Tuesday, March 24, 2015

CBR Revival Vol. 3: A Faraway Place


A rural noir by Tim Seeley + Mike Norton.

Friday the 13th series - Friday the 13th (2009)
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Comic title: Revival Volume 3: A Faraway Place 
Art by Mike Norton
Story by Tim Seeley 

Published by Image Comics 
From 2014
Lineup Revival series
Format: Trade paperback collecting Revival #12-17.

One day in rural central Wisconsin, the dead came back to life. Now the living and the undead are trying to live in the quarantined town as best as they can. Officer Dana Cypress is trying to hold it all together, while meanwhile her sister Martha, aka "Em", a Reviver, is trying to find out the strange condition behind her murder.

Revival is easily one of Image Comics bestselling titles out there nowadays. The series was created by Tim Seeley and Mike Norton.

Often described as a "Rural Noir", it's a zombie story without zombies really. At least, not your usual mindless zombie creatures.

The dead are causing some troubles amongst their families, and people are trying to sell body parts from Revivers. Dana is trying to find the killer behind her sister's death while Em gets into trouble one more time...

"A Faraway Place" collects the issues #12-17 of the series.


This new episode sees Em on a quest facing the mysterious creatures haunting the woods.

The book opens as we get to see what "Revival day" was like through the eyes of Dana's son, the young Cooper Cypress. But not all was happy family reunions and people reunited beyond the grave that day in Wausau, in rural Wisconsin. Some people are actually collected dead body parts from the newly brought back to life. 

The quarantine also made people almost forget Valentine's Day was right around corner. Dana decides to go on a double date night and play some karaoke.

The missing three Check brothers that Em dealt with in the previous book are noticeable absent. They used to deal drugs, but seemed to have switched to Reviver body parts recently. And with the undead providing an endless supply of organs, it was an easy job for them. The local reporter May Tao starts investigating their disappearance which slowly leads her back to the Cypresses.

This young girl Jordan Borchardt hasn't been the same since her return to life. She's feeling like something's missing in her life, she can't just go back to her innocent past life considering she now know what death feels like. Em tries to protect the young girl from the creatures that keep coming back after her.

Meanwhile Dana has had enough with dealing with both undead and alive and trying to mantain as much peace as possible between the two. She finally allows to take on a case special to her, the murder of her own sister. She enlists the help from her ex Derrick to investigate a possible suspect, Professor Aaron Weimar. Aaron is pretty close to Em, in fact despite being married he had an affair with Martha! He's been interrogating the old Reviver Joe who seems to have something missing his life as well.

 
This third volume sees a lot of action taking place, between Dana's investigation, Em facing the creature while trying to protect Jordan or even May Tao looking for the Checks. After fleshing out the characters and setting the tone in the first volumes, the story now gets to the heart of the action. There's a great imagery through the series. Revival offers a particularly great and unique spin on the whole zombie genre.

Most of these issue's tales are self-contained but each keeps contributing a lot to the continuous on-going plot. There are lots of twists this time. Things appear to be only getting worse.

We get a few glimpses at the bigger picture. There's also a mysterious disfigured (?) man the government is keeping in a lockdown, which was apparently revived as well and seems to have no problem going back and forth the labs... It only leaves us with bigger questions.

The book has a great pacing and a really good relatable pair of heroines.

Finally what really sells this series is the really lovely art from Mike Norton. He has a terrific style, really suited for this book. The characters really come to life in his gorgeous detailed art.

Patrick the Wolf Boy and Tiny Titans creator Art Baltazar provided the really cute fill-in panels Cooper did in-story. It's a really fantastic and cute summary of Revival's plot in the form of Cooper's comics! It's pretty but it was a really nice idea.


Overall, Revival proves once more it's easily one of the best horror series out there in ages.

It's simply a great series for anyone looking for a good read or something different. Highly Recommended, another great solid volume (and since this is an ongoing tale, you should probably be sure to pick up the first two books before this one, but it's well worth it!). It's a great intriguing original series with a lot of mystery.

The series seems to be only getting better as the mythology progresses and is expanded upon. It keeps going into unexpected directions, the scales keep escalating. It's starting to get really good!

I can barely wait for the next volume!

I give it:
2.5 / 3 ManThings!

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