Comic Book Review: Exiles

                 The image above belongs to its respective owner, not me

Hello Enthusiasts,

Today I will be reviewing the comic book series Exiles from Marvel Comics. 

This is a pretty strange idea, but in a good way. The team of Exiles consists of several mutants who have been ripped out of their timelines in order to fix mistakes in other realities. The lineup changes throughout the stories as members are either released from their obligations or die, which does help in keeping the story fresh.

So first, the positives. I think the best part of this series is that it feels like a spin-off of the "what-if" stories that Marvel used to do. What if the X-Men couldn't stop Dark Phoenix? What if the Scrull invasion happened in the middle ages? There is a plethora of good ideas to explore with this series. Another plus for this series is the consistantly good art work; it's all very clean. I have to give Mike McKone credit for starting the series off with such great illistrations (credit to all of the artists who followed him and kept it going as well). These stories also balance out the current crisis that the team is trying to avert with their own issues as a team, since these are a bunch of heroes who have never really met one another, fighting right along side each other.

In terms of downsides, there's really only one major one, but it's a pretty big one. With the stories being a constant jump from one huge threat to another, the big events can lose a bit of their luster. Don't get me wrong, the books try to keep it interesting, but it can't be helped. If I just saw the team take down an army of several hundred thousand super-powered cyborgs, why should I be worried about an alternate timeline where the Skrulls create a coliseum for super heroes? It actually makes it a little bit of a boring read during some of the later issues. On a smaller note, there is the downside of knowing that nothing that this team does will have any impact anywhere else; it is a secluded series in that regard. It doesn't take away much, but I found it was always on the back of my mind while I was reading.

Overall, there is a lot of good here, though the bad really drags it down. The series has several volumes, and while I wouldn't say it's better to get this than any other series, it's still very enjoyable. I know that I was really into it for the first few volumes for sure, but it did lose some steam about five volumes in.

I give the Exiles series a 6 out of 10.

Sincerely,

The Bored Enthusiast