Editor's Note: Exiles #4 arrives in stores tomorrow, July 1.
As a title, Exiles has struggled over the past while, being re-launched more than once in hopes of catching an audience. This issue finds the thrust-together-group-of-random-heroes being deposited in a dimension where machines have taken over the earth. Amongst the leaders of the evil machines are some familiar faces: Ultron, Vision, and Machine Man. With scarce information to help them the Exiles team must find a way to overcome the overwhelming numbers and power of an army of machines.
Exiles is a comic that doesn't fit neatly into any particular comic category. It doesn't fall into the Marvel mainsteam's usual style and feel (this certainly isn't a "Dark Reign" crossover), and while it is light-hearted, it's not quite light-hearted enough to fit into the "Marvel Adventures" brand (not to mention it has stories that last more than one issue with content that might be deemed too harsh). Instead the book seems to just be floating around in that twilight zone that I could say is maybe shared only by the "First Class" titles. Either way, Exiles is a comic that wants to tell stories that can be taken mostly seriously but with a light-hearted tone to them...
yeah, that's the best I can explain it.
In short, the writing just doesn't quite sit right with me. To some extent, of course, it's just personal taste, but when a book presents a generally relaxed tone--with characters frequently underreacting to the grave situations they find themselves in--and then includes completely unnecessary harsh language (such as a large "d*** it!") as well as scenes with a person having been dissected (with ribs, organs and all on display), I'm jarred. Parker could go with a mature style, or even with a more wacky one, but he tries here to get a bit of both, and it just doesn't seem to work that well. The attempted story twists also don't come across as particularly surprising, which doesn't help matters. This isn't to say that the writing is all bad, of course; Parker is clearly skilled, but when you're working amongst the best in the world, just doing an okay job seems pale by comparison.
Jones' art is also unfortunately lackluster. While he does a fair job, his art looks somewhat lacking in detail and fails to really catch the eye. For example, it's not difficult to tell what is happening in the action scenes, but the images evoke no real sense of life or movement. While I hate to sound harsh, this is art that easily could have come from a comic book in the 80s. It simply doesn't stand up in today's top-tier level of art.
Overall, if you've enjoyed the previous issues of this Exiles series you'll probably enjoy this one too, but as for me, Exiles #4 is resounding mediocre.
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