Written by: Mike Raicht
Art by: Kevin VanHook and Mat Lopes (colours)
Published by: IDW
Ohhhhh X-Files, how I loved to watch that show back when I was just a baby reviewer, making critiques on issues of The Beano. I can’t believe it had a whole season 10 out in comic format without me knowing until recently and now with the upcoming season 11, a new TV series AND the annual it’s like Christmas has come early. If you don’t know what X-Files is (and if you’re on this site you probably should at least have a passing knowledge) go watch it, it’s a brilliant show and you’ll keep coming back for more. If you have watched the show, do it again, it’s worth it.
The comic begins with Mulder dragging Scully along to his High-school reunion do, and the two are ridiculously overdressed compared to everyone else. After some clever lines from the pair we find out that it is not, in fact, Mulder’s high-school reunion but rather that of a young boy who went missing some time ago in a ‘haunted’ house… who Mulder is posing as in order to gain information. Everyone buys Mulder’s ruse and accepts it, except for the missing boy’s friends who reveal that the boy had psychic abilities, and if I say anymore then it ruins the point of reading the book.
The big question here, that will make or break the book, is are the Mulder and Scully here like they are in the show? Fortunately Mike Raicht has that down to a T, Scully is dry and always trying to find a reasonable explanation while Mulder is much more … aloof?, just as close-minded but leans towards the supernatural as strongly as Scully does science. Raicht even manages to perfectly nail the awkward sexual tension between the two that must always be there and every scene where the characters are together is a treat.
The overall story as an X-Files story is pretty brilliant, filled with twists and turns, and although the final conclusion is pretty obvious, the book doesn’t act like it isn’t which is good. My one problem with it would be that the ending is a bit unsatisfactory with no pay off but that was often the way of the show so that’s negligible.
The art is a different story which in my opinion is plain at best, distracting at worst. Characters sometimes don’t even look like themselves, more than once I thought Mulder looked more like Scott Bakula from Quantum Leap than David Duchovny. As well as that backgrounds are often just plain colours with little detail to them in the first half (for some reason this problem goes away half way through and the art appears to improve overall). Another problem is at any distance other than a close up shot characters lose so much detail to their face and form that they are almost comparable to some of the better efforts seen produced through Microsoft Paint.
I thought the issue was great despite this and told a good story with some great lines from Mulder and Scully (although Mulder was much more prominent) and would have loved for it to have been fleshed out to a full episode with a bit more focus on some side-plot. Unfortunately I have to question if it’s really worth the $7.99 price tag on this single issue and really all I can say is; if you’re a die hard X-Files fan that can’t wait for season 11 of the comic or the new series this is a great way to tie you over (especially with the lengthy sneak at season 11 #1).If you want to get into the series, maybe it’s best you give this a miss altogether and wait for the new series, read season 10 (it eases you in pretty well), watch the show from the beginning on NetFlix or whatever or play the PS2 game (Resist or Serve) and decide if you like it.
