Resurrection Man #2 – Review

By: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writers), Fernando Dagnino (artist), Santi Arcas (colorist)

The Story: Getting chased by two hot ladies sounds pretty great in theory, and yet…

The Review: We don’t know too much about Mitch Shelley, the Resurrection Man, but in his defense, he doesn’t know too much about himself either.  It’s not the most unusual twist in the world when a comic book character knows more about his superpowers than his own past, but at least you’re never in want for mystery.  That said, the writers must take on the responsibility of keeping you interested if they want to keep you out of the loop.

One way to do that is to create a character who engages you with his personality alone, if not his background.  So far, you can’t say Mitch does much of that.  While not unlikable in any way, he just seems too buttoned-up and straight-laced to get very attached to his character.  At times, he becomes a cipher in his own comic, acting as instrument to deliver or acquire more information for us, but not actually doing much in particular.

The most we get to see of Mitch’s humanness (so to speak) is in the way he deals with Mr. Roth, a co-resident at the residential care home where Mitch’s dad spent his last days.  These scenes play very well, but mostly because Mr. Roth himself has such a lively personality of his own, being old-school bananas: “I was a super-villain.  Professional.  High tech end of the market.  They called me the Transhuman.  Maybe you heard of me?”  Mitch: “Ooo-kay.”

At least we glean a few interesting tidbits about Mitch’s past.  We learn he, like his father, was a scientist.  We know he used to work in corporate research, with ties to the government.  We also know that Mitch might have been something of a cold workaholic (Mr. Roth says, grinning, “You didn’t much give me the time of day, then, I recall.”).  From that we can take a few guesses as to a possible source of Mitch’s powers, but we don’t gain much more than that.

For example, we won’t learn how he’s gotten caught up in this celestial tug-of-war for his soul.  While last issue revealed that the people “upstairs” and “the basement office” both want a piece of him, the only real figure we get to see from that world is the versatile Suriel, the shape-shifter who confronted Mitch on the doomed flight that (very temporarily) destroyed them both.  Here, besides receiving word of Mitch’s whereabouts and taking off, Suriel does pretty much nothing.

This issue mostly features the Body Doubles, a couple of the most competent and intelligent (Bonnie reads from Scientific Americana, which Carmen refers to as “the funnies.”) bimbos you’ve ever seen.  Their run-in with Resurrection Man would’ve been a good chance to see more of his powers in action, but one science-at-home tactic by Carmen cuts the scene disappointingly short.  Next thing we know, Mitch awakens in a world of spooky silhouettes and body outlines, taking us officially into the more esoteric parts of the series.

Dagnino offers some beautiful, detailed art, showing incredibly skill at crafting very human faces, faces you feel you’ve seen in passing every day of your life.  Then again, he also shows skill at choosing some of the most exploitive poses for women you’ve seen.  While ladies in undies, lying together on a bed and surrounded by weaponry makes for a good ad pin-up (and admittedly, Dagnino draws them very sexily indeed), it doesn’t do much for story.

Conclusion: If DnA expect us to stay interested in this series over the long-term, they’ll have to do more to ensure each issue has enough liveliness or revelation to keep us invested.

Grade: B-

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – I don’t know if this was DnA’s idea, or Dagnino’s, or letterer Rob Leigh’s, but I love the detail of the old lady playing piano from a song book—that’s upside down.  An incredibly bittersweet image.

– Hm.  Carmen seems to be missing a leg in that one panel where she’s running into the senior home.