As always, this post contains spoilers, and page numbers go by the digital edition.

SABRETOOTH & THE EXILES #1
“X-Isle”
Writer: Victor LaValle
Artist: Leonard Kirk
Colourist: Rain Beredo
Letterer: Cory Petit
Design: Tom Muller with Jay Bowen
Editor: Mark Basso

SABRETOOTH & THE EXILES is a 5-issue miniseries and a direct continuation of the recent Sabretooth miniseries by the same creative team. The recap page covers the set-up, but for any newcomers, the following points are worth flagging. First, Sabretooth was sent to the Pit for breaking the “murder no man” law before it was actually made, and without any sort of trial, and in circumstances where he arguably believed he had a promise of amnesty. Much of the first miniseries is a discussion of the nature and function of prisons and authority. When he escaped, his fellow “exiles” (meaning here prisoners in the Pit) were sent after him by Mystique and Destiny, but the rest of the Quiet Council don’t yet know that the prisoners have all escaped.

This series has no connection with any of the previous incarnations of Exiles.

PAGE 2. Data page. A prologue by Mole, originally a very minor background character from 1980s X-Factor, who got to play a more important role in the plot of the first mini. He’s restating another of the core themes of the first series, that the background characters are marginalised and ignored by the stars, even the heroes.

PAGES 3-7. Dr Barrington introduces herself, and learns about Sabretooth.

Dr Barrington debuted in New Mutants vol 4 #8 and #12, when she was breeding mutant-hunting creatures in Brazil. That plotline seems to have been completely dropped, which LaValle nods at by saying that it “went nowhere”. After that, she showed up working with the U-Men in Children of the Atom #4-5, a book which promptly got cancelled. The rank and file U-Men are indeed fanatics who want to harvest mutant organs in order to give themselves powers. Barrington was written in CotA as an amoral scientist who was mainly interested in testing her new ideas, and who seemed irritated by the priorities of her colleagues. She escaped at the end.

Orchis. Barrington has now signed up with Orchis, apparently because she believes that they’ll let her get on with her work as long as it’s profitable. (This is a private prisons analogy, of course.) Barrington seems to believe that Orchis is essentially a business, but its anti-mutant agenda generally appears to be an absolute priority for it. She may well be on the fringes of the organisation. Orchis were openly functioning as an anti-mutant campaigning group in Judgment Day but we may not have reached that point in continuity, and besides, Barrington may think it’s a front. Barrington mentions that they answer to someone or something called “GC”, presumably the “General Contractor” that Sabretooth learns about on page 32.

The red-masked support staff are new. Barrington identifies them later as Nobodies, which seems to play into LaValle’s theme about background characters. They seem to be mainly concerned with keeping on her right side. They don’t look like much of a physical threat, and seem to be more Orchis lab technicians.

We don’t know why Barrington is so interested in the liver, but it comes up again later in the issue, so it does seem to be a plot point.

PAGE 8. Recap and credits.

PAGE 9. Third Eye and the Toad.

Third Eye mentioned in Sabretooth #4 that he had once been an “arcane assassin”; we still don’t know much about that part of his life. Toad is being a bit harsh about his powers, which seem to be basically that he’s a low level psychic topped up with a bit of magic knowledge. There are way more useless powers out there than that. Toad can jump. As Third Eye said, he did basically prove himself to the core cast in the previous run, but Toad, Orphan-Maker and Nanny only showed up right at the end (in what looked a lot like a nod to continuity in other books) and missed all that. So far as they’re concerned, he’s just some random Krakoan that they’ve never heard of.

The Toad ended up in the Pit in X-Men: The Trial of Magneto, ostensibly for murdering the Scarlet Witch. In fact, he pretended to kill her as part of a plan to help redeem her. That series did indeed present his motivation as his loyalty to Magneto (which was a bit of a throwback to the 1960s, but okay).

PAGE 10. Oya and Nekra.

Mostly self-explanatory. Nekra’s powers are indeed powered by rage, and she was presented as a revolutionary, particularly in her early appearances. LaValle may see this as something of a cliche to be addressed.

PAGES 11-12. Barrington and Sabretooth.

Barrington is delighted to find that Sabretooth’s healing powers can help with whatever problem it is that she’s been having with livers. Meanwhile, she talks about giving his healing factor to a shadowy person in a containment tube, whom she describes as “my most promising creation”, so that they can “live long enough for [their] primary abilities to manifest”. She says that she promised this person revenge when they escaped the X-Men. That’s footnoted to Children of the Atom #4 (which ought to be #5).

