I think Exiles is the first title I added to my pull list after I started this blog. The second volume of X-Factor would be a close contender, because I reviewed the first issue within the first week this blog existed, but I'd already decided to start buying it before then, I just hadn't been able to get the first issue yet. But given the increasing disappointment I was dealing with Bendis' New Avengers (not to mention Geoff Johns' Teen Titans run), I wanted some team book that was actually interesting.
Granted, I picked the title up during Tony Bedard's overlong "World Tour" arc, where the team chased the House of M reality's version of Proteus around, but at least there was an appearance that something was happening.
Judd Winick's run on the title (covering most of the first 35 issues), is generally regarded as the best stretch of the book about heroes from different realities thrown together to preserve the Multiverse, but by the time I'd started reading it, and could consider hunting down earlier issues, I was well-acquainted with Winick's writing from his work at DC. That work was not exactly a shining endorsement. So Bedard's 44-issue run is the one I'm most familiar with. I've seen the difference between the two described as Winick's being more character-driven, and Bedard's more plot-driven, for whatever that's worth to you.
As was normal for the title, Bedard kept the roster in flux. By the end of his run, only two of the characters up there are still on the roster (plus someone who thinks they're one of the people up there.) Most of the characters die, but a few are actually able to return to their home realities and pick up where they left off. Bedard also does a surprise reveal on the true identity of the mysterious "Timebroker" who moves the Exiles to and fro. In theory, it gives them more control over what they're doing, but in practice, they're still scrambling to pick up pieces.
While the "World Tour" story does drag on forever, in general, I think Bedard is pretty effective as shorter two or three issue missions that still feed into the larger arc of what he's doing. And he seemed to have fun with the concept. Like the issue above, in which the Exiles. . . buy a cheese danish. Or the one where the beings in charge keep recruiting teams of different Wolverines to try and save a reality. Or the one where Tony Stark, Hank Pym, Curt Conners, and Howard Trask are part of a super-science kaiju-fighting team, with Red Ronin as their Power Rangers style battle mech. I mean, Red Ronin vs. Fin Fang Foom, that's fun stuff. And Bedard seems to enjoy coming up with clever or unorthodox solutions. He manages to make Beak from Grant Morrison's X-Men run a useful character, no small thing.
At the start of his run, Sakakibara and J. Calafiore are the primary artists, which is an interesting pairing. Not really terribly similar in styles, since Calafiore has a very Sal Buscema-like approach, where everyone is sort of blocky, with extremely square jaws and shoulders, and sharp chins. Sakakibara's work looks quite a bit smoother, and I'd say the design elements for layouts are a bit more creative. Nothing staggering or mind-blowing, just a little more inventive. Eventually, Paul Pelletier takes Sakakibara's place. His work is more expressive than either, with more of an Ed McGuinness energy to it. Everyone has the big superhero physiques, but done up prettier than in Calafiore's work. I think Pelletier eventually left this book to work on Dwayne McDuffie's Fantastic Four run, which we'll get to in a few weeks.
Bedard left the book after the "team Wolverine" two-parter, handing writing chores off to Chris Claremont. Claremont, having just left Uncanny X-Men (replaced by Ed Brubaker coming off his X-Men:Deadly Genesis mini-series) immediately added Psylocke to the team. Because of course he did. I feel like he also added Vampire Storm later. I gave Claremont one arc, five issues, and then dropped the book. It felt like he was leaving out key bits of the story. Maybe that was for important reveals later, but it felt like plot holes at the time.
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