By Fred Van Lente, Maurizio Rosenzweig & Moreno DiNisio (Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-61655-760-7 (TPB/Digital edition)
Surely everybody loves a cool crime caper yarn? If so, and yet still seeking a little something extra, here scripter Fred Van Lente (Action Philosophers, Archer & Armstrong, Cowboys & Aliens, X-Men: Noir, Brainboy, MODOK’s 11) delivers another riotously rewarding, big-picture concept to astound fans of films and funnybooks alike.
Illustrated by Italian team Maurizio Rosenzweig (Frontiersman, Laida Odius, Davide Golia, Clown Fatale) and colourist Moreno DiNisio (The Scumbag, Black Science, Dead Body Road), the tale is both frighteningly simple and terrifyingly complex…
Once upon a time 3000 years ago in ancient Egypt, an architect named Tao finished a tomb for a dangerously ambitious priest. Unfortunately, august cleric Herihor yearned to be Pharaoh instead of the Pharaoh (yeah, that’s an utterly unconnected Iznogoud reference!) and felt that the necessary precautions to ensure his ambitions in this life and the next should include killing everyone who worked on the project, …even Tao’s pregnant wife Maya…
Meanwhile in the present day, major thief Jericho Way is stealing relics to order for a mysterious client with big pockets and extremely fixed tastes. The disgraced former architect has no idea why the mystery man only wants Egyptian stuff, or that the so-shy client is technically someone he’s known for many centuries…
With brother-thief Mac, Jericho is planning to boost some scrolls from a museum, but has become aggravatingly distracted by dreams of himself in another time and place. The master planner is blithely unaware that a lot of very strange and dangerous people are somehow cognizant of the changes he’s going through – after all they’ve been there before innumerable times – and are now extremely concerned about the life-decisions he’s going to make over the next few days…
The first inkling that something is up comes after a particularly intense “dream” as Jericho realises that he can now read the ancient Egyptian scrawl on the scroll he’s just swiped…
Simultaneously, long ago, in Herihor’s tomb, Tao – having escaped his pursuers but now hopelessly lost – settles down to die. Soon he is shocked and astounded to see another face…
Tomb robbers – also called “Resurrectionists” – have already broken into his impregnable design but their triumph now offers him a way out …and opportunity for revenge…
And as Jericho shares his memories of those robbers with Mac, he notes the recurring resemblances to recent acquaintances, and it all becomes clear that he and his new co-crew have been working on that revenge and this robbery for a very long time indeed…
Revealing a mystic vendetta than spans millennia and an undying love affair, this supremely engaging supernatural saga sees a gang of archetypal thieves locked in an eternal duel of wits and wills against a monster who has co-opted the Afterlife through the most devious and patient methods ever conceived. However, since the ragtag band of rogues can call upon the experiences of every person they have ever been, maybe this time they’re going to pull off the Crime of the Ages and at last obtain vengeance and peace in equal measure…
A delicious melange of spooky reincarnation yarn, edgy conspiracy-thriller and all-action buddy-movie come heist-caper, this is a brilliantly conceived and executed tale with plenty of plot twists you don’t want me to reveal, but which will intoxicate and astound all lovers of devious and deranged dark fantasy.
…And where’s the movie of this masterpiece?
Resurrectionists © 2014, 2015 Fred Van Lente and Maurizio Rosenzweig. All rights reserved.