Jim Lemoine
May 28, 2003, 09:01 pm
<a href="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/exiles27.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/covers/exiles27t.jpg" align=left alt="Exiles #27"></a>Reviewer: Jim Lemoine, darkkelf@earthlink.net
Quick Rating: Average
Story Title: Hard Choices - Part Two
As the rest of the team struggles against Moses Magnum, Illyana takes on Colossus and the Avengers!
Written by: Chuck Austen
Pencilled by: Clayton Henry
Inked by: Mark Morales
Colored by: Transparency Digital
Lettered by: Paul Tutrone
Cover by: Randy Green
Edited by: Mike Raicht & Mike Marts
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
President: Bill Jemas
The fill-in issue/arc is an unfortunate trend in comics that Marvel seems to be returning to. With the company's new emphasis on more issues per year, some books are switching out writers almost as often as they do artists. Traditionally, these fill-in issues have been bland stories with absolutely no relationship to the title's current events (I'd bring up Agent X #8 as a recent example of this). Exiles #27, though, is the exception rather than the rule. Here, Chuck Austen and Clayton Henry create a story that is an important part of the Exiles mythos, true to the characters on the team... and pretty fun to read, too.
Austen continues to tackle Exiles using an approach opposite to that of regular series writer Judd Winick: while Winick is famous for giving the spotlight (and best lines) to founding Exiles like Nocturne and Morph, Austen focuses on the newer, lesser-developed team members. Magik naturally steals the stage in this issue (and Austen continues to write her well), and Sunfire continues to come off as the group's leader... much more so than official-leader Mimic. Meanwhile, usual Winick favorites Mimic and Morph are, respectively, barely seen in this issue, and handled relatively poorly. Austen still doesn't seem quite comfortable with Morph, but he more than makes up for it with his awesome portrayal of Sunfire and Magik. He does a great job of writing these strong female characters.
The virtual absence of Nocturne, Mimic, and Sasquatch is understandable: this arc really belongs to Magik and Sunfire. It will be interesting to see the repercussions of Mariko's discovery and Illyana's actions... but one has to wonder, considering that Austen is only acting as a fill-in writer, if there will be noticeable consequences beyond Austen's own guest arc. I would hope so: to my knowledge, none of the Exiles have ever encountered what Mariko did in Exiles #27, and it would be interesting to see how that changes their outlook on the job, if at all.
Dialog is handled well, with Austen adequately placating fans who've come to expect strong characterization, more than anything else, from this book. It's obvious that Austen has fun with the villains of the issue (even if he doesn't seem to have fun at all with usual-fun-guy Morph) and Colossus' speech and actions when faced with his sister are a surprising yet realistic treat. The borderline psychotic nobility and strong family values of Piotr Rasputin are in full force here.
Unfortunately, strong plot and good characterization are marred by problems with story flow. Clayton Henry's art is very nice, and again excels at facial expression and posture... but Henry seems to struggle with using his art to tell a clear story. There are several sequences where you're not quite sure exactly what happened, and you have to go back and reread to be sure. For instance, it's not clear at all that missiles are fired at Sunfire and company until you actually see the missles chasing them several pages later. Similarly, I'm still not sure if Danny Rand was 'Iron Fisting' when he hit Illyana in the face. At first it looked like he was, then it looked like he wasn't; I can't tell. Making things worse, scenes and POVs change quickly and abruptly, generally without strong transitions. Since the backgrounds are virtually identical in every single scene and panel (fuzzy pink clouds), it's often hard to keep track of who's doing what when. A bigger variety of detail in settings would have gone a long way toward clearing that up.
Add to these problems a relatively meaningless two-and-a-half-page torpedo flight scene that almost screams "THIS IS HERE TO FILL SPACE" at you, and the power of this otherwise fantastic story is diluted. And that's a shame, because it really is, otherwise, a great issue of Exiles. We've got very strong characterization, surprise twists, a genuinely threatening villain, and great team intrigue. On the artistic side, Henry gives us in full force the kind of attention to emotional detail that we've come to expect from this book, with fantastic action shots and excellent mood.
Exiles #27 is much, much better than you'd expect a fill-in issue to be. Were it not for the problems with story flow (as well as the nearly non-existent backgrounds), this two-issue arc could be up there with the great Exiles storylines. Regardless, I look forward to seeing what Austen and Henry can do in a more... familiar... setting next month.
ART:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exnone.jpg
STORY:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exnone.jpg
OVERALL:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exhalf.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exnone.jpg
Buy this issue online now from X-World Comics (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=52&cat=EXILES) and save!
