Review by Ian Keogh

By the time the comics gathered in Ultimate Collection Book Five appeared, Tony Bedard had been writing Exiles for some time, and had shifted the series to suit his inclinations, both in terms of characters featured and via supplying the background explanation the series so long lacked. Material in Book Four explained why individuals had been pulled from their own world to join a team helping repair broken timelines in others, and continued a process of constant change within the team. As this collection opens Blink, Heather Hudson, Longshot, Morph and Sabretooth are Exiles.

There’s a good idea behind the bulk of the collection. Instead of visiting random worlds that diverge from the mainstream Earth, Bedard continues to have the Exiles visit a bunch of worlds already familiar to Marvel readers from assorted old series, beginning by dropping in on the Spider-Man of 2099. From there the team visit the realities where Star Brand is resident, where the Squadron Supreme maintain order, where a jaded Hulk rules as Maestro and take in the brief 1990s ‘Heroes Reborn’ era. They’re led a merry chase by Proteus, a villain they’re partially responsible for unleashing.

It’s a viable idea that ought to have produced memorable material, and while occasionally resorting to the predictable, Bedard generally makes the most of opportunities supplied by the worlds visited, creating stories needing the assorted characters. However, he’s sabotaged from within as artist Jim Calafiore is constantly capable of reducing a world of wonder to the mundane. His angular distorted figures are ugly, and his visual imagination never matches the opportunities presented. Characters are posed in simple, generic backgrounds and beyond gurning anger, Calafiore is incapable of delivering feelings. Paul Pelletier draws considerably less, but the dynamism of his pages show how good everything else could have looked.

In earlier paperbacks the familiar worlds were seen in World Tour Book Two, with the remainder presented in The New Exiles. Bedard finishes the World Tour section with a very clever solution ending the menace of Proteus, before broadening the series possibilities by completely sidelining the main cast and instead focussing on a selection of alternate Wolverines brought together. Both that and the following story of a raging Silver Surfer endangering the universe are drawn by Pelletier, again bringing out how smart some of the writing is when the art doesn’t look dreary.

Unfortunately Calafiore draws Bedard’s final story, again smart in picking up on loose ends from earlier work. There’s then what seems to be a flashback to an earlier era, but it’s more clever plotting on Bedard’s part introducing a different team of Exiles and a final revelation about the Timebroker. Three different artists mesh well for a fun story.

Ultimate Collection Book Six features Chris Claremont’s version of the Exiles.