It's good for publishers to experiment.  Unfortunately, the problem with experiments is that by their nature, they don't always work.  Enter Soldier X, a book which hasn't worked.

Issue #6 concludes the book's first storyline, which has achieved two things: (a) not a great deal, and (b) getting the creative team sacked.  Much as I approve on all counts of trying something new with this book, now that we have the completed story arc, it's difficult to avoid agreeing that this is an experiment which did not click.

Darko Macan's point in this whole story is rather hard to grasp at the best of times, and isn't one that easily lends itself to storytelling.  The general thrust of it seems to be to celebrate irrationality, specifically in the form of Nathan's hope for a better world in the face of a lack of real evidence that it can be achieved.  Of course, in order to give a set-up in which embracing lunacy looks like the correct response, Macan ends up writing a deliberately irrational and skewed plot.  The problem is that it isn't terribly engaging.

We get several pages devoted to Nathan allowing the local mafia to shoot him to pieces and fixing himself with his telekinesis.  We're supposed to admire his taking control of his destiny by doing things this way rather than letting his powers automatically deflect the bullets, but since there's no apparent benefit whatsoever from doing things this way, it's difficult to see why we're meant to agree.  It's a deliberately irrational action on Nathan's part, but the problem is that Macan doesn't give us a sufficiently persuasive reason to embrace it as the way he ought to be acting.  Similar problems plague much of the issue.

Igor Kordey's art is impressive as ever, particularly in a bizarre sequence of Nathan growing to giant size (never very clearly explained, unless it's supposed to be an illusion to scare the yokels).  However odd the story may be, Kordey tells it well.

Nonetheless, overall this is not a storyline which has succeeded.  Points for effort, but that only takes the book so far.  Win some, lose some.

Rating: C+

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