COMICS IN THE CAN- Episode XXVIII (X Files #10)

COMICS IN THE CAN
I used to have time to read my comics in a coffee shop. Now I have to read them in the bathroom. Then I write reviews of them. I wash my hands in between.

X-FILES SEASON 10 #10

Dear baby Jesus I have such an unfettered boner for this comic I should probably be arrested. And guess what? This issue: Christmas. Not literal Christmas, like it isn’t December in the world of the book, but its Christmas in that it delivered like the jolly old elf with a beard (No, not Pat Loboyko, though he is the reason this is the first review out of the gate) on Christmas morning.  Why, you ask? 

It’s all about Cancer Man!

The Cigarette Smoking Man may be my favorite character from this show, a show chock full of favorite characters. He also may be my favorite all around villain of all time. I was a smoker at the time this show came out so we shared a passion/ relief to the extreme psychological stress and frustration caused by our professions. I had a zippo lighter with the words ‘Trust No One’ engraved on it. To this day many of my online IDs are versions of ‘Raul Bloodworth’ (his nom de plume). So, yeah, I am beyond THRILLED that he is moving into the spotlight in this series.

This issue is entitled ‘More Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man’, a reference to the classic 4^th season episode ‘Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man’. Now, you gotta understand, when this aired in 1996, the internet was still small potatoes (fans will see what I did there). I don’t remember how, perhaps it was from the X-Files magazine I was collecting, perhaps from the fledgling internet, but I remember being RIDICULOUSLY excited about this episode. I mean, here we have the most enigmatic character on a show of enigmatic characters (including one whose real name WAS The Enigma), finally having some light shed on him. After four years of shadowy meetings and dark dealings we FINALLY were going to get some answers.

Maybe.

Now maybe we did, maybe we didn’t. Maybe everything Frohike dug up was out of a crummy magazine, but maybe that magazine was ‘Roman A Clef’ and the Jack Colquitt novel serialized therein was actually a thinly veiled retelling of the CSM’s real life. The world will most likely never know. But I DO know that ‘Musings’ the episode was a fine 45 minutes of TV that linked CSM to the killings of Kennedy and of Dr. King and actually made him something of a sympathetic character. Nobody is the villain in their own story, right?

This issue , though, is merely a setup for further things to come. We revisit the Bay of Pigs and find out that CSM, Mr. Spender, was on the ground in Cuba when everything went south. We see more early interaction with a young Bill Mulder as well as his wife and son. We see him encountering aliens and destroying them. We see him present as the direction of the Vietnam War is discussed, and finally, we see him in the 46^th Street NYC brownstone formerly used by the Syndicate, going over old mementos and pieces from his past life.  And we see that there is someone pulling HIS strings! A mysterious aviator sunglasses wearing man who ‘brought him back for a reason’.  

 It’s starting to get all delicious up in here. I may need to start smoking again.