Posted in: Comics, Review | Tagged: Comics, image, revival, tim seeley

Review: Revival #2 – Rural Noir

Published Sat, 18 Aug 2012 14:59:26 -0500

Louie Falcetti writes for Bleeding Cool

Anyone worried that the second issue of Revival would fail to match it's first can exhale now and go back to nerd nerves regarding the quality of the upcoming Hobbit film. Revival #2 is the comic book equivalent to a Pixies song, the action playing out in loud-quiet-loud moments of real horror. The art and writing compliment each other to a degree where it ceases to be just a comic and unravels with the fluidity and confident sense of style of a high def AMC show.

The cover may say "Rural Noir" but issue two clearly (and violently) hammers home the sentiment that this is a horror comic. From the opening pages featuring the second autopsy of Mrs. Bittman (that would be the tooth pulling reviver from the end of issue one) to the extremely unnerving final pages featuring some dark truths regarding our hero's reviver sister, Martha.

We're introduced to a new character, Mr. Abel, a professional demonologist who's riding to your trailer park to take care of your possessed daughter for the price of a beer. Mr. Abel seems like he'd be one of the white hats, his rattled off resume sounds impressive and finding out that he seemed to possess some kind of extra-sensory perception before the dead started coming back to life make him seem like he'd be a hero. However his method for getting the devil out of Kelly Trailer Park is as severe as it is cold and he rides off into the night a threatening and frightening figure in a comic featuring the dead coming back to life.

There's a small, extremely well done scene right in the middle of the book, featuring local elderly tough guy and ladies man, Lester Majak. The scene is so simple, that of hearing a strange noise in the woods while home alone with your dog, that it's hard to believe that it can be as frightening as it is. That's due to the reaction faces Norton creates for Lester and his dog. The muscular, confident Lester backing slowly to his staircase and meekly letting out "It's okay boy. There's nothing out here but you and me." immediately humanizes Lester and turns the terror up a good notch or three.

We've seen Dana and Martha's father in his role as police chief, but this issue lets us get to see even more of the dad side of his life. It's sweet but sad, his attempt at expressing his love and worry for his daughter results in shouting, all the while remaining ignorant of her current biological state. A biological state that won't be too easy to continue to hide if the events this month are any indicator.

Dana also has almost car sex with the bearded fellow from the CDC who's appearance in the first issue was limited to trying to shake hands with the chief. Seeley is doing a great job at giving us a fully formed central character, with a range of sides and emotions that make her instantly likable and admirable. She's a woman being pulled in a million directions in the midst of the most surreal kind of nightmare the midwest could produce (outside of the normal surreal nightmare the midwest produces).

This issue also made Dana's son more likable, which makes me extremely nervous. If popular culture has taught me anything it's that the more likable and adorable the kid the more likely the tragic, painful death.

Another outstanding issue of Revival, the team know how to pace their story and the art is perfectly suited for the unsettling mix of creepy, shocking and human. The more pieces of the overall picture that are revealed, the more intense and disturbing the story becomes. I can feel very safe in saying that I have no idea what's going to happen to next, but I can't wait to find out.

Revival by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton is published by Image Comics.

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