Exiles #100

Background

The latest mission of the Exiles took them to Earth 616 where they teamed-up with Excalibur to take on the threat of James Jaspers, the Fury, Rogue-Mort and Merlyn. Amnesiac Longshot was reunited with Dazzler, and though doesn't remember their time together knows his feelings and left the team to be with her. Recently resurrected Thunderbird was reunited with Nocturne who had been a member of Excalibur until now. New members Rogue and Mystiq have officially joined the team, as well as Sage. And the pair of all-knowing beings have finally decided the Exiles were ready to replace them, and bestowed them with their duties, Psylocke especially.

CURRENT EXILES:

SABRETOOTH (Victor Creed): Enhanced senses and healing.

BLINK (Clarice Ferguson): Teleportation

MORPH (Kevin MacTaggert): Shape-shifting.

PSYLOCKE (Elizabeth "Betsy" Braddock): Telekinesis.

SHADOWCAT (Cat Pryde): Can phase through matter.

THUNDERBIRD (John Proudstar): Super strength.

NOCTURNE (TJ Wagner): Hex powers, body possession, agility.

SAGE: Computer-like mind.

ROGUE (Anna Raven): Ability absorption, flight.

MYSTIQ (Raphael-Raven Darkholem): Doctor.

ICON: Palace computer.

Story 'Home IS Where the Heart Is!'

Blink takes some time to relax on the beach inside the Crystal Palace, and the memories come flooding back. Her first arrival. Her teammates. The fallen comrades. These thoughts are soon interrupted by John and TJ having an impromptu training/play session. However, its cut short when TJ's body reminds her she suffered a stroke not too long ago. Meanwhile, Creed and Betsy try their hands at surfing, having more fun wiping out. Finally, it was time for a barbeque that Mystiq had prepared.

The team settles to enjoy the simulated night sky, watching the stars above. Psylocke tells them she believes those stars are actually representations of the countless universes in existence. The team takes a moment to ponder before Morph breaks the silence wondering where Cat, Rogue and Sage are. Icon reports she knows where Cat and Rogue are, but Sage is blocking her somehow. They decide to go find them before someone gets hurt.

Rogue and Cat take to exploring the Palace. Cat goes spelunking and cliff diving into the depths, only to be confronted by some sort of explosion. Rogue flies down to help the panicked mutant, bringing them both to safety as the others arrive loaded with questions.

Elsewhere, Sage is wandering about the memories of Roma, who had implanted them into her mind during the Die by the Sword mini. She's confronted by ghosts of her past, which end up being delusions cast on members of the Exiles trying to help her. She clobbers both Thunderbird and Nocturne before Blink steps in to stop her.

While Mystiq examines Sage, Blink wonders if something like that will happen again, or if any of the newbies can be trusted. Creed tells her it all has to start somewhere as Mystiq comes out with his prognosis. Without a telepath handy, no one can help Sage with what's going on in her head. Then comes the question, what happens next?

TJ and John come to Blink to tell her they want some time away from the team, to work on themselves as a couple and TJ's body, whose failings could prove fatal in a fight. Blink agrees with them, and even decides to go with them. She tells the team they'll be retiring to Heather's world for a while, and that the Exiles will go on just fine without them until they return. They say their goodbyes and depart the Crystal Palace for the last time. After a moment, Creed steps up and reminds them it's time to get back to work.

General Comments

And thus the series closes. Nothing much happens except a very brief recap of the book's entire run, as well as some character moments where things are tied up with them. John and TJ still haven't acknowledged the baby they were supposed to have that TJ lost after John was taken out. The last time that happened was during a dream sequence of John's during Bedard's run of the book. Also, the fact that Morph is really Proteus seems to go left unsaid lately, especially since also during Bedard's run there was a growing paranoia about that fact.

The book is topped off with a reprint of Exiles #1, which shows just how far the series has come, and how far it fell. Frankly, this final issue ended with sort of a whimper. Maybe it's because all the original principles are gone in some form, or because this wasn't really a PROPER end as it served to lead into the new series.

Overall, having read Exiles from #1, I haven't been impressed with Claremont's run so far. He had far too much repetition and mischaracterizations, and also seemed to think that Spidey 2099 was somehow Peter Parker in the future. Also, there were lots of little quirks in the stories, like in this issue why do the Exiles assume that someone is going to be hurt because Rogue, Shadowcat and Sage aren't hanging out with them? Makes no sense that THAT would be the first thing on their minds, unless the questions of trust that came up later were supposed to justify it. It's also interesting to note in the flashback where Blink met TJ, TJ was wearing her uniform as opposed to her underwear like in #1, something that might have been missed had it not been for the reprint.

Overall Rating

2 Webs. Overall, a good series went south as soon as Claremont took over the book. It's apparent he has no grasp of the Exiles characters, which is why he's gone out of his way to replace them with characters he's more familiar with. Well, let's hope that change will give NEW EXILES what Exiles lacked.

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: Maid, binocular eyes