Exiles #90

Background

CURRENT EXILES:

SABRETOOTH (Victor Creed): Enhanced senses and healing.

BLINK (Clarice Ferguson): Teleportation

MORPH: Shape-shifting.

DR. HEATHER HUDSON: Scientist.

LONGSHOT: Agility and luck powers.

SPIDER-MAN 2099 (Miguel O'Hara): Spider-like powers and talons.

POWER PRINCESS (Zarda): Super strength and flight.

Story 'Fresh Blood'

Morph's mind had finally reverted to the Kevin MacTaggert, aka Proteus, version, allowing him to be free and use his reality-altering powers as well as Morph's abilities to kill the Exiles one by one. At least that's what Heather's simulation shows the team as Morph/Proteus takes his show on the road. Blink tells Heather they don't really need the reminder, and the brainwashing they did to keep Proteus believing he's Morph will have to do until a better idea comes along. Meanwhile, Sabretooth wants to see the last set of images in the simulation, where a woman emerged from the destruction of the Crystal Palace, but all those images seemed to have disappeared. Heather also tells them that the systems have been wonky since Proteus' attacks, so they can no longer see EVERYTHING that goes on in the worlds they'll need to visit.

Sabretooth and Blink go off to train and ponder their recent situation while Heather continues to work at trying to figure out the Palace controls, since all the Timebrokers have locked themselves away for some reason. Sometime later, Power Princess decides it's time for her to return to her team and world, although the others are content with staying. As soon as she departs, Sabretooth launches an attack on his teammates for training purposes. Working as a team, they get him in position and imprison him with stalagmites from the Palace ceiling.

Unknown to them, a being forms itself out of the Palace walls and does something to their system, alerting them to a world about to collapse. However, information isn't available so they'll be going in blind. Blink decides it best to leave Morph on the sidelines for now and away they go. Heather takes the time to try and find out why the Timebrokers are all afraid, but they refuse to give her any answers. Shrugging it off, she goes back to mission control in time for Sabretooth to arrive back alone bruised and battered. He says the team's been captured and they need backup.

At that moment, Psylocke, long thought dead on her world, appears in the Palace's desert landscape, a bit confused as she was just engaged in battle with the Shadow King. As she orients herself, she sees someone coming at her in the distance...someone named Sabretooth! Remembering the way her Sabretooth almost killed her, she strikes first with her psionic sword, ready to get some well-deserved payback.

General Comments

Claremont's first issue, and the tone shift is already noticeable in this book. Suddenly, the Exiles are having problems and are overly concerned about Morph, while meanwhile they've been doing missions and taking him along. Also, since when were the Timebrokers called "lizards" over "bugs"? Also, Claremont brings in one of his favorite mutants that he killed off during his run on Extreme X-Men, making the cast of the book almost entirely X-related. It will take a few issues to see how Claremont handles the book; if he'll keep up what's come before or if he'll put his own spin on things and screw it up like his dreadfully boring run on Uncanny X-Men.

Overall Rating

4 Webs. A decent enough start to Claremont's tenure, but there's a noticeable change between the last issue and this one. Good? Bad? Time will tell.

Footnote

FOOTNOTE In every issue, Morph takes on some familiar and unusual forms. Here, we'll try to chronicle as many as we can in a section we'll call: MORPH'S MORPHS!

Morph's morphs: Mojo