The vermin of Arcadia’s underworld chase Leigh into a literal urban maze. . .and what’s waiting at the end ain’t cheese! A revived Berkshire’s got a beautiful new face and an appetite for revenge, mobilizing the entire police force against X.

“WARNING: EXPLICIT IMAGES”

Since the events in the previous issue, Leigh isn’t sure what to do about the picture that X sent her. She find a bunch of scary looking guys hiding out front of her apartment. The work for Mr. Berkshire and were sent to get her, because of the information about X that she’s been writing about in her blog. The chance her and she runs into an abandoned shopping mall, trying to get to an underground tunnel that leads to the local subway station. But just when she’s been cornered, X shows up with his sword. As X makes brutal work of her attackers, slicing off body parts with brutal efficiency, Leigh manages to escape to the subway. But while on the subway she noticed that at some point X slipped another picture into her purse, and he wrote “Turn yourself in” on the back. After a couple of days of being on the run, Liegh goes to the police, and leads a squad of them to X’s hideout. But it turns out that this was all part of X’s plan, he wanted her to lead the police there, knowing that these would all be crooked police that worked for Berkshire, he kills them all with some well-placed booby traps (more body parts go flying).

But X isn’t the only one with a plan. Turns out that Mr. Berkshire himself, now with a pig’s face, is waiting for them, with a big gun in his hand. He shoots X in the chest at point blank range, and then prepares to shoot him in the head.

Whoa, another beautifully violent issue. I love this “origin” of Berkshire as a crime boss who now has a pig’s face. As I said in my review of X #0, X is like a cross between Batman and The Punisher, and Berkshire is like a twisted version of The Joker and Jigsaw. Once again writer Duane Swierczynski has crafted a compelling story that barely gives you time to breath, and is ably back by artist Eric Nguyen and colorist Michelle Madsen, who set the perfect tone for story, making Arcadia come alive in each page. All of this wrapped in another awesome cover by Dave Wilkins. Dark Horse Comics has hit the jackpot with this creative team. Another FIVE STAR issue!

Buy it NOW on Dark Horse Digital!