Exiles #97

Background

The Exiles had been gone for six months on their last mission. Believing them dead, Heather returned home to resume her life and the Timebrokers cut their losses and left the Crystal Palace. The Exiles resumed operations with the holographic projection of Heather, Icon, in time to find a new world that needs saving. However, aside from some trouble from the Mole Man and She-Hulk, the Exiles find a perfect world maintained by its champions, the Four Fantastics led by Victor Von Doom. But Blink, captured by the Mole Man who turns out to be Reed Richards, comes to find out the world is so perfect because Doom had erased the very humanity from the DNA of everyone on the planet.

CURRENT EXILES:

SABRETOOTH (Victor Creed): Enhanced senses and healing.

BLINK (Clarice Ferguson): Teleportation

MORPH (Kevin MacTaggert): Shape-shifting.

LONGSHOT: Agility and luck powers.

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

PSYLOCKE (Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock): Telekinesis.

ICON: Palace computer.

Story 'Where Dreams to Nightmares Grow!'

Psylocke awakens from a dream only to find a younger version of Kitty Pryde, aka Shadowcat, running scared through the Crystal Palace. It takes some doing to calm the girl down in order to get her checked out at the medical ward after having just run into a wall. As she's carted away, two beings that spoke to Psylocke in her dream speak of ominous things set in motion.

In the other dimension, Morph is the only Exile having trouble fitting into this new world. He roams the night with Morph close behind to keep an eye on him, wondering what's wrong with him. With his powers based on empathy, he finds nothing to connect to from any of the people. No joy, no sorrow, no passion. Everyone is hollow, soulless. Morph wonders if that's really such a bad thing after all considering what those things can lead to. Just then, Blink appears and tells them they have work to do and quickly. Longshot wonders if the world can be saved, Morph wonders if it should.

Meanwhile, at Doom's building, Spidey finds himself falling in love with a lovely blonde woman, while Creed is offered a night of love by Susan Storm. What he doesn't realize was it was a ploy to get close to him to allow her to make his Talus transparent so Doom can figure out how it works and travel to their world.

In Reed's underground base, he tells them about how Doom came to save the world from itself, getting little resistance or question to his actions. Those who couldn't change from their violent were either killed, disappeared or recruited to become part of the Four Fantastics. And on cue, the Fantastics strike with a converted She-Hulk in the lead. But, the Exiles easily take Hulk, Torch and Shulkie down long enough to make an escape and win the real fight against Doom.

Doom has finished work on his own Talus, and sent a contingent of his soldiers out to try it. They're whisked away to the Crystal Palace where Psylocke is alerted to their presence. She puts up a good fight, but they're equipped to face powered people and she is defeated. They begin to explore the Palace, finding Kitty who feigns hysterics to throw them off. Elsewhere, a few of them run into some unexpected trouble: Thunderbird!

General Comments

Not much happened in this issue. It basically served as an extended recap of some underlying themes established in the previous parts. What's wrong with the world, why Doom is evil, what Longshot feels, etc. The only new elements are Kitty Pryde (whom you couldn't identify in the last issue by art alone), Doom's quest to build a Talus and the love interests for two Exiles. And although we know who Sue was, we've no idea who the lady is making time with the spider.

The fight between the Fantastics and the rebellion were confusing, thanks largely in part to the artwork. It was impossible to determine just what Shulkie was doing as it looked like she was expending some energy bursts. Also, who was this Jessica that Reed kept mentioning during the fight? Last we were told, Shulkie had her normal name. Then, of course, is the prevalent problem of the characters' dialogue being far too similar and different than what has been established over the course of the series.

Overall, this issue was several pages of substance, and mostly padding.

Overall Rating

2 Webs. Nothing really happens and the story barely moves forward.

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: Parachute, Psylocke