Written by: Joe Harris
Art by: Matthew Dow Smith
Publisher: IDW
For existing fans of The X-Files, this comic (overseen by show creator Chris Carter) is a welcome extension of the world. Season Ten tells the continuing story of Mulder and Scully following the events of the last film. Issue 13 features a full cast of beloved and not-so-beloved characters including Assistant Director Skinner, the Cigarette Smoking Man, and The Lone Gunmen. The story follows the show’s typical format, providing a sort of “voice over” by Scully to set the tone of the whole issue and then packing action into every frame of the book. The characters are very true to form, and behave and speak in a familiar way, making the extension of the story feel natural, even as fans face some pretty heavy questions.
The art is keyed in to the tone of the story, done in as few lines as possible it seems which helps to create a suspenseful atmosphere. With very few extraneous details to look at, the reader is encouraged to zone in on the intricacies of the plot (and with The X-Files, there is no shortage of intricate plotting). This does make the characters difficult to distinguish in a couple of cases, but once they’re identified, it becomes easy to follow who’s who.
The book also comes with a run-down of what has been happening in this series of issues ( #13 is the third part in a story arc called Pilgrims) before the story starts, again much like the TV show would have done. It also comes with a “debriefing” page at the end with letters to and from the “inside man” Denton J. Tipton which allows readers to write in with questions concerning plotting anomalies between the show and comic or with general praise or complaints, which are then addressed in print. This invitation for communication between readers and the creators is nice, and it’s formatted in a way that feels very genuine to the franchise.
