Another of DC’s zero issues are here. This week we have Resurrection Man, originally a 90’s title brought back from the dead with the New 52 relaunch. Most of the relaunch has been fantastic, but does Resurrection Man live up to it? Or does it fall dead? Find out after the jump!
Resurrection Man #0
Writers: Dan Abnett, Andy Lanning
Artists: Ramon Bachs, Jesus Saiz
Cover: Francesco Francavilla
Colorist: Jeromy Cox
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $2.99
Previously in Resurrection Man: According to the brief one page recap in the beginning of the book; Mitch Shelley, a self proclaimed Resurrection Man, can’t die. He keeps trying, and every time he just comes back with a new super power. Now he is at the climax of his assault on the big bad guy’s head quarters in Viceroy, South Carolina. An assault that has cost him the life of his ally, The Transhuman.
THE 90s LIVE AGAIN!
This zero issue of Resurrection Man is just ripe with all the cliches of 90’s “extreme” comics. You have a group of private mercenaries enhanced with nano bots, a topless woman shooting a giant gun, Deathstroke, and even a conflict between a demon and an angel involving the main character’s soul. It just comes off as trying too hard to be cool, and really all these concepts have been done better elsewhere. It also kind of undermines the internal consistency of the DC universe; if you have a man who is constantly dying and coming back to life, it would be a perfect tie in to the raging battle between The Red (the force of human and mammal life on Earth) and The Rot (the force of death and decay) that is so present in the Animal Man and Swamp Thing titles, and even is mentioned in the Earth 2 book. If one were to believe the DC universe as a coherent thing, then these forces of life and death should be everywhere life and death are concerned. Other series, chiefly, The Phantom Stranger, refused to confirm entirely whether or not there was a Judeo-Christian afterlife, like heaven or hell, in the DC universe, but Resurrection Man has no problem just flat out confirming that it indeed has both. This zero issue only devotes a few pages to giving an origin story, the rest of the comic wraps up what I assume to be the first arc of the series. This almost goes entirely against the thesis of what a zero issue is meant to be.
NOTHING TO DIE FOR
The art in this issue is less than desirable. It felt very inconsistent, often taking me a few seconds on each page to realize who every character was supposed to be. Part of the problem is that the military characters all look almost identical, especially the female characters, while the larger than life characters, like the angel and the mysterious creature that infects Mitch Shelley during his origin story, seem to suffer from a few degrees of over design.
BOTTOM LINE: LET IT REST
As a zero issue this book failed to deliver a jumping on point for new readers. If anything it alienates new readers from a comic they might otherwise enjoy. If you are already reading the series and want to wrap up the current arc then by all means pick this up, otherwise stay far, far away.
[rating:1/5]
2 Comments
Actually, I believe this was the final issue
This was the final issue and it hurt to read it. Not for the reasons that were stated in this review, but because it marks another series that shouldn’t have been canceled.
I’ll agree on one point. It shouldn’t have been a zero issue. It should’ve been an annual. (Matter of fact, since the comic industry is so hooked on gimmicks, it could’ve been Resurrection Man Annual #0.) The premise of the book is excellent, just like it was when it came out in the late 90’s. Mitch Shelley deserved more story time and better treatment than DC, the company that gave more chances to it’s Wildstorm-based books like Voodoo and Grifter (shudder) than it did for their Milestone properties (Static) and dared to let Liefeld have creative control over not one but TWO books. Fugheddaboutit!