Review – X-Files Season 10 #9 (IDW Publishing)

Publisher: IDW Publishing
Writer: Joe Harris
Artist: Greg Scott
Release Date: 12th February 2014

The X-Files hasn’t always been well served by comic adaptations and expansions, but IDW have finally given us the series that the show deserves. After an initial opening arc that caught up with the now-retired Agents Mulder and Scully in the present day, reintroduced The Lone Gunmen and The Cigarette Smoking Man and gave the first glimpse of what looks to be the new(ish) Mythology plotline, the series has settled down into the comfort, slotting in the tried and tested ‘Monster Of The Week’ storylines.

With Mulder and Scully reinstated to the FBI (even if they are on ‘double secret probation”) this one is pretty much the definition of a random X-Files episode and is all the better for it. A missing persons investigation leads to a nightmare of serial murder, human sacrifice, swarms of bugs and something called “The Chittering God.’ A perfect ‘done-in-one’, this a story that positively drips with atmosphere and creeping unease.

As usual, writer Joe Harris gets the voices of the two leads spot on. Both Mulder and Scully are pitch perfect and it’s not difficult to imagine this as an actual episode from the series, with Mulder’s droll humour bouncing off Scully’s more reserved character.

The opening arc’s artist Michael Walsh had a beautifully scratchy quality that echoed Michael Lark, but this issue is rendered in a much more photorealistic style by Greg Scott. It still works well though, with the result being more Tim Bradstreet than Greg Land.

IDW have really got something special with this run of The X-Files. The show’s finale left a lot to be desired and these comics, while being a direct continuation of it, feels much more like the classic era of the series. Great stuff.