Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Comics, image, revival

Review: Revival #3

Published Sun, 23 Sep 2012 16:00:16 -0500

Louis Falcetti writes for Bleeding Cool;

Revival continues to redefine the phrase "rural noir" as it winds it's way through another issue of horror, family drama and freaked out, down home weirdness. From it's stylish, eye catching cover, to the quality paper stock, Revival is an Image book that reads as good as it looks and feels.

This issue it seemed that events slowed down a little bit, which in the world of Revival means going from 100mph to 80. Now that we've got most of our cast introduced it's time to start bumping them into each other, after all, they are under quarantine. And a good behaving bunch of quarantined folks if you don't mind me saying so. Seriously. People go to classes and go to work, which I guess on one level people would, as humans we often need good, real distractions from the unexplained nightmares of everyday. And the people of Rothschild have bigger than average everyday nightmares.

That was something else I realized reading this issue, the circumstances in the town could not be worse for a situation like this. Now please don't ask me what "ideal" circumstances for the dead returning to life and weird, stretched out, ghost monster creatures would be. But being trapped in a small town, in the winter has to be at the top of the worst list. Winter often feels like a stranglehold of a season sans revivers and creeps. The sky is concrete gray, the streets packed with muddy snow and everyone's nose running from the wind. Winter is already a paralyzing time. People find Fall to be particularly spooky, especially in New England (where I'm writing this), and that may be. But Winter is goddamn terrifying. Fall is scary in the way you get scared watching Paranormal Activity 3, you jump in your seat and clutch your hubby (or cat) (or hub…bess?) and then afterward you giggle about how scared you were. Winter is scary in the way that your melancholy thoughts of dying alone are interrupted by a naked dead woman, with a face resembling a character from an Aphex Twin video, spitting blood and shrieking. Oh yeah, that happens in this issue.

Revival #3 gives us more history on the town and the divisions that lay between the classes and races that inhabit it. It begins to show us just how many different angles there are to the entire "reviver" situation as we meet a shrink who's counseling those affected. Ibrahaim (CDC guy and accidental almost bar hook up) gets officially teamed up with Dana who's quick to make things clear regarding who she is and what she's about. I honestly love reading this character. I can never get behind "James Bond" type good guys, where everything goes right for them and they always look great and kick ass. I like flawed, confused characters who are doing their best and just trying to make sense of the insanity of their everything. Dana has that in spades as we're reminded of during the scenes with her sister, where a mysterious scar becomes apparent that we'll see on another body before the issue ends.

Pacing and story flow are two elements that are important in comics, but doubly so in creator owned stories. Revival excels at both as within one issue we can get spooked, get comfortable, get moved, get touched (in the 'aw a puppy helping a kitten' way, not bad touch) and get touched (in really bad ways). It's a comic where the more details we learn about the citizens and the situation surrounding them, the less things make sense and the skin crawlingly creepier everything becomes. It's quickly become one of my favorite monthly books and the word on the street (the digital street) is that it's not only a quality book, but it's also popular too, a pairing that doesn't always line up in the world of comic books (Young Liars, Greek Street, Testament, I'm still looking lovingly in your direction). Seeley knows when to show his hand and when to play it safe, yet this book somehow does both simultaneously. If you're not reading Revival you're not reading comics.

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