Exiles continues its revival of the 1980s Kulan Gath storyline - now 50% longer than the original!  Mind you, it's shipping biweekly, so it'll actually take the same length of time to come out.  Oh, it's so confusing these days.

It's hard to know what to say about this, really.  Especially knowing that I've got to save something to say when I review the concluding part.  Basically, it's a generic Exiles story, and I suppose there's nothing wrong with doing some of those along the way.  Unfortunately, a generic Exiles story has a habit of meaning what it does here.  The Exiles turn up in a world based around an idea the writer really wanted to do, and plod through the motions even though the story hasn't really got anything to do with them besides the alternate-reality gimmick. 

Of course, this is an inherent flaw in the concept, so I can't really blame Tony Bedard for it.  But it still makes the stories hard to get worked up about.

The appeal of this storyline really depends on whether you have a burning desire for superhero/sorcery crossover stories (ideally, whether you love the original story it's based on).  Or, alternatively, you might also get a kick out of it if you're a diehard fan of Werewolf By Night who's been waiting to see your favourite character again for years and year.

As so often with this book, it's competent, but rather uninspired - after all, the inspiration for this story is openly borrowed second-hand from Claremont, and even he didn't try to get more than two isues out of the idea.  Okay, but nothing exceptional.

Rating: B-

back | continue