Comic Review: Revival Volume 2

I was greatly impressed by the first volume of writer Tim Seeley and artist Mike Norton’s Image Comics series Revival.

So, what about the second volume, subtitled Live Like You Mean It?

Revival is described as a “rural noir” by its creators, and that sums things up nicely.  Despite some supernatural elements, as yet unexplained, the series deals with the low down, illegal, awful things very morally ugly people get around to when one night in a small, rural town in Wisconsin, for no known reason, a group of recently deceased people come back to life.  Known as the “revived,” the series showcases the issues that come about because of this sudden return from beyond the grave.  The two main characters are the Cypress sisters, Dana and Em (short for Martha).  Dana is a cop following in their sheriff father’s footsteps with a son by an ex.  Em is a revived herself, a murder victim that no one realized had been murdered right away.

Like any good noir, this one deals with crime, and the volume covers two: an unsolved murder from the first volume, and black market organ ring since, apparently, “revived” organs are going for a lot of money in the black market, whether genuine or not.  There are also some mysterious white creatures wandering around the woods around the town, while the whole place is under federal quarantine, and Dana and Em are not the only ones with secrets.

The thing is, all the Revived, as they are called, don’t seem to be quite right.  Their capabilities are a bit undefined.  Em, in a fit of rage at her sister, loses a tooth.  But then when she checks her mouth not long after that, her tooth has already been regrown.  However, other Revived don’t seem to regenerate as much, so maybe only teeth grow back?  Likewise, they seem to possess varying degrees of emotional or psychological issues they didn’t possess before.  Seeley continues to grow his interesting setting in this series, and I’m giving it eight and a half out of ten surprises in the rented garage.