Exiles (Marvel Comics)

The Exiles are a group of fictional characters appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics commonly associated with The X-Men. They feature in three series, Exiles, New Exiles, and Exiles vol. 2. The Exiles consists of characters from different universes, or realities, which have been removed from time and space in order to correct problems (often called "hiccups") in various alternate worlds and divergent timelines in the Marvel Multiverse.

Created by writer Judd Winick and artist Mike McKone, Exiles features a revolving team roster with new characters introduced and others replaced when they are killed or returned to their home reality. The series is notable for the number of characters who stay dead, in contrast to the frequent resurrections that occur in the main Marvel and DC continuities. It has featured familiar characters or settings from previous Marvel storylines, such as the "Age of Apocalypse" and "House of M".

The first volume of Exiles ran for 100 issues, ending after a crossover with the members of New Excalibur in X-Men: Die by the Sword and the one-shot Exiles: Days of Then and Now. In March 2008 New Exiles began with Chris Claremont and artist Tom Grummett at the helm. Writer Jeff Parker and artist Salvador Espin relaunched the series with a new #1 in April 2009, but the book was canceled after only six issues.

Exiles was created by Mike Marts, Mike Raicht, Judd Winick and also artists Mike McKone and Jim Calafiore. Exiles was created after a period of development aimed at creating a new What If? book for Marvel.

Raicht and Winick would develop the initial formula of Exiles' reality-hopping adventures. Chuck Austen came aboard as interim writer after Winick's move to DC Comics. Tony Bedard took over, writing roughly half the series, from #46-89. Chris Claremont came onboard as of issue #90 and ended the series with the crossover X-Men Die by the Sword, before restarting the series as New Exiles. New Exiles ran for 18 issues before being canceled. A few months later the series was restarted again with a second volume of Exiles, written by Jeff Parker. This relaunch only lasted 6 issues before being canceled as well. A third series was launched as part of Marvel Legacy, written by Saladin Ahmed joined by the art team of Javier Rodriguez, Alvaro Lopez, and Jordie Bellaire and Joe Caramagna.

A number of artists have penciled the series including Mike McKone, Jim Calafiore, Kev Walker, Clayton Henry, Mizuki Sakakibara, Casey Jones, Steve Scott, Paul Pelletier, and Tom Mandrake. Tom Grummett, Roberto Castro, Paco Diaz, and Tim Seeley worked on New Exiles.

The Exiles team originally consisted of Blink (Clarice Ferguson, from the Age of Apocalypse), Mimic (Calvin Rankin), Magnus Lensherr (son of Magneto and Rogue), Thunderbird (John Proudstar), Nocturne (Talia Josephine "T.J." Wagner, daughter of Nightcrawler and Scarlet Witch), and Morph. The team has since gone through a multitude of line-ups with Morph and Blink remaining the only original Exiles.

Initially, the Exiles are employed by the Timebroker to fix broken realities. The Tallus is a communications device, which is worn by the leader of the group in order to communicate with the Timebroker. Through it, he would assign missions to the team and inform them of any changes, etc. Blink wears the Tallus in the beginning, but it is later transferred to Sabretooth when Blink rebels against the Timebroker. Mimic also wears the Tallus for a time in Blink's absence. It is now used as a means of communication between its wearer and whoever is operating the Crystal Palace on various missions. It has a slightly different appearance for each wearer. For the first time ever, Sabertooth has used the Tallus to transport himself back to the Crystal Palace, without anyone on the other side recalling him.