X-Files Season 10 #22 Review

Mulder has been kidnapped. And issue #22 brings back an old fan favorite to help kick-off the Season 10 finale.

The official description from IDW:

The “Syndicate” that long bedeviled Agents Mulder and Scully has returned with old faces and a new leader. For what new secrets will they fight and kill? And what will become of the X-Files once those secrets are laid bare? The end is here!

After nearly being murdered by a disgruntled abductee from long ago — who, it turns out, actually committed suicide decades earlier — Mulder was snatched up my some infamous men in black and has gone missing. This leaves Scully to try and find her man. But what could have been — and maybe should have been — a Scully-centered issue actually gets shared by both agents as writer Joe Harris forgoes any semblance of suspense and splits the issue between our two iconic agents. The result is mixed. Yes, Mulder’s engaged in mysteries that are *much* more interesting, and pivotal to how this season will wraps up — we get a blast from the past, and (spoiler alert) a whole lot of hybrid action. But this high drama reveal for Mulder comes at Dana’s expense — her scenes seems redundant since we already know the answers to what she’s looking for (mostly) and unfortunately Harris has created whole swaths of this issue that readers will page through as they get to the meaty stuff. Given that this is just the start of a series finale, I’m willing to give Harris the benefit of the doubt. Issue #22 is a strong issue overall, even if the plotting is a tad flat.

Matthew Dow Smith once again 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.

The series finale is on the way — and I’m eager to see what happens next.