Reanimator No. 1 Cover C by Tim Seeley

Reanimator #1-4

by Keith Davidsen

Dr. Herbert West, The Reanimator, returns! Setting up shop in New Orleans, the brilliant Dr. West continues his life's the revival of the dead by purely chemical means. To accomplish this task, he recruits Susan Greene, a young and wide-eyed pharmacologist fascinated by his macabre experiments. Initially unfazed by West's unorthodox practices (including how he funds his research - by selling zombie brain fluid as a narcotic), Susan may regret her scientific curiosity as sinister forces - those aligned with Elder Gods and Haitian Voodoo - begin to align against the Reanimator. Dynamite Entertainment proudly resurrects H.P Lovecraft's notorious mad scientist in a fear-fraught tale of Cthulhu tentacle terror and backwater Louisianan superstition!Bonus features include a thorough "History of The Reanimator" prose introduction by writer Keith Davidsen, an insightful and meticulously researched appendix of Lovecraftian references and creator commentary, never-before-seen design illustrations from artist Randy Valiente, and a complete cover gallery featuring the work of Francesco Francavilla, Jae Lee, Andrew Mangum, Nacho Tenorio, and Tim Seeley.

Genres: Horror, Comics, Graphic Novels, Comix, Science Fiction

Comic

First published September 20, 2016

Reviews

[Liam · Rating 3 out of 5]

The art is okay, the story doesn't drag and wraps up quite nicely, but the dialogue is a bit pompous.

[Ricardo Nuno Silva · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excelent tale about death, the undead (and those stages in-between), with an interesting and snarky plot, and great art, sprinkled with some gory bits.

If you are a H.P. Lovecraft / Cthulhu fan, you are going to love this!

[Andrew Garvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A cheesily outlandish tale that stuffs all sorts of madness - the Cthulhu mythos, New Orleans drug gangs, Herbert West, alligator experimentation and a Haitian Voodoo hitman - into just four issues, Davidsen's story follows on from previous Dynamite Reanimator outings by giving a handy text introduction to West's time-travelling shenanigans and links to Ash Williams.

The story isn't exactly groundbreaking. West finds himself a new assistant, a bereaved woman working in a laboratory and selling drugs on the side. From there, things go badly in a variety of bloodily imaginative, solidly entertaining ways.

Dynamite have used the amoral doctor sparingly over the years but have had him do things that seem preposterous even by the standards of the unrelated Jeffrey Coombs' onscreen Herbert. The artwork is serviceable, but at times, simplistic and functional. The narrative and dialogue are overflowing with references to Lovecraft's West (and other works) which are explored in a writer commentary/essay in the near-170 page Comixology edition that has the usual extras - variant covers etc.

[47Time · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately, I didn't find anything extraordinary about the artwork or the story. There are several references to previous comics, but I'm afraid that this character doesn't warrant any further reading as far as I'm concerned. The artwork is fitting enough, not too realistic, but not overly expressive either and even bland at times. There are some zombies, but only in the background, the doctor's failed experiments.

Dr. Herbert West hires Susan Greene as his assistant. She has grown bored enough in her previous job that she started stealing office supplies and selling them on the black market. Her fascination with science is triggered by West's unorthodox experiments in trying to resurrect dead bodies. Meanwhile he funds his research by selling a substance secreted by the human body on death, a hallucinogen that causes strong side-effects if taken in excess. His main buyer, Croceus Rex, a follower of Cthulhu, wants to expand, but he needs West to work for him and the latter keeps refusing.

Susan stumbles onto proof that the doctor has been following her months before they started working together. They get attacked by Samedi, a witch doctor, and West helps Susan get away so she can make it to another drug exchange with Rex. She finds that West's almost speechless guard is, in fact, her ex-boyfriend, then she is captured by Rex. West negociates her release in exchange for a more potent drug which in reality infects Rex.

West explains to Susan his plans involving her, her boyfriend's death and the gangs that are after him. Then he gives her a gun and asks her to choose between getting revenge from him or from her boyfriend's real killer. She chooses his side and after a long and bloody fight they emerge victorious to continue the experiments.

[Albert Yates · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having got this as part of a book bundle in jumping into the middle of the story as there are bits and pieces that I seem to be missing as the book opened. We are introduced, or re-introduced to Dr. Herbert West renowned scientist and nutjob who is looking to extend human existence by eliminating the dead. He kidnaps Susan, a young scientist who has turned to to the black market to satisfy her craving for excitement now that her boyfriend had died. She gets thrown into a world of drugs, corruption, and Cthulhu.

Normally I turn my nose at science fiction, especially as it relates to Cthulhu, but this wasn't a bad story I really liked what Dr. West was doing and was intrigued by the story behind his Valeusian friend helping him the lab.

Solid read.

[Etienne · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very bad and not representative of what Reanimator was, at least from what I remember It has a very cheap b-movie narrative and the illustration, while not bad, where not really great either. I wouldn’t recommend it.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I'm just not much of a Re-Animator fan. Maybe the superfans enjoyed this?