By: Terry Moore (writer/artist)
The Story: A friend comes back and some crazy stuff happens down at the graveyard.
Recap/Review (with SPOILERS): This is was a slow-paced issue of Rachel Rising. You can either look at that as “not much happens” OR you can appreciate spending some extra time with the main cast of characters.
So, let’s take a glass-half-full approach, and appreciate that after several hectic issues it’s nice to see a more character development and less focus on the crazy events going on in this whacky town where women are coming back from the dead.
Rachel doesn’t have a whole lot to do in this issue except to chat with her Aunt Johnny who was injured in the car crash last issue. Beyond the fact that there is character development, there isn’t much to this scene beyond establishing that the little girl who’s rambling around town since killing her sister with Saran Wrap vanished from the scene of the car accident. But, whether that is just normal “kid leaving the scene of the crime” or something to do with the crazy events going on isn’t exactly clear.
The scene with Jet in the funeral home was simply surreal. Start with the fat, doughy mortuary assistant chatting with Jet’s body about how he’ll prepare her for funeral while simultaneously confessing his lifelong crush on her was just weird–and kinda touching too. Are there any normal men in this town? At least this guy seems harmless and not some sicko like the abusive foster father or the old man keeping his wife’s decomposing body. But, man…it is whacky having Jet wake up and start chatting with that broken neck! The art really sells that scene. There’s just something awful about seeing necks bend that way…probably because we know inherently that necks ain’t supposed to do that!
It’s interesting how zombie-Jet is fully herself. She knows the mortuary assistant and knows that he’s a friend, but she’s freaked out when he starts to remove her from the body bag because she’s NAKED. Holy crap…she can’t let the harmless (but totally not anyone she’d date…ewwwww…GROSS!) mortuary assistant see her NAKED. You have to wonder where Jet’s story is going from here. She’s limited by the broken neck. Will someone push her around in a wheelchair? Cut her head off and carry it around in a shoebox?
But, the strangest scene is the finale. Moore brilliantly shows us the little Saran Wrap killer girl just strolling around through town with a juice box. The juice box is a great addition because it emphasizes how young she is. The scene probably works if you give her a can of soda, but that doesn’t sell how young she is and how you simultaneously (a) feel sorry for her because she’s so young and (b) envy the way she can have such a care-free attitude given all that’s happened. Then BOOM….the graveyard blows up and the bodies all land in the shape of a pentagram. Bad things are coming to this town! It’s clearly time to move somewhere else when that is going on.
Conclusion: A kinda quiet issue that takes time to develop a few characters while also giving us a big cliffhanger at the end.
Grade: B-
– Dean Stell