Exiles #96

Exiles #96
Well, it's the best issue that we've gotten since Claremont took over on this title. Unfortunately, that's not saying much. The pace in this issue drags sooooooooooo slowly that at the end of the story it feels like everything within could have been accomplished in, possibly, the space of 3-5 pages - total. And weird shit has never been the foray of this book, and Claremont really shouldn't start with that now. See, there's something that he's obviously not grasping here. When you've got a format that WORKS, as Exiles did for roughly 90 issues before he came aboard, you DON'T - ABSOLUTELY DON'T - go TWEAKING IT!! That's just stupid.
Plus, this issue contains some typically awfully hackneyed Claremont dialogue, which in many instances is quite painful to read.
All told however, this book does merit at least an EH.
As I've said, the only reason I continue to read this is for its inclusion of Spider-Man 2099. As long as he remains in the title, all my objections are merely academic. If and when he gets dropped though, you can bet that I'll be dropping this entire series as well, assuming that the writing remains at this atrociously pitifully low level.