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Reanimator Volume One

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    Ian Jane
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  • Reanimator Volume One



    Reanimator Volume One
    Released by: Dynamite Entertainment
    Released on: September 7th, 2016.
    Written by: Keith Davidsen
    Illustrated by: Randy Valiente
    Purchase From Amazon

    It's been some time since we last caught up with Doctor Herbert West but thanks to the magic of comic books, everyone's favorite mad scientist is back! This new four issue limited series from Dynamite Entertainment, originally released back in the second half of 2015, has now been collected in TPB format. Written by Keith Davidsen and illustrated by Randy Valiente, the story begins in New Orleans where a lab worker named Susan Greene is selling some stolen goods from her place of employment to a criminal named Fleece. Where she once felt excitement in her work, she's now nothing but bored: the thrill is gone. This deal goes south fast - see Susan wants this to be her last deal and for that reason, the crooks have no incentive to pay her and every reason to want her dead. Before they can make that happen, a bespectacled man in a lab coat and glasses shows up. He's an excellent shot and he saves Susan's bacon.

    Of course, this man is Herbert West and along with him is a massive creature swathed in rancid looking robs that West refers to as The Velusian, and this 'thing' is one of West's own creations. As West explains his work to Susan, he putters about and injects the recently deceased thugs with the contents of a familiar looking syringe. Before the freshly reanimated corpses can get too out of hand, The Valusian takes care of them while West offers Susan a job as his assistant. He likes what he sees in her and after he makes a pretty convincing speech, she accepts.

    Cut to a former orphanage known as Hamilton House three weeks later - West and Greene are hard at work. It is here that we learn how West is funding his experiments in reanimation by refining the pineal glands of dead vagrants and selling it as a euphoriant called Eunique. West and Greene make the deal, unloading a carton of the drug to a crime syndicate and warning them to only use it in very small doses, cautioning them about side effects. Of course, there's one man out there who pays no heed to West's warning, a wealthy man named Rex seemingly obsessed with bringing about the rise of Cthulu…

    Susan is working out training at the gym. She needs the release, in fact she's got a picture of West on her punching bag. She wants to learn from him but she's paranoid and as she showers, we learn from her internal narration how he targeted her and how their initial meeting, which at first seemed like a coincidence, was anything but. She knows about his past but hasn't sensed any menace from him… yet.

    She meets up with West, Eldritch wants his next shipment of the drug he's been making, Eunique, and West intends to deliver. They arm themselves and leave The Valusian with the truck, heading to the meeting spot to hand over the drugs in exchange for the cash West needs to continue with his research. Never one to miss an opportunity, along the way West poaches some alligators while their boatman, Homer, hits on Susan. It doesn't go well and West warns him about such behavior in the future. Before they can make the drop, their boat is attacked by some local crooks, the Gris-Gris Boys and their zombie Voodoo Girls, and a bloody battle is followed by a crash. West heads into the woods to lose the Gris-Gris Boys and sends Susan to go off and make the drop so as not to cross the cartel.

    Susan is still reeling from the death of her fiancé. Having taken a job assisting Dr. Herbert West, she's been caught up in a conflict between West and the Eldritch Krewe, a buyer of the narcotic fluid West has been selling on the black market to fund his experiments. When captured by them, she sees West's creation, The Valusian, killed only to learn as it happens that its true identity was that of her fiancé, Nathan Davis.

    Now under the impression that West killed the man she loved, she remains a hostage but three days later he shows up. Croceus Rex, her captor, expects West to hand over his lab but that's not going to happen. Instead, he offers Rex a vial of fluid that will vastly multiply the effects of Eunique, the narcotic he's been abusing. Feeling it is the will of Cthulu himself, Rex accepts the offer and releases Greene into West's care in exchange for the vial. When they are far enough away, Susan tries to talk to West about Nathan but before she can do that he uses some chloroform on her and knocks her out. She wakes up bound to a gurney, zombies in the room, and West tells her she's been under sedation for two weeks. She accuses him of killing Nathan and he allows her to learn the truth, that he was there when Nathan died but that he didn't murder him but rather he preserved him. Samedi, who West is holding captive, lets Susan know that Nathan's real killer was Louis Durand and the Gris-Gris boys and that the circumstances are not what she assumed they were.

    When the fourth and final chapter begins, every drug pusher around is descending on Hamilton House where West is holed up. He's not without a few surprise so his own, however, and those who would oppose him - primarily the Eldritch Krewe - will likely find this out the hard way. Samedi is lurking around while Rex and his heavily armed cronies wait close by. What they don't know is that at least one of West's creations waits in pretty much every room of the decrepit old mansion they're not invading.

    Greene knows that West is way smarter than those out to get him, describing him as a 'puppet master' and she's right, so right in fact that he's even turned her into one of his accomplices despite her mission of revenge. When Rex's men falls to West's experiments, he decides it's time to head in and take care of things himself, and he does just that, though at this part he's hardly human. Susan tries her best to stop some of the key players from getting to her mentor, while West winds up having to showdown with Rex himself, the latter more intent on connecting with his god Cthulhu than anything else… but blood tainted by none other than Yog-Sothoth itself is a more powerful ingredient than West's foe could have possibly imagined! But then there's Samedi and Dice… and of course, Susan Greene herself.

    Keith Davidsen's story is a pretty interesting one. It twists, it turns and it goes in some unexpected directions. The big reveal here isn't that hard to figure out if you're been paying attention but the twist fits. The series does a good job of building to a pretty satisfying conclusion and at times it gets to be pretty bloody, insane and very, very messy. Just like a good Re-Animator story should be. Unnecessary Evil Dead reference put to the side (yeah, I know, in Dynamite's continuity these characters share a world but this feels forced into the story only for the sake of having it there), this is otherwise a pretty satisfying read and a fun, well written series. West is written completely in character here, you can almost hear Jeffrey Combs' voice in your head when you read the dialogue, and that's a good thing to be sure. The story fits in nicely within the realm of West's ridiculous obsession and feels true to form and this issue closes off the storyline nicely while still, of course, leaving things open for a follow up.

    Randy Valiente's art hasn't changed since the first issue - no surprise there - and it's not as detailed or as dark as some might want given the character and his past, but once you get used to it his cartoonish style does start to grow on you. Like Tim Vigil's early stuff without the hyper-detail, it's got a nice sense of movement to it but at the same time sort of gives you the impression that this is an artist yet to completely find his own style… but that the potential really is there to blow the doors off once he does. Jorge Sutil's coloring compliments the art nicely and hey, some appropriately weird Francesco Francavilla covers are never a bad thing.

    This TPB edition also includes an opening introductory essay entitled The History Of Dynamite's Herbert West, Reanimator that gives a quick history of the character's origins and his exploits in the Dynamite Comics universe, including his meeting with one Ash Williams. Towards the back of the book, there's also a section called Lovecraft References And Writer Commentary. Here author Keith Davidsen takes us through all of the references made to H.P. Lovecraft's original writing and, as he does, he provides some insight into the creative process and what went into writing the script for this series. He also points out a lot of other little references in the story, including a nod to Alan Moore, references to earlier Reanimator stories and more. His writing is accompanied by some black and white page reproductions showing what Valiente's artwork looked like before it was colored. There's also a selection of sketches, pin-up's and original pages from Valiente and a complete cover gallery featuring all of Francavilla's pieces for the standard editions alongside the different variant covers that were commissioned for the series.








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