If you’re a comic fan, more specifically a superhero comic fan, you’ve had the debate about death in comics. Nearly every character has either died or seemingly can’t die, and sometimes characters are dug up for no apparent reason other than shock value. But death and resurrection can open the door to some interesting stories. In the case of Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma #1, it opens the door to a quest to potentially save the universe.
For those unaware of who the Resurrection Man is, Mitch Shelley is a man who gains a different superpower every time he dies. If he burned alive, he’d have the power to control flames. If he somehow fell out of an airplane, he’d be able to fly. This concept would lend itself very well to the type of genre-breaking story in the vein of Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing or Grant Morrison’s Doom Patrol, and that’s exactly what writer Ram V is aiming for.
V’s story starts off with Shelley choosing to retire his heroic life, and die of natural causes. But he awakens in a mysterious garden with every single memory of his past lives and deaths. On top of that, he learns that he wasn’t the first person to wield this mysterious resurrection power, but his actions may have set the end of all things into motion – which shows that his life does have meaning despite his deaths. V has a talent for delivering the unexpected with his stories, whether it’s the gothic opera he launched in Detective Comics or the mind-trip of a mecha ride that was Dawnrunner. It only makes sense that he’d find a new angle to tackle the concepts of life and death, and they’ll linger with the reader long after they close the book.
DC
Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma #1 also continues V’s penchant for being paired with artists that visually push the boundaries of the comic medium. Case in point: Jackson “Butch” Guice illustrates the first page, which feels like it came out of a classic DC comic. Anand RK takes over the rest of the book and his work is a thing of wonder to behold. Shelley’s latest death sees him literally “blooming” into a new body, old skin peeling away to reveal a new youthful body – albeit one that’s marked with a mysterious tattoo. The machinations of the universe are literally depicted as a series of gears in constant motion. But the standout comes close to the end, where one of Shelley’s powers manifests itself in the form of a constantly burning flame. That flame is a swirling mix of spirals, with Mike Spicer’s color work giving off a golden light.
This beautiful mix of words and art is what makes Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma #1 such a compelling read. It shows that life and death is a cycle, but even for a man who’s lived as many lives as Shelley, there’s plenty of things to explore. Life is a series of contradictions: horror and beauty, love and loss, pain and joy. Superpowers don’t change that, they only heighten it.
DC
Resurrection Man: Quantum Karma #1 isn’t just a trippy ride through existence, but the beginning of a truly unique character study. Mitch Shelley may be dying to save the world, but this is a comic that’s full of life.
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