THE ALL NEW EXILES #1 – October 1995

Out of the Frying Pan…

Credits: Terry Kavanagh (plot and dialogue), Ben Raab (additional dialogue), Ken Lashley & M. C. Wyman (pencilers), J.U.G.G.E.R.N.A.U.T.D. (inkers), Vickie Williams (letterer), Shannon Blanchard & Malibu (colors)

Summary

The Exiles (Juggernaut, Sienna Blaze, Reaper, Shuriken, Amber Hunt, and ‘Strike) teleport into New York City. They’re attacked by the military, who blame them for destroying a large portion of the city. They fight their way through the soldiers and retreat to ‘Strike’s penthouse. Juggernaut is concerned about the sickly Amber. Sienna Blaze tells Shuriken that she’s waiting for Amber to get healthier so that she can kill her. ‘Strike reveals to the team that almost a quarter of New York was destroyed when they arrived, and the authorities are blaming them. He believes their arrival is tied into the destruction, but doesn’t have an explanation. Later, Shuriken tries to get in touch with an agency named Aladdin by meeting with her “brother”, Qune. Qune turns into a monster and declares that he’s going to capture all of the Exiles and collect the bounty. ‘Strike calls the team together to help Shuriken. After facing the united team, Qune teleports away. As the team regroups, Sienna notices that the Fantastic Four’s building is gone. Amber has never heard of them.

Gimmicks

The second half of this issue is a reprint of the Warren Ellis/Steven Butler Ultraforce #1. There’s a note from Malibu’s president explaining that it’s being reprinted for free due to a production error that occurred during its first print.

Continuity Notes

Juggernaut, Sienna Blaze, and Reaper are all established Marvel characters. Juggernaut of course goes back to the Stan Lee days, while Sienna Blaze and Reaper are ‘90s villains from the Upstarts and Mutant Liberation Front, respectively. Sienna Blaze claims that her powers have been cut in half, meaning that she doesn’t have to worry about destroying the Earth every time she uses them anymore.

Review

I have no idea how I ended up with this comic. I know I never bought it, so I’m assuming it was one of those free comics I got through a mail-order service. I looked over my copy's cover and don’t even see a cover price or UPC box, so I’m assuming this was some sort of freebie given to retailers. It really is a terrible, mostly incomprehensible mess. I have no idea who half of these characters are, how the Marvel characters ended up in a team with them, where they’re teleporting in from, how they’re teleporting, and what exactly is supposed to be going on. That’s sad in any case, but this is the first issue of the series. And not even an ordinary first issue, but the start of a relaunch specifically designed to bring in existing Marvel fans. Aside from not even understanding the concept, I don’t know why Sienna Blaze wants to kill one of her teammates (and why she’s waiting until her target gets healthier to do it), why exactly this Amber is sick and what her powers are, what ‘Strike’s name is supposed to be short for, or what this “Aladdin” is and what it has to do with two of the characters. All of the characters have generic ‘90s looks, no one has a personality, and the story mainly consists of the characters making vague comments to one another and then getting into a pointless, anticlimactic fight. Did anyone really think that this would bring the still sizable X-fanbase into the Malibu Universe? I realize that all of the complaints I just brought up are stereotypical traits of the X-books, but I have a hard time thinking of any X-books that are truly this bad.

There’s an ad in the back for an upcoming Marvel/Malibu crossover involving the Phoenix, which doesn’t even fill me with morbid curiosity. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that the Phoenix in this storyline turned out to be some sort of hoax, or an alternate version that had nothing to do with the established character in the Marvel Universe. I think the Malibu Phoenix event actually turned out to be the launching pad for a new series. I remember seeing ads for “Marvel’s first bad girl” comic, published through Malibu, which featured a teenage girl in a tight, nipply t-shirt. I might be getting it mixed up with something else, but I think she was supposed to be another “Phoenix” (what part of this doesn’t reek of desperation?). I’ve actually ended with two more issues of this series that were released a few months after this one, and all of the Marvel characters are gone. So I guess Marvel decided that not even Reaper and Sienna Blaze should’ve suffered through this.

