Resurrection Man Volume 1 Dead Again TP 1st print NM Abnett Lanning

Description

Resurrection Man Vol. 1: Dead Again (The New 52) [Paperback] Andy Lanning (Author), Dan Abnett (Author), Fernando Dagnino (Illustrator). Near mint, 1st print. As a part of the acclaimed DC Comics—The New 52 event of September 2011, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning return to life Resurrection Man! Mitch Shelby cannot die—constantly returning to life after every death with a brand new power. But what is the secret behind this gift/curse? As Mitch follows clues, he begins to discover how much of a pawn he is in a cosmic game of life and death! Resurrection Man is one of those tiny, little titles released under the New 52. If you’re like me, unless you knew about the character before hand, you probably forgot about this little title and it’s main character. I’ve read and seen the main character in other comics before, but never in his own title. So I passed on Resurrection Man and my comic shop recently was willing to sell me the collected edition for only $5. Well with a deal like that and one of my reliable sources really enjoyed the series from the start, I decided to give it a try. Surprisingly, I’m intrigued. RESURRECTION MAN VOL.1: DEAD AGAIN collects issues #1-7. Mitch Shelley, AKA Resurrection Man, a man who gets a random set of powers every time he dies and resurrects again. Mitch awakens from the dead with no recollection of who he is. He has a feeling to travel to Portland for some reason, and gets caught up into a fight with an angelic-being named Suriel who wants him dead–permanently. While also on his way to know who he is and why he’s going around the country picking up the pieces of what he lost, two mysterious meta-humans called the Body Doubles want Mitch dead as well. It looks like both heaven and hell want Mitch…but for what? Well let’s just say when you die that many times, it’s time to collect. I never read the previous run on RM from Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, but I know of their great work on Marvel’s revamped character Nova and praise from their work on Legion of Super-heroes (though I never read it, only heard about it). And I admit, they’ve done a great job creating this character I never really knew until now. The book gives you Mitch’s rough origin and beliefs fairly well. You don’t have to read any previous RM plots to get this. So it’s good for new readers. It’s an action packed, semi-humorous “who am I?” story with heaven and hell fighting for Mitch, that starts out pretty slow with the first two or three issues, then it really starts to take off from there. Mitch is a likable everyday guy you can get behind, and even the supporting cast is likable as well (the Body Doubles are charming to watch). The involvement of having a different power-set after resurrecting is pretty fun to watch and leaves plenty of room for stories. And without giving it away, some of the locations Mitch visits are pretty enjoyable to see as well. Besides the beautiful covers all done by Ivan Reis (current Aquaman artist with Geoff Johns ring a bell), the artist for RM Fernando Dagnino does commendable job. His art is similar to Reis and Wonder Woman’s Cliff Chiang’s in some ways (though not quite up to their levels), but it’s good. The splash pages of Mitch coming back to life are some of the best shots in the collection. It never gets to horrific or dark by any means, so it keeps a nice balance. There are not too many flaws from what I read and if they are, they’re minor. The overall story does take some time to build though, with a good majority setting up who Mitch is. And even with 7 issues collected here, it leaves many loose plots to be concluded in the next volume. It’s still a good ending that will get you excited for the next volume; it just doesn’t quite feel complete though. And although this really isn’t a flaw by any means, the series will be cancelled after 13 issues (12 issues and 1 Zero issues). So if your one that wants to get into a series for the long haul, this isn’t one of them. RESURRECTION MAN VOL1: DEAD AGAIN is a little, tiny surprise in the New 52. It has action, suspense, great art, likable characters, and a story line that you want to actually see come to a close. It’s gotten me interest in Mitch as Resurrection Man enough, where I think I’ll pick up Abnett/Lannings run on Mitch in Resurrection Man, Vol. 1. So even if this title is biting the dust after the next volume, I think this still worth checking out and broadening your scope of the lesser known characters in the DC Universe. And if there’s anything I’ve learned from this series, is that RM might die after 13 issues–but he’ll be back sooner or later. Paperback: 160 pages.

978-1-4012-3529-1

Near mint condition, 1st print. Collects Resurrection Man 1-7 (2012). More pictures in description.