The final issue of our time hopping trip through the X-Files first case to the present comes to a conclusion. Is it good?
The X-Files: Year Zero #5 (IDW Publishing)
There are two ways to look at this issue.
On one hand, you have the wonderful, tight mystery through time the series started with… which came almost completely off the rails before skidding to disjointed, unsatisfying ending. Supernatural elements in fiction are obviously going to be fantastic by nature, but they should still have some parameters that help them make sense in the context of the story.
But on the other hand, Karl Kesel wrote some fantastic interactions between with Ellison/Ohio and Mulder Scully. And despite the muddied plot, the looks back into the past of the X-Files (particularly at the very end of this issue) were a lot of fun.
Is it Good?
As a whole series, yes. When combined with the great art duo of Gregg Scott and Vic Malhottra, Kesel did some great world building, invented some fun/scary characters, and for the first two thirds of its fun, made X-Files: Year Zero a pitch perfect franchise tale.
Unfortunately, the random and ‘out of nowhere’ elements that infiltrated the series’ final couple of issues took the luster off the it, a bit.
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