The truth? It'll be out there in theaters when The X-Files: I Want to Believe opens July 25. But thanks to Frank Spotnitz, the franchise's coproducer and cowriter, it'll also be available in comic-book form two days earlier, when DC's The X-Files #0 hits stores. While the film takes place after the TV series' end, Spotnitz's title (illustrated by Iron Man: Hypervelocity's Brian Denham) is fully ensconced in buzzy season 5, with Special Agent Dana Scully's cancer in attack mode, and her FBI partner, Fox Mulder, initially on the lam, probing Scully's illness as well as surreptitious alien types.

Issue #0 is a story Spotnitz always wanted to tell, but never had a chance to. And it will, in fact, springboard into a few original comics miniseries set throughout seasons 2 and 5 of the show. Also, these tales will feature a familiar evil force. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. To jump-start the X-Files' long-awaited resurrection, DC and Spotnitz have given EW.com this exclusive first look at pages from The X-Files #0.