When Chris Carter decided to scrap the Season 10–11 comics’ timeline when he brought the “X-Files” back to TV in 2016, it meant IDW lead writer Joe Harris had to wrap up that story (now on an alternate timeline) and start up again with a new ongoing series. The big differences are that M&S are not a cohabitating couple (although they are still close) and that the Lone Gunmen are still dead. Here’s a look at Issues 1-9, from 2016:
“Active Shooter” (Issue 1, collected in “Revival” TPB)
We may be back in the new “official” continuity, but the issue-to-issue writing of an X-File doesn’t change, and the first new comic story, “Active Shooter,” could exist in any timeline. Harris balances a standalone story with mythology elements to kick off the ongoing title.
A mall mass shooter is possessed by an entity (he sees lights that cause him to go on a shooting rampage, then another person catches that affliction, and then another). Maybe there’s a metaphor to be had here about contagious insanity in the modern world, but I’m not sure what it is. Harris works in what are probably his personal gun-control politics via Mulder, coming off too preachy.
“The X-Files” ongoing Issues 1-9 (2016)
Publisher: IDW
Writer: Joe Harris
Artists: Matthew Dow Smith, Jordie Bellaire
After a wonderfully nostalgic moment back at the office where Mulder and Skinner nearly come to blows over the exchange of information, “Active Shooter” teases that there’s a bigger conspiracy at play. A mysterious someone – not Skinner – had called M&S to the scene of the crime, which is now being covered up by the government.
My critique of the art is the same as on the previous ongoing titles: Matthew Dow Smith’s likenesses are excellent, but – while I can’t complain about his dedication to background details – the panels are too inky. Jordie Bellaire’s colors, much like the TV show’s palette, leave you thinking “black and white” even though they are full color. “The X-Files” vibe is there, but – especially when combined with the density of Harris’ writing – slathered on too thick.
3 stars
“Dia De Muertos” (Issues 2-3, collected in “Revival” TPB)
“Active Shooter” is timely in its chronicle of a mass shooter, and “Dia De Muertos” is even more ripped-from-the-headlines as a young brother and sister illegally cross the Mexican border into the US. Even though this is twice the length of “Active Shooter,” Harris tones down the politics and just has Mulder and Scully working the case. Scully, doing an estimated dozen autopsies in one fell swoop, observes that she’s never seen anything as grisly as this truckload of immigrants who have been ripped apart.
“Dia De Muertos” would play better as an episode than as a comic. While that statement could apply to many comic yarns, it’s strikingly evident here because it’s so dark in tone that we miss the mood provided by the score and cinematography. Those near-horror-genre traits always elevate X-Files where the solution to the mystery is obvious but you enjoy soaking up the dark journey.
This story also relies on two children as leads; they come off too flat and distant on the page, especially since they regularly chant and sing in Spanish. On the other hand, this perhaps enriches the experience for a bilingual reader.
Still, I can’t be too hard on “Dia De Muertos,” because – compared to “Active Shooter” – I have no complaints here about it being thin on answers. Clearly, the kids have called on an evil entity to take out the also-evil cartel members.
In a particularly tense sequence that would’ve been thrilling on TV, Mulder is in the back of the truck that had been the scene of the mass slaughter, but the bad guys come to investigate the truck at the same time. And he’s outright saved by the evil entity, which he even briefly confronts.
The yarn remains ungraspable, though, even by “X-Files” standards. M&S have often bonded with kids on cases, but not with these kids, even though Scully puts some effort in with the girl who draws clues with crayons in that well-worn fashion. We never get a sense of whether they understand the consequences of their actions, and we’re missing the basic pathos that would be found on TV.
3 stars
“Ishmael” (Issues 4-5, collected in “Revival” TPB)
It’s refreshing to get a break from the regular “dark” art as Andrew Currie and colorist Sebastian Cheng brighten the palette, and my appetite is whetted for the “Origin” stories with the opening panels in 1977 San Diego, where Scully’s sister is giving her Princess Leia hair buns. Cheng draws excellent likenesses of everyone, including Scully’s father, and I can imagine Gillian Anderson giving this performance.
“Ishmael” is a spiritual sequel to “Beyond the Sea” (1.13), starting with Scully’s nightmare featuring her late father, William. Harris tells of a dark secret from the elder Scully’s life that Dana was also privy to, but which she buried in her mind.
As with the TV series, it’s nice to have a personal story about one of the leads peppered in now and then in the comics. Scully, like Mulder, is a loner at heart, but she also loves her family members, and those reminders are often powerful.
As is to be expected with Harris yarns, a reader isn’t given the full picture of what happens. A former private detective with psychological problems has information that seemingly only Scully could know. Exactly how this is possible is unclear, even when we factor in the paranormal, as is the villain’s aim of what to do with this information, although Mulder suggests blackmail as a likelihood.
The underexplored nature of the antagonist keeps “Ishmael” from being a masterpiece, but nonetheless, it’s a welcome and heartfelt Scully story.
4 stars
“Came Back Haunted” (Issues 6-9, collected in “Came Back Haunted” TPB)
Harris continues from Issue 1’s story of people who see “holes in the sky” and are controlled by a supernatural force into doing things. In that case it was shooting up a mall. Now Mulder is possessed by the force, which makes him hop on a plane to Eastern Europe, where he gets put on a chain gang digging in a place owned (or formerly owned) by Strughold Mining Company. That’s the name of the powerful Syndicate member from the first “X-Files” movie.
“Came Back Haunted” is a notch in the ledger for those who argue Harris’ mythology stories play too much like “greatest hits.” The possession force is much like the Black Oil, so much so that Scully herself draws the parallel. Issue 6 ends with the starry-eyed Mulder walking toward the “camera” in the same fashion as black-eyed Krycek at the end of “Piper Maru” (3.15). When Mulder ends up in a bleak work camp on the other side of the globe, it calls to mind “Tunguska” (4.8)/ “Terma” (4.9).
My biggest problem with “Came Back Haunted” is that it’s too much work to understand what’s happening, for not enough payoff. Some of this comes from the writing, and some from the ink-heavy artwork, wherein it’s hard to pick out the likenesses.
On the plus side, international philanthropist Firas Ben-Brahim is a solid addition to the cast, and it’s particularly neat (and a hopeful vision of the future by Harris) that he operates a state-of-the-art refugee community on an island.
When Scully is working with Ben-Brahim’s group to decipher the faux-terrorist event that opens the arc — and which calls to mind “Babylon” (10.5) — and to track down Mulder, “Came Back Haunted” has the old-fashioned appeal of watching an agent work a case.
Overall, though, I don’t totally understand what happened and I’m not confident that this thread will lead to a new wrinkle in the mythology rather than a replay.
3 stars