CABLE #11 – May 1994

The Killing Field Part 3 – Divide & Conquer

Credits: Glenn Herdling (writer), M. C. Wyman (penciler), Farmer/Barta/Lowe/Conrad/LaRosa/Hanna/Rodier (inkers), Richard Starkings (letterer), Marie Javins (colorist)

Summary

Cable escapes from the Acolytes by turning off the lights in Magneto’s former base. He learns that only he can control the alien headquarters because it is techno-organic, like half of his body. The Acolytes planned on recruiting him, hoping that he would be able to use Magneto’s arctic base to their advantage. The Acolytes try to escape Earth before Omega Red’s death spores are released, but Cable uses his control over the base to stop them. Amelia Voght teleports Cable away, explaining to him that the Acolytes have gone behind her back by forcing Omega Red to stay on Earth and poison the planet. In her original plan, he really was supposed to reach space. She tries to stop Omega Red while Cable fights Colossus. Cable uses his telepathic and telekinetic powers to force Colossus back to human form and saves Voght from Omega Red. The Acolyte Katu uses his power on Omega Red and the two implode.

Continuity Note

Magneto’s arctic base is revealed to be some form of techno-organic alien. How he ended up with it isn’t explained.

Review

The Omega Red/Acolytes arc finally ends, losing Fabian Nicieza along the way. Glenn Herdling is given the unenviable job of finishing up another writer’s storyline that wasn’t very good in the first place. He does a decent job of going through the motions until the very end, when one of the Acolytes (not even introduced in this issue), uses his vaguely defined powers to end the story in a couple of panels. This isn’t an especially plot-heavy issue, so there should have been more than enough room for a better conclusion. M. C. Wyman has seven inkers in this issue, giving the entire issue an inconsistent, rushed look. Eleven issues in and Cable is still a disappointment. I was deep into completism at this point.

CABLE #10 – April 1994

The Killing Field Part II – Like Lambs to the Slaughter

Credits: Fabian Nicieza (plot), Glenn Herdling (script), M. C. Wyman (penciler), Conrad & Milgrom (inkers), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Marie Javins (colorist)

Summary

Omega Red attacks the Tyuratam Space Center to get information on how to cure his Death Spore Virus. After he leaves with a disc, Cable and the Acolytes arrive. They discern that in order to cure himself, Omega Red must undergo a procedure that can only be conducted in the vacuum of space, and that he plans on getting there by teleporting from Magneto’s arctic base to the Acolytes’ headquarters in space. Cable and the Acolytes search Magneto’s arctic headquarters and find that Omega Red is already there, unconscious and badly beaten. Cable figures out that the Acolytes are double-crossing him, when Colossus suddenly appears with more of the Acolytes.

Continuity Notes

The Acolytes imply that Magneto’s arctic base is actually a living alien.

The Acolyte Katu describes the day Russian troops invaded his home in the Siberian tundra with Omega Red, killing his family and maiming him because his mutant ability was disrupting satellite transmissions.

I Love the ‘90s

There’s an ad for “Wolverine Blues”, an actual album from the band Entombed. Marvel even packaged a free Wolverine comic with the CD, and let their label use a painting of Wolverine in the ad and video. The ad copy reads, “Wake up and smell the ‘90s!” So...the ‘90s smelled like Wolverine? What do we smell like today?

Review

Fabian Nicieza already has one foot out of the door as the Omega Red storyline continues. Glenn Herdling does an adequate scripting job that gives the characters plausible dialogue, but doesn’t really give them much of a personality. The first part of this story at least tied into Cable’s familial connections to the other X-characters, but he could’ve been replaced by any generic X-character in this issue. I’m not one of those people who think that every story featuring a character has to tie in to their “big picture” theme (like Spider-Man learning a lesson about responsibility in every story, for example), but having a story that veers from a character’s core concept usually only works if the character has a strong personality. The original “ends justify the means” Cable was annoying, but he at least had personality. The more sympathetic interpretation of the character just comes across as a generic superhero in this issue. He’s also not given anything interesting to do, as he just follows Omega Red around and listens to an Acolyte tell a story. I will say that the art has improved since the last issue, and there’s nothing particularly terrible about the story, there’s just an overall blandness to it all.