Quick Rating: Average
Story Title: Hard Choices - Part Two
As the rest of the team struggles against Moses Magnum, Illyana takes on Colossus and the Avengers!
Written by: Chuck Austen
Pencilled by: Clayton Henry
Inked by: Mark Morales
Colored by: Transparency Digital
Lettered by: Paul Tutrone
Cover by: Randy Green
Edited by: Mike Raicht & Mike Marts
Editor-in-Chief: Joe Quesada
President: Bill Jemas
The fill-in issue/arc is an unfortunate trend in comics that Marvel seems to be returning to. With the company's new emphasis on more issues per year, some books are switching out writers almost as often as they do artists. Traditionally, these fill-in issues have been bland stories with absolutely no relationship to the title's current events (I'd bring up Agent X #8 as a recent example of this). Exiles #27, though, is the exception rather than the rule. Here, Chuck Austen and Clayton Henry create a story that is an important part of the Exiles mythos, true to the characters on the team... and pretty fun to read, too.
Austen continues to tackle Exiles using an approach opposite to that of regular series writer Judd Winick: while Winick is famous for giving the spotlight (and best lines) to founding Exiles like Nocturne and Morph, Austen focuses on the newer, lesser-developed team members. Magik naturally steals the stage in this issue (and Austen continues to write her well), and Sunfire continues to come off as the group's leader... much more so than official-leader Mimic. Meanwhile, usual Winick favorites Mimic and Morph are, respectively, barely seen in this issue, and handled relatively poorly. Austen still doesn't seem quite comfortable with Morph, but he more than makes up for it with his awesome portrayal of Sunfire and Magik. He does a great job of writing these strong female characters.
The virtual absence of Nocturne, Mimic, and Sasquatch is understandable: this arc really belongs to Magik and Sunfire. It will be interesting to see the repercussions of Mariko's discovery and Illyana's actions... but one has to wonder, considering that Austen is only acting as a fill-in writer, if there will be noticeable consequences beyond Austen's own guest arc. I would hope so: to my knowledge, none of the Exiles have ever encountered what Mariko did in Exiles #27, and it would be interesting to see how that changes their outlook on the job, if at all.
Dialog is handled well, with Austen adequately placating fans who've come to expect strong characterization, more than anything else, from this book. It's obvious that Austen has fun with the villains of the issue (even if he doesn't seem to have fun at all with usual-fun-guy Morph) and Colossus' speech and actions when faced with his sister are a surprising yet realistic treat. The borderline psychotic nobility and strong family values of Piotr Rasputin are in full force here.
Unfortunately, strong plot and good characterization are marred by problems with story flow. Clayton Henry's art is very nice, and again excels at facial expression and posture... but Henry seems to struggle with using his art to tell a clear story. There are several sequences where you're not quite sure exactly what happened, and you have to go back and reread to be sure. For instance, it's not clear at all that missiles are fired at Sunfire and company until you actually see the missles chasing them several pages later. Similarly, I'm still not sure if Danny Rand was 'Iron Fisting' when he hit Illyana in the face. At first it looked like he was, then it looked like he wasn't; I can't tell. Making things worse, scenes and POVs change quickly and abruptly, generally without strong transitions. Since the backgrounds are virtually identical in every single scene and panel (fuzzy pink clouds), it's often hard to keep track of who's doing what when. A bigger variety of detail in settings would have gone a long way toward clearing that up.
Add to these problems a relatively meaningless two-and-a-half-page torpedo flight scene that almost screams "THIS IS HERE TO FILL SPACE" at you, and the power of this otherwise fantastic story is diluted. And that's a shame, because it really is, otherwise, a great issue of Exiles. We've got very strong characterization, surprise twists, a genuinely threatening villain, and great team intrigue. On the artistic side, Henry gives us in full force the kind of attention to emotional detail that we've come to expect from this book, with fantastic action shots and excellent mood.
Exiles #27 is much, much better than you'd expect a fill-in issue to be. Were it not for the problems with story flow (as well as the nearly non-existent backgrounds), this two-issue arc could be up there with the great Exiles storylines. Regardless, I look forward to seeing what Austen and Henry can do in a more... familiar... setting next month.
ART:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exnone.jpg
STORY:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exnone.jpg
OVERALL:
http://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exfull.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exhalf.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exnone.jpghttp://x-mencomics.com/xfan/images/reviews/exnone.jpg
Buy this issue online now from X-World Comics (http://x-worldcomics.com/yourvirtualstore/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=52&cat=EXILES) and save!