Writer Karl Kesel has crafted both a great Mulder and Scully tale and a film noir mystery in this year’s five-issue limited series, The X-Files Year Zero, also carrying the pulp title The X-Files Mystery Magazine. When the duo encounters a mysterious panther attack in the present day, Mulder recounts the first X-Files, courtesy of an app created for him by the Lone Gunmen.
Flipping back and forth between today and 1946, Kesel also gives us the story of Special Agent Bing Ellinson and his partner, an FBI “special employee” named Millie Ohio. Ellinson is a benched agent on his last chance at making a name for himself and Ohio, an ex-soldier trying to make her way into the FBI.
You may just learn whether The X-Files are part of the same universe as Twin Peaks. How is an innocent housewife in the 1940s related to sightings of a man-wolf and an odd little man who makes bargains for a steep price?
Alternating artists Greg Scott and Vic Malhotra, with colorist Mat Lopes, create a stylized yet picture-perfect story that fans of The X-Files will love. Kesel & Co. know their characters—their Mulder and Scully are every bit consistent with the chummy bantering couple we all know, and the newly introduced duo of Ellinson and Ohio are characters we’d like to see more of.
Look for stunning cover art by Carlos Valenzuela, pulp covers by Robert Hack and Stephen Downer, and a retailer incentive variant by Francesco Francavilla.
The X-Files Year Zero wrapped this week with the release of Issue #5. If you can’t get back issues from your local comic book retailer, you can pre-order the trade edition now here
C.J. Bunce
Editor
borg.com
