By: Joe Harris (writer), Elena Casagrande & Silvia Califano (art), Arianna Florean with Valentina Cuomo (colors) and Neil Uyetake & Tom B. Long (letters)
The Story: Return of Flukeman.
The Review (with SPOILERS): This was a new story arc for The X-Files, Season 10 and it represents a big test to see how well the series can maintain fan interest with a non-mythology storyline. If you were a fan of the X-Files TV program, you remember that the stories fell into two categories. The program was best known for it’s continuing government conspiracy/alien invasion story, but – since it was the 1990s – they still had to make ~25 episodes for a full season. So, Agents Mulder and Scully were just as often investigating other forms of weirdness as they were dealing with the Cigarette Smoking Man and getting information from The Lone Gunmen. These standalone episodes are usually referred to as “Monster of the Week”.
The ironic thing about the TV program is that the alien mythology story eventually fell apart like wet toilet paper at the end of the show’s run. So, the story for which the show was best known ended up being the least rewatchable; it was fun while the story was ongoing, but the final resolution wasn’t all that satisfying. For you younger folks, the best comparison would be Lost.
But, if you want to watch some great TV on Netflix: Go watch the X-Files’ MotW episodes. Holy crap are they great. Some of the greatest episodes the X-Files ever did had nothing to do with aliens.
Tying into the comic (and this review), the first 5-issue story arc of X-Files, Season 10 was rooted in the ongoing mythology. It was entertaining and it had an incredible feel of authenticity, but the ultimate resolution wasn’t all that great. In a perverse sort of way, the flat ending to the story almost makes it more authentic. So, on that soft note, we shift gears to a “monster of the week” story and do an art change.
This story ties into an episode from Season 2 of the TV program called “The Host”. In that episode, we met a creepy character called Flukeman. The concept behind Flukeman was that a parasitic liver fluke was exposed the radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster resulting in a human/fluke hybrid that was lurking in the shadows and biting people to pass on its eggs. Creepy.
Just as with the “monster of the week” TV episodes, there isn’t a whole lot of depth to the story in this issue…..and I’m fine with that. Compared with the the mythology stories, these MotW stories are a refreshing palate cleanser. There’s no complexity, no hidden agendas….. Nobody was ever going to corner you after a MotW episode and demand that you explain the actions of the nefarious Alex Krycek. MotW was just an excuse to do something simple, fun and scary. And this issue of the comic series continues that. There’s nothing really to analyze here, the science is still totally implausible, the supporting characters still totally don’t matter, etc….
It’s a good story. I liked it.
A very wise thing is that this Return of Flukeman story is only two issues long. That’s perfect. It gives one issue for exposition and a cliffhanger and a second issue for resolution. Perfect. Get in. Get out. Nobody wants to read a 6-issue Flukeman story. In fact, if this comic series did 5-issue mythology stories sandwiched around 2-issue MotW stories, that would probably be fine.
The art is just okay. It tells the story acceptably, but it nowhere near the quality of Michael Walsh on the first story arc. His art really captured Mulder/Scully/Skinner in a way that this art cannot. I mean, I look at the redhead in this issue and know that it is Dana Scully, but I am no longer hearing Gillian Anderson reading the dialog to me. So, this art change is hampering the story a little bit. However, if I put this art in front of someone who had never watched the TV show, they wouldn’t have a negative reaction to it. Judging art for a series like this is difficult because the art has to serve two masters: It needs to be quality storytelling, but it also needs to recapture the feeling of the original material. Ultimately, the art is only partially successful.
Conclusion: A pretty good Monster-of-the-Week story (that will be told over two months). It’s entertaining, but the art change doesn’t do the issue a service.
Grade: C
– Dean Stell