X (Dark Horse Comics)

"X" is a comic book character who starred in his own self titled series published by Dark Horse Comics for their Comics Greatest World imprint. He is a dark, possibly undead anti-hero, with little true feeling and a strong tendency to kill.

After the character debuted in "Dark Horse Comics" #8, his own self titled series began with a cover date of February, 1994.

Publication

Series Creative Staff Information

Below is a list of those who worked on the book. When repeated, only last names are used.

*1-5: Steven Grant, writer | Doug Mahnke, pencils | Jimmy Palmiotti, inks.
*6: Grant, writer | Ron Wagner and P. Craig Russell, pencils | Palmiotti, inks.
*7: Grant, writer | Wagner & Frank Fosco, pencils | Palmiotti, inks.
*8: Grant, writer | Matt Haley, pencils | Tom Simmons, inks.
*9: Grant, writer | Mahnke, pencils | Palmiotti, inks.
*10-12: Grant, writer | Chris Warner, pencils | Tim Bradstreet,inks.
*13-15: Grant, writer | Javier Saltares, art.
*16-17: Grant, writer | Saltares, pencils | Andrew Pepoy, inks.
*18: Grant, writer | Alex Renaud, pencils | Pepoy, inks.
*19-22: Grant, writer | Saltares, pencils | Pepoy, inks.
*23: Grant, writer | Saltares, pencils | Bradstreet, inks.
*24-25: Grant, writer | Saltares, pencils | Pepoy, inks.

Plot

X, whose law is that one mark means a warning, the second one death, takes on a collection of business, law, mob, assassins and politics. This includes characters such as Mayor Teal and Police Commissioner Anderson as well as the Llwellyn brothers, an assassin they hired named Gamble, Mob boss Carmine Tango and highly connected army officials.
*1-15: X eliminates both Anderson and Congressman Demarco, helping spark a mob war with Carmine Tango, who has a connection to the mysterious past of X. Meanwhile, Tango's righthand man, Christie, is sleeping with the mayor's secretary and plotting to take over when the old man kicks it. Just before the war begins, Tango gets a call from Diana Gorretti, an old business associate who turns out to be working with X to take over the city from Tango. During the war, Tango hires Coffin, the man who took X's eye, to destroy X but X leaves Coffin paralyzed. The mysterious Lord Alamout looms in the background, trying to stake his claim to Arcadia. When it seems he has killed X, he makes his move only to have X return and rub him out, making his own claim to rule the city. After X kills Teal's secretary, who was working with Gorretti, Christie is put in charge of Arcadia's underworld.

*16-20: X goes to Washington D.C. Part of X's past is revealed. As a young man, he arrived with burns all over his body that mysteriously healed and a box with an X on it. He had no memory of his past and became the lover of his case-worker. However, the workers boyfriend, Carmine Tango, ordered her to break it off, which caused Jack(X) to try to kill Tango, who liked his spunk and named him Johnny. Carmine eventually ordered Coffin to kill him. X begins to urge political action, travelling to D.C. where he strong-arms senators, gaining the attention of Vargas, a shadowy operative and of Tommy Kafka-aka, Challenge. Kafka rescues brings in X, but then must rescue him when a top-ranking general with connections to x's past, and his father-who stole something from the general-takes charge of a secret team to study X and promises revenge. The General escapes by using a Vortex weapon while Vargas strikes a deal with X, who returns to Arcadia, now X's sphere of influence, in return for staying out of D.C.