CABLE # 9 – March 1994

The Killing Field: In Humanity

Credits: Fabian Nicieza (writer), M. C. Wyman (penciler), Jason Gorder (inker), Chris Eliopoulos (letterer), Marie Javins (colorist)

Summary

Cable goes to Muir Island to investigate his mental link with the current Phoenix, Rachel Summers. They discuss their relationship as siblings, while the Acolytes search for Omega Red in London. The Acolytes offer to show Omega Red a way to “retard the flow of the Death Spore Virus” inside his body. On Muir Island, Moira McTaggert is examining Cable’s techno-organic body parts when Omega Red arrives. He knocks her out with a limited exposure to his virus and steals a device from her lab. Cable tries to stop him but Omega Red activates the lab’s “cybernetic damper”, crippling Cable. Later, he’s revived by Phoenix and Kitty Pryde. Pryde tells Cable about Omega Red’s plan to steal the various items he needs to cure the spores that ravage his body. If he cures himself, his virus will then be released into the environment. Kitty reveals to Cable that she got this information from the Acolytes, who also want to stop him.

Continuity Notes

Cable and Moira McTaggert have already met in the past. She says that when she previously examined him, his mechanics were “standard bionics”, but they now appear to be techno-organic. Cable tells her that he was masking the “synthetic-organic components” of his body from people of this timeline. When Moira asks why half of his body looks like a machine if he can cover all of it in synthetic flesh, he tells her that “it never hurts to remember where you’ve been.”

Rachel Summers is inferred to be Mother Askani when Cable recognizes her as he regains consciousness.

Review

After three months of flashbacks and origin stories, Cable tries to tell a straightforward action story. It’s not particularly interesting, but it’s easier to follow and not as cluttered as the previous issues. Omega Red and the Acolytes are brought in, rather than introducing another new villain for Cable to fight. This early in his series, Cable should have been developing his own rogues gallery, but using established villains fits in with Marvel’s apparent attempts to make the X-books more homogeneous during this time. Nicieza uses Cable’s fight with Omega Red to offer some insight into the character, basically reiterating the idea that Cable fights for peace and not just mindless violence. Wyman’s art fits into the house style of the early ‘90s X-books. The first few pages remind me of Andy Kubert’s early X-Men issues, but the art gets sloppier and uglier towards the end of the issue.

Cable meets Rachel Summers, his sister from another timeline, again. Nicieza has the characters point out the fact that both of them have traumatic childhoods, which is a logical way to build a connection, but it also reminds me of how redundant Cable really is. In terms of personality, he doesn’t really resemble Rachel, but he’s another Summers child from a dystopian future sent to our time to prevent his timeline from happening. When Cable’s origin was finally hashed out, did anyone at Marvel notice that the other Summers child had a virtually identical origin?

There’s another attempt to clear up some of Cable’s continuity during his conversation with Moira McTaggert. The final Liefeld issues of X-Force had Cable with a half-robotic face fixing his mechanical arm with a torque wrench. This left two unanswered questions – if half of his face was covered with synthetic flesh, why doesn’t he cover all of his body with it? And if his arm is actually infected with a techno-organic virus, how can he fix it with tools? Nicieza offers passable answers, but introduces another mystery by giving Cable and Moira a shared backstory. I really have no idea what this was supposed to accomplish. I can understand the commercial reasons for tying a popular character like Wolverine to Cable’s past…but Moira McTaggert? Really? It seems like every X-character had to have some hidden history with at least one other X-character during this era (even Omega Red is revealed to be the killer of one of the Acolytes’ family in this issue).