Nearly 55 years after that day in November, many are still not 100 percent sure who really killed President John F. Kennedy. IDW puts forth a new, albeit fictional, theory behind the presidential assassination that’s weak in storyline but does take some creative risks with artwork.
(Warning: contains spoilers.)
Written by Denton J. TiptonCover by Menton3
Illustrated and Colored by Menton3
Lettered by Saida TemofonteSo this is what is in those classified Kennedy documents that just got released to the public this week. Your favorite paranormal duo of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully find themselves investigating something far more elusive than Area 51 — what happened on the grassy knoll in Dallas on November 22, 1963. For Fox Mulder, this search for the truth about who killed the President that may or may not be out there uncovers some long-held family secrets, and he’s in the position to choose between blood loyalty and a quest for answers.
Those theories on who killed JFK just keep on coming, don’t they? Timed to coincide with the release of the last batch of classified files from the government on November 22, 1963, the newest X-Files book is a miniseries putting Mulder and Scully in the thick of the action. One mysterious phone call to Mulder reveals that his father had a hand in the incident, and that fact will become very public very soon. For obvious reasons, this makes Mulder nervous, and he’s off to a man’s deathbed for a confessional. The scene then flashes back to 1950s Las Vegas, where ties with the mob, Fidel Castro, and aliens (you had to see that one coming) all seem to have a hand in setting the stage for the grassy knoll.
Try as I might, the X-Files comics and I have a bit of a rocky relationship. A graphic adaptation of any existing property has to find balance between being complete fan service to those who love the original work and providing enough exposition to allow new fans to jump on without feeling 100 percent lost. With “X-Files” comics, results are uneven at best, and this miniseries is no different. Like the “Dog Days of Summer” series, this appears to be just an original story with the classic characters shoehorned in for some name recognition. Take out Mulder and Scully and it could be any duo investigating a most notorious American controversy and finding familial ties where you hoped there were none. Scully only makes a brief appearance in the opening pages for some witty banter with her partner, and even Mulder’s appearances are minimal. Why give us these characters as headliners when you barely use them?
I also have serious reservations about the brevity of this miniseries (only two issues), especially as there was a lot of narrative threads thrown the reader’s way in this debut. Figuring in aliens, Fidel Castro, the mob, and Mulder Sr. into this story, and wrapping it up in just one more issue in a concise, clear, manner requires great skill. We’ll have to wait until the concluding book to see if this can be done.
Narrative road bumps aside, there are some great creative risks with art, for which high praise is due to Menton3. The middle of the book features a landscape-oriented two page spread of Jayne Mansfield, which doesn’t seem to serve much for the plot but bends the rules of comics art beautifully. It’s the first ever panel layout of this type I have seen, and it certainly caught my eyes. Color sets scene tone effectively — greys and sepias for our present day, a bright mid-century neon palette for the Las Vegas of the 1950s with a little bit of black and white (or blue and white) thrown in for moments when color isn’t necessary to convey a mood or emotion. It’s also nice to see panel layout take equal risk.
Outside of the aforementioned two page spread, there is a nice mix of different shapes and sizes (and some full-page panels) that divide the action in such a way to heighten the mystery — focusing on a hand, on a pill bottle, a thumbs-up sign. For all this ingenuity in art that pushes boundaries (literal and metaphorical), the lettering appeared out of proportion with many panels — too small on many pages, and very hard to read on my iPad. With a detail-rich narrative like this, good lettering is key. You cannot depend on the illustrations to convey every nuance; text is still necessary.
There was a chance to tell a compelling story that tied well into real-life events, but as with other stories from this franchise, things fall very much short. The star of this show is Menton3 and his art, a master of drawing in other horror and mystery books (“The Fly,” “Silent Hill,” “Crawl to Me”) that continues to test the limits of what comic art can be.
Final Verdict: 6.0 – Creative, borderline risk-taking art can’t save the weaknesses IDW seems to have with X-Files stories.
