Has X met someone he ultimately can’t take down? Yep and it’s great to see the trouncing that occurs as a result. “X” #16 brings the beat down straight to the face of our masked sociopath in spectacular fashion once again this month. There’s acid, SWAT teams, kicks where men don’t like…this is one big dirty fight of an issue.
WRITTEN BY: Duane Swierczynski
ART BY: Eric Nguyen
PUBLISHER: Dark Horse Comics
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASE: 13 August 2014
Reviewed By Your Friendly Neighborhood Brady
Writer Duane Swierczynski has set up his chessboard of ultra-violence quite nicely to conclude his”Better Off Dead” storyline. There are so many different gangs of mobsters, cops and other nefarious folk gathered here. It’s almost at the point where something has to give. They all want to run the filthy town of Arcadia and kill X at the same time. It seems to me that this is just about as far as this can be stretched without breaking.
I hope Swierczynski and artist Eric Nguyen stick to what they are good at in the future of this series. Criminal foes seem to be better suited for X than super villains. Nguyen seems to have some difficulty conveying the speed and power The Archon is meant to possess here. His characters look a little more stiff and distorted than other chapters. It’s almost sad to see him fight this unstoppable Archon. This underdog is not going to win this fight. It’s a gruesome fight to behold but I didn’t ever think X was going to win. Because of that, my interest waned during this issue.
Readers are made well aware of how human our masked man in this series is, especially in this issue. This Archon is more than a man and that is not a good thing at all for our would-be savior. Up until now, X has never faced anyone superhuman. Now we all know why. That is one fight our man simply should not attempt. I’m not sure if that was the point of this arc or not. It is clear to me that he should stick to gangsters and psychopaths. X isn’t made for this sort of confrontation at all.