Review by Ian Keogh

The title of this collection and the cover to it reflect how much has changed since the Exiles first appeared. The only original members remaining are Blink and Morph, as the casualty rate has been high. As of the previous World Tour, the membership is filled out by Longshot, Power Princess, Sabretooth and Spider-Man from 2099, with Heather Hudson/Sasquatch organising the alternate Earths the team visit to rectify mistakes altering the balance of power. This is via machinery operated by the insectoid Timebreakers, and Tony Bedard begins The New Exiles by having several of the team briefly return to their homeworlds. It’s ordinary, but ends well with a bombshell.

Bedard then teases, ignoring the main team to focus on assorted different versions of Wolverine brought together. It’s a clever selection from across Wolverine’s history to that point, and actually ties in well to the plot from the previous chapter. Paul Pelletier enjoys drawing the story, delivering a great zombie Wolverine feeding to open the second part, one of several items that would be of questionable taste were the whole story not tongue in cheek. Bedard even manages to include a Mozart joke, of all things.

After that it’s a trip of cosmic proportions to a universe where pretty well no-one can stand in the way of an enraged Silver Surfer, not even Galactus. With Pelletier drawing good cosmic action, Bedard uses Blink’s powers inventively. It’s a characteristic of his plotting that he’ll come up with a new way of using someone, and he applies that to Longshot and Galactus also, although in Longshot’s case there’s more than a hint of convenience.

The New Exiles is Bedard’s finale, and he uses his final chapter to fix a few loose ends and plot holes that have occurred to him since World Tour, where he didn’t tie up the menace as neatly as he’d presumed. Credit to him for addressing that. His ideas have generally been good over the run, but he hasn’t been greatly served by Jim Calafiore as the primary artist, with conveying any emotional content not a strength. The series is concluded by Chris Claremont, beginning with Enemy of the Stars.