Once again, I’ve been pleasantly surprised by WildStorm’s latest X-Files outing. After the complete and utter despair that was the last X-Files mini-series, I was quite skeptical of the 30 Days of Night crossover series. But then I heard that Steve Niles was involved, and my mind was eased a bit. Then issue #1 came out (read our review of X-Files/30 Days of Night #1) and I knew the publisher and creative team might be onto something.
30 Days of Night fans: you won’t find much for you in this issue (though I’m sure that will change in the near future), but X-philes will have a field day; I say that as one myself. Issue #2 equates perfectly to the post-intro of an episode, complete with Scully walking in on Mulder watching a ridiculous old film on television, pondering his theories, which he hints at throughout the issue. To me, it genuinely felt like I was back in the mid 1990’s watching my television heroes of the occult cracking their next case.
The banter between Mulder and Scully is spot on; writers Niles and Adam Jones nail their interconnected personalities so accurately that it feels like it was culled from the heyday of the show. Perhaps to a fault, Mulder and Scully are so amusing here that I found myself not particularly interested in the plot overall. Sure, they’re investigating the gruesome death that issue #1 closed on, but nothing is particularly scary, or even creepy. It’s all just sort of a launching pad for the next conversation. For me as a reader, this is fine, and exactly what I want from X-Files. Some of my favorite episodes of the show are the goofy ones with absurd plots, simply because it allows us to focus on the characters instead of their situation.
Tom Mandrake’s art continues to be appropriately grim with a massive amount of heavy inks. The assist from Darlene Royer on colors completes the book’s visual tone as she adds the muted, icy tones that give the issue the feeling it deserves being set in the heart of Alaska, where the sun is not rising.
With issue #2, X-Files fans should be rejoicing at a return to form for their favorite characters in comics. Though 30 Days of Night die-hards may be a little disappointed thus far in the lack of bloodsucking action, with four issues remaining there’s plenty of time for heavy blood drainage.
