“Millennium” #1 is an entertaining romp that is clearly targeted at long time X-Files fans while still accessible to anyone with base knowledge of the show. If you know your Mulder’s from your Scully’s you’ll be just fine here, although Scully does not make an appearance and actually isn’t even referenced. I’m currently watching the show for the first time and only about to finish the second season, I also have no knowledge of what Millennium is outside of this comic. That being said the book does give a very brief summary of what Millennium was about and what eventually became of it that I felt brought me right up to speed.
WRITTEN BY: Joe Harris
ART BY: Colin Lorimer
PUBLISHER: IDW Publishing
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: January 21, 2015
Reviewed By Torin Chambers
The comic begins on December 24th 1999 with two mysterious men on a mysterious mission for a mysterious purpose. None of its clear now but with that date being so close to the new millennium that has to be a major contributing factor. Following the shady introduction we’re brought to the present where Mulder is consulted on the release of Monte Propps. Hardcore fans will recognize that name as the man that Scully name drops in the pilot episode. He’s the man Mulder put away a few years prior to the show’s beginning that solidified Mulder as an expert analyst. Mulder gives an account of the chilling case which isn’t everything is appears to be on the surface. Propps is wrapped up in or unwittingly apart of something much more sinister, which it appears will be the main focus of at least this first arc.
This debut isn’t without a few issues, most of which come from the art. There are a few very strange panel choices that make the story hard to follow at times. An example is during Monte Propps release hearing where a character is shown sitting alone at the back of the room. In his first panel he’s nicely framed between a man and a woman who are sitting in front of him but then on the following page there’s a panel that I believe is supposed to convey that he’s disappeared. That’s cool and all but I had to flip back and forth multiple times to understand what had happened. This is because in the second ‘reveal’ the shot is closer to the chair with no woman on the right side and a hand of a white man on the left where there was a black man before. It seems nitpicky and trivial but it’s a pretty key moment for the comic that I feel many people will completely miss. It’s worth noting that that is Millennium’s biggest hiccup by far, everything else is incredibly minor and doesn’t hamper the comic in any major way.
Longtime fans of X-Files and Millennium will thoroughly enjoy Millennium #1 with its call backs and nuances while there’s just enough exposition to keep those relatively new to the series from feeling left out. Obviously if you know nothing of The X-Files this comic is not for you and will leave you puzzled beyond belief, but if you’ve got even basic knowledge of it you’ll feel right at home.
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Torin Chambers is a rad dude from the nineties who does film stuff or something. Thomas the Tank Engine is his favorite transformer. Find him on Twitter @TorinsChambers