Three issues in, District X is continuing to impress.  It's certainly the most interesting book to come out of Reload, and seems to be settling in as a critical favourite.

By now it's quite clear that this isn't really a Bishop solo series at all.  Of course, if we're being scrupulously fair, it doesn't claim to be - it's called District X, not Bishop.  But he was the character Marvel used as the hook for marketing the title.  And not entirely without justification; there's enough of him in the title to get away with that.

Really, though, it's an ensemble title about an assortment of cops and villains in New York's District X, and the fact that one of them happens to be Bishop isn't a central concern.  His role here is to be the token mutant on the police force, and that's a role Bishop can fill quite adequately without needing to get into his overly convoluted background.

Most of the mutants in this title aren't much of a threat at all.  They're people with odd deformities, highly specific talents (such as the kid who secretes drugs), or just plain useless abilities.  That begged the question of why Bishop was so concerned about a mutant gang war; they weren't going to do much more damage than a normal gang war.  This issue addresses that problem persuasively enough.  Bishop knows that these guys are losers, but he also knows that Mutant Town has symbolic value for mutants as a whole.  A mutant gang war would be a publicity disaster.  The fact that the stakes on the ground are relatively low doesn't alter that.  As one of the first mutant communities, District X has to be seen to work.

With the logical problem of "Why is one of the X-Men bothering himself with this stuff?" convincingly answered, we can get back to enjoying the story.  It's gang war stuff with a twist stemming from all the characters having (generally useless) powers.  Meanwhile, David Hine also gets back to the corrupt cops, and takes the story in a slightly more complex direction than expected.  As was fairly obvious from the previous issue, Mr M saw the shooting in issue #1 and knows that the official story is a lie.  But he also knows that Gus killed the woman under mind control.  M knows Gus is strictly innocent, but also knows that he's obviously corrupt to some extent - so the question for him is whether to speak up and leave Gus to take the fall anyway.  It's a simple plot, but it's got plenty of dimensions to it.

David Yardin and Alejandro Sicat's art is great to look at, while remaining strictly about the storytelling.  They're a little weaker on some of the set-pieces, with the establishing shot of the club looking a bit bland.  But there's plenty of great detail in here - I love the little smiley-faced stress ball that Kaufman carries around with him to stop his powers building up.  It's beautifully inappropriate.

One of the best things to come out of Reload.

Rating: A-

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