Judd Winick, Jim Calafiore and company present a standalone issue of a series that has continued to surprise the hell out of me. Exiles.
What's it about? The Exiles is a group of mutants from alternate worlds, brought together to repair timeline after timeline, leaping from one place to the next. Periodically, members are returned to their proper home or killed. (In fact, the make-up of the team is radically different from that of the first issue.)
Remember that show Sliders or, going back further, Voyager? It's kind of like that.
So that's the concept, and it's a pretty big one. There are a lot of elements from the Marvel Universe that are laced within the alternate worlds. In this issue the Spider-Man villain -- the Lizard -- is the focus. Essentially it's "What if the Lizard infected the world's population?" The human population of the entire American Western coast has either been transformed into a lizard-like creature or killed. The Exiles are given a mission and together they carry it out. Often, they don't understand the reasoning behind what they're told to do, but they haven't been brought together to question - just act. This leads to frustration among the team members, who see no light at the end of their tunnel.
What I've really been impressed with is how reader-friendly Exiles is. It's What If? with continuing characters and a thru-line, often rich with Marvel continuity -- but it's never confusing. Judd works hard to present the new world the Exiles enter into in a fresh way. If you know the history, cool; if not, it's still cool. The same can be said for the characters. And really, that's what this book focuses on -- the characters.
I'm not a huge fan of Plastic Man, and the obvious comparisons to Morph are there, but Judd, as he's done before in this book, goes way beyond the cartoon exterior of the character and brings out both humor and realism. You laugh, but somewhere in there, you understand why he does what he does. I've really grown found of him.
For a mutant book that doesn't have "X" as the front letter in the title or established characters, its success is a direct result of the hard work of this creative team. If you're looking for something different in your super-hero team books check Exiles out. Issue #17 is a perfect place to try it.
Blink!
