“Revival” #22 keeps the action and plot twists building as the story sticks to its new setting. The whodunit mystery continues to unravel as regulars become suspects and a new threat rears its ugly head. The death count keeps piling up in this exciting “Revival” installment.
WRITTEN BY: Tim Seeley
ART BY: Mike Norton
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: July 23, 2014
Reviewed By Jorge Solis
For an entire day, the dead of rural Wisconsin suddenly came back to life. An endless parade of government agents, reporters, and scientists hound the “Revivers,” asking them why they have returned. Sheriff Dana Cypress now has to visit New York because there is a reviver on the loose. Her masked murderer may have been resurrected while he was in the middle of being cremated. As the Big Apple faces a new zombie threat, Dana’s dead sister, Em, is about to discover how big of a douche bag her boyfriend really is.
Writer Tim Seeley knows how to mix sex and violence in his narrative. In the opening pages, Seeley builds on the sexual attraction between Em and Rhodey Rash. As the sexual innuendo builds to a climax, the reader really starts to feel like a voyeur. Rhodey was secretly taping his intimate moments with Em, just so that he could make money off of her. The story then moves elsewhere, showing a painful depiction of a zombie baby being beaten.
I am very much liking the interaction between Dana and her new partner, Enrique Puig. On one hand, Dana has met her intellectual match as they both have the skills to be great detectives. On the other, Enrique can sense a barrier between them. Notice how persistent Enrique is as he tries to get her to say his first name, but she won’t.
Artist Mike Norton delivers a nice twist to the police procedural part of the storyline. Usually in these detective tales, we have the mandatory police chase. Norton delivers on the chase, adding a bead body falling down from the sky. In a wide shot, Norton captures the dead body diving face-first into the car’s windshield.
Norton illustrates a very creepy and twisted scene between Em and Rhodey. In his web cam show, Rhodey wears a leathery bondage mask during his presentation. Because he is also a reviver like Em, Rhodey isn’t afraid to slice himself up. Norton highlights the squirm-inducing moment, without going overboard, as Rhodey cuts his own penis off.
“Revival” #22 delivers cringe-worthy material that will keep you up late at night. I can’t wait to see how the next issue tops all these crazy moments.