Mr. X Goes To Washington

The first X omnibus surprised me. Though I’m not a superhero fan, I liked X’s dark tone and focus on mafia and political machinations within the corrupt city of Arcadia. In the middle the book lost focus with the inclusion of Dark Horse’s other heroes, but it got back on track at the end. I was intrigued enough to immediate start in on the second omnibus.

And that’s where the series dies. The second half of X’s adventures is awful. X’s quest to seize control of the city is pushed to the back burner as guest appearances from the rest of “Comic’s Greatest World” take control of the series. If I were collecting this as the issues were released, I would have dropped the book somewhere in the Washington DC storyline.

John Ostrander wrote a celebrated Spectre series in the nineties. It was firmly in the DC universe, subject to the same dumb crossovers and guest appearances as other superhero books. But Ostrander was always able to balance this, keeping the tone of his series firmly in place and remembering whose name was the title of the book. Steven Grant wasn’t able to do that here. In multiple issues, X is relegated to a guest appearance in his own book. And the other characters introduction were handled clumsily. I’m not sure if writer Steven Grant lost his grip or was under editorial pressure to feature other superheroes, but either way it is intrusive and destructive to X’s own book. And let’s be honest, most of the CGW superheroes were pretty dumb.

On top of the story telling slip-ups, the new regular art team of Javier Saltares and Andrew Pepoy is awful. X was plagued by changing art teams. Some good (Doug Mahnke and Jimmy Palmiotti, Chris Warner and Tim Bradstreet), some not so good. Having a standard team should have been a good thing. But the team they settled on just didn’t fit the tome of the character. Look at the cover for the first issue of X or at any of the covers Frank Miller did for the series. X’s world should be full of inky black shadows, grimy back alleys and mystery. Instead, the backgrounds are typically squeaky clean and brightly lit. And vanilla. Arcadia had no distinct personality to it.

Saltares is just not a very good artist. All of his characters are muscle-bound and stand in awkward poses, making fists at inappropriate times. He is unable to draw two average people standing in a room, talking (which is a major handicap in a series dealing with back room politics and mafia power plays). Also, his style is a grab bag of the worst of the nineties. Poor anatomy, speed-lines everywhere, pouches, pouches, pouches. It’s a mess. I imagine Dark Horse wasn’t able to attract top of the line artists for their superhero titles. But they should have tried a little harder to match the skills of the artist with the needs of the series.

The character and background of X remains a good seed for a series. Perhaps if Dark Horse wasn’t so eager to cram an entire new superhero universe down reader’s throats, X could have gone somewhere. If each title were allowed to stand on its own, with other characters only being mentioned or included as the story required it, Comics Greatest World might have gotten some legs and X might have lasted.

X has been rebooted and the new series looks promising. Let’s hope Dark Horse has learned some lessons.

X Marks the Spot?

I've started reading the old Dark Horse series X (collected in X Omnibus 1&2). I didn't read any of the Comic Greatest World titles when they were released, because I thought the idea of Dark Horse doing a superhero line was distasteful. They should be better than that! At the time that Eclipse and the other indie publishers were folding, they stood out as a success. Doing a line of publisher owned superhero titles seemed cheap. I still feel that way, but decided to give the omnibus a try because Steven Grant wrote the entire series and the Wikipedia summary sounded promising. I also appreciate that the omnibi save me the trouble of having to track down spin-off/crossover issues that continue the story (my #1 gripe about superhero comics).

The series itself is pretty good, so far (I’m about halfway through the first omnibus). X isn't really a superhero. He is a murderous vigilante attacking both corrupt city officials and Mafiosi, who’s ultimate motives remain unclear. X isn’t necessarily fighting for truth, justice and the American Way. And if he is, at least he’s not spouting off about it. Though full of over-the-top “comic bookiness”, the series is grounded by dealing with street level issues. No aliens, other dimensions or gateways to hell. Even X’s costume is realistic enough to be almost embarrassing. Seriously, you could whip up a version of it at home, pretty easily. X sometimes looks like an incredibly violent luchadore. This believability is ultimately a plus and I appreciate the series gritty and violent tone.

The weakness of the title is the universe it takes place in. Dark Horse was determined to launch a whole universe at the same time, which means that characters from other titles pop-up, sometimes uncomfortably. If Dark Horse had slowed it down, launched only X and then let the universe expand more organically, it would have lasted longer. I think that if X were started as a stand-alone showcase of what Dark Horse would like to do with a superhero universe, it would have become a very popular title. I think the yoke of Comic Greatest World right out of the gate bogged the series down and stole some of its thunder.

As it stands, X is an intriguing story, marred by the occasional disruptive ‘guest appearance’.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It sucks!

As an embarrassment from comics' glorious past, does anyone remember the Super-mobile? Man, even as a kid I knew that contraption was goofy! Aside from being an excuse to sell toys, why would Superman need a vehicle? Superman is a demigod on Earth. And the fists on the front just shout "F you! We know this is stupid!"