Review: Mister X: Razed #2 of 4- Shuttered from reality, please leave me alone to read my ‘noir’ detective book

Story and art: Dean Motter
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Released: 21st March 2015


This issue of Mister X is an involving, interesting and enjoyable read that is laced with subtle humour throughout. There’s no denying that Dean Motter is a very clever writer indeed.

You know me though, or do you? I like stories that deal with deeper issues, with BORING real world stuff, like human consciousness and slavery (aka government), but that’s just me. I’m a bit weird you see. I like my stories to actually say something, not just do pretty figure skating patterns before concluding with a bow, left the stage, was everybody entertained? What, I was supposed to say something? Not happening here mate, I do clever patterns, not thinking. Yeah, that’s me, annoying critic that I am. I want thinking, not just pretty patterns.

My main concern with the writing coming from Dean Motter (as I’ve experienced it so far at least) is that it appears to be about pretty patterns, about cleverness, about putting on a good show. He’s great at that, and that’s why I’m reading his book, but is he saying anything?

Let’s look at the two stories that make up this issue of Mister X. The first story (Razed Expectations) is about a missing building. It’s a great idea, that an entire skyscraper can disappear overnight, and nobody knows what has happened to it. That’s a great launching point for a story, you have me interested already, just because it’s so bizarre.

From that starting point the narrative introduces quite a lot of other stuff, characters and situations that make-up the backdrop to the missing building. It’s like a movie really, with lots of things going on that you assume will make more sense later on, being drawn together to form a coherent whole from what is at the present seemingly disconnected threads.

Mister X himself is one of those characters that I can see a writer identifying with. He’s cool, mysterious, high status, the girls like him and talk about him when he’s not there, and he is at the centre of everything that happens. He’s the kind of guy who a writer wants to be. The writer can’t be that guy in reality, so he writes him, enjoying the experience as he does so. X is not just an detached observer of life (as the writer is) he’s a powerful observer who actually drives the narrative rather than just sitting on the sidelines and watching other people do all of the exciting stuff. That’s how I see Mister X. He’s a writer’s image of himself, or how he wants to be, but cannot be in the real world. In that sense he’s quite a childish creation, a wish fulfilment creation born out of loneliness and the need to make yourself more interesting and important than you actually are. Oh Mister X, you’re so in charge, so cool, so mysterious, and all of the pretty girls are secretly in love with you. See how it works? Well, that’s how I read the bloke anyway.

The second story (Electropolis) isn’t really a second story at all, rather it is a story occurring at the same time as the main story, and what happens in it will probably tie into the larger picture. The main protagonist in this second tale is highly involved in the first story (she’s that easy story-line tie in, a reporter) and although Mister X isn’t involved here you know that if something important occurs then he’s bound to pop his bald head into the narrative if needed.

This second story introduces new characters into the world, and they are funny, adding an element of humour into proceedings, which makes for a more enjoyable read. See? It’s that Dean Motter. He knows how to write a good story, the clever, clever bloke. This is really good stuff. You have an ostensible ‘main’ story, and a secondary story that follows it. But the ‘secondary’ story is actually about the main story as well, and what happens in that story is going to affect the outcome in the main story. Isn’t that a great idea? Other comic books should steal that one.

Okay, so there’s some clever stuff going on here, but (and I always go back to this point in ALL of my reviews) is it actually saying anything? Let’s have a look. The story involves a missing building, a dodgy architect/millionaire, stolen gold and chemical zombies being used as bank robbers. It has a recovering alcoholic reporter in it, and a pretty young girl who is the love interest of Mister X. It’s interesting for sure, but I’m not getting anything deeper. There’s a very noticeable lack of sub-text going on here. It’s not really about anything at a deeper level other than exciting and intriguing the reader on a narrative level.

I could be wrong, but I’m not getting anything here. Is it about the commodification of all human interactions where your value as a human being is purely dependent upon your financial status? Is it about the transhuman agenda? Is it about collectivism, the idea that humanity needs to be herded into a dumbed down mass of spectator order followers to be bossed around by their betters and eventually exterminated/culled like in Communist Russia or China? No, none of that is going on here. All of the important issues worth debating in a 2015 context have fallen into a black hole as far as this book is concerned. We will have nothing contemporary here please. This is a comic book about a missing building and all of the wacky individual characters involved in it’s disappearance, that’s all.

The clue to it’s determination to shutter itself from reality is there in it’s deliberately ‘nowhere’ setting. It’s set in a noir movie futuristic robot kind of place that I used to read about in my old copies of 2000AD back in the 1980’s. This setting is futuristic, but not in a 2015 sense. It’s futuristic in a 1980’s sense.  It’s very 80’s actually, and as I read the book I can’t see any nods to the present day world of 2015 at all. This one could have been written in 1986, as there’s nothing here that connects with the post 9/11 world at all.

You know what? I’m okay with that, just because it’s so well written. I’m going to keep on reading it, and I’m not going to harp on how it doesn’t connect, how it’s not saying anything. It’s a 1980’s book that has gone through some kind of time-warp where the last 30 years didn’t happen, and as long as you treat it like a very well written 2000AD story from the mid 1980’s then there’s enjoyment to be had here.

It’s never going to be a nine or ten out of ten book because it’s not trying to say anything. It’s trying to be a good story. It’s trying to be clever, and it’s trying to be funny and cool. To me it is a 7/10 book because it has set it’s own limits and is happy to exist as a 7/10 book that ignores the world around it.

I’m going to read it and pretend that I’m that ignorant kid in 1986 that I once used to be. I’m not going to be silly and declare it a work of contemporary genius, because it isn’t. It’s a comfy pillow to lay your head upon as the bombs go off outside.

Austerity, never-ending wars, the new world order, media lies, privatisation, academic consensus, corporatism, statism, banksterism, false flags, anarchy, freedom, liberty, truth. You’ll find none of those VITAL issues being discussed here, but what you will find is a very clever, involving story that will entertain you and help you ignore the reality of the world around you.

Take it, read it, enjoy it, but this kind of clever story telling is best taken in small doses. Too much cleverness will warp you, making you act like a new age hipster prat, inculcating within your mental make-up a love of ignorant shallowness, and ‘geek’ culture nothingness.  I have nothing against shallow comics and cleverness, but life is short, so we have to say what we want to say whilst we are here.

Comics like Mister X are fun, but they are not going to help the human race break free from it’s current condition of slavery to centralised control systems. Clever ultimately helps nobody but the state and all of their scurrying little helper minions who live their lives in order to divide, distract and eventually load you and your kids into their BBC, World Bank and UN approved paddy wagons. Clever keeps the masses busy, clever keeps them away from reality, clever protects the status quo, and clever keeps humanity enslaved.


Rating: 7/10 (Very well written, enjoyable, clever but there is no connection to anything that has contemporary socio-political relevance)