World Comic Book Review

28th March 2024

The Revisionist #1 (review)

The Revisionist #1 (review)
(Aftershock Comics, July 2016)
Writer: Frank Barbiere

Amongst the melange of themes, there is something quite 1980s about “The Revisionist”. The art is certainly very reminiscent of Walt Simonson or Trevor von Eeden when they were doing pencils for the major US publishers in the 1980s. But it is the plot and dialogue which evokes an urgent, unpolished, self-conscious eighties theme. A reader could be forgiven for thinking that the comic was set during the Reagan years and that the dialogue and art are a clever allusory mirror backdrop (a wonderful example of this was Warren Ellis and John Cassidy’s dunk into the varied period styles of Batman ranging from the 1930s to the 1990s in “Planetary/Batman. NIght on Earth”, (Wildstorm Comics, 2004)). But, disappointingly, the story is described as set in the “present day”, and the urgency and unpolished writing is happenstance.

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