Customer Reviews

Revolver

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Do you love reading books that are badly written, badly drawn, have no convincing dialogue or characters, and present everything in a half-baked fashion? Do you like wasting your free time reading trite and worthless books? Look no further because Matt "Can't Write, Can't Draw" Kindt has written just the book for you - "Revolver".

The book is about a guy who lives in two different worlds, one which is much like ours and the other where the world has gone to hell. Every day at 11.11pm he makes the switch.

There's no attempt to explain why this man has this sudden power, except for a pathetic coda which if that really was how it happened then this is officially the stupidest comic book ever written. For some strange reason the survivors in the damaged world put all of their effort into writing a dull newsletter to drop on people in a plane called "Revolver". Why or how they thought this would make an impact doesn't matter because it doesn't and is a total dud as a plot device.

Kindt's attempt at dialogue is painful to read. If you try and read this mess, wait until the scene with the war veteran and see how utterly lacking Kindt's ability to convey drama, emotion, or cohesion is when trying to construct a semblance of the character's humanity that would make him seem real. But he has this problem with all of his characters. The girlfriend of the man is a two dimensional material girl who spends her time reading catalogues and furnishing her home. The man is against this because materialism is bad. Watch how he becomes increasingly angered by the material nature of some humans in the 21st century - it's bad! He gets so mad he knocks over her coffee table!

But the main character, I forget his name, is by far the worst of the bunch. To call him a character is laughable, he has none. He's an office drone and a malcontent who does nothing to change his life until he is forced to do so. Then he assumes non-ideas as his new outlook on life - possessions possess you man, we all need to live in the moment. And he's so unlikeable, I just wanted him to die and the book to end.

The art is just plain horrible. His drawing style is so unpleasant and awkward to look at, that even when you look closely at the page it still looks like you're peering through swamp water at an image.

The sci-fi angle of switching between parallel worlds has been done to death, and the way the book is written, the way the characters are written, shows no originality of concept or execution. How anyone at Vertigo thought this was a book that deserved to be published is astonishing. Matt Kindt, you are the least interesting writer/artist in comics (somehow) working today and "Revolver" is a comic book that I urge anyone thinking of purchasing, to avoid like the turd on the pavement it is.

Really good story. I enjoyed it. The protagonist's feelings about his job and outlook on life definitely hit home with me. The story did end abruptly I thought and that's why i gave it only 4 stars. Definitely worth $16.

Revolver will not change your life outlook by the impact of its story. The art here is well-described by

others as stark and spidery sketches - the subdued tones of the colorist help to ground the reader in

each reality and set the tone for a man struggling with understanding and accepting that he's caught

between two realities and disposable in both.

The story of revolver shines a light on the everyday of so many of us as his struggles in the alternate

reality mark the futility and failure of his life is in his own waking world. Like I said initially, this story

won't open smoothly nor wrap up cleanly for readers. What it will do, if viewed as a slice of time in our

protagonist's ongoing life, is act as a thought provoking look at life and what we are doing with it.

Revolver doesn't function as an open and shut story we're familiar with and may turn some readers off

this way, but for many it will shine on the merit of the introspection it can usher along.

Reason for Reading: Pure Plot. I love post-apocalyptic stories.

This is a dark, oppressive story from every angle and will not be for everyone. The art is done with stark, spidery sketches done in blue, black & tan which at first glance were quite different to what I'm used to but as the story progressed I felt they really added to the atmosphere of the plot and contributed to the stark, oppressiveness.

Sam is a lazy guy stuck in a dead end job, who is belittled by his domineering boss and is plagued by his materialistic girlfriend. One morning, on his way to work there is a 9/11 type attack on his office building in Chicago, in fact, airplanes are crashing into major cities all over the US. Later reports of 'dirty bombs' are reported and the US goes into a state of post-apocalyptic survival. Sam is busy that day helping others get out of the building and making himself useful ending up with his boss who is in a state of shock. Sam has also found himself capable of viciously standing up for his survival ... no matter what. The next day he wakes up back in his regular life where the attack hasn't happened. And so Sam continues to live opposing days (and whenever he has a nap) one in which he must fight for his life everyday but he feels he has purpose to his life and one in which the world is safe and his life is boring as dirt. He must eventually choose which world to stay in.

I quite enjoyed the story, there is a lot of deep thinking involved, philosophizing and reading between the lines but I enjoyed the brain stretch. The ending is surprising and comes with unsaid but understood conclusions. All 3 characters are cliched, and one could pick on the author for his representation of female characters but when 2 out of 3 characters are female it is unfair to say he chose to especially stereotype the women. However, these stereotypes may have been used on purpose as Sam is not a likable character and the cliched women types bring out his unlikable characteristics purposefully. I think the story is worth reading and quite clever in its eventual climax and ending. One is left with a lot to think about.

Revolver is a story of a guy who lives in the normal mundane world at a job he hates, yet when he goes to sleep he lives in another, war torn world in which he helps produce an underground newspaper called "Revolver". Its an interesting idea in which a man lives in two totally disparate worlds and trying to balance both lives, however the failing of this graphic novel is in that it doesnt explore that nearly enough. I felt a great sense of frustration while reading this as it seemed to gloss over what would have been important and potentially powerful scenes. The main character just seems to accept rather rapidly and rather early that he lives in these two worlds with very little of the "what is happening to me?" feeling. We get a very quick explanation of the main antagonists motives and origins but then it is simply left, once again leaving us unfulfilled as it was something that was loaded with potential. This graphic novel simply moves too quickly and doesnt allow us time to savor what is happening and lend any of the events some real weight. It simply becomes a series of loosely connected events with no real emotional impact as I feel a lot of "story" was left on the table.

I really feel as if there was amazing potential here that was just not realized. The background story, plot and even the characters seemed well thought out yet never really explored to the level of detail that could have made this an amazing book.