Dirty Dozen is a semi-regular feature with twelve disconnected thoughts on the first twelve issues of a current ongoing series.
1. The premise of the book is introduced quite well. In the debut, the dead already returned to life a while back. Revival Day is old news, and now the people of Wausau are dealing with the fallout, the quarantine and murders and so forth. Nobody every has the sort of long, unnecessary expositional dialogue that often exists in these kinds of stories, where one character tells another character a bunch of facts that they both already know about the past. Instead, everyone's focus is on the future, how to keep normal life going in light of this extraordinary event. The details of what happened come out naturally while people debate what's best to do from here, instead of pointlessly and unrealistically rehashing Revival Day for one another.
2. Rereading this series' first twelve issues all at once, I was struck by how much I had forgotten. There's so much information about so many characters, and not all of it has proven its importance to the larger narrative(s) yet. But there's enough payoff and evidence of planning that I trust Tim Seeley and Mike Norton to make everything count eventually, so I think continuously revisiting the issues I've already read will likely prove beneficial.
3. Essentially, the entire book is propelled by two central questions: What caused Revival Day? and Who murdered Martha? Yet each of those mysteries raises so many other, smaller questions, that finding concrete answers to either of them is proving difficult. Not to mention that every member of the cast has his or her own motivations and focuses, and very few (if any) of them have the truth as their top priority.
4. The small town elements of the series are fantastic. Family problems, high school acquaintances reconnecting, old secrets and wounds that never completely go away. Some of the specific bits and pieces are a bit cliché, but intentionally so, allowing the reader familiar footholds on the long, difficult journey through the supernatural elements of the narrative. The setting is a way in, a recognizable stage on which the drama of this horror tale can play out.
5. There is definitely some intense blood-and-guts stuff sometimes, but it's not the only or even primary source of horror. Mike Norton can draw gross out panels with the best of them, but he strikes a good balance between exaggerated gore and realistic depictions of violence and pain. Also, he makes the moments of high tension, the quieter, more creeping types of horror, equally powerful and unsettling. The story uses numerous scare tactics, shocking disgust being only one of them. But that is not the biggest, most important, or most impressive strategy. Neither is the supernatural material. It is the more down-to-earth, human evils where Norton and Seeley both do their best work.
6. There aren't exactly story arcs in Revival, which I like. Things do resolve, like the Check brothers' body part smuggling operation or, before that, the stepsiblings who had an affair and Mrs. Dittman killing her daughter and then herself. But it's not a one-thing-ends-another-begins pattern. Threads start and stop based on their own momentum, and new complications and characters are introduced almost every issue. Problems don't arise one at a time, and it gives the book a more interesting and true-to-life pacing that isn't seen often enough in serialized storytelling in any medium.
7. There are a lot of pop culture references. I don't mind them but I'm not sure how much they add. The punchline of Blaine Abel having "Nookie" as his ringtone and May saying she'd pick Satan over a Limp Bizkit fan is superb, though.
8. The series of three panels where Anders Hine finally lets his façade slip and reveals the ugly evil within are my favorite thing in this series thus far.
9. Perhaps my favorite character is Ed Holt. Not as a person, but as an addition to this particular narrative. The dude is an obvious asshole, an ignorant, violent, self-important racist and fanatic. He's villainous in a real-world sense, and in a more human story, he would probably be the biggest evil around. But in this book, I'm not sure he's actually very much of a threat. There are such bigger, scarier, more immediate dangers that Holt comes across as a harmless old grump rather than the extremely unhinged gun nut he truly is. He could easily prove to be worse than he seems before all is said and done, and that intrigue is what draws me to him.
10. Martha and Dana are nicely similar yet distinct. Solid sister characters, written by someone who understands the nuances of that kind of relationship. Though they have their own unique personalities, there's enough crossover to see that they were raised in the same household. And of course, Norton's designs for them accomplish the same thing; they're clearly related, but easily identifiable and distinguishable, too.
11. Cooper might be the weakest member of the cast, if only because his kid voice is sometimes too much for me. It works more often than not, but has scenes of being too on-the-nose or over-the-top, like when he says out loud that maybe the ghost/demon thing in the woods has a mom who is always away at work. Not that a kid wouldn't think or say that, but it feels like a lazy way to explain something we already understand about Cooper in the service of having him sound especially childish. I do love the comicbook he makes in issue #12. Some really excellent kid humor in there that I wish we'd see more of from Cooper.
