Revolver (DC Comics)

Revolver is an original graphic novel created, written, and drawn by Matt Kindt. It was published by DC Comics' Vertigo imprint in July 2010.

It tells the story of Sam, a man who lives each day twice: first in a normal world, and then again in an alternate world which is falling apart. Sam must learn why the second universe exists, and choose which one to live in.

Publication history

Kindt credits the idea for Revolver to his fascination with the end of the world, and says he was looking to mix Groundhog Day with Fight Club.^[1]

It was first published in hardcover by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics in July, 2010.

Plot

After a night out drinking, Sam wakes with a hangover. When he arrives at the newspaper office where he works, he discovers it has been bombed and the city (Chicago) is in a panic. Helping his boss, Jan, evacuate, the two are confronted by her ex-boyfriend. During a paniced scuffle, Sam kills the ex-boyfriend. He returns with Jan to his apartment, where they fall asleep. Sam wakes the next morning alone, and his injuries have vanished. He discovers it is the same day, and that the city is not under attack. He is certain what he remembers was not a dream.

Sam continues to live each day twice, alternating between the two worlds. In the chaotic one, he works with Jan and two other coworkers to produce a leaflet-style newspaper reporting the disasters. In the calmer one, he grows increasingly frustrated with how superficial his life is. He uses his time in the calmer world to learn skills that aid him in the more frantic one, such as hot-wiring a car. He and Jan become close in one world while remaining distant and unfriendly in the other. Meanwhile, Sam's relationship with his girlfriend Maria becomes sour.

The man suspected of being the mastermind of the bombings, P. K. Verve, is a motivational speaker in the calmer world. Suspecting a connection between Verve and the dual worlds, Sam seeks to meet the motivational speaker. He convinces the unfriendly Jan to finance his trip by blackmailing her with a confession she made in the chaotic world.

When Sam finally meets Verve, he learns that both of them are alternating worlds. Verve claims the two divergent worlds were created when his brother died in a government-arranged plane crash one day, and was alive the next. Verve has used his motivational speaking to travel and learn secrets which he then uses to commit terrorist acts as vengeance in the other. Hoping Sam will be his ally, Verve arranges for them to meet in the chaotic world.

Sam meets with the military, and takes a tracer with him to the meeting. After confirming he is with Verve, the military bombs the hideout, killing them both. Sam wakes in the calmer world, and stops entering the alternate one. He abandons his former lifestyle, and convinces Maria to leave town with him. They head for one of Verve's seminars, and Sam is planning to kill him.

Reception

The book received mostly positive reviews.^[2] Matthew Meylikhov of Multiveristy Comics felt that "Revolver sufficiently proves exactly why Kindt is perhaps one of the more underrated talents in comics today"^[3]

References