Mister X: The Modern Age

Mr. X #3

by Dean Motter

In the retrofuturistic metropolis of Radiant City, its mysterious creator, Mister X, must protect the city and its residents from the architecture of the city itself, which poses a danger to all those within it! Collecting every Mister X comic published by Dark Horse Comics, this trade includes Condemned , Excavations , and Razed , along with never-before-seen behind-the-scenes material!
* All of Dark Horses Mister X material collected in an affordable paperback! 
* A great jumping-on point to the classic series!

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Fiction

368 pages, Paperback

First published July 19, 2016

About the author

Dean R. Motter is an illustrator, designer and writer who worked for many years in Toronto, Canada, New York City, and Atlanta. Motter is best known as the creator and designer of Mister X, one of the most influential "new-wave" comics of the 1980s.

Dean then took up the Creative Services Art Director's post at Time Warner/DC Comics, where he oversaw the corporate and licensing designs of America’s most beloved comic book characters such as Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. In his off-hours he went on to create and design the highly acclaimed, retro-futuristic comic book series, Terminal City-- and its sequels, Aerial Graffiti. and Electropolis.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Contains all of the Mister X books published by Dark Horse. Radiant City is another retro-futuristic city set in the same world as Terminal City and Electropolis. Heavily influenced by the movie, "Metropolis", Radiant City was built with psychotecture in mind. The idea that the architecture and layout of a city could affect its citizens psyche. Even though Mister X is the main character, the stories are typically told from the perspective of his ex-girlfriend or the reporter, Rosetta Stone.

[Nikki in Niagara · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic omnibus of the latter stories of Mr. X by Dean Motter. An ingenious world this is, a city affected by architecture. The world is 1940s-ish, a bit steampunk with zeppelins and monorails in the air; it's definitely a future world but the art is awesome Art Nouveau in style. My favourite character throughout the book was a secondary one, Mercedes. Great read, not to be missed and this makes me want to read the earlier incarnations of Mr X.

1. Condemned - A really strange city where the architecture had been mixed with psychic stuff that eventually drove all the residents insane. Now the government, with an election coming, is trying to rebuild, urban renewal. There are a few angles going on here: the mafia, a secret society of architects, a serial killer, and government corruption. Although hard to describe it's a crime/mystery plot that I quite enjoyed. Mr. X is trying to fix the architecture and Rosey Stone is a reporter who secretly works with him. The art is gorgeous! It's very Art Nouveau in style. Futuristic sci-fi with a 30/40s look. (5/5)

2. Yacht on the Styx - A short story featuring X and Rosey. A man's body is found in the cornerstone of his own building. How could he have gotten there when he was publically active for many more years to come. (3/5)

3. The Vanishing Breed - Takes place one year after "Condemned" and is a short two-parter. This is about the drug poltercaine which turns you into a phantom. The former mayor is addicted to the stuff and a friend gives it to Mr. X when he gets held up in jail. (4/5)

4. Eviction - Mercedes has been taken by the Ganeral Assembly and is placed in Purgatorium (jail) as she won't give up any info on Mr. X. Rosey gets a new cameraman, an orphan, since Scooter is in the Asylum dealing with his addictions. Meanwhile X and Rosey work on getting Mercedes out while at the same time bringing down the Assembly. A lot of stuff happens in this one and it's a complicated story with reference to previous stories and lots of pop culture. (4/5)

5, Hard Candy - The big pharmaceutical company that used to make all the illicit drugs has their young heiress kidnapped. When a ransom note arrives saying they must restart production and sell only to the kidnappers the owner hires Mr. X to get her granddaughter back. (4/5)

6. Frozen Assets - This one was a lot of fun. Bad guys unfreeze a cryogenic head of a crook who hid all his money. Stories with talking heads floating in jars are always fun. Turns out this guy stole a lot of money from Mr. X (4/5)

7. The Eaves of Destruction - A short Christmas story where Rosey's Rabbi father comes to visit while she is working on a series of Rabbi serial killings. Really liked this one, and the red in the art was gorgeous. (5/5)

8. Dead Giveaway - Another short Christmas story set in the same area as the previous one but starring secondary characters. A man and his trophy wife are trying to kill each other for Christmas. (3/5)

9. Razed Expectations - The best story in the book and the longest. Takes place a few months after "Eviction". The election for a Mayor is back on and all the candidates have schemes going. The story is broken up for a few issues of Rosey investigating a zombie precious metals theft ring, which sounds insane but was really good. Everything wraps up at the end of the urrent arc but there are tons of things left wide open. (5/5)

10. Mr. X in Slumberland - Just a kind of advertising short explaining the history of the 9th Architects and how Mr. X is back. (NR)

11. The Return of Mr. X - Some pages from the first issue worked on with Paul Rivoche which was never published. (NR)

[Dragan Nanic · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dean Motter's return to his creation, this time with full creative and executing control leaves something to be desired (or maybe it is the saturation of the story that does not seem to move anywhere anymore).
The first impact was very visceral, drawings are much coarser than in the rest of the series and they require some getting used to. It is like a heavy drum beat that you start to like after a while (Sisters of Mercy come to mind). So that is not the problem (after the initial disappointment). The main problem is the story development, especially the resolution. Some of the filler stories are just so banal. In others Motter is focusing so much on the journalist Rosetta Stone that he is filling multiple pages with so much text that the drawings are almost gone. With them are also gone iconic frames (with couple of honourable excuses). He even manages to weave the spin-off (Electropolis) and invent an impossible new word: doppelgandroid (though the concept of replacing a human with a robot replica is an interesting one).
What works well are Motter's homages to famous writers, painters and the whole pop culture of America. I would enjoy it much more if it wasn't retelling again and again all the same that I already learned about Somnopolis and its creator(s).

[John]

Mister X was a shining beacon of 80s independent comics, and it featured some of the mediums most important artists. However, ultimately for all its efforts the series fell under its own weight--Mister X was built upon cheap scaffolding and macguffins--any promise of answers were merely misdirects (bad pun). It went away an died.

Motter went on to do other series, tentatively within the same universe, like Terminal City and Electropolis. Yet, this classic series called for what ever classic series seems to be getting these days...a reboot.

In some ways, I greeted this with optimism--perhaps with more authoritarial vision, rather than artistic flourishes we could have a grand story. Could Motter guide his tale to the Modern Age?

The cover itself harkens bake to Will Eisner, Steranko and Fritz Lang, so answers point to "No". However, this time--Dean Motter is doing the entire production, which leads to a sort of consistency at least.

[Tripp]

Just the literary, cinematic, and pop culture references Motter works into the backgrounds and foregrounds of his art would be reason enough to buy and linger over any Mister X volume, this one included. But then consider also how wonderfully atmospheric his art is, how rich and mesmerizing the ideas at play--psychetecture, psychogeography, retrofuturism, and a place variously known as Radiant City and Somnopolis--and the work comes to seem both necessary and irresistibly immersive.

[Jay Amari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice art and interesting story. I think it would be a nice feature film but difficult to position.