Review: The X-Files #1

The X-Files #1
Wildstorm • $3.50
A little under a decade ago, I was an avid fan of The X-Files. Despite stiff acting, a too-complex subplot that lost its way too early on, and questionable quality control, I enjoyed its neopulp and monster stories enough to keep watching on through the first movie and subsequent season, in which they began filming in California and the show became much glossier. After that, I lost interest, discovering other ways to spend Sunday night, and left the show and its diminishing returns behind.

The first issue of Wildstorm’s comic miniseries based on the property, penned by series writer, story editor, and executive producer Frank Spotnitz with art by Brian Denham, isn’t going to bring me back into the fold. The script lacks any of the humor or humanity of the show, even making the Lone Gunmen into hollow recitation machines and instead feelis like a series of plot beats and little more. Even there it falls down: Mulder’s paranoia in the final third of this first chapter seems to come from nowhere, and his relationship with Scully seems colder than it ever did on-screen. Artist Brian Denham photo-references heavily and comes across as a less-talented Tony Harris. Some of the sketchiness that Charlie Adlard brought to the Topps X-Files comics would have brought some welcome humanity to the whole affair.

Oh, and for those counting, this is the sixth non-comics-property tie-in that I’ve been sent to review from Wildstorm in a row. What happened to the imprint that gave us The Authority, Sleeper, and America’s Best Comics?