Exiles #83

Background

The Exiles have spent a great deal of time and effort chasing after the reality warping mutant Proteus as he tried to find the perfect body to inhabit. Ultimately, he possessed Morph whose physiology made him immune to the parasitic aspect of his powers. The Exiles had a final standoff with Proteus, trapping him in Morph's body under the illusion that he IS Morph thanks to mind- altering technology from the world of the Squadron Supreme. Now, the team is re-dedicated to the mission for which they were founded, although a little wary of Morph's delicate condition.

CURRENT EXILES:

SABRETOOTH (Victor Creed): Enhanced senses and healing.

BLINK (Clarice Ferguson): Teleportation.

MORPH (Kevin MacTaggert): Shape-shifting.

SASQUATCH (Dr. Heather Hudson): Super strength and senses.

LONGSHOT: Agility and luck powers.

SPIDER-MAN 2099 (Miguel O'Hara): Spider-like powers and talons.

POWER PRINCESS (Zarda): Super strength and flight.

Story 'It's Your Funeral'

The Exiles have some rare downtime, and they choose to use it by sending back every fallen Exile ever recruited by the Timebroker to their home dimensions for proper burials, with the exception of Mimic and Thunderbird. During the process, Zarda slips up and continues to talk about Morph in the past tense right in front of him, which Heather promptly chews her out about. Also, a despot Iron Man tries to plead with the Exiles not to return him for guaranteed execution, but Sabretooth will have none of it. He manages to reactivate his armor and gives the Exiles a bit of a fight, but Morph was able to take him down via the reset button Stark told him about when he was on guard duty after he was originally defeated. All this, plus Zarda's words, help Blink decide that keeping Mimic close by is selfish, and opts to take him home herself to let his family decide what to do, tell them about what he's been through, and hope they'd be inclined to tell her the things he was never able to.

General Comments

A short but sweet story that finally answers the question of the ultimate fate of the fallen Exiles. Long-time readers will remember a good deal of them over the course of the book, with some random new ones thrown in for good measure. Gave a nice sense of closure to all these characters and their story. Casey Jones steps in on pencil duties for this issue. While not bad, when compared to the last two artists of the previous arc his work doesn't really hold up as strong. In fact, some of his characters look like they came straight out of a cartoon and his Spidey 2099 is a scrawny li'l cuss. Overall, a decent issue presenting a nice calm before the next storm.

Overall Rating

3.5 Webs. The art wasn't as good as it has been, but this was a necessary story that needed to be done, and a simple bridge leading into the next arc.

Footnote

In every issue, Morph takes on some familiar and unusual forms. Here, we'll try to chronicle as many as we can in a section we'll call: MORPH'S MORPHS!

Morph's morphs: Sportscaster