Mitch Shelley was killed harder than he has been yet, by an angel, and wakes up somewhere he really is going to regret waking up in. It’s weird though, as he is seemingly resurrected in a completely different manner than he has thus far. Meanwhile, we finally get some insight into how Shelley/Resurrection Man got his powers, where the Body Doubles most likely have come from, and just how much of an evil man Shelley was. There isn’t much that is redeeming about Shelley pre his stint as the Resurrection Man, in fact, one almost understands why the Body Doubles are out to get him…

Resurrection Man, one of the titles that I feared would be one of the first on the chopping block, seems to have made the cut, for now. This is most likely because this series is so wacky and all over the place that readers (this one included) keep coming back to try and figure out just what is really going on here. Angels, demons, and the supernatural mix with sci-fi and deplorable military experimentation on dismembered and dying soldiers. None of the characters are particularly competent, especially Shelley since he keeps dying over and over. I guess that is kind of the point though, without multiple resurrections there really wouldn’t be a need for a Resurrection Man title would there? It is good to finally get some backstory, and interesting backstory at that, on Shelley, but Abnett and Lanning need to pick up the pace and start putting the pieces together well enough to keep readers interested long term. Wacky death, destruction, and rebirth might carry Resurrection Man for a while, but some strong story and long term character development/deployment is going to be necessary, and soon.

Artist Fernando Blanco covers all the necessary bases quite excellently as a fill in artist this issue. He has a wide range of characters to draw and he manages to put one right next to another believably and sometimes literally. The wide ranging cast of super and supernatural characters might be a challenge for some artists to bring to life all at once in a book, but Blanco pulls if off well.

I’m glad that Resurrection Man didn’t get axed. It’s one of the most interestingly schizophrenic of The New 52 books. It needs to start taking a serious direction though, and thankfully begins to here in this issue. If it doesn’t continue to do so though, it might not survive the next wave of cancellations.