Remember that really good issue last month that looked like it was the start of a fascinating plot thread?
Well forget about it because The X-Files: Season 10 is going in a completely different direction this week. Is it good?
The X-Files: Season 10 #19 (IDW Publishing)
After a trippy as hell flashback involving Mulder’s father, the Cigarette Smoking Man, and some industrial grade government weed, we jump back to the present for a lunch date between Mulder and Scully…which is rudely interrupted by the resurrected (sort of) CSM.
Cryptic clues and menacing stares are exchanged, Mulder goes to visit the Lone Gunmen, investigates something weird, etc. You should know the drill right now.
Where things get weird is when Mulder arrives at a potential UFO hotspot/definite pot party. After getting splashed with some acid-laced water, he begins to hallucinate—but not about little green men.
…but we still get those, too.
Is It Good?
The good news: This issue feels a lot like an early episode of the television show…
The bad news: …but not one of the good ones.
I do enjoy a humorous X-Files story, especially when it’s Joe Harris creating the dialogue. The scenes between Langly and Frohike in this one are particularly good.
Unfortunately, the plot feels a bit stale, especially after how powerful the last couple arcs were. Another issue is Tom Mandrake’s art, which is never bad, but wildly inconsistent from page to page… which may actually work for the trippy direction that it looks like this story will take.
“Have you ever just like… looked at your hand?”
It’s not a bad issue, but it definitely feels like a step down from the string of really good ones we’ve just had. Let’s hope that next month, the good aspects of the narrative come to the fore rather than disappear in a puff of smoke.
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