Unlike a group review, in a “Dual Review” two writers (in this case Dustin and Adam) will take a look at the issue and give a numeric score for the issue. First here’s a blurb about the issue from Image Comics: While Dana is obsessed with discovering the identity of the masked Reviver who attacked her, her family is falling apart. And just what has escaped Reviver Anders Hine been up?

Dustin:

Well it’s been a while since I’ve reviewed Revival, but it’s nice to talk about it again on the site. Things have gotten very intense on this series; so much so that this issue has a different pacing from the previous issues. Rather than having deep check-ins with a small batch of characters, the issue checks in with a lot of characters briefly. Sure the focus remains on Dana and Em, but the plot progresses half because of them and half in spite of them. Not that there is actual spite, but there is so much out of their control that it’s not surprising when their actions don’t forward the entirety of the plot.

Overall I thought the issue was great and while I could have done with some deeper scenes between characters, it still succeeded in the scenes it managed to pull off. In particular Cooper and Dana’s scene at the end was so damn heartbreaking. How can anyone not feel for both characters as they hurt each other in a way only family can? Em has an amazing development in this issue and I’m not talking about the blood puking and eye bleeding.

I am curious as to how the next issue will play out. The charm of this series has been its slow and methodical pace, but this issue completely breaks that. I get that at some point there is just too much going on and things need to be developed and dealt with, but I hope that it does sacrifice the charm of the series to do so.

Adam:

As far as issue 18 goes, I felt like it shifted a bit too much as far as the focus on different characters goes.  I’m used to being thrown for a loop throughout this story, but I never felt like I really gained a footing in this issue as a reader.  My favorite part of this issue was the focus on Em and her deteriorating health.  She is jarred from sleep while dreaming of a poem that she believes Aaron wrote for her, but we later realize that it was written for Nithiya, Aaron’s wife.  My interpretation is that with Weimar dead, maybe Em’s own soul is killing her from the inside and longs to be with Aaron (so they can ‘feel nothing together except numb,’ like his poem says).  She throws up blood violently in her dorm’s bathroom, and later we see her track Nithiya down to Weimar’s office.  Em kisses Nithiya, perhaps to try to feel Aaron’s presence again.  Nithiya rejects her and claims that there were a lot of girls who Aaron was in contact with and those girls thought the poems were for them as well.  “We feel nothing together” were some of his last words in poem form to Nithiya, and happens to come from the same poem that Em was dreaming of.

Other odd happenings this month include Wayne and Edmund Holt passive aggressively squaring off.  It’s probably safe to say that they are opposed to each other because the government has been taking farmers’ livestock due to the fact that the government thinks that whatever caused Revival Day has affected the towns’ lakes and streams.  In one instance Wayne pulls Edmund over and pops his tire, and near the end we see Wayne leaving Dana a voicemail outside of Holt’s house.  Holt seems to have a plan of his own though, as he’s on a walkie-talkie with someone who hasn’t been identified yet.  I think this should be a very interesting matchup and I’m looking forward to seeing how it unfolds.

It’s clear that young people in this town are losing their innocent due to these ‘passengers’ which still have Cooper spooked.  In the end he tells Dana that he knows she can’t protect him and all of the things that grown-ups tell kids not to be scared of exist and the grown-ups can’t see them.

I love Tim Seeley’s writing, there’s more often than not at least a few lines each issue that really stick out to me and sometimes give me goose-bumps.  The last few pages of this issue were no exception and the great art really helped convey that feeling of dread and uneasiness of the multiple characters that were featured in this issue.  Other than the pacing of the issue which threw me off a bit, this is another solid issue from a book that any fans of independent comics should be following.

Score: 4/5

Writer: Tim Seeley Artist: Mike Norton Publisher: Image Comics Price: $2.99 Release Date: 3/5/14