This was a good issue. For serious!

Once again, the best issues of New Exiles tend to be the ones where writer Chris Claremont can spotlight a couple of members.

Especially when Sage is not either of the members.

Here, Sabretooth and Cat take the spotlight, as they are trapped in an alternate reality with Sue Storm's League of Murdering Psychopaths.

I liked Paco Diaz Luque's artwork better this issue, but it is still a downgrade from Grummett's artwork.

Here are some sample pages...

This issue compares favorably to classic Claremont stories of the past that had Wolverine taking the place of Sabretooth (specifically, the classic Rogue storyline with Paul Smith and the equally classic Energizer story with Barry Windsor-Smith). Obviously, it is not as good as those issues, which were utter classics (and, well, no offense to Mr. Diaz Luque, but he sure is not Paul Smith or Barry Windsor-Smith, but the day that "you're not as good as Paul Smith or Barry Windsor-Smith" is seen as an insult is no day soon).

We also, shockingly, get some real background on Cat, which was great to see. Cat comes from a world where a Shadow King-controlled Emma Frost snatched Kitty Pryde up before Professor X could get her to attend Xavier's. She had to get away, and that's where the Exiles picked her up. It's an interesting back story, really.

In any event, the issue is Cat dragging around a severely hurt Sabretooth around to keep the two alive until they can get back to the Exiles' inter-dimensional home base. She has to come up with a lot of clever plans that really skirt the edge of recklessness.

And finally, we get the completely awesome scene that Michael Golden's cover alludes to.

Very cool.

So yeah, a very strong story and decent artwork makes this worth recommending.

So, well, recommended.