It has been said that The Mimic is the greatest of the X-Men. (I mean, it was by me, but it has been said.) Given multiverse theory, that means that somewhere there is the greatest Mimic of them all! Your Major Spoilers Retro Review of Exiles #1 awaits!
EXILES #1
Writer: Judd Winick
Penciler: Mike McKone
Inker: Mark McKenna
Colorist: Jung Choi
Letterer: Paul Tutrone
Editor: Mike Marts
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Price: $2.99
Current Near-Mint Pricing: $6.00
Release Date: June 6, 2001
Previously in Exiles: Six strangers, each an X-Man from a different reality, were brought together to ensure that life itself doesn’t cease to exist! Blink, the teleporter! Magnus, son of Magneto and Rogue! Thunderbird, superhumanly strong with enhanced senses! Nocturne, daughter of Nightcrawler! Morph, shape-changing funny man! And The Mimic, powered by the X-Men of his reality.
But, how exactly does something like that even occur?
The place is the middle of nowhere. The time is the middle of nowhen. Clarice Ferguson, the hero known as Blink, from the alternate reality shown in The Age of Apocalypse, Marvel’s big 1995 summer crossover, falls right out of her world into a barren wasteland. But she’s not the only one, as she encounters Nightcrawler’s daughter, even though the Nightcrawler she knew doesn’t actually have one. Her next encounter is another familiar face, but things get even stranger from there.
Though this Morph looks and dresses exactly like her dear friend from back home, he has NO idea who she is, and all three X-Men quickly realize that they’re from different timelines. They’re quickly joined by Thunderbird (whom Nocturne thinks is his brother) and The Mimic, who some of them sort of recognize. Joined by the mysterious Magnus, they suddenly realize there’s another person in the desert with them, a man who calls himself The Timebroker. The mysterious man explains that each of them hails from a different reality, manifesting a television set out of nothing to show a bit of each hero’s life before exile. Mimic’s, for instance, takes place in the reality of Earth-12.
A Defender, Avenger, and the leader of his world’s X-Men, this Mimic is a genuine hero’s hero. When I first saw the cover of this issue 25 years ago, I remember thinking that he was Cannonball, thanks to the round goggles-on-the-forehead look. McKone and McKenna give him really cool visuals in this first appearance, including strange steel wings that combine the powers of Angel and Colossus. It’s also a style that stands out from the graphics of the circa-2000 X-books, making the book feel different than any of the contemporary titles. Witness what happens when the Exiles are sent to find “their greatest teacher,” a vague clue that sends them in search of Charles Xavier after being flung into a new reality.
Thunderbird and The Mimic create a diversion by cracking as many skulls as possible, while the rest of the team sneaks in to steal this world’s Professor X from the prison where he has been held, in sedation, with extensive microsurgical power-dampening electronics infesting his skull.
In retrospect, it should have been a clue that something was wrong here.
They say “Never meet your heroes,” but I’m not sure that statement takes into account “The Evil Version of Your Teacher, From The Mirror Universe.” Despite this hitch (or maybe because of it), Exiles #1 is an exciting, eventful debut, filled with fun character moments, clever dialogue, and unexpected twists, earning 4 out of 5 stars overall. It’s one of the first works by Judd Winick, no stranger to “a bunch of strangers from different worlds forced to coexist” moments, and serves as one of my favorite of his works. It’s a shame that subsequent writers retconned the whole premise into something dumber and more nihilistic, but… that’s another Retro Review entirely.
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EXILES #1
The unusual visuals and the metatextual nature of the story makes Exiles #1 feel more like a modern comic than one from the Jemas era, and Winick's wonderful characterization and dialogue carry a lot of that weight.
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Writing8
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Art7
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Coloring8
Once upon a time, there was a young nerd from the Midwest, who loved Matter-Eater Lad and the McKenzie Brothers... If pop culture were a maze, Matthew would be the Minotaur at its center. Were it a mall, he'd be the Food Court. Were it a parking lot, he’d be the distant Cart Corral where the weird kids gather to smoke, but that’s not important right now... Matthew enjoys body surfing (so long as the bodies are fresh), writing in the third person, and dark-eyed women. Amongst his weaponry are such diverse elements as: Fear! Surprise! Ruthless efficiency! An almost fanatical devotion to pop culture! And a nice red uniform.