This week I have an X-Men guide update that’s not for an X-Men guide, although it’s actually an extremely X-Men guide. Confused yet? Hopefully this update will help alleviate your confusion, because today I rebuilt my Guide to Exiles!
Here’s my simple pitch for Exiles: Imagine if Marvel’s What If? had a single team visiting all of the many realities it explored, and most of them were mutants.
(Or, if you’re as old as I am, picture Sliders, but with mutants!)
That aptly describes Exiles as it was originally launched by Judd Winick and Mike McKone. It was anchored by the beloved Blink from Age of Apocalypse and featured a version of Morph who resembled his X-Men: The Animated Series incarnation, but all of the other characters were alternate versions of Marvel-616 mutants. Or, in one case, a potential next generation of mutants with the introduction of Nocturne – Nightcrawler’s daughter!
Part of the enduring charm of the original 100-issue run of Exiles is that it’s a straight sprint that isn’t involved in any Marvel-616 mutant shenanigans. It included mutants, but it was NOT an X-book tangled up with the rest of the line. Other than a single story in X-Men Unlimited and a three-issue dalliance with House of M, Exiles was 100% self-contained from issues #1-99 & Annual 1.
Then, Chris Claremont happened. [Read more…] about Updated: Guide to Exiles