Were eight issues in, and already this plot is getting very complicated. So get out your sticky notes, and filing folders! Let’s see if we can keep this straight.
But first, remember how last issues left us with body parts strewn across the snow? Well, we don’t really get an answer to that right away. Instead, we find ourselves in the home of Lester Majak, the fitness guru we see in the last issue, and the one who had sent a text message to Blaine Abel (the man who basically tried to kill May Tao).
Well, May, being the investigative reporter that she is, purposely got her car stuck outside his house in the blizzard in order to get invited in and pump information from him. Their plot line dots the comic, but since none of the three plot lines really affect one another time wise, I’ll just continue this story.
Lester and May have a merry old time drinking whiskey-laced coffee, and dancing the polka when Lester reveals that he knows exactly who May is, that her fame isn’t as small as she thinks, and also it was super clear from the tire tracks that she got her obvious rental car purposely stuck in just the right position to need help. She tells him that she found his number in Blaine’s phone, and wants to know why.
Lester stands up and tells her to come with him into his dark, creepy basement. May, after living through one horror movie, doesn’t seem to think that’s going to happen again, follows him without knowing the layout of his house or what horrors he may have down there.
Fortunately for her, it’s just his garage where there is a smashed up his snowmobile and he wanted Blaine to fix it. He was worried, seeing as his livelihood is about telling people that you can live life to its fullest, and not let your body defeat you, that people would see his accident as a refutation of all his lies.
May apologizes for intruding, and leaves him, never noticing the very evil glance he gives her while she walks away. Clearly, we have not seen the last of Lester Majak.
Next, we have Dana, who, despite receiving calls to go take care of the body parts strewn across the highway, has decided to find her sister’s English professor, Aaron Wiemar. He doesn’t seem to feel intimidated by her threats to stay away from Martha, and in the end, Dana throws his books to the ground and walks away. What will come of this exchange, we just don’t know yet, but we do know that Dana takes being the older sister very seriously, especially since she’s died at least twice as far as she knows.
We have one page dedicated to a man who goes to bar who isn’t from around here, who claims he’s in town because he was visiting his sister when the Revival happened. The bar denizens discuss the newcomer, and Brent Gunderson (the officer partnered with Dana during the Anders Hine incident) decides to go talk to him. Apparently, that’s an odd thing for him to do, and we find out little more.
During this, Martha decides to go to the church support group for Revivers, and Mrs. Gorski (the woman who invited her) tells her that Revivers were put on the Earth to suffer for sins of the people while she sticks her hand into the many flames of many candles and her skin burns.
The last part of of the story follows the mayor of Wasau, the Sheriff, discussing the truck filled with refridgerated body parts. Turns out that people in the town (i.e, the brothers from the last issue with the table saw) are trying to capitalize on the market for anything “reviver”, so they’ve been digging up corpses and chopping them into nice, easy to purchase pieces. A man who seems to be a federal agent of some sort informs the mayor that it’s time to move the citizens of Wassau for their own safety, but the mayor doesn’t want to make his citizens refugees. The Sheriff disagrees, and says they need to have the national gaurd because the cops are stretched thin as they are, and can’t be playing border cops for the competing interests that are desperate to get in, ranging form the religious to the atheists, to the liberals, to the conservatives.
When everyone leaves, and the sheriff and the mayor are left alone, they discuss how the sheriff should go after Anders Hine (the murdering Reviver from the last issue) because they had some sort of agreement. He tells him to tell his daughter that the have no leads, and the investigation is underway, but the sheriff doesn’t want to lie. In response, the mayor mysteriously tells him that they need to do the same thing they did eighteen years ago. What that is, we obviously don’t know yet. It’s just another question to add to our list of many, many questions.
The mayor goes home after bidding the sheriff a very ominous “drive safely” and comes home to find his wife in the bathroom, blood gushing from her mouth, and a bottle of pills in her hands. She had committed suicide, but is apparently a Reviver, as she comes back to life in his arms, eerily stating, “I did it again, didn’t I?”
So, more questions, and still no answers. We’ll just have to see if they are going to ask to many questions before the fans give up, but so far I’m not sure that’s going to happen. I am more intrigued with every issue, and can’t wait for next month.
Story by Tim Seely
Art by Mike Norton
Cover by Jenny Frison
