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

One Shot to the Head/Arcadia, weeks 1-4: X, whose law is that one mark means a warning, the second one death, takes on the members of the Arcadian Waterfront Project, a collection of business, law and politics. X kills several, including senator Briggs. Mayor Teal and Police Commissioner Anderson send a S.W.A.T team after X, which X wipes out.

• 1-8: Gamble, a hired killer, is sent after X by the Llwellyn brothers. After a confrontation, Gamble escapes. Carmine Tango, Boss of all Bosses in the Arcadian undeworld and a believer in astrology, becomes X's main target. A man named Cholly McGregor arrives at his friend Levan's nightclub and dies, an X on him. Anderson unleashes cyborg versions of his S.W.A.T team, to great destruction and embarrassment. Mayor Teal fires Anderson, whom X then kills. X gives Teal's secretary, Gretchen, who is having an affair with Christie, Tango's righthand man, a visit and marks them. X experiences a flashback of a man holding a knife to his face while he begged for justice. Carmine Tango is haunted by a killing he once ordered and hires The Chaos Riders to take care of Teal but X wipes them out,placing Teal in his pocket. Congressman DeMarco, an enemy of Teal, is killed by X, while Tango gets a call from Diana Gorretti, an old associate. Meanwhile, a nurse weeps over a comatose teen and recalls another, one that she lost, years ago. The mysterious Lord Alamout, who brainwashes young men to use as assassins, fails in attempting to brainwash X into killing Tango, who then declares war on X. X battles Alamout, who falls out a window into the river, leaving X holding a mask with Alamout's face on it.

• 9-15("War For Arcadia"): Tango hires Coffin-the man from X's flashback-to take out X. Mose Hughes-Diana Gorreti's boy-is appointed Police Commissioner. Goretti has been been working with X, who eventually confronts Coffin, who survives, but is paralyzed. Detective Timothy begins to focus on bringing X to justice. X goes to Teal's office to remind Teal that he owes him, but Teal sticks a sword through X's chest from under his desk, revealing himself as Alamout. X dies and Alamout dons the mask and costume of X. Gamble returns and tells Peter Lwellyn he is there to finish his job. Gretchen, who works for Diana Goretti, admits to Christie that their relationship was a scheme. Alamout's scientist's discover that the blood on X's cape is fresh and unable to be burned, frozen or acidified. Alamout's attempt to strongarm Tango into handing over control of the underworld ends when X returns from the dead and kills Alamout, who is revealed as Michael Levan. X declares the war is over. Tango flees to Christie's place, where X arrives. X kills both women, admitting he used them, before breaking Tango by telling mobster that he is nothing and no longer has any power. Tango goes comatose and Christie assumes control of the undeworld.

• 16-20: X encounters Headhunter and his gang, a government team that is hunting a rogue agent, whom X kills. For this and the transgressions of another member of Headhunters team, X goes to Washington D.C. Also, part of X's past is revealed when he goes to Tango's hospital room, where Tango's nurse, who also watches over the comatose teen, stops him. She tells X about how once, as a caseworker, she knew a young man with no memory, burns all over his body that mysteriously healed and a box with an X on it. The two became lovers, but her boyfriend, Carmine Tango, ordered her to break it off, which caused the young man, Jack, to kill Tango, who liked his spunk and named him Johnny. She left casework and town, retraining as a nurse, later hearing that after years of service, Carmine eventually had the boy murdered. Timothy and his partner, Lewis, lead a team into Alamout/Levan's headquarters, where they find Teal still drugged by Alamout. X, before leaving for D.C, strongly urges the governor to send Teal to Congress, which he does, terrified. Arriving in D.C, X strong-arms senators, gaining the attention of Vargas, Headhunter's boss, and of Tommy Kafka-aka, Challenge. Kafka brings in X, but 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. Vargas warns Kafaka against sticking his nose into this business. Challenge rescues X, but the General escapes by using a Vortex weapon. 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 draws X into the open while Assistant D.A Elizabeth Treaty is put on the X case and begins working with Timothy and Lewis. Christie pulls the plug on both the comatose teen and Coffin, who merges with a Chaos rider ina strange symbios with the kid, who only barely stays alive. X discovers Gamble is back and behind the rash of killers pouring into Arcadia. Treaty tries reasoning with X, but fails. X tells Christie to find Gamble for him. Gamble is seemingly killed by Willie McCone, a hired killer, who dumps him in the river. X starts busts up Gamble's operations. Coffin goes after Christie, but X saves him. The police pursue X. McCone and X fight, McCone is marked, but the General from D.C-McCone's boss-shows up and they escape. Lewis prevents Timothy from killing himself going after X, who has saved the life of Treaty. 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 pursuit of X. Timothy and Lewis discover that Treaty has decided to use X to stop the violence breaking out, a notion Timothy struggles with. X and a very much alive Gamble forge an alliance. X discovers Christie tried killing Coffin. X flashes back to the night the Zigurrat, on orders from Tango-believing the stars had told him X 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 docks, but McCone shoots him. As X lies bleeding, X 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, but its power was 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 reparing itself. Jealous, the general starts shooting at X, but Coffin comes up behind him and rips him in two. X then fires a single shot-literally through Coffin and into. . .the comatose teen, delivered by Christie. A second shot kills him and Coffin. Gamble appears, brags that McCone didn't know his heart was on the other side and breaks McCones neck, then tries shooting X, but X kills Gamble instead. 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

• Grand Comics Database Project

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