Last issue, lots of bullets were fired while two very important people (one of whom is supposed to be dead) disappeared. This issue keeps on plucking that chicken and then some. Is it good?
The X-Files: Season 10 #13 (IDW Publishing)
Uh…this might be difficult (especially if spoilers are kept to a bare minimum), but here goes:
Krychek and Scully both randomly show up at Arlington National Cemetery, where they are discovered by the Lone Gunmen. Krychek starts saying a bunch of stuff that doesn’t make sense while Scully remains surprisingly calm for someone who just got transported a few thousand miles to another continent by unknown means.
“Whoa…whatever evil entity dropped him off here was super considerate.”
The Gunmen take Krychek into their secret lair and start doing stuff with his brain. After figuring out that something really weird is going on inside his noggin (more than before, anyway), he then throws everyone for a loop by acting like a decent human being instead of a sociopathic douchebag.
Scully repays Krychek for his kindness by taking him to Director Skinner to watch after him. After Scully leaves, Skinner promptly knocks Krychek’s ass out.
Meanwhile, Mulder is back in Saudi Arabia, all types of confused (just like the reader), and wandering the desert. He eventually gets picked up by a trucker…who is female…in the Middle East. That probably should have tipped him off that something was weird, but before he figures it out, her eyes turn all black and scary before their vehicle goes careening off the road.
A few panels later, Mulder is walking away from a very confused woman (and a lot of confused readers) with some black and scary looking eyes of his own. He boards a plane (on which the Cigarette Smoking Man just happens to be a passenger) and flies home to Scully… *cue dramatic squirrel*
Is It Good?
There is a fine line between building a complex mystery and tossing out plot threads like a monkey flinging its own poop. X-Files #13 not only crossed that line, but played a little jump rope with it, as well.
“The plot threads are out there, Mulder…somewhere…”
There were WAY too many unexplained incidents and occurrences here, some of which appear more than a little contrived. I’ll be happy to eat crow if Joe Harris spins all of these webs into a fantastic finish, but as it stands, this issue represents one of the major reasons a lot of people ended up losing interest in X-Files while it was on television.
Complexity is fine, but its sequential progression must still translate into a story. Right now, this issue…and this entire story arc…feel like a big mess.
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