Turning our attention to the minor leagues and the endangered species, District X begins its final two-part storyline.

We don't get many two-parters these days.  They don't easily fit the trade paperback schedule, especially since Marvel seems unaccountably convinced that pacing for the trade requires every volume to be a single arc, when it would really be enough just to have a sensible break point every few issues.  I rather suspect that a big consideration in this case was that House of M hasn't started yet, and so the book needs to kill some time before it can begin its crossover miniseries Mutopia X.

The issue certainly has the sniff of a fill-in story about it.  Of the regular cast, only Bishop is present, and even he's only in the framing sequence.  He spends the issue on the phone to Billy Bates, a teenage mutant who's now under siege by the police.  Billy obligingly fills the issue by telling us his story.  This is his issue, not Bishop's.

Billy has recently discovered his own mutant powers, and has got his heart set on a waitress in Mutant Town.  We get some scenes of Billy dealing with his bigoted parents, and then the story decamps to Mutant Town so that Billy can try to protect his beloved from some thuggish tourists and, naturally, screw things up badly.  It's the old standard "mutant lashes out with powers that he doesn't really understand" scene.

We've been here many times before, but this is a perfectly good rendition of the story.  Hine and Medina build up Billy as a rounded and believable character.  As usual with this book, it works when it manages to place the unlikely superpowers in a low-key, ultimately believable inner city setting.

The art is curiously inconsistent in this issue.  There's only one penciller and inker credited, but several pages and occasional panels are inked in a much looser style.  Actually, I prefer it - it gives the art more life and energy, in a book that often looks a little bit too smooth for its own good.  Nonetheless, the style shift stands out a mile - look at the thugs on pages 16 and 17, for example.  It's got the look of a book that's undergone some last minute changes.

This reads like filler, most likely because that's exactly what it is.  Still, it has the usual strengths of this book, so the regular readership will be happy.

Rating: B+

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