by Brandy Dykhuizen. Martin Monroe is The Revisionist – a good guy gone bad gone good gone bad again… or maybe it’s the other way around? These sorts of things are a tad nebulous in the world of time travel. Regardless, he’s been tasked with upholding our illusions of reality, to portray the lies of morality, religion, physics and time as hard truths. Unbeknownst to most mortals, all these malleable spectrums require a lot of energy and manipulation to uphold. And that’s where Marty comes in, with a little unexpected (and initially unwanted) help from a hologram of his long lost pop.
As much as he would have liked to continue keeping his head down (and perhaps finally making parole), trouble reliably comes rearing its ugly head. Word got out that his good behavior might have come at the expense of divulging criminal secrets on the inside, and, well… nobody likes a rat. As friends fall around him, Marty is forced to shed his healthy skepticism and take a giant leap of faith over the prison walls — and into dimensions yet unknown.
Though the book may be pervasively pulpy, Barbiere does an astounding job at making the reader care about certain characters very quickly. It’s only the first issue, and I already found myself genuinely upset by the treatment of more than one player. But above all else, this book is pure motion. Brown’s jumpy, blasty, punchy art leads you quickly into the next panel — you’re right there, tearing ass through the high security prison, hot on Marty’s heels. Much of The Revisionist recalls retro action flicks, and even the colors in Marty’s communication sequences with his father wouldn’t feel out of place in Eighties-era Miami. It’s a little all over the place, but that’s the nature of being unstuck in time. All signs point to plots converging into an enjoyably unholy mess by the series’ end.
AfterShock Comics / $3.99
Written by Frank Barbiere.
Art by Gary Brown.
Colors by Lauren Affe.
Letters by Dave Sharpe.
7 out of 10
