80-Page Thursdays: The X-Files Special Edition #2!

Here's a slightly unconventional 80-pager: from 1995, The X-Files Special Edition #2, reprinting issues #4-6 of the series. This reprint was probably because the X-Files was on fire then, but it works out, since these three issues were a complete story, "Firebird." Written by Stefan Petrucha, art by Charles Adlard.

The story begins in Tunguska, a couple of years before the TV show got there; but then moves to New Mexico. In this version of the event, it was caused by a radiation-absorbing firebird-squid thing, and it has returned for the crystal egg-thing it left and an old shaman that knows why it's back.

Especially in other media, X-Files writers had to walk a fine line: Mulder and Scully had to appear competent and intelligent as they investigated that week's whatever; yet still end up with no concrete proof or make any headway towards any of the big conspiracy goals. It didn't always work, and I might've liked to see Mulder and Scully more frustrated at the end of their adventures; but "Firebird" works pretty well in that vein. Scully has a couple bits of internal monologue where she seems to see the world Mulder sees; while Mulder meets what almost certainly isn't the secret cabal controlling the world. Probably.

I don't think they were all 80-pagers, but there were a total of four X-Files Special Editions, and they aren't bad reads if you remember the show at least a little fondly.

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Late: Commissioner Gordon!

It's getting late, I'm half-watching Mothra, and I'm playing with the new Wal-Mart exclusive Mattel Movie Masters Jim Gordon! Oddly, he's not referred to as Commissioner on the packaging, which only just now makes me wonder what his title is at the start of The Dark Knight Rises.


Just knocked out a couple of short ones with the Commish...and I misspelled Commissioner there. Crap. Well, it's late, and I'm sure it won't happen again--

Oh, come on!

Still, Jim comes with a gun, an ax, and an alternate piece for the Collect & Connect Bat-Signal that's shattered; as in the end of the Dark Knight. (Which is cool, although that is kind of a weird scene if you think about it.)

I didn't spring for the previous Prototype-suit Batman/Lt. Jim Gordon two pack, so I'm pretty happy with him. He'll be making some appearances later, no doubt.

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The other day, I rewatched Quatermass II, the classic Hammer sci-fi horror film and the second of the Quatermass trilogy. I'm not sure if I've seen the first one, but I have this and Quatermass and the Pit on VHS, and liked them both quite a bit. Really short summary? Cranky Brit rocket scientist fends off alien invasions. Three separate times, three separate aliens.

Since I'm a big fan of interconnected universes and legacies, or if you've read anything like Ellis' Planetary or Moore's League of Extraordinary Gentlemen; it's pretty easy to imagine a line from Quatermass fighting alien invasions in the fifties, Mulder and Scully of the X-Files doing the same in the nineties, and perhaps even the cast of Fringe for this decade. (It would never, ever, happen; but wouldn't a Fringe/Millennium crossover be awesome?...for me and like three other people...) Science-heroes, fighting government interference and cover ups, public skepticism, and alien mind control over most of the 20th century? Hell, yes, I'd watch that!

Unfortunately, even as I imagined a decrepit and bitter Quatermass, old and forgotten and probably blacklisted, classified, and buried by the government; I looked him up on wikipedia and saw there was a fourth serial, ominously titled the Quatermass Conclusion. Yeah, looks like poor Quatermass wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to meet Olivia Dunham or Fox Mulder. There was a remake of the first one a few years back, though...


In other news, while picking up Halloween candy, I was forced to buy a box of Frosted Mini Wheats, a bowl of which is currently pummelling my internal organs. Definitely a rude surprise when there's Boo Berry on the shelves. Why did I buy this nightmare of fibrous bricks? To get my Oldest son the Guitar Hero prize inside. There was an ad during Heroes last night for some KFC mountain of a meal, with a similar GH tie-in; but I'd have to say that campaign seems aimed more at the correct demographic. Maybe this is part of a nutrition-outreach program. Or a cruel bait-and-switch.

Worst of all? I didn't even get the cool guitar shaped game, I got some boxy, allegedly amp-shaped thingus. I may have to tell that kid he's on his own to find another one, though...


Oh, and I forgot: I'll totally be out on Wednesday, taking my dog Sam from apartment to apartment as we look for a new home and I try to make him look smaller somehow. Wish us luck! Read more!

"Doesn't it suck to go to a job interview and see someone you know, going for the same job?"

Long before the Hellboy movies, there were the occasional crossover with other comic characters. The Batman/Starman/Hellboy (I may be wrong on the billing order there) is probably the best known, since Mignola actually did the art for that one; but it's not my favorite. If I had the old Painkiller Jane figure, she would've been up there with Ghost, the Goon, and the Savage Dragon. Hard to say which one's the best: the Goon one is probably the funniest, Ghost's crossover has the virtue of being back when neither she nor Hellboy really knew their origins, and the Dragon issues may actually be in Hellboy's continuity: they depict Hellboy giving Hitler the what-for.

Morbius isn't a true vampire, therefore, he wouldn't have gotten bounced with Dracula, Angel, and Blade. He's from Toy Biz's Spider-Man line, and of course the classic Beast and Daredevil are Marvel Legends. Toy Biz did make later Daredevil's, but I only have the old frowny-face one, so of course he had to be a cranky lawyer, right? EDIT: It is sheer unconscious dickery that the clipboard I gave Daredevil has an eyechart on it.

NECA's Army of Darkness S-Mart Ash towers over the old McFarlane X-Files figures, but I don't know if I see new ones coming anytime soon. Anyone see the new movie yet? I figure I will sooner or later, but maybe I would've been more excited if it was going to wrap up any of the lingering questions from the series. Hell, maybe I'd've been more excited if I knew what it was all about...

Conclusion on Monday! Have a good weekend.

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