Revival #21

written by Tim Seeley
art by Mike Norton

There's a dark—but somehow satisfying—irony in Jenny Frison' reliably gorgeous cover art for Revival #21: Dana Cypress becomes the first quarantine resident to travel to New York City only to find the bustling metropolis preoccupied with nothing more than the strange events of rural Wisconsin.  Newscasts, billboards, newspapers teem with stories and images of Revivers.  Cypress has come to the cultural hub of the country to discover she'd left behind its biggest story.

The Checks' black market "meat" trade goes all the way to New York.  And for the first time, Dana and New York detective Puig see just what that means.  Eryk Koziol, owner of a meat distribution company and purveyor of Reviver flesh, is found gutted and beheaded in his own meat freezer only to sputter back to temporary life before catching fire.  It's a gruesome scene, but one that gives reluctant credence to this new brand of cannibal.

Meanwhile, the rest of the issue meanders among several plot threads, variously intriguing and disappointing.  Ramin's investigation into the mysterious John Doe, the first recorded Reviver who awoke during his own cremation, seems to be traveling in an unknown direction but vaguely toward a psychic (/hypnotist?) Rose Black Deer even as Em is having dreams of a black stag with wreathes of white roses woven into his antlers.  Lester Majak and his American Indian friend Don seeking vengeance on the "spirit" that killed Majak's loyal dog Chuck are sweetly moving, though Don's tale of Nanabozho and Kitchi-Manitou is still enigmatic.  Em and her internet sensation of an acquaintance "Road Rash" move toward becoming lovers.  Less interestingly, Edmund Holt elevates his twisted power game with Sheriff Cypress by befriending Cooper, who looks poised to run away in rebellion.  But most intriguingly, Dana finally sees Cooper's "glowing man" crawling over New York rooftops.

There's a mythology here, one that supercedes human facility, whatever Don may insist about Revival Day being an "act of man".  And that mythology may be beginning to take shape.  Revival #21, for the first time I can recall, truly commits to its dreamlike tone and potential.  No longer a supernaturally driven murder mystery or clinical investigation, this is a story about man's place in his world and among his gods.  The pacing is hitched and the plot a little cluttered, but Revival #21 elevates the scope and ambition of the series yet again in very tangible and sometimes unexpected ways.

[June 2014]