Comic review: Millennium (X-Files) #3- 90’s nostalgia for my useless generation

Writer: Joe Harris
Artist: Colin Lorimer
Colourist: Joana Lafuente
Publisher: IDW Comics
Released: 1st April 2015



Millennium has been a very enjoyable series so far. The art is great, the colouring’s superb, the script is interesting and the construction of the narrative itself has a screenplay element to it that makes the entire experience feel like you are watching an old episode of the X-Files television show.

That screenplay element is in use again at the beginning of issue #3 with a plot device that is usually used in television dramas. A moment of high (spooky) drama opens the narrative, before the story flashes back 24 hours so the viewer can see the prelude to the dramatic scenes that are now unfolding.

I enjoy that technique, it brings you straight into the narrative with a monument of adrenaline, hooking you into the story with drama, and having you hang around for an explanation about the context behind that drama.

As with all ‘conspiracy’ shows the game here is to hint at what is to come, revealing slowly, drip by drip, tantalising clues about the bigger ‘conspiracy’ picture behind surface events. Throw in some interesting characters, have a daughter kidnapping (that always works) and you have a show.

It sounds like, from what I’ve just been underlying here, that this ‘Millennium’ book isn’t exactly busting with originality, and that’s a pretty fair accusation to lay on the project. It’s not original, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not any good. Yeah the references are a bit old (The Millennium Bug and the Pixies) but for people over the age of forty (that’s me) there’s still fun to be had here.

If you pick up this title you’ll get a mixture of X-Files nostalgia (like the returning show) good art and a well-paced and competently executed script. I’m enjoying it, but bear in mind that I am a 41 (almost 42) year-old guy who grew up with this stuff on his television during my prime (they weren’t really prime, I was terribly depressed back then) twenties years.

This book transports me back to the days when the X-Files was the coolest, newest, edgiest show on television. That’s not really the case anymore, and if you expect the upcoming new shows to be anything other than nostalgia I fear you are in for some disappointing viewing.

The X-Files was of it’s time, and as I read ‘new’ versions of it today I come away with the feeling that it’s not connecting with anything that has happened post 9/11.

All of the usual globalist, New World order, failing democracy, surveillance and illegal, never-ending war stuff that I always talk about in my reviews, and want to see reflected in my comic books isn’t really happening in this book, or any of the other X-Files titles coming from IDW Comics.

That’s okay. If you want to talk about new stuff you have to update the vehicle, and the X-Files wagon is a bit rusty these days. It’s become a nostalgia thing, and when it’s done well it still has something to offer, at least to blokes like me who grew up with this stuff during our late teens or twenties.

I like this book, but I’m being realistic about it here. I’m not going to pretend that something game-changing is happening.

It’s a nostalgia book, done well, that is centred on a conspiracy group that was designed to cash-in on the silly (and it always was silly, this is not hindsight) Millennium bug fears of the late 1990’s. Get Millennium if you miss the X-Files and are looking forward to the new television shows. The book looks great, the story is interesting and the entire project has been carefully and thoughtfully constructed.

Rating: 7/10 (Nostalgic fun for the 35+ generation)