COMICS IN THE CAN- Episode XXV (Revival #18)

COMICS IN THE CAN
I used to have time to read my comics in a coffee shop. Now I have to read them in the bathroom. Then I write reviews of them. I wash my hands in between.

REVIVAL #18

Here we are again, back in picturesque rural Wisconsin. Tim Seeley and Mike Norton have brought us back into the wilds of a town used to minding its own business but which has been shoved onto the international stage through the returning from the dead of some of its citizens. Not to be confused with that ABC show that’s coming out called Resurrection. Those people come back long after they are dead. Also its got the dad from ‘That ‘70’s Show’ in it.  I’d like to see Mike Norton capture the subtlety of craft and the permanent furrowed brow of Kurtwood Smith on the 2 dimensional page.

Anywho, this issue is a nice change of pace from the big death of last issue to some quieter character moments that give the leads even more to contend with then they have already been forced to endure. Seeley can write big, no problem. But I tend to enjoy his lower key outings more. Maybe I’m getting old, appreciating more than just a well placed boob shot or explosion.

Nah, that doesn’t sound like me.

Also, the old exercise guy’s dog gets (possibly) dognapped and (maybe) eaten by one of those glowing ethereal monsters! 

So Officer Dana is now on the trail of the mysterious, scarred ‘masked reviver’ who is a suspect in all the goings on.  During her pursuit last issue, her back was injured and it’s still causing her trouble, making her irritable and lashing out at her son. She does some detective work and finds herself talking to the mortician that was working in the crematorium on ‘Revival Day’ when its occupant ‘revived’ while burning. He is understandably disturbed. But Dana finds out the Reviver was a John Doe of Native American descent.

Meanwhile, Dana’s father, the Sheriff, is harassing one of the ‘militia leaning’ locals for a reason either unrevealed or that I missed last issue. 

Dana’s sister Em, who was having an affair with the professor who died last issue, is having problems of her own. Like ‘throwing up blood and bleeding from the eyes’ kinds of problems. But also, it seems, a little bit of clairvoyance. She runs into the professor’s wife and they have an expectedly terse exchange. Then, unexpectedly, Em kisses her, but not in a sexual way. It seems to be the trigger for Em to…absorb? experience? the person’s memories as she flashed back to the Professor’s last words with his wife. 

So all this happens, then Seeley delivers the most heart wrenching scene a parent could read. Dana tries to apologize to her son and make it up to him.  He tells her that he realizes that nothing’s the same since the dead people came back. That nobody knows who they are or who they are supposed to be anymore. That after all he’s gone through,  the danger he was in and she wasn’t there, even though she’s supposed to be the hero, he knows that she can’t protect him anymore. 

Jesus Tim! Your kids say they hate you all the time, but something like that, that cuts to the bone, dude. So yeah, this series is still extremely well written and drawn. Pick it up.