Writer: Saladin Ahmed // Artists: Rod Reis & Lee Ferguson // Marvel Comics

What I Didn’t Miss

Alright, so first I’m just going to start off with this Kleenex ad. I won’t say Exiles #7 made me more emotional than I thought I would be. I also will not say that Saladin Ahmed done got me f*cked up. It was hard to not be tuned in the whole time. As a reader who doesn’t have previous knowledge of “back in the day” comics, at first the series was kind of hard to follow. There were a lot of jokes I missed, and would need to do a wiki search just to figure out what the joke might have been.

On one hand this pays homage to those who were frequent readers from way back when. On the other hand I was like, nah. All I know is that I see “The Thing” as a pirate and T’Challa as a cowboy and I ain’t even mad. Confused? Yes. Awkwardly satisfied? Yes. Wondering how this even happened and hope they make some future reference to the origin comic of said character burst? Yes.

 

Holy Matrimony

Of course, like usual I’m a sucker for religious references. There are so many layers to loss versus religion I could never deal with it. Exiles #7 focuses on loss. What are we losing? What may seem to be low-stake losses could become more important down the line. In a weird way, this comic taught me to be more conscious of my Ls so as to better understand the lessons. What’s the point of taking an L and not learning from it when your W’s refuse to come as frequently? Saladin taught me that loss is a physical and emotional hemisphere, that a lot of folks don’t like to get comfortable in. Honestly, seeing the gang (and cowboy T’Challa) helped me hone in on the gospel of recovery.

Sometimes when we experience hurt we don’t get a chance to recover. As a strong believer in developing emotional intelligence, I often don’t have the chance to do so. This comic highlighted that fact in ways I did not expect it would.

Wild Wild Exiles

I’m trying to word this in the least corniest way possible. If you were to put a word to the art style of this issue, it would be “Exiles”. The swishes and the swirling of the grainy visuals really captured my gaze, guiding my eyes from panel to panel in a smooth way. Usually I don’t like it when the art seems like a separate entity from the comic, but in this issue I enjoyed it.

The story did match the artist’s portrayal, but I felt like the artwork deserved its own separate analysis in this issue. The way the sand moves in one panel before settling in another is mirrored in the expressions of a character’s face, and it’s superb. The comic moved from a playful vibe and moved into a flowing, scratchy atmosphere; and honestly I’m here for it.

The series is starting to pick up, and I am excited to see where it goes. I can’t wait to see what lessons I will learn in some upcoming disastrous atmosphere. Saladin Ahmed and the guest artist team need to take all my dolla dolla bills if they going to continue pushing content out like this.

9.3 Cowboy Chadwick Bosemans out of 10

Reading Exiles? Find BNP’s other reviews of the series here

Are you following Black Nerd Problems on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr or Google+?

Tags:

  • Khadjiah Johnson is a Caribbean-American writer and humor advocate who uses poetry and comedy as a leverage to empathize and uplift. Her work has taken her to Madison Square Garden, Lincoln Center, Apollo Theater, BET, Off-Broadway and many more! She hopes to use her talents to sway her way into the writers room for a Late Night Comedy Show.

  • Show Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

comment *

  • name *

  • email *

  • website *