Exiles #99

Background

The destruction of the Earth where Victor Von Doom reigned as its prominent superhero, and unknown dictator, had resulted in Sabretooth, Blink, Morph, Spider-Man and Longshot being scattered all across cross-time. Psylocke, newcomer Cat Pryde, and the resurrected Thunderbird are now faced with the task of finding their missing teammates.

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.

SHADOWCAT (Cat Pryde): Can phase through matter.

THUNDERBIRD (John Proudstar): Super strength.

ICON: Palace computer.

Story 'Home Again!'

Sabretooth wakes up in the woods somewhere, confused. His confusion takes a backseat, however, when a platoon of soldiers seems to be closing in on a single man at a pair of graves in the cemetery. Not liking the odds, Sabretooth intervenes and takes care of what soldiers he can, letting the man handle the leftovers. The man introduces himself as Raphael Raven-Darkholme, and says he is in Sabretooth's debt.

Back at the Crystal Palace, Pryde works on the Palace computers to see if she can get them back up and running. She rambles on about the death in her life, and Thunderbird, her assistant, offers to be there to listen. She warns him she doesn't want friends as she seems to end up killing them all. With the system now restored, they can begin to search all the alternate worlds for their teammates.

Another Earth, Spidey wakes up to find himself in the care of a lovely redhead in a beach house somewhere. He tells her about his adventures as an Exile, she tells him she found him on the beach a few days prior. Spidey is still in mourning over the loss of Gwen, whom he had become infatuated with, on the other world, and his new companion tells him she sacrificed herself to save him and that he shouldn't dishonor her memory by giving up the chance he was given.

New Tokyo, another Earth. Anna Raven, aka Rogue, has just been found in the middle of a theft by the Avengers. They attack, but she's saved by Morph now calling himself the Crimson Pirate. Backing the heroes off some, Morph and Rogue make their escape with by flying away. They land some distance away and prepare to make their introductions to each other.

Another place, Blink finds herself holed up in an empty cabin the middle of a blizzard. She notices the pictures on the mantle, finding them of her and her kids. The female being Psylocke encountered in her dream some time ago appears and tells Blink it could be the future, or a possibility of hope. She then takes Blink back to the Crystal Palace where she's joined by her male counterpart. They again reiterate their time is almost at an end, and they need some heroes to fill the void. They've settled on the Exiles.

With Blink's power and the Palace's computer they go and retrieve the other Exiles and their new companions. The last stop is on the world Spidey is. They find themselves near a restaurant and decide to partake of the food, eventually discovering its chef is Spidey. Seeing he's already set up a new life for himself, the Exiles decide to leave him be and return to the Palace. They still have no idea where Longshot is, until Sabretooth takes a good whiff and discovers by sheer force of LUCK, he's ended up right back in the Palace where he belongs.

General Comments

If it feels like the series is coming to a close, that's because it is. With Claremont at the helm, Marvel had decided to reboot the series as New Exiles, meaning the OLD Exiles has to go. The bridge between the two series will be X- Men: Die by the Sword, which also features Claremont's New Excalibur team.

So, it's pretty safe to assume the Exiles are being replaced by new blood introduced in this issue. Spidey is still pining for Gwen, but somehow manages to end up with a gorgeous redhead in a new life. The endless Peter Parker parallels just don't stop. I'm almost THANKFUL Claremont decided to write Spidey out of the series, lest he end up being Peter's direct descendant or something. Not much happened in this issue except for the reformation of the team, as it was mostly set-up for the mini-series.

Also, it's confusing just who was flying in the Morph and Rogue scene. It could be that Rogue is, but with the way the dialogue is set up it seems that Morph is doing the flying, which is not one of his powers. Poor layouts there.

Overall Rating

2 Webs. The Peter Parkerfication of Spidey 2099 was just annoying, and there really wasn't much to this issue except to tie up the end of the last arc and lead into the beginning of the end for the book.

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: Crimson Pirate, tuxedo