Question for the most hardcore Marvel fans

[BitBiteOuch]

Now, I've been reading Exiles since the beginning. I have issues 1-95 as it stands, and it was the first series I dedicated myself to buying monthly. Now, it was only today that I heard about characters Merlyn and Roma (hopefully someone can see where I'm going with this). Apparently, Merlyn created some tower that connected the "omniverse". Is this the same as the Exiles base? I've never heard Merlyn mentioned in Exiles, at all. Apparently, Roma (his daughter I think) is in charge and looking after the "omniverse" or "multiverse" or whatever now, and I heard shes been involved as recently as House of M.  :huh: Now there must be some connection here. Roma has some team of Captain Britians from each reality or something. The Exiles base is in the M'Kraan Crystal. Roma lives in a dimension called Otherworld. I guess I'm really just wondering what the deal is here. Can anyone shed light on anything to do with any of this? Everything seemed so simple (or at least simpler than DC's multiverse issues), but now I'm real confused.

[Podmark]

Ugh Claremont how I've grown to hate you.

Current Claremont, not classic.

[BitBiteOuch]

Agreed, despite being extremely dedicated to the Exiles, his taking over has ruined the book, and ALMOST made me consider dropping it.

[Podmark]

The thing that bugs me the most is that he keeps using the same stuff. Pyslocke, Viper, Roma, Captain Britain Corps. He doesn't seem to want to move on or try anything new.

[BitBiteOuch]

Or anything remotely interesting :mellow:

[lugaru]

They really should keep "guides" as to how to write a book. Exiles for me is the 24 of Marvel:

- All stories involve a mission, the clearer the better. These missions have a deadline.
- The technology and dimensional ship are crazy technology, just dont ask about it.
- The book is really about the interactions of superheroes living under extreme danger and gray moral choices.
- Since it's "what if" characters nothing is sacred, feel free to kill anyone.

Real simple: give the team an objective, ignore explaining the dimension hopping part, have characters fall in love or betray each other or die. Send in reeinforcements. I hope clairmont picks up on this before he "defines" the series as something it is not in his quest of explaining EVERYTHING through exposition.

[murs47]

I think I stopped reading about 10-15 issues after Judd Winick left the series. It just wasn't the same to me without Winick writing it.

[Talavar]

I think I stopped reading about 10-15 issues after Judd Winick left the series. It just wasn't the same to me without Winick writing it.

It really has gone downhill since then, & Claremont is making me consider dropping it as well.

[BitBiteOuch]

I wish they would go back to the good'ol days, visit some well established places like they did in World Tour and before. There are SO many "different timelines" and "alternate futures" etc., it was fun when we got to see the Mojoverse, the New Universe, 2099, Alpha Flight focused places, heck even 616 made for some good fun. If I read one more "alternate world where Fantastic Four is slightly different" storyline, I may just be out.

[thanoson]

Was Claremont part of the King Hyperion and Kulan Gath stuff? Because I liked those.

[BitBiteOuch]

He wasn't, I loved those stories too.

[murs47]

I think the reason why Exiles was such a fun read at first was due to it's simplicity, humor, and as said, the exploration of other timelines/universes which was really exciting.

I think Marvel really messed up the title when they started to complicate the series by revealing the Timebroker was really a villain. Then there's that whole bug race that inspects the timestreams or something...it eventually became too serious and complicated for what was and should be a simple series of humor and exploration.

This used to be my favorite title, now I just overlook it at my local comic shop :(

But I still go back every once and a while and re-read Winick's run for kicks and giggles....some things never get old.  :D

[thanoson]

Let's go back to when Proffessor X was the Juggernaught. Let's do that fight.

[Pyroclasm]

Characters hopping between alternate Marvel realities?  The team that should be doing this book is Alan Davis & Chris Claremont.  They were perfect in Excalibur's "Cross Time Caper".  Wonder why Claremont appears to have lost his touch?  If no Chris Claremont, Davis can handle writing & penciling.  He did it on Excalibur.  (It's too bad he left the book and the subsequent writers killed it.)

[crimsonquill]

Exiles was unique in that it was designed to take risks by dropping you into the middle of a story and still allow you to grow attached to the main characters while riding along with them. Just in the first few issues we grew to love the team chemistry and even felt some sadness upon the first casuality of the team roster within that very small period of time. Then we discovered that the Exiles story had a flip side of the coin when the "Mutant X" varation of the time hoppers showed up and we started to wonder who really was running the show. It didn't surprise me when we (as readers) discovered that Timebroker was being controlled by an outside force that was behind things being broken in the first place or that an evil person could discover a way into that control room to turn their missions against the team. I was fine with all of that.. Exiles was making a whole new type of comic book and new writers/artists would come and go along the way changing things here and there (often throwing out the series rule book to serve the bigger storyline). Chuck Austen threw the biggest wrench into the series as far as I'm concerned but Claremont came on board and has transformed this series from Exiles to Excalibur Mark II. And since Excalibur has stalled with Nocturne's stroke issue and Captain Britian dealing with his evil twin and the female Lionheart who he chose to replace him. I'm just confused all around and hoping that someone untangles these titles and soon.

- CrimsonQuill

[BitBiteOuch]

Personally, I loved it when the whole Crystal Palace thing was brought out, and we figured out who the Timebroker was, then King Hyperion and such. I loved every minute of it. I think the series started going downhill during the world tour, but I loved the stories so much I didn't realize it. On the plus, world tour had some great storylines, brought us back to worlds I loved to see re-visited, and was overall very fun. I would love to see more stories that followed that world tour structure. The problem was, it left everything empty. We got stuck with Longshot, Spiderman2099, and "Morph", and since then none of those characters seem even remotley important, and its easy to forget why they are even there. I guess while they were going uphill storywise, they were goign downhill characterwise. Its a shame, because it seems this trend will continue, with stories getting worse as well.

[Talavar]

To me, the King Hyperion story, while enjoyable, was also the beginning of the end.  World Tour was the end, getting rid of, or crap-ifying most of the characters, and replacing them with bland, one note blanks.  I mean, Longshot is a perfect example of this: he doesn't even have a memory.