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Exiles #5: Review

Jul 2018
Saladin Ahmed, Javier Rodríguez

Story Name:

(no title given)

Review & Comments

Rating:
4 stars

Exiles #5 Review by (July 28, 2018)
This is the 1st chronological appearance of this Nick Fury. He says he's just been transported from "chasing Kang through Berlin in 1972" which if it happened on Earth-616 has not been documented. His app in #3 comes next when the team meet him briefly while he's between portals and he says he's met them before. Because he's alone it must be after he gets separated from Blink and Sabretooth. Then in #1 he reaches the Unseen, and as Iron Lad predicted the effort kills him.

Thus this version of the Tallus exists in a closed loop as the Unseen gives it to Blink who now gives it to Fury who takes it back in time and gives it to the Unseen. But the loop isn't really closed as Blink will now take it into further adventures.

Marvel Wiki and comicbookdb.com identify 3 of the other Blink's as:- Earth-616's own version (introduced in the Phalanx Covenant event). The Blink from Exiles Annual #1. The Blink from the Secret Wars III Age Of Apocalypse series.

Other chars with the Blink army are:- Khan's Inhuman lieutenant Cobalt from #1. Li'l Magneto from #2. Hippy Sub-Mariner from #3. Blackbeard (Ben Grimm), Captain Mercedes Knight and Scarlet Falcon (Sam Wilson) from last issue.





 

Synopsis / Summary / Plot

Exiles #5 Synopsis by Rob Johnson
The Exiles have been chased from reality to reality by the Time-Eater who is consuming them all. Now they've found his base in the future on the Moon of an Earth. And he turns out to be Iron Lad's future self Kang the Conqueror who's gained the power of multiple dead Galacti.

Khan is confused - didn't the Time-Eater kill Kang back in #1. Nate Richards explains that there are multiple alternate-reality Kang's. This Kang says he intends to transcend his earlier desire to rule the multiverse. By being the Time-Eater and swallowing realities he will *become* the multiverse and be it's god. Only the Tallus which takes the Exiles between timelines stands in his way.

But before the Time-Eater can consume *them* a young version of Nick Fury (already seen in #1 and #3) swings in and distracts him with guns a-blazing. And Blink teleports the good guys away.

But they only get as far as another part of Kang's castle. Nate posits that Kang has eaten everywhere else. Khan thinks he hasn't killed them yet because he's savouring the moment. After them there'll be nothing left to eat. Iron Lad takes all the guilt on himself because Kang is his future, but Khan insists he will only be come Kang if he *lets* that happen. Blink adds that they need him focused on now to use his brain to help them fix the problem.

Nate theorises that every possible future has a 'tipping point'. (I think he means where it's probability shifts dramatically, but Marvel's usual diverging timelines model would identify it as where the alternate future split off from the main 1.) Somehow he comes to the conclusion that the branch point was where the Tallus contacted Blink in #1. (But supposedly the Time-Eater was already on the rampage by then.) Anyhoo Iron Lad proposes that if they get the Tallus back to that point it might undo all that Kang has done and get the multiverse back.

Valkyrie is gung-ho (as usual) but Blink points out that if it works then their own realities will return but with *them* in them - versions who never went on this adventure. They themselves won't be able to return to those universes. They will become permanent Exiles. Iron Lad is ready for that (he never liked his world). Valkyrie will miss her Asgard but will accept her destiny. Khan is pragmatic. Blink has *already* lost her Age Of Apocalypse home. But emotional Li'l Wolvie can't face losing his friends at home and runs off bawling. The team rationalise not going after him.

Nate brings up another point. The Tallus was with the Unseen (Earth-616's ex-Nick Fury) on the Moon before any of them were recruited, so how can any of *them* be the 1 to deliver it there. Nick Fury volunteers (the team don't know that a Nick Fury *did* bring the Tallus to the Unseen at the beginning of #1). Iron Lad tells him the Tallus will know how to get there but the rapid transit through so many realities will probably kill him. Fury is still up for it.

Kang finds them. Valkyrie says she'll hold him off. Iron Lad decides to stay to help her, and tells Blink and Khan to go with Nick to make sure he gets to the target successfully. (What happened to none of *them* could do it?) They start a dash through a chain of portals.

Valkyrie engages Kang in hand-to-hand combat. He says her strength rivals Thor's before he burns her face with an optic blast. Iron Lad attacks with repulsors but Kang bats him aside then says they could have become gods together. Nate replies that dying with his friends is preferable to an eternity with *him*. So Kang knocks his helmet off.

Meanwhile the other 3's route takes them past a character Blink recognises as her adopted father Sabretooth from the Age Of Apocalypse who was also later in the original Exiles team. He was with Nocturne (T J Wagner) looking for Morph (who was in another reality waiting for *them* in #3). But to Khan he's the Sabretooth who killed her husband and daughter, and she doesn't care that Blink claims it's a different version. Their potential scrap is forestalled by an attack by multiple Kang's sent by the Time-Eater.

Back in the castle it seems Iron Lad and Valkyrie are not dead merely unconscious. Only the returned Wolvie is left to fight super-Kang. Kang keeps blasting him, but being an indestructible cartoon(?) character Wolvie keeps popping back up annoyingly alive. Until Kang cages him in bars of force.

Back on the trek the gang of Kang's is pouring from a giant flying Kang helmet. Khan gets hit by a ray and tells the others to go on without her. Then she leaps into the helmet and presses the self-destruct button on the bomb she always carries.

Sabretooth goes with Blink and Fury through the next portal. But somehow eventually they all get separated, and Nick arrives alone with the Tallus at the Unseen's Moon base, just as he did in #1.

Meanwhile Blink finds herself in a hall of mirrors where she meets multiple alternate versions of herself. They tell her Nick Fury succeeded so now *they* can go help her friends.

Helmetless Iron Lad and Valkyrie are up and fighting again against their own mini-army of Kang's. Super-Kang feels his power draining and Wolvie breaks out of his cage. Valkyrie as usual tells the other 2 to flee while she keeps the Kang's busy. But as usual they refuse to leave her. And then the army of Blink's arrives alongside some characters from the previous issues. They outnumber and outfight the Kang's and then all turn on super-Kang who implodes(?).

The other chars fade back to their own realities and Blink, Iron Lad, Valkyrie (with her winged white horse Elendil) and Wolvie find themselves with the Unseen on the Moon. He tells them that the multiverse is restored but they are still needed to help heal its scars.

But 1st they go to Jersey City, the analogue of Khan's home, to mourn her and promise to continue the fight in her memory.

But 2nd they pop in to see Clarice Ferguson's Aunt (or at least the Aunt of *this* reality's CF) who we met in #1. The group want to rent the Aunt's friend's vacation home for a holiday.



Javier Rodríguez
Alvaro Lopez
Javier Rodríguez
David Marquez (Cover Penciler)
David Marquez (Cover Inker)
Tamra Bonvillain (Cover Colorist)
Letterer: Joe Caramagna.
Editor: Wil Moss. Editor-in-chief: C. B. Cebulski.

Characters

Listed in Alphabetical Order.


Blink (of Age of Apocalypse), Exiles, Iron Lad (of Exiles), Khan (Kamala Khan), Nick Fury (of Exiles), Sabretooth (of Age of Apocalypse), Time-Eater (Kang), Unseen (Nick Fury), Valkyrie (of Exiles), Wolvie.

> Exiles: Book info and issue index

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