Here at Comics Grinder, we love the more wild and wooly stuff: intelligent and with a twisted offbeat tempo you can dance to. “RESURRECTION MAN” is the comic of our dreams. Now, when you really think about it, DC Comics didn’t have to stop with a relaunch of 52 titles. It could have relaunched 152 titles or more! Well, even with 52 titles, you get a fair number of oddball stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day for quite a few years. That’s where “Resurrection Man” steps in! This thing is just plain wierd but also a darn good read. If you like the more strange stuff, like “Doctor Who,” then this is up your alley.
You get the feeling that anything could happen in this comic. Expect the unexpected! And that’s actually a challenging trick to pull off. At Issue Four, so far so good. We start off with our ultra-sexy dynamic duo of Carmen and Bonnie, two babes with big guns, blasting everything in sight. As appealing as that may sound, if that’s all that happened here, it could get old. Fortunately, the dialogue is funny, the story is not predictable and the whole thing packs a healthy dose of quirk. Why are these two beautiful young women shooting up everything? Who is Resurrection Man? What is Resurrection Man? Who is this new guy in the heavy armor the girls are confronting? All good questions worth finding answers to.
Mitch Shelly is just a dude who knows only what he needs to know. Imagine yourself waking up in the morning and all you know is that you need to get to work. Oh, that is your life? Okay, it’s like that but in the most extreme way. Mitch always dies a horrible death after he completes a mission, even while he is attempting to complete a mission, and then he “resurrects” with new powers to take on the next challenge. That still sounds like your life? Maybe you need to get a new job but we digress.
In Issue Four, the two fabulous babes, Carmen and Bonnie, the bounty hunters looking for Mitch, end up in a thrown down with Darryl, a sort of throwback to a gentler time, in a robot suit, who is trying to defend Mitch. This battle doesn’t last too long. Mitch emerges out of the rubble from last issue’s battle royale and, just as the smoke clears, Suriel enters the scene, a beautiful archangel, there to claim Mitch’s soul for Heaven. That’s a lot of quirk and a lot of fun.
So, yeah, “Resurrection Man” is an oddball gem. Remember that: “Resurrection Man is an oddball gem!” You can think of it as your favorite movie or book about an average Joe type way over his head who is dimly aware of the bigger picture which involves sinister forces and supernatural mayhem.
The orginal creators and writing team from the ’90s are at work on this: Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning. And the artist is just the guy for the job: Fernando Dagnino. The art is very special. It seems that Dagnino has found a sweet spot for depicting sexy, yet full-blooded, vixens. You can really believe in Carmen and Bonnie. They may have beautiful bodies but they’re also viable characters and that’s important. Dagnino has an earthy and realistic style that just fits this crazy world of “Resurrection Man.”
It’s a challenge to try to keep up with all of the big and mighty New 52 lineup but make room for “Resurrection Man” and you’ll be glad you did.