12. Slowly but steadily, we do learn things about the revivers. There seems to be a common lack of emotion between them, expressed by Martha in her actions and reactions, and by Anders Hine and Joe Meyers out loud. They've all lost that part of themselves in their death and rebirth, and I have to assume it will be important down the line. There also appears to be some unseen connections between them. They can recognize one another by sight, or at least some of them can. And when the ghost/demon creature inhabited Martha, she was flooded with Joe Meyers memories. Meanwhile, Joe had a dream about that encounter from the point of view of the ghost/demon. These people are bound together by an unknown force, chosen to be brought back from death for what, more and more, feels like some specific purpose. Though the reasons for Revival Day remain undefined, it is becoming obvious that there were reasons.
Showing posts with label Revival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Revival. Show all posts
Saturday, August 3, 2013
Friday, February 22, 2013
Pull List Review: Revival #7
I find myself digging the pacing of Revival more and more with each new issue. Though highly decompressed, it still finds a way to regularly fit in major, shocking events. Yet there is an underlying sense that the things we've seen so far, no matter how intense, horrific, and/or significant they seem, are only the tip of the iceberg. There are still countless questions about the revivers, really as many as there were when the series started, and the answers are not going to be pretty. While the cast searches for them, though, they continue to have exciting and unexpected adventures, so the book hums along and provides moments of clarity and closure while keeping its central mystery alive and obscured.
A whole lot of stuff goes on in this issue, thanks in part to writer Tim Seeley's intelligent use of some one- or two-page scenes. He places and structures them deliberately, allowing himself to advance numerous threads in a small space so the primary narrative of the issue can have all the room it needs. Of course, that narrative centers of officer Dana Cypress, the star of Revival from the beginning and easily its most compelling character. In all the talk about strong female leads in comicbooks I see these days, Revival seems to get left out by-and-large, which is crazy. Dana is the epitome of a realistic, independent, powerful, admirable woman. Not just woman, person. Even when the vengeful, back-from-the-dead Anders takes her gun and throws her to the floor, Dana calmly and logically explains to him that she has to place him under arrest. Don't let the issue's cover fool you, this woman is not scared by the horrible things she sees. She understands that dealing with the revivers is going to mean difficult, terrifying, impossible-to-explain things, and she takes it all in stride and continues to do her job by the book. And Dana remaining so unphased is a big part of what I talked about above, the feeling that we have yet to see the worst of what this title can offer. Until Dana freaks out, I don't feel like I need to, because if she thinks she can handle it I implicitly trust that she can. Someday, perhaps someday soon, she'll be forced to face something that truly rattles her, and that'll likely be when Revival pulls out all the stops and becomes the most insane, horrific comicbook on the shelves. It's coming, y'all.
Anyway, Dana's pursuit of and struggle with Anders is the bulk of this issue, and makes for a disturbing and satisfying conclusion to that particular story. Anders is just the right mix of ugly, old, and angry for a horror villain. I understand his rage because, after all, his own kid helped murder him, but there is such a base wickedness in his eyes that I'm still glad when he gets taken down. It also makes for the best single panel in the issue, the silhouette of Anders falling from the window, his own blood trailing behind him. It is a very tastefully-done bit of gore from Mike Norton, who does the same with most of the blood and guts of Revival. Though there are plenty of grim and gruesome visuals, Norton does a great job of making them look real enough to be upsetting but not so graphic that they're hard to see. This is not a book that relies on splatter for its horror, and really Norton's ability to play it down is another facet of the continuing sense that things could get much worse. If he really cut loose, it's clear that Norton could render the stuff of some awfully twisted nightmares, so I'm thankful for his reigning it in so far. The violence in Revival #7 is brutal and sudden and severe, make no mistake, but it's not so deeply disturbing as I know Norton could've made it if he chose. Again, I think he's saving it for later, and what we're getting now are hints at the enormous things to come.
Norton walks a similar line when it comes to the overall visual tone of the series. Though not highly realistic or photoreferenced at all that I can tell, this is still an artistically grounded book. The people look real, their emotions and expressions are nuanced and detailed and rich. There is a richness to everything, a fullness to it that captures the spirit of small towns, hard winters, and imminent doom. Seeley's script is right there with the art. His cast acts naturally, believably, yet the wholly unbelievable events in their lives still mesh. It's a tightrope act if ever there was one, but Seeley and Norton make it look fairly effortless.
The ending of this issue was quite the tasty cliffhanger, and may even be the first step toward the next phase in the series' insanity. But I suspect that even this stunning conclusion is going to seem mild when all is said and done. And that is what I love about Revival: even in an issue where I get all the action and horror I want, I am left with a sense of greater things to come.
