Rules of a Hunt
The Project
The "Rules of a Hunt" is a fancomic project that serves both as a test of skills of its creators and as an hommage to the original creators
of the New Exiles comic series, Chris Claremont and Tom Grummet, thanking them (the former especially) for countless issues of adventures we grew
to read over and over again.
Of all Claremont's work I could have chosen to follow as a writer, I chose the Exiles because a) the X-Men usually have their set continuities, b) the
Omniverse offers the chance to work with basically ANY idea without messing up with the continuity of any world, c) I simply miss the team.
I'm fully aware the world and characters are copyrighted to Marvel Inc. and seek no profit off my work.
The Original
The Exiles are a group of Marvel comic book superheroes created by writer Judd Winick and artist Mike McKone. While the other "supers" are usually
working in a country- or world-sized scale, the Exiles work as the guardians of the Omniverse - everything there is, every single dimension and alternate
reality - fixing "glitches" that threaten either the world itself or the balance of the grand design.
If you know the recent history of the Exiles franchise, you might object this series actually had a successor - Exiles, vol. II, written by Jeff Parker.
While I consider it quite a piece in and of itself, I decided to omit its existence for the sake of this comic; Parker's series created some time
inconsistencies and "hiccups" in continuity, especially in connection to the "New Exiles version" of the team.
The Characters
At the end of New Exiles, the remaining team was only a shadow of its former self. Of the original eight adventurers, Cat died,
Gambit had to return to his homeworld, Rogue fell in love and decided to stay back at one of the worlds they visited and Sage merged with the
Crystal Palace.
Only ones that remained were the team's leader Sabretooth, his lover Psylocke, Raphael Darkholme - male alternate version of Mystique, Morph and
a newbie Valeria Richards. But I never really got a good grasp at her character, so I decided to sent her back home even before this story started.
And that's the state we find the Exiles in at the very beginning.
The World
The world the Exiles visit this time, Earth #3011 (yes, the number has its meaning :) ), looks like a perfect place at the first sight. But the team finds
out soon enough that there's a snake in every Paradise.
Here, things are a bit more hairy than elsewhere - the whole mutant population went through a sudden secondary mutation (note: same as Beast did in mainstream,
changing into a lion) and gained animalistic traits.
Exiles start to investigate the problem while Sage's cryptic message of "something important is about to happen" keeps ringing through their minds. But one
of them suddenly gets to play a significant role in this something, the quest to save a world turns into the quest to save a friend.
The Comic
This comic could never be without the work of my amazing colleagues and partners in crime - Yoshiherder, the fuzzy master of English language,
who checks every sentence with extra care and kicks my ass for any typos, spelling/grammar errors and other things I manage to mess up; Nigerfur,
tasked with the complicated task of watching over color balance and fluence of backgrounds; and of course Charlie the Dragon, co-plotter
responsible for filling numerous plotholes, letterer thanks to whom the comic isn't mute (all the speech bubbles, narrative boxes and stuff are his
work, including the superbly designed title) and art consultant who won't let me upload anything that doesn't live up to its expectations.
I also thank Judd Winick for having the amazing idea and Chris Claremont for giving it the shape I fell in love with. And Marvel Comics for letting
us fans follow the adventures of so many great characters.