This month’s issue of IDW’s The X-Files: Season 11 brings us the origin story of Gibson Praise …sort of.
Is it good?
The X-Files: Season 11 #5 (IDW Publishing)
The Plot
- Poor little Gibson. At least he has Matthew Dow Smith drawing him, who continues his perplexing habit of rendering flashback sequences better than the present ones.
- “That’s not your face, is it?” may be one of the absolute creepiest things a child can say.
- Mulder is mad at Scully for bringing him in. Maybe this is why they’re split up when the show returns in January.
- You’re letting him get on the plane?
- You seriously shouldn’t let Mulder get on a plane.
- I wonder if Gibson Praise likes to use one of those annoying pilot voices when he takes over the airline personnel.
- Green blood. Never a good sign.
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Is It Good?
Remember that really great issue from The X-Files: Season 10 about the Cigarette Smoking Man’s past? Well that’s what we got here… for about half the book.
The stuff with Gibson Praise was phenomenal. Not only was Smith’s art on point, but the dialogue (both between the characters and the internal one from Praise) was delightfully unsettling. It also set up a really cool mystery, which unfortunately didn’t pay off too much in the present. I’m sure it will later, but the current scenes just made me want to go back into the past again to learn more about the series’ new/old Big Bad.
The issue also does a good job explaining/tempering Praise’s sliding power levels, which were starting to get a tad ridiculous. I really hope this arc continues digging into his past, especially if it links up a little more with the story happening now.
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