New Exiles #17 - Marvel

This issue begins wrapping up a lot of the various story-lines that we have running about out there. Unfortunately, next issue is the last in this series. However, it'll be beginning anew the following month under the tutelage of Jeff Parker and Salvador Espin. I have no idea what to expect, but . . that's pretty much always the case with this book. It seems that Chris Claremont is doing with this title what he did with Excalibur. This'll be it's third incarnation in as many years. That's what happened with Excalibur. It was going along fine and then . . it was cancelled. Shortly after Chris relaunched it but then . . M-Day happened. So it went on hiatus for awhile. Then, a year and a half or so later it was relaunched. Until . . it crossed over with this series. The 2 kind of merged, both were cancelled, but only this one became resurrected. Now . . it's about to be revamped again. I'm not sure what the purpose of all of this is, but it's made for some interesting reading. Psylocke almost takes out Slaymaster. She has the shot, but she can't make the killing blow. Sabretooth doesn't have such compassion, but before he can snap his neck . . Slaymaster teleports out of his clutches. Last issue Cat took out Empress Hydra, but it took a lot out of her also. This issue . . it appears that she passes. Rogue, along with Morph, Mystiq and Gambit are trying to defend the rightful heir to the Shi'ar throne, Nerimani, from her evil sister Lilandra. And, in the back-up Sage and Diana Fox fight for control of her conscious. They're in some psychic plane fighting against Merlyn, Roma's father, who also wants to control what's in Sage's head. This issue they come to the realization that in order to truly reach their potential, and get past all this conflict, they're going to have to merge . . to become one. When they do, they become more of an entity like Roma . . and easily finish off Merlyn. But, it may have cost them their humanity. I'm sure we'll finish off these story-lines entirely next issue. And set the stage for the new series. One good thing about the relaunch . . . Blink is back. Tim Seeley does the art in this issue, with Vincente Cifuentes doing the Sage part of the story. Tim's art has come a long way, and I think this guy has a lot of potential. Part of me is sad that this series is ending . . yet again. But, on the other hand, Jeff did a pretty good job with X-Men: First Class, so . . it'll be interesting to see what he does here. "The king is dead! Long live the king!"