Finally for this week, Peter Milligan brings back X-Statix - well, kind of - in the first issue of X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl.

Milligan is a frustratingly inconsistent writer, who often excels when he's allowed to pursue ideas to their demented conclusion, but just as often seems to struggle when he's trying to write normal stories.  His run on X-Men, all too often, falls into the latter category.  X-Statix, on the other hand, often saw him at his best.  The book probably ended at the right time, as the joke was starting to wear a bit thin.  But that was in August 2004, and after a decent interval, the time has come to revisit the characters.

Since the team were brutally killed in their final issue, it makes sense that this story should be based around Dead Girl - the only member of the team who has the perfect excuse for not staying dead.

Except it's not really Dead Girl in this issue at all.  She doesn't turn up until the last page.  It's actually a Doctor Strange story - and it says a lot about the marketability of that character that X-Statix Presents: Dead Girl was actually considered a more enticing title.  Dead characters are trying to escape the afterlife, and a rather unstable Dr Strange has to fight them.

Readers won't be too disappointed, though, because X-Statix fans are probably more concerned about the tone of the book than the presence of the title character.  And this story does indeed have the X-Statix style.  Strange is having some mental health problems - Wong remarks on it, so it's an intentional part of the story - which opens the door for Milligan to toy with the character.  He's no longer quite sure why he insists on talking in mock-bombastic dialogue, and he's trying not to use the word "suffice" so much. 

Oddly enough, this actually works to humanise Strange more than mock him, and suggests that a Milligan Doctor Strange could be good fun.  Let's face it, there's something unavoidably silly about Strange trying to have conversations with normal people where he has to say things like "Touch not the venerable orb."  If you played Strange dead straight in this sort of story, you'd make him look silly.  Give him a degree of self-awareness, and he comes across much better.

It's not really an X-Statix story and, so far, it's not a Dead Girl story either.  But it does have all the qualities that made X-Statix so entertaining, and that's the important thing.

Rating: A

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