Exiles (Marvel Comics)
The Exiles are a group of fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics commonly associated with The X-Men. They feature in three series, Exiles, New Exiles, and Exiles vol. 2. The Exiles consists of characters from different universes, or realities, which have been removed from time and space in order to correct problems in various alternate worlds and divergent timelines in the Marvel Multiverse.
Created by writer Judd Winick and artist Mike McKone, Exiles features a revolving team roster with new characters introduced and others replaced when they are killed or returned to their home reality. The series is notable for the number of characters who stay dead, in contrast to the frequent resurrections that occur in the main Marvel and DC continuities. It has featured familiar characters or settings from previous Marvel storylines, such as the "Age of Apocalypse" and "House of M".
The first volume of Exiles ran for 100 issues, ending after a crossover with the members of New Excalibur in X-Men: Die by the Sword and the one-shot Exiles: Days of Then and Now. In March 2008 New Exiles began with Chris Claremont and artist Tom Grummett at the helm. Writer Jeff Parker and artist Salvador Espin relaunched the series with a new #1 in April 2009, but the book was canceled after only six issues.
Publication history
Exiles was created by Mike Marts, Mike Raicht, Judd Winick, and artists Mike McKone and Jim Calafiore. Exiles was created after a period of development aimed at creating a new What If? book for Marvel.Raicht and Winick would develop the initial formula of Exiles' reality-hopping adventures. Chuck Austen came aboard as interim writer after Winick's move to DC Comics. Tony Bedard took over, writing roughly half the series, from #46-89. Chris Claremont came onboard as of issue #90 and ended the series with the crossover X-Men Die by the Sword, before restarting the series as New Exiles. New Exiles ran for 18 issues before being canceled. A few months later the series was restarted again with a second volume of Exiles, written by Jeff Parker. This relaunch only lasted 6 issues before being canceled as well. A third series was launched as part of Marvel Legacy, written by Saladin Ahmed joined by the art team of Javier Rodriguez, Alvaro Lopez, and Jordie Bellaire and Joe Caramagna.
A number of artists have penciled the series including Mike McKone, Jim Calafiore, Kev Walker, Clayton Henry, Mizuki Sakakibara, Casey Jones, Steve Scott, Paul Pelletier, and Tom Mandrake. Tom Grummett, Roberto Castro, Paco Diaz, and Tim Seeley worked on New Exiles.
Fictional team biography
The Exiles team originally consisted of Blink, Mimic, Magnus Lensherr, Thunderbird, Nocturne, and Morph. The team has since gone through a multitude of line-ups, with Morph and Blink remaining the only original Exiles.Image:Exiles1 cover.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Exiles vol. 1 #1. Art by Mike McKone. This cover features the original roster.
First Series
Tallus
Initially, the Exiles are employed by the Timebroker to fix broken realities. The Tallus is a communications device, which is worn by the leader of the group in order to communicate with the Timebroker. Through it, he would assign missions to the team and inform them of any changes, etc. Blink wears the Tallus in the beginning, but it is later transferred to Sabretooth when Blink rebels against the Timebroker. Mimic also wears the Tallus for a time in Blink's absence. It is now used as a means of communication between its wearer and whoever is operating the Crystal Palace on various missions. It has a slightly different appearance for each wearer. For the first time ever, Sabretooth has used the Tallus to transport himself back to the Crystal Palace, without anyone on the other side recalling him.Exiles
When Magnus dies, he is replaced by Sunfire. Sasquatch arrives when Thunderbird becomes comatose during a battle with the world-eating Galactus.The Exiles then discover there is a second team conscripted by the Timebroker, [|Weapon X], whose missions typically involve killing or maiming innocents and heroes. The two teams join forces to rescue a group of children from a Sentinel prison camp. However, the teams are told the second stage of the mission is to kill one of the children – David Richards – who will apparently grow up to become a powerful supervillain. Weapon X is willing to kill him, but the Exiles are not and the two teams fight until the Timebroker intervenes. Sabretooth agrees to stay behind and raise David Richards himself.
The Timebroker sends Blink home after a visit to a world plagued by a variant of the Legacy Virus, since the team had repaired her personal broken chain in time and Magik takes her place. Mimic then replaces Blink as leader, gaining the Tallus.
The Exiles arrive in the main Marvel Universe where they meet the X-Men after Havok's canceled wedding. The Exiles team up with the X-Men against an evil Havok from the Mutant X universe, who shares a body with the good Havok. After Havok is subdued, the Timebroker arrives to personally eliminate the Mutant X Havok's consciousness.
