Published by little-known (and now defunct) Canadian publisher, Vortex Comics, Mr. X was a wild idea. Bringing together the neo-noir/science fiction of films like, Blade Runner, with the pulp magazine sensibilities of the 1930's and 40's, it manages to weave together an intriguing mystery.
Written by Dean Motter with art by such luminaries as The Hernandez Brothers and Seth, Mister X tells the story of a mysterious character, a bald architect wearing dark glasses and a trench coat, haunting the streets and secret passageways of Radiant City, trying to piece together why Radiant City's architecture is driving its citizens mad. Mister X claims it is his job to fix things. He is a drug-fueled, paranoid, insomniac architect, obsessed with finding a cure for its people while going up against the city's corrupt officials.
But why him? Who is Mister X? The series doesn't really reveal his true identity until the end as the majority of the story is spent figuring out his motivations and tries to deliver clues to the mystery.
Like independent projects such as The Rocketeer, Nexus, Love and Rockets, and other classics of the 1980's, Mister X is well remembered by fans of that era. When Mister X hit the comic book stands in 1984, it was truly a unique and inspiring vision. The story, artwork and interesting coloring choice was part film noir and part German expressionism, in the vein of the classic film, Metropolis. This book is just as good as the biggies of the 1980's: Dark Knight Returns or Watchmen, albeit not nearly as important. Mister X captivated comics fans and creators alike, but sadly, may not be known to present day comics fans. This is Dean Motter's best work. It can be held up as one of the comic medium's best stories ever told, in my opinion, though fans new to the medium or those acustomed only to modern comics may not appreciate it as much. Still, it's quite disturbing, violent, visceral and enthralling all at once. Amazing!
If you wanna check this out, it has been collected by Dark Horse Comics in an archived edition. Definitely a must read for any fan of pulp/sci-fi comics and worth collecting for fans of offbeat 80's comics.
Sometime after the Mr. X series was published, Dean Motter published 2 unofficial sequels. Terminal City (released sporadically in the middle 1990's) and Electropolis (which was released in the 2000's). While this is considered by Motter fans to be a trilogy, the stories aren't really connected. The latter books are at least peripherally related to Mr. X and Radiant City as they take place in the same universe, but don't really further the story of Mr. X. Terminal City is a bright spot in the overly grim, overly drawn, event-driven comics of the 1990’s. This work is such a breath of fresh air, an alternative to superhero comics of the time. Terminal City is the purest vision of Dean Motter’s retro-futurism. This series melds Bruce Timm’s Gotham City and Asimov style sci-fi into a loose story about aging daredevils and a mysterious briefcase. This is a world where old art deco buildings clash with futuristic ones, where robots and flying cars mesh with old time gangsters and where gorgeous femme fatales try their damnedest to take advantage of unsuspecting men. The plot is kind of zany, involving a crooked mayor, a crooked industrialist, land schemes, missing and legendary crown jewels, a naive newcomer to town, and an old boxer. The hero is Cosmo Quinn, former "Human Fly" daredevil turned window washer, but the Grand Hotel-like plot jumps between multiple stories and characters. Readers will catch references and homages to old noir films, Abbott and Costello, and even Tintin. The art by Michael Lark is straightforward and easy to look at, while the colors and vivid and expressive. This is recommended if you like noir-ish shadows melding with technology in a way that the cyber-punk genre may have attempted but never fully succeeded in delivering the way this does.
The later story, Electropolis, features Menlo Park, a reprogrammed janitor robot working as a private detective on the neon streets of Electra City, a sister-town of Radiant City, that's been designed to generate and conduct massive amounts of electricity. Sixteen years after the apparent suicide of his human partner atop the world's tallest tower, a blond femme fatale gives Menlo some new information about the cause of death. As Menlo and his assistant, Anesta, reopen the case, their journey takes them from Electra's high society to its dark underbelly. Of these 3 stories, it is the weakest, if only by default because the other 2 are so good. Of the 3 however, this feels the most straight forward and is more like an old film-noir plot than anything else. Motter handles the art chores here and delivers some great panels. Definitely recommended.
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