X-Files: Season 10 #18 Review

After eighteen months of captivity and torture, Special Agent John Doggett is back! And oh yeah, so are the Acolytes.

The Official description from IDW:

When we last saw them, Special Agents John Doggett and Monica Reyes seemingly met their final fates at the hands of the alien faction known as the Acolytes. Now in this one-off story, we’ll reveal what actually became of them and what is in store for them next.

True to the flavor of what a televised season of the X-Files might look like, writer Joe Harris has spent several issues revisiting the meta-plot of season 10 which concerns itself with the Acolytes and their mysterious agenda. After a strong showing earlier in the series, they vanished for a while only to resurface now with issue #18. And what they bring along with them now is Special Agents John Doggett and Monica Reyes. And what have these shape-shifting herald’s of alien invaders been doing since we last saw them? Well, they’ve been keeping two special agents locked in the basement of a creepy house, doing God knows what to them. And then, suddenly they let the agents free. This, in a nutshell, is the plot that writer Joe Harris offers us with issue 18 — it’s simple, yes, but well crafted. It’s big on questions and short on answers, but that’s exactly what you’d expect from the first issue of a new arc and Harris does it well.

Matthew Dow Smith provides the art, and he’s clearly gotten the memo from previous artists on how to illustrate this title. Season 10 has been typified by creepy shadow work, sketchy lines, and sparse details. And it works — don’t get me wrong. And Dow Smith does a strong job of keeping the tradition alive.

Issue #18 offers the start of a new arc for X-fans. And so far, so good.