Exiles

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 (Clarice Ferguson, from the Age of Apocalypse), Mimic (Calvin Rankin), Magnus Lensherr (son of Magneto and Rogue), Thunderbird (John Proudstar), Nocturne (Talia Josephine "T.J." Wagner, daughter of Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch), and Morph. The team has since gone through a multitude of line-ups, with Morph and Blink remaining the only original Exiles.

First Series

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.

When Magnus dies, he is replaced by Sunfire (Mariko Yashida). Sasquatch (Heather Hudson) 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 (son of Rachel Summers and Franklin 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 (of the Weapon X team) 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 (Illyana Rasputin) takes her place. Mimic then replaces Blink as leader, gaining the Tallus.

The Exiles arrive in the main Marvel Universe (Earth-616) 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 (of Weapon X) 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.

New Exiles

The team went to Earth-6706 to recruit Gambit and found themselves in a three-way war between Namor, Storm, and the Black Panther. The team was separated with Rogue, Gambit and Namor, Mystiq in disguise with the Panther's team, and Sabretooth and Psylocke with Ororo. They eventually reunited for a final fight against the Panther and would have died if not for Psylocke and the powers of Gambit's mother, Susan Storm. Their mission was eventually revealed to them and they left the Earth despite the fact that the Panther had taken control of it. Meanwhile, Morph, Sage, and Cat are sucked into a world were Kitty shifts to another form. Sage regains her telepathic powers, as they defend a man who has fallen in love with a dragon.

After some fighting, the parents eventually surrender against true love and the dragon becomes human, while the Exiles are brought back to the Panoptichron, where Cat reveals that Gambit was listed as a member even before he was recruited. In the meantime, Hydra recruits a Wolverine-like man to her cause. Afterwards, Sage, Psylocke, Morph, Mystiq, Rogue, and Gambit help a team of X-Men on another Earth fight off the French during a French and British war. Psylocke receives some training from that world's Ogun. Cat discovers realities upon realities coming to their end and finds she can do nothing to stop it. However, she and Sabretooth face off against Empress Hydra after she locks them alone in a particular reality. Cat kills Wolverine by removing his claws and slashing him with them. The Exiles then enjoy a quick break in the Panoptichron, where Morph gives Rogue a new costume and Psylocke deals with her fear of Slaymaster.

The Exiles then visit a reality where Valeria Richards has traveled and has called them for help to save the world from the Fearsome Quintet of Gold Goblin, Magneta, the Blood Skull, Black Baron Dormammu, and Doom. They defeat the quintet, but their leader, the Maker, is about to defeat them when Proteus' persona re-emerges. However, Morph's persona merges with that of Proteus in the nick of time, stopping Proteus from killing the Exiles and saving the day. Valeria offers to assist them in fighting her mom, but Morph tells her that she would regret it and they suggest she go home. They then go to a reality where the main heroes are the human Daughters and Saurian Sons of the Dragon. There, they fight Lilandra, who has allied herself with Empress Hydra and they try to save Lilandra's sister Neramani from her. During the fight, Cat merges with Mystiq and kills Empress Hydra, thanks to an unplanned diversion by Gambit, who called her "mom". Meanwhile, Sage and Diana Fox are forced to unite to face off against Merlyn in Sage's mind. Diana eventually lets Sage take her over and Sage merges with the Crystal Palace, stopping the multiverse from destabilizing. Cat dies after the battle with Madame Hydra. The other Exiles save Neramani's world, with Rogue remaining behind since she has fallen in love with one of the Saurians.

Second Series

The series was once again relaunched in April 2009, written by Jeff Parker and drawn by Salvador Espin, but canceled in September 2009. Alternate versions of The Witch, Beast, Forge, Polaris, and The Panther are picked up right before their intended deaths and put together as a team with the returning Blink, though she pretends to be new to all of this just as much as the others. Morph acts as the Timebroker and this version of the Black Panther is T'Challa's son, T'Chaka. On their first mission, they are teleported away without finishing their mission, to Blink's shock.