8.0/10
A whole lot of stuff goes on in this issue, thanks in part to writer Tim Seeley's intelligent use of some one- or two-page scenes. He places and structures them deliberately, allowing himself to advance numerous threads in a small space so the primary narrative of the issue can have all the room it needs. Of course, that narrative centers of officer Dana Cypress, the star of Revival from the beginning and easily its most compelling character. In all the talk about strong female leads in comicbooks I see these days, Revival seems to get left out by-and-large, which is crazy. Dana is the epitome of a realistic, independent, powerful, admirable woman. Not just woman, person. Even when the vengeful, back-from-the-dead Anders takes her gun and throws her to the floor, Dana calmly and logically explains to him that she has to place him under arrest. Don't let the issue's cover fool you, this woman is not scared by the horrible things she sees. She understands that dealing with the revivers is going to mean difficult, terrifying, impossible-to-explain things, and she takes it all in stride and continues to do her job by the book. And Dana remaining so unphased is a big part of what I talked about above, the feeling that we have yet to see the worst of what this title can offer. Until Dana freaks out, I don't feel like I need to, because if she thinks she can handle it I implicitly trust that she can. Someday, perhaps someday soon, she'll be forced to face something that truly rattles her, and that'll likely be when Revival pulls out all the stops and becomes the most insane, horrific comicbook on the shelves. It's coming, y'all.
Anyway, Dana's pursuit of and struggle with Anders is the bulk of this issue, and makes for a disturbing and satisfying conclusion to that particular story. Anders is just the right mix of ugly, old, and angry for a horror villain. I understand his rage because, after all, his own kid helped murder him, but there is such a base wickedness in his eyes that I'm still glad when he gets taken down. It also makes for the best single panel in the issue, the silhouette of Anders falling from the window, his own blood trailing behind him. It is a very tastefully-done bit of gore from Mike Norton, who does the same with most of the blood and guts of Revival. Though there are plenty of grim and gruesome visuals, Norton does a great job of making them look real enough to be upsetting but not so graphic that they're hard to see. This is not a book that relies on splatter for its horror, and really Norton's ability to play it down is another facet of the continuing sense that things could get much worse. If he really cut loose, it's clear that Norton could render the stuff of some awfully twisted nightmares, so I'm thankful for his reigning it in so far. The violence in Revival #7 is brutal and sudden and severe, make no mistake, but it's not so deeply disturbing as I know Norton could've made it if he chose. Again, I think he's saving it for later, and what we're getting now are hints at the enormous things to come.
Norton walks a similar line when it comes to the overall visual tone of the series. Though not highly realistic or photoreferenced at all that I can tell, this is still an artistically grounded book. The people look real, their emotions and expressions are nuanced and detailed and rich. There is a richness to everything, a fullness to it that captures the spirit of small towns, hard winters, and imminent doom. Seeley's script is right there with the art. His cast acts naturally, believably, yet the wholly unbelievable events in their lives still mesh. It's a tightrope act if ever there was one, but Seeley and Norton make it look fairly effortless.
The ending of this issue was quite the tasty cliffhanger, and may even be the first step toward the next phase in the series' insanity. But I suspect that even this stunning conclusion is going to seem mild when all is said and done. And that is what I love about Revival: even in an issue where I get all the action and horror I want, I am left with a sense of greater things to come.
8.0/10
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Pull List Review: Revival #1
Introducing an original concept, a unique world or reality, is not an easy thing to do well. You want to find the right balance between telling the reader directly and letting them see and learn for themselves. And there needs to be enough information and explanation early on to hook people, but if you reveal too much too quickly then the shine wears off and you'll lose people anyway. Even truer if the narrative is one based in mystery, in things which even the characters are struggling to understand. So Revival #1 had a challenging task to accomplish, but Tim Seeley and Mike Norton pull it off near-perfectly on every level.
Seeley does a lot of things well here, but perhaps most impressive is his inclusion of so many different and distinct characters. Dana Cypress, the apparent star of the series, is still something of a question mark, but we already know he to be an affable woman who loves and is good at her job on the police force. Through her brief but telling interactions with her son, father, and sister, we actually end up with a fairly full impression of Dana, made even stronger when we get to see her in the field. All of her family members are also clearly and quickly established. Her son, Cooper, is imaginative and intelligent. Wayne Cypress, Dana's father and the local sheriff, is stern without being overly gruff. He may be a no-nonsense guy, but it comes from a place of genuine care. And though Martha, Dana's sister, has the least to do in this issue, she ends up being possibly the most important character we meet, in terms of Dana being able to, ultimately, solve the series' larger mystery.