*21-25: Gamble has returned and draws X into the open by inviting a rash of killers into Arcadia. Assistant D.A Elizabeth Treaty is put on the X case and begins working with Lt. Timothy and detective Lewis. Coffin makes a startling return. Treaty fails to reaso with X, who tells Christie to find Gamble for him. Gamble is seemingly killed by Willie McCone, a hired government killer connected to the general from X's past. X busts up Gamble's operations, saves Christie and marks McCone. The General tells McCone a story, beginning with the fact that none of this has anything to do with Arcadia and everything to do with what the general lost. He tells Willie that the government bombed the Alien Scientist's lab in the desert (CGW 1-16) creating the Vortex, after detecting the presence of the scientist. As a young military officer, the General was sent in to search the area but his arm was infected. It was either have an infected arm and be sent to a ward for mutations or cut it off. He chose to lose the arm. But, the arm would not die. One day, after years of attempts to kill it, the arm was stolen. Willie and The General go to check on what is going on with the police pursuit of X. Timothy and Lewis discover Treaty has decided to use X to stop the violence breaking out in the streets, a notion Timothy struggles with. X and Gamble, very much alive, forge an alliance. X discovers Christie tried killing Coffin and flashes back to the night the Zigurrat, on orders from Tango-believing the stars had told him Johnny would kill him one day-cut his eye out and sliced him up before dumping him in the river. X meets the General on the dock but McCone shoots X. As X lies bleeding, he finally recalls how he lost faith in everything he grew up believing, the day his father and mother were killed in front of him by men from the government. His father, before dying, injected him with a serum from an arm in a tank. The house he grew up in exploded in flames. The arm, but not X, was recovered by the General, its power gone. X rises to his feet as the General realizes that the key to X's invulnerability is that his blood acts on aberrations, analyzing and repairing itself. Coffin comes up behind the general and rips him in two. X defeats Coffin while Gamble breaks McCones neck, then tries but fails to shoot X. Gamble dies by X's hand. Finally, Lt. Timothy, disgusted that he is unable to arrest X because Treaty has given him full immunity, quits the force. End of the regular series.

Other appearances

*"Will to Power" #1-3, Script by Jerry Prosser, art by Mike Manley (& Ande Parkes, #3)
*"Dark Horse Comics" #19 & 20: "Welcome to the Jungle", Written by Eric Luke, art by Nghia Lam
*"X" ("Hero Illustrated Special") # 1 & 2: Written by Steven Grant, art by Vince Giarrano, # 1, Corky Lehmkuhl & Jordi Ensign, # 2. (Introduces Challenge)
*"Ghost Special": Written by Eric Luke, pencils by Matt Haley, inks by Tom Simmons
*"X": "One Shot to the Head". (originally in Dark Horse Comics # 8-10) Script by Jerry Prosser, pencils by N. Steven Harris, Inks by Dan Davis. Also, this issue collects the first five pages of "X" from Arcadia week one, which had pencils by Chris Warner and Inks by Tim Bradstreet. Cover is by Frank Miller.
*"Comics Greatest World: Arcadia", weeks 1-4: X (pencils by Chris Warner, inks by Tim Bradstreet), Pit Bulls (pencils by Joe Phillips, inks by John Dell), Ghost (pencils by Adam Hughes, inks by Mark Farmer), Monster (pencils by Derek Thompson, inks by Ande Parks). All were written by Jerry Prosser.
*"Ghost" : Issue #9, #15, #'s 20-27, #32. Written by Eric Luke.

Characters

While it is debatable if X ever truly aligns with anyone else, he does team up with or use another person in order to benefit from them. Essentially, X either kills you or he does not, mostly disregarding any prior use.

Allies

*Mickey D (First appears in # 1)
*Kingston (First appears in # 1)
*Monster (First appears in CGW: Arcadia)

Villains

*Carmine Tango (First appears in #1)
*Ziggurat/Coffin (First appears in #2)
*Lord Alamout (First appears in #6)
*Willie McCone (First appears in #21)
*Gamble (First appears in #1)
*Chaos Riders (First appear in #3)
*Judgement Knights (First appear in #9)
*Headhunter (First appears in #16)
*One-Shot (First appears in #16)
*The General (First appears in #20)

Others

These persons may be antagonistic or beneficial (sometimes both) to X. Because of this and other characteristics, they do not qualify as a villain or ally:

*Christie (First appears in #1)
*The Kid (First appears in #5)
*Mose Hughes (First appears in #10)
*Kossy (First appears in #10)
*Elizabeth Treaty (First appears in #21)
*Vargas (First appears in #8)
*Congressman DeMarco (First Appears in CGW: Arcadia)
*Mayor Teal (First Appears in CGW: Arcadia)
*Commissioner Anderson (First appears in CGW: Arcadia)
*Diani Goretti (First appears in #5)
*Gretchen (First appears in #1)
*Challenge (Real name-Tommy Kafka. First appears in Hero Illustrated X Special #1)
*Briggs
*Detective Lewis
*Detective Timothy
*Peter Lwellyn (First appears in #1)
*The Nurse (First appears in #5)
*Ghost (First appears in CGW: Arcadia)

External links

* [http://www.comics.org/series.lasso?seriesid=5125 Grand Comics Database Project]