There’s a lot of threads to keep track of in this issue of ‘Revival’, so hold on to your hat.
Firstly, Martha’s boyfriend isn’t all he’s cracked up to be. I know what you’re thinking, wait, the guy who basically makes snuff films for Youtube isn’t a prize? Big surprise! Turns out he makes much more graphic snuff films than his skateboarding fiascos. He’s also been keeping a webcam on him and Martha while they do their very painful form of sex… without her knowledge.
It turns out that Lester Majak may be one of the only people to understand what the strange alien creatures are, and he spends his precious two-page scene beating on one with a golf club while damning it for killing his favorite dog. He used an elaborate display of dream catchers to ensnare it, suggesting that he knows what these being are enough to be able to capture one. He calls it a “Manitou”.
Meanwhile, Alvi seems a little lost with his former partner now in New York. He gets hypnotized by a palm reader, and reveals where they are studying Revivers. What’s to come of this, it’s hard to say, but it looks like there are going to be serious repercussions.
Cooper also seems a little lost without his mom there, and he disappears into the woods looking for the giant octopus Edmund told him about in the previous issue. With his grandfather at odds with Lester, and him likely being a pawn in Lester’s game, next issue promises to be exciting.
And finally, Dana is still in New York. She’s not anywhere nearer to finding out why the Polish man had died and then spontaneously combusted. She finally deciphers what she saw in the room with the Pol, and discovers a connection to Omega Sigma Omicron, a “secret society” in Wallstreet. She follows the lead to an investigative reporter who had been researching the group, only have him smash into her windshield the second she parks at his apartment. Then, like the previous murder victim, he goes up in flames. Now here’s where it gets freaky. Ander Hines (remember the murderer from about fifteen issues back who pretended to be comatose so he wouldn’t be a suspect) is back, and he managed to break out of the blockade in Wausau. He recognizes Dana, but runs the second a “Manitou” appears from the corpse of the reporter.
The issue ends with some very elite-looking people (probably the Omega Sigma Omicron) feasting on Ander Hine’s body with the eerie words “Dinner is served!” haunting the reader until next issue.
What was once a slow-paced comic pulling together a lot of threads in a small town, is a much more fast and furious affair. Instead of focusing on the day-to-days of a case, these past few issues have been speeding by. .
Still, for all the Wausau parts, it’s enjoyable. For the New York plot? I haven’t quite made up my mind. Without people to play off, Dana comes off as slightly flat (even with her heartfelt story about missing her kid), and so the story comes off flat as well, which is saying a lot since there are flaming bodies, Ander Hines, and a group of people eating Revivers.
So, I must say that I’m still enjoying the comic, it is starting to lack some of the qualities that I loved so much when it was just a big creepy family in Wisconsin.
REVIVAL #22
Story by Tim Seeley
Art by Mike Norton
