Exiles #34 is billed as the second half of "A Second Farewell."  However, it's not a storyline at all - it's two single issue stories with a thematic link.

Last time, Sasquatch was reunited with a version of her ex-husband Wolverine.  This time, Sunfire and Mystique return to the Legacy Virus planet from about a year ago.  Thanks to the Exiles' time jump going wrong at the end of issue #32, they've not actually got anything to do there, so they hang around with the natives for a few weeks, and Sunfire begins an ill-advised relationship with the local version of Spider-Woman.

This will presumably be the issue that gets Judd Winick his nomination for next year's "Best presentation of gays in comics" award, from whoever it is that runs those.  He's won the thing for something like three years running, mind you, so I suspect they might want to look at giving it to somebody else one of these days.  Anyway, this is a nice little love story which would work equally well done gay or straight (which, of course, is precisely why it's such a good thing to see).  I can't help noticing, mind you, that this version is a little bit more coy about Spider-Woman's identity; she's just Mary this time, while the original story in issue #21 identified her explicitly as Mary Jane Watson.

Regardless, this is a straightforward and effective story about Mariko and MJ pursuing a love affair which is obviously doomed because they can't stay together, and whether it's worth the pain of doing so.  You can't really go wrong with the classic themes, and if the idea isn't exactly new, Winick does write it very well.  After several scripts which had degenerated into formula, it's nice to see him return to the character-based work which is his real strength on this series.  It's what he does best.

This issue's guest artist is Jim Calafiore, whose sharp and angular characters might not make him the most obvious choice to do a love story.  But he draws the characters with enough subtlety to undercut the melodrama, while still selling the emotion.  He also produces one very good page of the Vi-Locks, for that matter, with some shading effects that look to have been shot from pencils.  It's a generally good issue.

But one note to artists and colourists.  Yes, we know you can do a really nice full moon effect these days.  That's why every bloody story that happens at night seems to have a full moon.  Crescent moons seem to have gone entirely out of fashion.  But is it really necessary to insert a huge great moon, dominating the panels on the opening page, even when the script reads "How can you even see anything, TJ?  There's barely any moonlight."  It only makes matters worse that the entire scene is coloured as if it were in broad daylight, with only the colour of the sky as a mild concession to the dialogue.

Nonetheless, minor quibbles aside, this is the best issue of Exiles in a good long while, and a very nice little character piece.

Rating: A-

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