As this year comes to close, I thank the comic gods for giving me ‘Revival’ simply because this comic, from issue to issue, is consistently great. Even it’s weaker issues are good, and when read as part of a trade they are less noticeable as they tie major plots together. Did ‘Revival’ #16 blow me out of the water? No. But it didn’t need to because the story is good.
The drama of the confiscation of cattle (who are apparently irradiated) continues, and it ends up with Ramin and Sheriff Cypress fending off terrorist/freedom fighter attacks that involve forklifts driven by dummies which explode with lots of guts and blood. Apparently, it’s a message, and I assume it’s a derivative of the plot threads of a town in unrest being sparked by a militant libertarian. It will be interesting to see where this goes.
Meanwhile, Dana has secretly and illegally deputized her sister, who can’t die, to be Sherlock and investigate May Tao, the reporter that has been sticking her nose into everyone’s business for the past sixteen issues. But that is not as fun as Dana secretly and illegally deputizing her ex-husband, Derek to help her find out more information on her sister’s former lover. Dana is playing a lot of games right now, and I think in a few issues that will come to bite her, no matter how good her intentions are.
Derek’s ineptitude brings a much needed lighter side to this series about death and exploding cow parts, even at the end when they dig out bloody fragments of glass from Dana’s naked back. Then it ends with a new question to add to the never ending amount of questions: Who is the disfigured man who set fire to Martha’s former lover’s office and attacked Derek?
Really, nothing is resolved, we get more characters, and new questions arise and it makes you feel a bit like it’s an episode of ‘Lost’… just with more dead people walking around and talking, and by more, I mean even more. It’s can be a tough read to do once a month, but I think this issue will be fantastic when it’s nestled with the other chapters in the trade.
I may not have an idea where any of this is going, but I’m okay with that. It’s fun to have a comic just take you along for a convoluted ride, and I can’t think of one I’d like to do it with better than ‘Revival’. I like Martha exerting more control over her fate, and I love the tense relationships between Derek and Dana, and I desperately want to know more about Ibrahim’s struggle with the town’s residents. There is a lot keeping me invested in this comic, so I think I’ll stick around.
Revival #16
Writer: Tim Seeley
Artist: Mike Norton
