Writer Chris Claremont
Penciler Paco Diaz Luque
Inker Norberto Fernandez
Colorist Wil Quintana
Letterer Simon Bowland
Cover Dated November 2008
I’m not sure if Claremont read all of the previous issues of Exiles when he started his run with issue 90 but in this issue he repeats a story concept that happened earlier. So there is a team of heroes that are going around setting right with what once went wrong, called the Exiles. There was another team called, Weapon X, (such a horrible name for that group, unoriginal too!) whose job it was to make things go from bad to worst.
So that similar concept is brought back here by the master that is Claremont. Madame Hydra, an evil Sue Richards – I suppose she would be Sue Storm here (hopefully!) leading a team of Wolverine, Hulk and Slaymaster. Hulk is called, Boy-Bob Banner, not a great name, try saying it aloud, it doesn’t sound good, at all. They share the ability of the Exiles, in that they can travel the multi-verse.
This issue opens on a new Earth, this team – I wish they had a name, are killing everybody. A Sabretooth shows up and gives Wolverine a fight for his money. Since I was rereading this, I wasn’t sure if this was Exiles’ Sabretooth (from the Age of Apocalypse timeline) but that didn’t last long as they start talking about his wife Betsy (Psylocke) and their children.
Wolverine, in a running motif that Claremont clearly likes, slashes Sabretooth’s face, blinding him. Claremont will later blind Sabretooth in X-Men Forever, as well.
This Slaymaster is going around killing all the Psylockes he can find. He met our Psylocke, from the Proper Marvel Universe, and wasn’t able to kill her so now he is getting plenty of practice by successfully killing Psylockes. Except from this Earth, Wolverine kills her after telling her that they have killed her husband and babies – which is horrible! So now this Wolverine needs to be killed and horribly!
Of course, Sabretooth and Psylocke are married on this Earth, there could be no other pairings but those ones.
Slaymaster (the more I type this, the more I don’t care this name either) and Wolverine are about to fight when Madame Hydra shows up and stops them. Wolverine and her are in a relationship.
Exiles’ Sabretooth shows up and sees the massacre. He learns that he was married to Psylocke and promises to get revenge on whoever did this, once he sees that he had children here and they were murdered as well.
Crystal Palace. I’m not sure where the rest of the Exiles are, as only Cat and Sabretooth are at the base. Cat is investigating something on her own on the outside the palace. Sabretooth wonders where she is and the palace shows where she is via having monitors appear for him.
I don’t see the bugs anywhere from the previous volume, so I don’t quite remember if they are no longer in the series at this point or what the deal is.
Cat and Sabretooth can talk now via the monitors. She doesn’t explain to him what she is doing. He decides to wait until they can speak in person. He thinks to himself that Cat has a temper to her and that he really doesn’t know much about her. Or any of the team really. The team at this point are those two, Sage (also from the proper Marvel Universe), Gambit (an Atlantean), Morph, Mystiq (a male version) and Rogue.
Cat has discovered, that the omniverse is dying! She now knows why she is there, to prevent the destruction of all that is! Showing some rare emotion (besides the temper that she isn’t afraid to show) she shouts out to anyone to hear that she is done with death and that the reaper is not taking anything more from her.
There is a house ad for Amazing Spider-Man 572, Bullseye v. Spider-Man.
Cat goes tot he observation room to talk to Sabretooth and finds that he is now the one that is missing. She runs a scan and finds that he isn’t in the palace any longer. What she does find is a recording Sabretooth created, letting her know that he is running an errand.
Cat isn’t happy with that as an answer and goes about trying to retrace his steps. Apparently, he was able to create procedures that lock her from searching for him. She is impress with how there is no finesse with his skills, the blocks are strong, just like him but she is better at this than he is.
She finds some recordings of Sabretooth, playing the role of Slaymaster, and he is fighting with Psylocke, trying to prepare her for round two.
There is a house ad for the end of the Ultimate Universe, as Ultimatum is coming.
Cut to the new Earth where Madame Hydra’s team is located and where Sabretooth is tracking them. While doing research, Sabretooth has discovered that none of the Exiles have a counterpart on this planet. Eventually, Wolverine separates from the group, and Sabretooth makes his move.
There is a house ad for New Avengers 45, promising to reveal the secrets of the Skrull’s as Secret Invasion continues.
The two fight and then Sabretooth gets stabbed from behind by Slaymaster. Now Sabretooth is distracted as he couldn’t tell that Slaymaster was even that close to him until the stabbing began. Now it is Wolverine who is mad at Slaymaster for his interference.
While those two bicker, Sabretooth tackles Wolverine and the two fall off the floating city and into the rocky mountain side below. It appears as if they fall for miles before hitting the mountain peaks. They both land, eventually and Sabretooth is trying to shake off the fall. He isn’t healing as fast, which is unfornuate as Wolverine is already back on his feet and ready for round three.
Sue wants to see Sabretooth die, as she knows it will take a great deal to end him. Slaymaster wants Sabretooth to live so that he can lead Slaymaster to the Psylocke that he is obsessed with killing. Wolverine is more loyal, naturally, to Sue and dives in to kill Sabretooth. Lucky for Victor, he starts phasing into the ground. The villains are left to look at each other in confusion.
Issue ends with Sue giving the order to kill Sabretooth and whoever is helping him.
I mostly wanted to review this issue as my letter is printed on the letters page. I got lucky with Cat answering the page that month.
My fellow letter writers are – Adrian J. Watts of Melbourne, Austra and Penelope from Australia.
I really do miss reading letters page, even with being a pretty regular poster on four different forums. The Uncanny X-Cast Facebook Group, Unstable Molecules (UncannyXMen.net’s forum), Comic Book Resources’ forum and xcrescence.jcink.net forum. I was going to just call it the Comic Book Revolution forum but I did a Google search for it and that forum wasn’t on the first page so we have to work on that.
I will eventually get around to reviewing issue twelve.
Shadow and Flame with Magik 