Resurrection Man #4 – Review

By: Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning (writers), Fernando Dagnino (artist), Santi Arcas (colorist)

The Story: You know, he’s just as sick and tired of dying as you are of killing him.

The Review: The biggest problem with this series so far has been its relentless repetition.  Each issue has featured Mitch’s death and subsequent resurrection, a slice of cheesecake and violence from the Body Doubles, and some supernatural mumbo-jumbo from celestial forces either above or below.  This has made the title feel rote and predictable, a death mark for any ongoing series.

In a lot of ways, this issue continues to fill that tiresome mold, which needs to change, pronto.  Every scene features at least a couple characters mentioning points that DnA have already well established, whether it’s the Body Doubles on their resilience (“We’re posthuman.  Waaay beyond your crude cybernetic junk.  Waaaaay beyond.”) or Suriel on Mitch’s prized soul (“…so frighteningly overdue, so staggeringly mortgaged, the note has been passed up to the most extreme collection agency of all.”).

But this time around, we also get a few redeeming reveals that give the plot a bit of a kick.  The most important is Bonnie implying that Mitch and the Body Doubles were once possibly on the same side: “…I used to respect you.  For your work, and everything.”  And when Suriel later reveals that the Doubles work as “enforcers for one of the darkest sectors of America’s military-industrial complexes,” you can see how it connects to Mitch’s past military work, as recalled by Mr. Roth in #2.

Speaking of whom, another major twist in the story comes when Mr. Roth—or the Transhuman, as he’d prefer to be known—divulges the fact that his fancy-pants suit runs on his own life-force and that he’s actually “nineteen years old!”  While it’s not clear how DnA plan to incorporate this rather weird turn of events into the story, but at least it ensures the Transhuman will remain a fixture of this title for a while, until his aging problem gets resolved, one way or another.