Barriers work both ways…
Creative Staff:
Story: Joe Harris
Art: Carlos Valenzuela
What They Say:
“Believers,” Part 4 of 5: Mulder continues his search for Scully, who has been abducted by the mysterious Deacon. And what happened to Scully’s missing child? Mystery upon mystery sets the stage for the next phase of Mulder and Scully’s lives!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
As events started to pick up a lot more in the third installment, the fourth helps to take that growing scope of events but narrow it down to our two leads for the most part. Admittedly, part of the appeal of the third issue was seeing other agents doing the legwork out there that adds to the whole narrative, since it can’t always just be Mulder and Scully learning everything. It can work that way on TV to some degree, though less so today than it could in the 90’s when this was being broadcast. So that additional scope helped, but I liked that this one zooms in on these two with some welcome help along the way, all while bringing the threat up even more as to what’s really going on.
With a bit of timeline trickery that plays things out in a way that makes you question the truth right until the end, we initially get the storyline focusing on Scully as she works with the hybrid that’s helping her as they continue their escape. It takes a decent turn when she finds a general store and realizes they’re at the Yellowstone National Park, and she connects with a park ranger to make her way to someplace to make a real call. Unfortunately, the hybrid has disappeared, but there’s a whole host of other issues that come up along the way. The biggest problem she really has, other than protecting her son from being drawn out into all of this, is that some if not all of the Acolytes can change their appearance, and that makes everyone a complete suspect. She’s still a little too trusting at times here, but it’s a difficult concept to wrap your head around on this scale.
The flip side to this story is seeing Mulder making his way to where Scully is, having spent his time investigating events at the pipeline and discovering the magnetite there. This plays into learning a little more about who is funding this whole project, though no names are given, and that the pipeline isn’t actually transporting it anywhere. That helps to bring the whole barrier concept into play for everyone, getting us all on the same page at long last. But his driving motivation is still finding Scully and getting her back from the abductors. That has him racing against black helicopters, naturally, to get to her before these Acolytes can as he’s gotten a greater understanding of events after his encounter with the Smoking Man. But his coming across Scully comes at the same time that she’s finally distrusting – and shooting – anyone that she thinks is a threat. It’s a perfect cliffhanger that really does leave you wanting more.
In Summary:
With one more installment in this arc, and in this collection I got, X-Files has certainly gotten up to speed well with its storyline in a way that I didn’t expect. While I’m still not on the same page, having been away from the TV series for so long, what this arc has done is brought the property into the present mindset of storytelling in a good way and really working with the mythology rather than the overall mystery angle. This issue is more character focused while dealing with action and moving along to bring the leads back together, but it has some solid reveals and sets the foundation for bigger events as well as some sort of conclusion for the arc to come in the next installment.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: IDW Publishing via ComiXology
Release Date: September 18th, 2013
MSRP: $1.99
