Exiles is shipping two issues this month, which I suppose makes a certain kind of sense.  When there's so much else going on to distract the X-books' audience, you might as well bang out a second issue in order to keep the momentum.

So it's the second part of "Earn Your Wings", and we're in nice, traditional superhero territory.  Namora explains her origin to the Fantastic Four in one of those lengthy flashbacks that went out of fashion for a while.  And the rest of the Exiles get into a fight with the FF thanks to that old standby, a terrible misunderstanding.

So far, so bog standard.  Even so, I enjoyed this one.  It's light, it's fun, it's not taking itself too seriously, and there's some decent comic timing.  Mizuki Sakakibara does some great artwork, and I particularly enjoyed her takes on the Thing and Sasquatch.  Okay, the Thing looks a little top heavy, but for some reason that works for me.  He ought to look misshapen, shouldn't he?  In fact, the art really works well on this issue, with some really enjoyable fight scenes.  It's one of the issue's big attractions.  Sakakibara is really growing on me, as she continues to refine her style.

Namora's story turns out to be a riff on those Silver Age Sub-Mariner stories where he would invade the surface world in a noble pre-emptive strike.  Namora did the same thing, defeated all the superheroes, conquered the world, and proceeded to rule it happily for decades.  She's a benign dictator, basically, which should make her amusingly unsuitable for membership in the Exiles. 

Old tricks, perhaps, but very entertainingly done.  Good fun.

Rating: B+

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