We need a key code to understand what’s taking place when.
Creative Staff:
Story: Fred Van Lente
Art: Maurizio Rosenzweig
What They Say:
Jericho Way has been awakened! He now understands that he is a Resurrectionist:a unique individual that can access the memories and abilities of his past lives. Known as the Maker, he and another Resurrectionist called the Scout must unlock the others before the evil Sojourn Corporation can stop them forever. If they succeed, they just might have a chance to pull off the most important heist in history—a chance to fight the future!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The first three issues of the Resurrectionists have been a lot of fun as it laid out what’s going on and how it’s moving forward, but it’s also really been a series that I found needs multiple reads in order to make sure you’re getting as much of it as possible. With it shifting between characters and their past lives with their own arcs, it can get confusing as to who is who, making me wish the series had some form of digital annotations with it while reading it. Liner notes, man, liner notes! That said, a series that makes you work for it isn’t a bad thing by far because the payoff is usually strong wit that and the first three issues have been thoroughly engaging. The fourth issue is a bit less defined though as it’s a little more about place setting, which again is useful to have.
A good part of that is just at the beginning and with a few other areas throughout as we get a better handle on Sojourn and what it’s all about. With it being one of the biggest companies in the world that’s appealing to people’s desires and fears in a really strong way, it’s no surprise that it’s gained influence and that Lennox did all of that in his quest to fight the future for the past three thousand years in new and creative ways. Getting a look at him in his public persona through the commercial narration and acting and then seeing the real him afterwards as he’s ready to put down Gardner and Way without much emotion says a lot. He’s got lifetimes of things that have built up to be sure and certainly knows how to execute a plan, especially in dealing with people like this for several of those lifetimes.
The rest of the book is… getting confusing. Which isn’t a surprise when you have people that go back millennia and have multiple names and have belonged to different things, but always coming back to those core groups. We get some of that here with Way and Mac, but also the connection they have with the date of April 18th, a shared day between several of them that speaks to their larger connection. Some of what it delves into is Way’s past in prison, which happened prior to the series, as we get to see how he and Mac connected there and the kind of bond that formed amid terror and humor.
Binding that together alongside seeing Tao in the past as he continues his escape, showing us more of what the pharaoh was doing in that time to further cement his power, adds to the layering of Way rather well. And again, it does leave me wanting a lot more time spent in this period. With that and a deeper look at how Way ended up in prison in the present, it’s all coming together well to see the kinds of lives they’ve lead in service to Herihor over the centuries, and how he treats them as they end up getting unlocked. It’s creepy and tense, but intriguing with the brief montage of past pieces we see.
In Summary:
Exposition is the name of the game here as a lot of areas are covered, but it has a kind of mishmash approach to it in that several stories are spread across each other here. And across the millennia as well, which makes it all the more complicate in keeping track of who is who. Similar to past experiences, each time I re-read the book I get more out of it and that’s a big positive to it that has me looking forward to when this gets collected as well. The focus here is definitely on Way as we see his past come to life, in the far past and more recent past, as it fleshes him out a lot while also giving us more time with Sojourn to understand what they’re really after and what Lennox is really like. The pieces are in motion and with more information at hand, it feels like it’s going to hit some really big, key moments very soon.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Dark Horse Comics
Release Date: February 11th, 2015
MSRP: $3.50
