X-Files Season 10 #20 Review

After a series of heavier issues X-Files Season 10 took a turn for the goofy with this newest two-part arc. Even if you weren’t in the mood for it.

Here’s the official word from IDW

A government plot leads Mulder to ponder his early days as a cadet at Quantico, including his relationship with Diana Fowley and the fateful day that he found the iconic “I Want to Believe” poster. But the intrigue goes even further back in time, to when Bill Mulder was partnered with the Cigarette Smoking Man.

The occasional goofy one-shot has always been a part X-Files charm — moments where Mulder and Scully become strangely self aware of the thin membrane between creepiness and humor. For this newest arc, however, writer Joe Harris crafted a plot that had to do with super-weed and mind control — a premise so goofy it’s almost camp, and fans looking for any sort of creepiness will be sorely disappointed. Issue # 20 starts off with Mulder, well, high, after getting invited to a giant pot party where G-23 (the government name for this super-weed) was unleashed upon the waiting crowd. What follows is a series of flashbacks that fill in unnecessary gaps in Mulder’s early career as a cadet. While there are some quasi-hilarious moments where Harris probes Mulder’s psyche — and his complicated feelings for both Scully and Fowley — there’s nothing real pressing in this issue, meaning there’s no new information given that either helps us understand Mulder, or the evolving continuity of this latest season. In short, it’s just fun. Yes, things wrap up and we do get a somewhat fuller understanding of Mulder’s dad and the origins of G-23, but the savvy consumer will wonder if he or she really needed to buy two issues for these brief snippets of information when a one-shot could have done.

The art by Tom Mandrake might be the only highlight to this issue — psychedelic and goofy, a script that calls for drug induced visions has given Mandrake the freedom to do whatever the hell he wants. And he does. If you’ve ever wanted to see Scully as an assassin in fishnet stockings, Mandrake will deliver. And that’s just on page one.

Overall, X-Files Season 10 #20 offers a silly break from regular programming. Even if you weren’t looking for one.