noting that this issue poses a few more glitches with the recent fill-in issues.  Given that Sasquatch saw Morph reattaching his severed body parts in that storyline, it's a little odd that he's needing to deliver exposition on the subject here.  Moreover, you might have thought Sasquatch would have reacted a little more strongly to being around her ex-husband; if anything, that storyline would have been a great point to lay the groundwork for this issue, though admittedly there are editing practicalities in moving story elements around like that.

A perfectly okay issue, anyway.  I'll be interested to see what appears in the next issue to justify the "part 1 of 2" tag.

Rating: B

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