After Sunfire is killed by a Brood-infected Mimic, she is replaced by the Exiles' former teammate Blink. During the next mission, the Exiles and Weapon X are forced to battle each other until only six remain alive. Magik is killed by King Hyperion when she attempts to switch sides and betray the Exiles. King Hyperion is eventually defeated by Blink, who teleports his own heat vision into his back, paralyzing him. Gambit is allowed to deliver the killing blow against King Hyperion with a kinetically charged sword of the slain Magik which causes an explosion that kills them both, leaving five Exiles alive and their mission complete.
The Exiles visit the main Marvel Universe for a second time where they are joined by Namora, who replaces Magik, and are instructed to "leave their possessions and earn their wings". Reed Richards deduces this means they are to leave Nocturne behind and have Beak join the Exiles, which is confirmed by the Timebroker.
Timebrokers
The team is told by The Celestials to "beware the Timebreaker , he is not what he seems". After this, the Timebroker's behavior becomes increasingly strange. Heather Hudson is removed from the team without explanation and replaced with former Weapon X member Sabretooth. The Tallus orders the Exiles to kill Mimic and despite their refusal, they are allowed to move onto a new mission. Next, the Timebroker replaces Beak with Holocaust, which they are informed is a punishment for disobeying previous orders.Eventually, the Exiles break free of the Timebroker and stage a raid on Panoptichron, home of the Timebroker and a location from which many parallel universes can be monitored. Here they discover that the Timebroker is an alien race of bug-like beings that found the Panoptichron and accidentally broke a series of timelines. Lacking the power to repair the timelines, they concocted this scheme of recruiting heroes from various worlds to do their work for them. Not only that, all previously "returned" heroes are actually in Panoptichron, frozen in blocks, along with the killed heroes. As a final twist, the evil King Hyperion has fully regenerated from being blown up by Gambit, broken free of his stasis and has taken over Panoptichron. The Exiles are nearly defeated with both Namora and Holocaust dying in the battle. Beak returns from stasis and saves the day by calling on two good versions of Hyperion for help. King Hyperion is subdued and exiled to his home reality, which is completely devoid of life. Only Blink, Mimic, Morph, Sabretooth, Beak, and Heather Hudson remain to pick up the pieces.
World Tour
The Exiles then return to Earth-616 to take Beak home. However, Earth-616 has been overtaken by the House of M reality. During their stay, the Exiles run afoul of the body-hopping serial killer Proteus, who steals data from the Panoptichron and escapes from Earth-616, leaving Beak depowered back home. The Exiles chase Proteus through several realities, including an alternate version of the New Universe, an alternate version of 2099, Squadron Supreme, Future Imperfect, and Heroes Reborn, before finally bringing Proteus down by trapping him in Morph's body, which does not decay, unlike all of Proteus' other host bodies. During the "World Tour" of hunting down Proteus, Mimic is possessed by Proteus and dies, forcing the Exiles to pick up new members Longshot, Spider-Man 2099, and Power Princess to restore their diminished numbers.Post-World Tour
The Exiles begin cleaning out the stasis gallery of former Exiles and Weapon X members and send them back home. Iron Man, Daredevil, and Angel are sent back to their respective realities alive, while every other Earth with a missing superhuman holds a funeral. Blink, at the suggestion of Power Princess, takes Mimic home to be buried with his X-Men instead of burying him in Panoptichron. Spider-Man, Sabretooth, and Heather Hudson all decide to visit their home realities. However, the Timebreakers ditch the Exiles when the Timebreakers believe that they are not saving realities as they should be. However, after using several squads of Wolverines to complete the next mission and failing, Logan and young James Howlett convince the Timebreakers that the Exiles are needed. The Exiles finally resume their reality-saving missions for the first time since they discovered Panoptichron when they save a reality where the Silver Surfer has already destroyed the Earth and is trying to destroy Galactus, who is the restorer of worlds in this reality.Then, Heather discovers an Earth inhabited by a disturbingly close approximation of the original Exiles team, complete with their own Timebroker. After the "classic Exiles" fight "the all-new Exiles", it is later revealed that the whole thing was a scheme orchestrated by the Grandmaster, who seeks revenge on the Exiles for freeing Professor X on their first mission and ruining a bet. The Exiles, past and present, join forces with the Wrecking Crew of that Earth to defeat the Grandmaster. The current team then leaves the Earth in the hands of the approximation Exiles.
The Exiles then take three weeks to save a chain of cracked realities, injuring Blink, Morph, and Spider-Man. They also discover that Proteus is possibly immune to metal while in Morph’s body. Meanwhile, former Exile Thunderbird, is in the stasis gallery, dreaming of what might have been had he not become comatose.