Better Luck Next Year
Upside
I picked up the recent X-Files: Conspiracy LS because I was just excited it existed. As a general principle, more X-Files is better. So the appearance of this Annual delivered the same pleasure. Double-sized issue; more should be better. Unfortunately, other than the back-up story art, this issue is at best an exception to prove the principle.
Downside
I’m not a fan of the ‘annual as anthology’ approach. I think that if you are going to produce an annual, you should have a larger story that can take advantage of the longer format. So when I opened X-Files Annual #1 and saw credits for two stories, I was already disappointed. I don’t hold this against the book in my grade, because I know it is just a matter of my expectations. I grade the execution, because the creative team isn’t responsible for my expectations. At least this annual is not a collection of fragments – there is one extended story and a back-up length second feature.
The plot of the extended story was a bit thin. It hinges on a weak premise about a spontaneous interaction between spiritual forces and technology. To be fair, there are many one-and-done episodes in the early seasons of the TV series that were no stronger, so I was willing to go along. The scripting didn’t help, though. Mulder and Scully are reduced to extreme types, with him instantly believing the absurd and her insisting petulantly for empirical explanations. These are season 1 characters. We’re in season 10 in this series and the characters have moderated based on their experiences.
The biggest problem was a lack of tolerable art to tell the story. The best word to describe Stuart Sayger’s drawing here is ‘scribbled.’ The figures are a mess of distorted lines, sometimes to the point that you struggle to even recognize faces. When you do recognize them, the twisted expressions are distracting. Worst of all, you struggle to understand events in the storytelling. I’ve never seen this artist before and I hope he has done other, better things. The result of this art was that I was grateful when the first feature was finally over.
To describe the back-up feature, I’m reminded of the original Willy Wonka’s frequent line: “Scratch that, reverse it.” The concept of this piece, involving an allegedly spooky character that Scully interacts with, is just plain goofy. It would be fun to explain that in detail, but would require a lot of spoiling. Suffice it to say I rolled my eyes a lot. The back-up, though, was graced by some outstanding drawing. Andrew Currie really captures Dana Scully. It is the only plain beauty of some of her panels that nets this book a second star.
Bottom-line
Save your $7.99 and wait for the continuation of the Season 10 on-going title. Month to month, X-Files has been a lot fun. I look forward to forgetting this brief interruption.