That mystery, by the way, revolves around people in the Wausau, WI area coming back to life after they die. How long this has been going on isn't spelled out, but Seeley makes it obvious that it's neither a totally new nor very well-established situation. The government, the local police force, and the family members of these "revivers" are all still in the dark about the cause of these resurrections and their implications. And nobody yet knows what, if anything, should be done about it. But the people living in the area, the characters we get to spend some time with, are going about their normal lives, anyway. They might be living in a quarantine, but it doesn't stop them from going to work, arguing with their neighbors, and playing with their action figures. That last one is just Cooper.
Anyway, the normalcy in the face of the inexplicable is one of the greatest points of this debut, because it's so true-to-life. There's a powerful realism at work in every corner of this book, even during the strangest and most horrific scenes.
Seeley gets a lot of the credit for that, but without Mike Norton's exceptional artwork to even further ground this story, I think it would feel far more fantastic. Norton can draw a zebra-horse hyrbid running through the snow and then having its face explode with blood without it feeling out of place. Even the twisted white spirit-monster which Copper catches a glimpse of (and vice versa) looks strangely alive. But Norton really won me over when we got to the old lady in the barn. The panel of her teeth regrowing through her bloody gums only moments after she pulled them all out with a pair of pliers is going to stay with me for a long, long time. Presumably until the next issue of Revival when Norton somehow tops himself. And all of the gore and violence in that scene was just right. Slightly outlandish, perhaps, but only to the extent that it all felt perfectly at home with the rest of the issue.
The back-from-the-dead higher concept of Revival does not, I admit, have me hooked on its own. In less capable hands, this same exact narrative could easily be dry and dull and even a bit trite. But Seeley and Norton are both at the top of their game here, building a familiar yet foreign world inhabited already by many rich, nuanced characters. If they can keep up this level of work moving forward, Revival may well be one of the best new series to come out all year.
9.0/10
Seeley does a lot of things well here, but perhaps most impressive is his inclusion of so many different and distinct characters. Dana Cypress, the apparent star of the series, is still something of a question mark, but we already know he to be an affable woman who loves and is good at her job on the police force. Through her brief but telling interactions with her son, father, and sister, we actually end up with a fairly full impression of Dana, made even stronger when we get to see her in the field. All of her family members are also clearly and quickly established. Her son, Cooper, is imaginative and intelligent. Wayne Cypress, Dana's father and the local sheriff, is stern without being overly gruff. He may be a no-nonsense guy, but it comes from a place of genuine care. And though Martha, Dana's sister, has the least to do in this issue, she ends up being possibly the most important character we meet, in terms of Dana being able to, ultimately, solve the series' larger mystery.
That mystery, by the way, revolves around people in the Wausau, WI area coming back to life after they die. How long this has been going on isn't spelled out, but Seeley makes it obvious that it's neither a totally new nor very well-established situation. The government, the local police force, and the family members of these "revivers" are all still in the dark about the cause of these resurrections and their implications. And nobody yet knows what, if anything, should be done about it. But the people living in the area, the characters we get to spend some time with, are going about their normal lives, anyway. They might be living in a quarantine, but it doesn't stop them from going to work, arguing with their neighbors, and playing with their action figures. That last one is just Cooper.
Anyway, the normalcy in the face of the inexplicable is one of the greatest points of this debut, because it's so true-to-life. There's a powerful realism at work in every corner of this book, even during the strangest and most horrific scenes.
Seeley gets a lot of the credit for that, but without Mike Norton's exceptional artwork to even further ground this story, I think it would feel far more fantastic. Norton can draw a zebra-horse hyrbid running through the snow and then having its face explode with blood without it feeling out of place. Even the twisted white spirit-monster which Copper catches a glimpse of (and vice versa) looks strangely alive. But Norton really won me over when we got to the old lady in the barn. The panel of her teeth regrowing through her bloody gums only moments after she pulled them all out with a pair of pliers is going to stay with me for a long, long time. Presumably until the next issue of Revival when Norton somehow tops himself. And all of the gore and violence in that scene was just right. Slightly outlandish, perhaps, but only to the extent that it all felt perfectly at home with the rest of the issue.
The back-from-the-dead higher concept of Revival does not, I admit, have me hooked on its own. In less capable hands, this same exact narrative could easily be dry and dull and even a bit trite. But Seeley and Norton are both at the top of their game here, building a familiar yet foreign world inhabited already by many rich, nuanced characters. If they can keep up this level of work moving forward, Revival may well be one of the best new series to come out all year.
9.0/10
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