Welcome to Stillwater.
Stillwater is a 2020 horror comic book published by Image Comics. It's written by Chip Zdarsky, with art by Ramon Perez and colors by Mike Spicer.
Daniel West is a recently unemployed young man who finds out that a distant relative left him an inheritance in the small town of Stillwater, so he and his best friend decide to take a road trip. When they arrive, however, they find that something is terribly wrong with the town. A young boy falls from a rooftop, breaking his neck, but a few minutes later, he's up and running again.
That's because in the town of Stillwater, nobody dies. And the people of Stillwater — including the trigger-happy cops — want to make sure that their secret doesn't get out. By any means.
Tropes in Stillwater:
- And I Must Scream: The Judge's preferred method of punishment for rule-breaking that doesn't warrant execution.
- Big Bad: Galen, who turns out to be much more cunning and dangerous than the Judge.
- Buried Alive: The punishment the Judge gives Daniel's mom. Daniel didn't know what he was getting into coming to Stillwater, so they decide to keep him alive, but she knew, so they decide to bury her for five days. And since everyone in town is immortal, that's five days of suffocating on dirt and coming back to life.
- Children's Covert Coterie: It's eventually revealed that the children of the eponymous town have grown disgruntled after decades of not being allowed to grow up and have formed a vast secret society. Their goal? Bring down the Judge's corrupt administration and allow people to leave the Immortality Field so they can start aging again. After decades of development, they have a huge treetop base and enough experience to outthink adults - to the point that they even cut a deal with the mercenaries to stage a coup d'état. The twist is that the kids don't want to abandon Stillwater at all: they just want to grow up enough for them to enjoy their immortality as adults.
- Creepy Child: The children of Stillwater, who have been children for decades and endanger themselves. Taken up to eleven when they launch a coup led by Galen, taking revenge on the regime that has trapped them in childhood. Galen starts it off by personally executing the Judge outside the town's borders.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: The entire motivation of the Stillwater children. Subverted after you find out their true plan, as they actually want to have their cake and eat it by growing up outside Stillwater, but returning to it to benefit from immortality when they like.
- Immortality Field: Somehow, within the town limits of Stillwater, everything living is immortal. Outside of the town, however, you can die — and if anyone discovers Stillwater's secret, they take them to the edge and kill them. It is later discovered that altering the boundary of Stillwater on the old map in the Judge's office changes the field.
- Missing Mom: It turns out that Daniel West's mother lives in Stillwater and she was the one who sent him the invitation. She still looks like she's in her thirties, though, because nobody ages.
- Mortality Ensues: Daniel was the first Stillwater resident to escape and age, which makes him a potent symbol for the Stillwater factions who want to benefit from leaving the town.
- Never Grew Up: The Stillwater children are a significant faction in the town, more resentful than most of the immortality because they cannot benefit from adulthood. Once they take power, they start organising controlled trips out of the town so that they can mature.
- Resurrective Immortality: Anything living within the town limits of Stillwater will come back to life after dying. And that means anything living, including plants, which regrow as soon as you harvest them, and animals, who regenerate even as you butcher them. But step outside the town limits and you become mortal.
- Town with a Dark Secret: Stillwater, the town where everyone is immortal.
- Would Hurt a Child: When trigger-happy Ted is insulted by a kid on a rooftop, the cop just pushes the kid off. Because he knows he won't die.
