X

Cover of X #1
Art by Rick Leonardi and James Palmiotti

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 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

This plot summary may be too long or overly detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (July 2007)

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, their hired assassin named Gamble, Mob boss Carmine Tango and highly connected army officials.

• 1-15: The first section of the series involved a series of political hits X performs, seemingly for his own purposes, and then later in tandem with a woman named Diana Gorreti, who wanted to take over Arcadia from the mobster, Carmine Tango. It was eventually revealed that X was using Goretti to get what he wanted, which was to remove Tango and put pliable people in positions of power within the city. To this end, a "War" was fought between X and the mob, during which X was briefly thought killed by a mysterious mind controlling villain named Lord Alamout. The return to life X had was the first solid clue that something was different about X's blood. During the war, X also took out Coffin, the man whom Tango had hired to kill him and take his eye years previously.

• 16-20: X travels to Washington D.C. to let the government know that he is in control of Arcadia and to try to extend his influence. However, he strikes a deal with a man named Vargas, where Arcadia is left to X as long as X agrees to never interfere with the government. During the trip to D.C. X encounters a general who seems to know something about X's early past. It is also revealed that X arrived in Arcadia as a young man, who rapidly recovered from burns which covered much of his body but who had no clear memory of anything prior to his arrival in Arcadia. He became lovers with his case worker but remained jealous that she was involved with another man. That man turned out to be Carmine Tango, whom X, then called Jack, tried to kill. The attempt amused Tango, who took him in and renamed him Johnny, while sending the caseworker out of both their lives.

• 21-25: Gamble, the only man X failed to kill after marking, returned and drew X into the open by inviting a rash of killers into Arcadia. Assistant D.A Elizabeth Treaty is put on the X case and built a case against X, with the help of Lt. Timothy and detective Lewis. Coffin returns just as X busts up Gamble's operations, saves Christie and marks McCone, one of the killers. The General tells McCone, who works for him, the story about 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 forge an alliance. X meets the General on the dock, where everything comes out: X 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. As X recovers from a wound, the General realizes that the key to X's invulnerability is that his blood acts on aberrations, analyzing and repairing itself. Coffin arrives and rips the general in two, before being defeated by X, who kills Gamble after Gamble breaks McCones neck. Lt. Timothy, resigns from the force, in disgust that he is unable to arrest X because Treaty has given him full immunity. 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)
• Diana 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

• Grand Comics Database Project