We’ll find out later who the Creation is.

Noble Island is new, as far as I know.

PAGES 13-14. Nanny and Orphan-Maker.

Nanny and Orphan-Maker only showed up right at the end of the previous miniseries, having been banished to the Pit in the final issue of Hellions. LaValle is re-establishing their standard relationship here. Despite her introduction caption, it’s not quite fair to call Nanny a psychopath – she does appear to genuinely feel protective about Peter and other children under her control, in however distorted a fashion.

The idea that Orphan-Maker has apocalyptic powers that have to be kept dormant by his containment suit dates back to their early appearances in X-Factor. Particularly after his resurrection in Hellions, it’s strongly implied that Peter is physically an adult, whose containment suit prevents his powers from activating and keeps him in a state of mental arrested development.

PAGE 15. The core Exiles land on Noble Island.

Madison Jeffries mainly uses his powers to create technology, but he can merge into his creations, as he did with the Box armour back in Alpha Flight. The idea that he would choose to retreat within one of his own creations makes some sense for his persona.

The effect of the cast split is that the three characters who only showed up at the end of Sabretooth #5 get left behind, implying that they’re going to be sidelined. They aren’t, but it’s a nice piece of misdirection.

PAGES 16-18. The Exiles find a mass grave.

Presumably these are the mutants that Barrington has finished experimenting on. An obvious question is why this volume of mutant deaths isn’t being picked up on Cerebro – perhaps there’s some sort of shielding going on, and it isn’t blocking Third Eye’s tracking because he’s focussing specifically on Sabretooth and/or supplementing his powers with magic.

PAGE 19. Data page: Barrington’s job application to Orchis, somewhat confusingly pitched as a memo on Orchis headed paper.

J Marion Sims (1813-1883) did indeed carry out experimental surgery on slaves, and he did develop a lot of pioneering treatment in the field of gynaecology. The woman who underwent thirty of these surgeries was called Anarcha Westcott. Sims always maintained that his patients had genuinely consented (and that he wouldn’t have operated otherwise), but these were repeated, excruciatingly painful, experimental procedures, performed on women who were in no real position to refuse. The whole thing was very questionable even by the standards of the time and is understandably often cited as an example of the exploitation of black women.

The material about his use of anaesthesia does call for some context. His experimental operations took place between 1845 and 1849. Anaesthesia only became available a couple of years into that period, and it wasn’t universal by 1849. There is evidence that he initially treated white patients without anaesthetic for several years, all of which would be consistent with him simply adopting the new technology once it became established. Still, the lack of anaesthesia affects the credibility of his patients having genuinely consented to multiple procedures over several years; and the fact remains that he actively sought out slaves as his test subjects.

PAGES 19-20. The Exiles call in reinforcements.

PAGES 21-22. Barrington wakes the Creation.

The Creation. Interestingly, the Creation appears to have undergone her transformation without anaesthesia – despite Barrington implying on the preceding data page that mutants are the sub-humans who can safely be experimented upon.

The Creation is Commander Kruger, who was the leader of the U-Men paramilitary squad in Children of the Atom #5. As already noted, Barrington seemed to see Kruger as more of a fanatic in that story. Kruger looked normal when she was with the U-Men, so Barrington has clearly been busy with her.

PAGES 23-24. The Creation fights the Exiles.

Not surprisingly, they aren’t a very cohesive team. In theory some of them have useful combat powers, but they don’t have the experience to make much of it.

PAGES 25-26. Sabretooth escapes.

More talk about pain, which Sabretooth regards as something life-affirming.

PAGES 27-28. Third Eye tries to read Barrington’s mind.

Barrington seems to be aware of what he’s doing. It’s not clear whether that just goes with the territory with Third Eye’s powers, or whether she’s just defended against this in some way.

PAGES 29-30. Sabretooth fights slaughters some Nobodies.

As he says, it’s been a while. He didn’t get to do any of this stuff in the previous volume – not for real, anyway.

PAGE 31. Creation escapes with Barrington and Orphan-Maker.

Dr Moreau. Presumably referring here to the Island of Dr Moreau, though in the Marvel Universe it could be David Moreau, the original Genegineer (who was in turn named after the book).

PAGES 32-34. Sabretooth escapes from Station Six.

Even Sabretooth seems shocked by the identity of the General Contractor, which is his motivation for keeping the rest of the cast around.

PAGE 35. Trailers.