One hundred and fifty members of a secret brotherhood of architects have died from the demolition of their windowless sanctuary by a giant robot. Welcome to Radiant City.
Envisioned as a gleaming metropolis, a shining utopia where every street, skyscraper, office, and apartment conspired to bestow contentment and prosperity upon its inhabitants, Radiant City began as a beacon of humanity's ingenuity, but became an admonition of its hubris.
Redubbed Somnopolis-its intended beneficiaries now its victims-Radiant City is driving its citizens mad. Insomniacs and somnambulists, beset by phobias and manias, crowd this twisted burg. And that is why the mayor is having it destroyed, block by block.
Eliminate the most dangerous "psychetecture" and free the populace from the invisible forces that plague their minds. It is too simple an answer to an enigmatic problem-one ripe for exploitation by those without scruples in the halls of power, and those in the shadows to whom they answer-typical for a politician.
Radiant City has its flying cars and automatic butlers, but what it needs is a hero. The city of dreams has become a city of nightmares.
Mister X is not a hero.
He may or may not be the last surviving architect of this place, whose grand vision for the future slipped irretrievably from his grasp. He may or may not be addicted to Insomnalin, which has relieved him of the need for sleep. He may or may not be the only one who can save Radiant City, or at least, the only one who is going to try. Whoever he is, whatever he is, he has arrived, and he has started looking for something-hopefully, the truth.
This is the world of Mister X: Condemned, a new four-part series by Dean Motter. Seamlessly interweaving German expressionism with neo-noir in an art deco science-fiction landscape, Mister X: Condemned is as retro as it is prophetic. A detective story with no detective, a horror story with no monster, it is a yarn as mysterious as its protagonist.
Motter previously explored such realms in his acclaimed series Terminal City, Electropolis, and the comic book continuation of the groundbreaking television show The Prisoner, yet it was the premiere iteration of the unknowable Mister X that propelled Motter into the comics spotlight twenty-five years ago.
Already heralded as a graphic designer, Motter collaborated with young stars such as Los Bros. Hernandez, Paul Rivoche, and Seth to bring his visionary sensibilities to a whole new medium. The debut of Mister X was a watershed moment for alternative comics, influencing a generation of fans and creators with its unique characters, compelling premise, and inimitable design.
This November, Dark Horse presents all fourteen issues of that original Mister X series in Mister X: The Archives, a massive deluxe hardcover complete with extensive supplemental material; short stories by Neil Gaiman, Dave McKean, and Bill Sienkiewicz; and a new foreword by Warren Ellis.
Then, in December, Mister X: Condemned begins. Created solely by Motter, Mister X: Condemned is a fresh start for a classic character. This is a Mister X reimagined for the twenty-first century by a postmodern master of subverting expectations and infusing well-worn genres with new ideas.
For the residents of Radiant City, the future has arrived. It is beautiful, it is terrifying, and it may or may not be the fault of a single man, lurking in the shadows. Is he a product of their madness, or are they a product of his? The time to find out has come.
But as Mister X knows, there is always "Too much to do, not enough time to do it . . ."