The team then goes to an Earth where Cerebro has killed all humans in North America. Working with the renegade Vision, Ultron, and Machine Man, the Exiles manage to disable Cerebro and give all the humans life model decoy bodies. After that mission, Morph tells the Exiles that they still have time to break up the X-Men/Brotherhood alliance from their first mission. They head back to that Earth and replace the native Scarlet Witch for their own. She reveals to Jean that Scott and Emma are having an affair, turning the telepaths against each other and dissolving the alliance. Emma Frost eventually kills the Witch from the Exiles' team, leaving the native Scarlet Witch to secretly join the Exiles.

The team then takes a vacation on a peaceful Earth. During this time, Polaris reveals she can tell Blink is lying, so Forge builds a device to send everyone to where the Tallus was transmitting from. Forge plants the device on the Tallus during the next teleport and Panther knocks Blink out. The Exiles then discover and head inside the Crystal Palace.

There, they see multiple teams of Exiles being trained by various "Timebrokers". Blink finds them and decides to explain everything. She says she was going to wait until the team got the hang of saving broken realities, then fake her own death, at which point a new member was to replace her. The team is teleported to the main room, where they find Heather (no longer pregnant), Nocturne (recovered from her stroke), and Morph waiting.

The three of them reveal to the latest Exiles team that the last Exiles team, Sage, Sabretooth, Mystiq, Valeria, Rogue, and Gambit eventually became immersed within the Crystal Palace. Only Morph was spared, since he had Proteus possessing him, and the Crystal Palace absorbed Proteus in Morph's place. Heather reveals that she came up with the idea of snatching the new recruits at the moment of death, as it seemed to be "the least disruptive way to go".

Third Series

The man once known as Nick Fury recruits champions from alternate universes when a mysterious threat casts its shadow on the multiverse. Blink would be joined by a Kamala Khan from a post-apocalyptic reality, Iron Lad, Wolvie and Valkyrie in her journey to save the multiverse. The team is later joined by Peggy Carter as the Captain America of her universe, and Rikki Barnes.

Weapon X

First seen in Exiles #5, they are a team that complete missions more ruthlessly than those of the Exiles. This team had various members and its roster changed more than the Exiles. Weapon X was originally composed of Sabretooth, Kane, Mesmero, Wolverine, Maverick, and Deadpool.

Weapon X was finally disbanded when the Exiles arrived and both Blink and Gambit received the mission: Weapon X and the Exiles were meant to fight to the death until only six remained. Magik, and Hulk were killed by Hyperion, while Firestar killed the Spider, immolating herself in the process. Ms. Marvel was killed in battle with Morph and finally, Hyperion was killed thanks to Gambit's sacrifice. Instead of six survivors, there were only five: Blink, Mimic, Morph, Sasquatch and Nocturne.

The Exiles wouldn't meet any member of Weapon X until their visit to the Panoptichron, in which they saw all former members of Exiles and Weapon X placed in stasis in one of the galleries of the Crystal Palace. After the Exiles contained the threat of Proteus they went about returning the bodies of the deceased to their native homeworlds, including all former Weapon X members, for proper burials.

Other versions

In Uncanny X-Men #461, Mojo summons a team of lawyers modeled after the Exiles team to capture his recently created X-Babies. The team consisted of versions of Blink, Morph, Mimic, Sunfire, Sasquatch, and Nocturne.

Red Skull led a team of WW2 era former Axis Power super-villains, dubbed "The Exiles", from "Exile Island", to conquer and establish a "4th Reich" in Doctor Doom's Latveria. The team includes, a fez wearing "Baldini"- who is master of his whip-like scarf; "Hauptmann- who welds an Iron Hand; "Krushki"- "the most skilled and powerful of all Wrestlers"; and "Cadavus"-"Monarch of the Murder Chair", a wheel Chair, weaponized with powerful firearms.

In other media

In the animated What If...?, the Watchers describe as "Exiles" another group of Multiverse-traveling heroes, better known as the Guardians of the Multiverse.