Chris's Comic Corner - The New Season, Issue 2

The next, and delayed, review by Chris Irish for IDW’s season 11 of The X-Files comic, there’s a couple of surprising, and disturbing developments with Mulder in this issue. –Matt

Season 11
“Home Again Part 1”

Written by: Joe Harris
Art by: Matthew Dow Smith
Colors by: Jordie Bellaire
Letters by: Chris Mowry
Editor: Denton J. Tipton
Executive Producer: Chris Carter

    This issue begins with a satellite flying above the earth six weeks before the events in the last issue. While there is some communication between the controllers and CENTCOM via speech bubbles, one speech bubble pops up over a black panel, saying, “This is your stop, Mulder,” then there is a rush of colors that harkens back to the time-travel scene from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The next scene has a bus driver waking Mulder after a long ride. Once Mulder is off the bus we see that he’s somewhere in Garden Country, Nebraska. He makes his way to an oil field in the middle of a Nebraska corn field (nice reference to the mythology of The X-Files). Mulder asks a man working on the oil rig about a farm in the other field. As he leaves for the farm, the workers get back to the rig, and we see a “Cantus” logo on the office trailer.

The image will remind fans, or evoke memories of The X-Files season one episode, "Space". -Matt
   
We join Scully in a Washington, D.C., street café. She finds A.D. Skinner sitting at a table and tells him to follow her. Once they are away from public view, they discuss Mulder’s possible return and Gibson Praise’s manipulation. Skinner mentions that Mulder is still wanted by the federal government, and he saw the warrants being filed before he was relieved. Scully points out that the F.B.I. is in a weakened state but Cantus has more resources, and they’ve been digging into old X-Files cases. One such case is the Peacock family, a classic “Monster of the Week” family of cannibalistic inbred mutants in the episode “Home” (season 4, episode 2). Scully recounts the events the night she and Mulder raided their home, how two of the brothers were killed, but the matriarch and a brother escaped. Skinner thinks Gibson is aiming to finish what Mulder couldn’t, and Scully tells him that she has an idea where Gibson’s plan is going, but she’s sure he would be ahead of her in his overall plan.

Back to Mulder, he finally arrives at the house in the field he asked the oil rig workers about. He knocks, but no one is home. He lets himself in, looking for anyone, and ends up in the back of the house, where a barn is standing. He finds a young lady milking a cow. She pulls out a shotgun and asks if he’s a tax collector (reminded me of a scene in O Brother, Where Art Thou?). Mulder uses his cover name, “Blake,” when he introduces himself, and we find out her name is Molly. He brings up the gas-drilling operation, and Molly tells him that they won’t sell the farm. Mulder (or Blake) mentions the amount of fracking the oil rig is doing nearby and how they’re surrounded. Mulder walks out as Molly comments for the second time how good-looking he is, just as some shadowy figures drop down from the rafters. Mulder crouches down to look at some pigs eating in the mud just as a small horde of misshapen mutants charge him from behind, sending him crashing to the ground. The little mutants all chant, “Poppa,” and Mulder utters an uncharacteristic “I don’t believe this.” Molly tells them to get him “home,” and everything goes black.
   
We rejoin Scully at F.B.I. headquarters, where A.D. Morales catches up to her in a hallway. Scully tries to get away from her, but Morales is insistent on bringing up Scully’s saving a member of the board when Gibson caused them to black out or go into seizures. Morales grabs Scully’s arm to finish her statement, when she tells Scully that there’s a discrepancy in the report concerning the events in the meeting room. As this exchange is going on between them, Morales mentions how hard Mulder and Scully have had it over the years because of pressure from management. She hands Scully a file, and Morales tells her that she believes in her. Morales walks away, and Scully reads the file. It has a large “Cantus” logo on it.
   
Back to Mulder, he is awakened by someone saying his name. When he opens his eyes he sees a hulking mutant standing over him. Molly arrives at the door and tells the mutant, named Edmund, not to scare Mulder, because it “makes the milk sour early and curdle up.” She tells Mulder that Edmund holds a grudge against him for killing his brothers (in the episode “Home”). She asks Mr. Blake what he’s really doing there as Mulder tries to get out of bed, only to find his pants missing. Mulder discovers that Molly is a member of the Peacock clan, even though she has none of the characteristic defects. She informs Mulder that Edmund has reached the end of his potency and they are in need of “new blood.” The small Peacock horde climbs on Mulder, crouching in his bed chanting, “Poppa,” again. Mulder asks Molly what she’s suggesting, although he has to know by now what the plan is. She explains the plan, but Mulder declines the offer. Molly scoffs at him for assuming she was who was going to breed with him, and the Peacock matriarch wheels out from her spot from under the bed.

Old fans of the show will no doubt be familiar with the Peacocks. The episode “Home” is one of the most infamous X-Files episodes ever aired. The heavy theme of incest and murder pushed the limits of what TV episodes could air. This, no doubt, will prove to be a creepy and disturbing turn for Mulder. Although the Peacocks are absolutely disgusting, it is nice to see the story line revived.

Special thanks to A.M.D. for editorial assistance.