Wow.

That’s the only word for this issue.

Just wow.

Issue #18 of ‘Revival ‘is tense, and boy do I mean it. We have Sheriff Cypress escalating the war between he and Ed, the town militant. Martha confronts the wife of her former lover/totally deceased professor, and then proceeds to wake up bleeding the following night. And Cooper? Well, it turns out that his incident with being violently kidnapped did do some negative things to his psyche, and he doesn’t believe anything can protect them.

You see what I mean? Nothing really happens in this issue, plot wise, but I don’t care. All the chickens from the past seventeen issues are really starting to come into roost, and it’s changing our favorite characters, for better or worse (though worse certainly seems to be the projected trajectory).

It’s all summed up by Cooper at the end of the comic:

“When the dead people came back, everything changed. All the stuff that used to be impossible isn’t impossible no more. all the things adults always said us kids didn’t have to be afraid of… it’s not that it doesn’t exist, or can’t hurt us… It’s just that they don’t see it. Because when the dead people came back, they made it confusing for everyone, especially the grown ups,. No one knows who they are anymore. Noe on know what they’re suppose to believe anymore. I know because when iI was out in the shed at Dad’s house, and hose men said they were gonna kill me, you weren’t there. I thought you were always going to take care of me, cuz you were the hero. Officer Mom. But you didn’t. Mom. I don’t think you want to believe me. I don’t think you can make it up to me. And I know you can’t protect me.”

Let that sink in. This comic is freaking good.

atoms_5

REVIVAL #18
Story by Tim Seeley
Art by Mike Norton