THE CREATORS: Writer David Hine and artist... well, they started with David Yardin, but Lan Medina seems to have taken over somewhere along the line after starting out as a fill-in artist.

THE FILL-IN ARTIST COUNT: Depends on when you regard Lan Medina as becoming the regular artist, but at least two (one by Medina before Yardin left, and one by Mike Perkins).

WHAT HAPPENED IN 2004: The "Mr M" storyline, in which Bishop joins the local police in Mutant Town and gets involved with a gang war.  And the first third of "Underground", bringing back the idea of underground mutant communities yet again.

Another new title launched this year, and another one that's already in obvious trouble.  District X has been granted a third storyline, meaning that it's safe through to issue #18.  But it says a lot that new titles now have their lifespan evaluated in arcs; these days, it's a remarkable success if a book makes it past issue #18, rather than an embarrassing failure for getting cancelled so early.

It reminds me somewhat of this joke:  How many Microsoft engineers does it take to change a lightbulb?  None, you just redefine darkness as the industry standard.  In a similar way, rapid cancellation and failure have been redefined as the industry standard for comics.  Who'd be a new title in 2004?

Which is a shame for District X, since it's actually one of the more interesting X-books to be produced this year.  It's not been a complete creative success, but at least it's been trying.

Considering his origins in the depths of the early 1990s, Bishop has proved to be a remarkably flexible character.  In fact, the version of the character currently being published bears very little resemblance to the 1991 incarnation, an ultra-violent police officer from the future who held the X-Men in quasi-religious esteem.  Basically, he was an awestruck Judge Dredd.

Since then, the character has been revised into a more conventional nineties superhero, and spiralled off into a curious solo title set in the even-further-future, only to return to the present day with a renewed focus on his police career.  Of course, his police career consisted of riding around on sci-fi bikes, hunting down people with green hair and shooting them with an Enormogun, but we'll turn a blind eye to that.  "Cop from the future" is the current take on the character, and if it doesn't really fit with his past appearances, it's probably a more interesting way to run with it.

District X isn't so much a Bishop solo title as an ensemble cast with Bishop as its selling point (if a book which has shed almost half its readers in six months can be said to have a selling point).  It runs with the "Mutant Town" idea that Grant Morrison introduced in New X-Men but never really explored - basically, a mutant-oriented ghetto in New York.  It's a nice simple idea, and the sort of book that's only become viable because, however much Chris Claremont tries to ignore it, the general level of anti-mutant sentiment has been notably turned down over the last few years. 

With strong characters and an interesting premise, District X has generally proved to be a worthwhile title.  The first arc faltered in the final stages when it resorted to cliches in search of a decent climax, but the rest of the plot was a success.  The current arc treads dangerously close to reinventing the Morlocks, who have been done to death, but otherwise it's been performing respectably.

District X was definitely worth publishing.  Again, given its sales, the question of whether it should be cancelled is probably going to be decided for us.  It's hard to see this book turning things around, unfortunately.  If District X is still with us at the close of 2005, it will be a pleasant surprise.

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