After a long exile Mister X has returned, determined to fix his city, assisted by regular infusions of a drug that allows him to stay awake indefinitely. His partner Simon Myers is recently dead after a mysterious suicide. Yes, the man has returned to undo the damage he believes he has done… even if it kills him.” Mister X is one of the two architects who designed Radiant City. “The city of his dreams… The city he himself designed… was now the city of his nightmares. The Return of Mister X opens with a shadowy figure emerging from a steaming manhole, the city reflected in the glasses that mask his eyes.

Instead, the series was written by the three Love & Rockets creators, Hernandez brothers Gilbert, Mario and Jaime, and drawn by Jaime Hernandez. Great premise, right? In the end Motter and Rivoche did not produce any comics. However, during the construction phase corners were cut, plans were altered or ignored for cheaper substitutions and the result is a warped, dangerous place slowly driving everyone who lives there insane. It was designed according to the principles of ‘Psychetecture’ supposed to affect a person’s mental state by the shape and position of walls, floors and all other architectural elements. Despite its imposing, stylish and beautiful towers, it’s not a good place to live. The action all takes place in a strongly Modernist (in the 1930s sense of the word) setting, a city of skyscrapers, flying cars and art-deco-styled robots, called Radiant City. The mysterious Mister X was created by Dean Motter and introduced with brilliantly designed posters by Paul Rivoche, harking back to movies such as Metropolis (1927) and Things to Come (1936). The Return of Mister X collects the four-issue series Mister X first published in 1984.

Mister X The Archives