I won’t say a lot about the plot of Revival Deluxe Collection V02 because it is just a continuation of volume one. But will summarize: After New Years Day, in a small Wisconsin town, the dead decided to sit up and say, “Howdy!” Okay, it wasn’t that neat, but the point is, a few of the dead didn’t stay dead. The rest is one really really screwed up ride where we see how ugly and unpredictable life is, and how the loved ones of the dearly departed are happy to have grandma back again, but they are not too keen on her unpredictability, her super strength, even powers, and not to mention, extreme madness.
And before I go farther: TRIGGERS GALORE are in this book. Blood, death, infidelity, self-harm/mutilation, technical suicide (you might be dead, but jumping off a bridge is still suicide), drug use, gore, medical situations, this time you don’t see but you are reminded of the man burned “alive”, murder, fire, toxic relationships, and I have lost track. Tim Seeley, Mike Norton, Jenny Frison (creators) will you tell me WHY I like this series then? I have no clue.
Back to the book: We pick up the action in volume two where we left off in one. And Tim Seeley, Mike Norton, Art Baltazar, Mark Englert, John Rauch, Crank! and Jenny Frison continued this screwed up ride from h-e-double hockey sticks! But if you like horror, buckle up because it is going to be one f-ing bumpy journey, to say the very least. There are new characters introduced, new storylines, and some older ones get new twists, others start a new life. This is not something that is a quick read or easy, but one that you need to be prepared for.
One of the things I like about this comic/graphic novel series is that humans are humans no matter what is happening, or where. They continue to be greedy, selfish, and ugly. There are innocent who are hurt and the not-so-innocent winning. This look at life is not new, but the way it is presented is just… fascinating. It reminds me of what I have read with comics of Batman/superheroes that are recent and a heck of a lot darker than what Adam West and George Reeves did on TV. Granted, I could do without the extreme horror aspects (let’s say the dead can’t really die again, so giant pruning shears just make one seriously grotesque mess), but then again, it wouldn’t be the same.
The other thing I liked is that can you say what or who is good or evil? And that goes throughout the entire collection. We end on an interesting note for our main character, Dana, who is embracing her role as an anti-hero to the point that she realizes she is a mama bear and if you threaten her family or her cub specifically? Well, yeah, may heaven help you.
This time around, we don’t just have the extras of alternative covers and/or the individual covers of the individual editions (this is a collection that covers the forties and fifties installments) but there are two additional stories (or a part one and part two) that are not directly related to the main story but are maybe an alternative version of it, as there is a character who has a “red robot eye” who has odd tastes in women. But who am I to shame?