Revival Vol 3 Deluxe Collection Hard Cover
Tim Seeley, story; Mike Norton, art
Image Comics, 2016
Year Three opens with a group of visitors hoping to receive miracle healing from the rive in Wausau, Wisconsin (home of the Revivers). Things do not work out as expected, and it's only one of the many things that the Sheriff has to deal with. Among the Revivers checked in on, Em discovers she is pregnant; Ramin hooks up with Dana; and the supposedly inactive Jesse murders Chief Don Wapoose. Em goes to the would-be journalist May Tao for help in finding Aaron Weimar, the father of her baby--and she brings in Blaine Abel, who Em already has reason to distrust.
Blaine may be crazy, but he has skills. He figures out where Aaron must be: the Silver Creek Gristmill, a place long abandoned. Dana visits the conspiracy theorist Edmund Holt and is captured; he has a plan to do some sort of major governmental disruption. At the gristmill the group makes a major discovery about the source of the revivals: it appears to be something in the river, which has somehow kept Aaron alive long after his murder (along with a bunch of reviver fish drawn to the area).
At a public meeting the mayor introduces his revived wife Diane, who promptly sets off a bomb sewn into her chest--Holt's real plan. It kills the mayor and injures many others in the local government. Jeannie Gorski, leader of a Reviver group, saves the sheriff; Ramin kills Edmund ; and Blaine kills May. A temporary military governor is brought in: General Louise Cale.
The ghost-like figures finally reappear. The military captures one to test out a theory, and they expose Jordan Rhodey to it. After going inside him, Jordan appears to be dead--but then the entity exits, and Jordan has developed a powerful soul connection to Jeannie. Noticing that, the military bring the ghost to Jeannie's cell: they promptly unite and go up in flames. This proves that the "ghosts" are disembodied souls of the revived, and once they are reunited death is final. Rahim is revealed as a CIA operative (so he has been lying to Dana); Blaine is killed, but not by Em; and Em's father learns that she is one of the revived.
Dana promises her father that they will solve the mystery of Em's murder:She is certain that Em was murdered just before Revival Day, and has been working to solve the murder all along. She frees Em from the Farm (the compound where all of the revived have been relocated), by reuniting the burnt Indian with his soul and shooting the guard who was conspiring with someone outside to use the Indian to commit murders to cover up something important about the revivals. There appears to be some human agency behind it, and this is the great mystery to be solved in the final collection.
Replies
BTW, Mark, do you recommend the DLX hardcovers? I've got the first book in TPB, so I'm inclined to be consistent, unless there's a compelling reason for the deluxe.
There are extras in each volume--I made a point of talking about them when I covered the first two--but they certainly aren't essential to the story in any way. The ones in the third and fourth weren't substantial enough that I felt compelled to talk about them.