Lazarus #8 – Review

By: Greg Rucka (writer), Michael Lark with Brian Level (art & letters) and Santi Arcas (colors)

The Story: Forever begins to piece together the terrorist mystery.

TheReview (with SPOILERS): This was the issue where things began to click together.  Through the first cycle of stories, Greg Rucka and Team have created a very intricate, detailed and entertaining dystopian future that is highlighted by the ruling families and their respective Lazaruses (Lazari?) – supersoliders who manage the families respective security operations.

We’ve also been introduced to the concept of the castes of society (Family, Serfs and Waste) and seen how unequal society is with the Ruling Families living in opulence, Serfs in a sort of middle class existence and Waste in abject poverty.

A few issues ago, Rucka started spinning this tale of of a family of Waste who were headed to Denver in an attempt to be “uplifted” to Serf status.  Their trip has had a sort of “Wizard of Oz” feel to it as this family has endured struggle and death to reach Denver, but they were extremely excited to get uplifted.  Then last issue we saw that the line of desperate Waste auditioning for Serf status stretches for miles outside of the Denver city limits.

At its heart, Lazarus is really a class warfare tale.  It is supposed to be a funhouse mirror version of what our current society could be like if the 0.01% keep getting richer and the economy continues to provide few jobs for everyone else.  That’s why it is such a fun story.  Rucka isn’t saying that this is what WILL happen if things continue along a current path, but it has enough similarities that people can follow along.  Probably any reader who has been jobless knows how the Waste feel.  Anyone who has had a terrible job for a terrible boss, but needs the salary, knows how the Serfs feel.

Lazarus #7 – Review

By: Greg Rucka (writer), Michael Lark (art and letters), Brian Level (art assists) and Santi Arcas (colors)

The Story: Forever continues trying to unravel a terrorist conspiracy.  Waste see different paths to being uplifted.

Review (with minor SPOILERS): Another very powerful issue of Lazarus.  This is just about the perfect series for me.  The art is great.  I like the characters.  I love the dystopian near-future setting.  And I LOVE the attention to detail.

This things that I like best in this issue are the subtle moments.  One is when we see poor little Forever being trained as a little girl by Marisol.  Little Forever is so much more composed and collected than a typical 12/13 year old, but there are the moments when you remember she is still just a little girl.  You can train her and beat her with a stick to teach her stoicism, but she’s still a little girl who needs a hug sometimes.  Anyone who has a child can’t help but be touched by the situation and the art.  Kids that age alternate between impressing us SO much that they are nearly adults: They can handle complex concepts, do physically challenging things and start to say things that don’t sound entirely foolish, then the next second, they are crying and after your initial “WTF?” reaction, you remember that they are only 12 years old.  Rucka and Lark (especially Lark) are capturing that age perfectly here.

The other aspect of the comic I really enjoyed were the two different paths to uplift presented to these waste.  On one hand, we continue following this group that is trying to do uplift the right way.  They’re trekking across the country, dealing with death and banditry and awfulness…..but they are going to Wallyworld and look forward to the wonderfulness.  Only they get there and see a line that runs 20-30 miles out of the city of similarly desperate people who want to be uplifted too.  Not many people are going to get their dream.  That’s what they get for trying to be uplifted via the standard procedure.

Lazarus #6 – Review

By: Greg Rucka (writer), Michael Lark (art/letters), Santi Arcas (colors)

The Review (with SPOILERS): This is a little bit of a quiet issue of Lazarus because it is totally a “middle chapter” of a bigger story.  We get a little bit more of Story A, a little more of Story B, a little more of Story C, etc.  But the pieces aren’t fully connecting yet, so it’s difficult to draw too many conclusions.  There are some definite themes emerging and we can speculate about future plot directions, but Greg Rucka is so well-read and aware of stereotypes, that I suspect most of those speculations won’t come true.

We spend some of this issue on two Forever stories.  In the present, we see that she is clearly beginning to see some of the injustice of the current status quo where a few wealthy families control everything.  Remember back to the first issue where she killed that group of “waste” for stealing food from Family Carlyle?  Well, this time, she just kinda watches the thieving waste watches from the shadows.  She clearly could have stopped/killed these “waste”, but she elects to let them go.  And they’re not stealing food, but things like tanks of gas.  They’re making a bomb (probably) and she lets them go.  Hmmm…

Now, she isn’t totally derelict in her security duties for the Family as she does question one of the other “waste” about what the others are doing with the tanks of gas.  So, Forever still has that familial loyalty that was brainwashed into her at a very young age (and maintained by handfulls of pills that she may or may not be taking).  Still, you can see the cracks at the seams.  She is beginning to question her role in this system.  It’ll be ugly when it breaks.

Lazarus #5 – Review

By: Greg Rucka (writer), Michael Lark with Brian Level (art & letters) and Santi Arcas (colors)

The Story: Forever has to track down her traitorous brother!

The Review (with SPOILERS): This was an interesting issue that diverted slightly away from the main “story” of the series to give us more background and flavor of the bigger world.

The main story of the series seems to be that of political intrigued amongst the adult Carlyle children.  We saw in last story arc how Jonah failed in his attempt to seize control of the Family and was forced to flee.  This issue does pay some attention to that “main story”, but it is mostly concerned with letting us learn more about the dystopian future where the story takes place.

It was interesting to meet the forces of another ruling family: The Bittners.  Two things that I love about the encounter between Forever and her Dagger Team and the Bittners…  One is how completely bad ass Forever is.  Not only is she scary as hell, you know that if she wanted to, she could wade across the river and kill all those redneck Bittner soldiers.  But she doesn’t have to, she makes the Bittners execute their own man on the spot, which is somehow even more bad ass.  Just the way that Michael Lark draws her shows how noble and above the fray she is.  So much of the story of Lazarus is about this distinction between Family members, the Serfs (like the Dagger soldiers) and the “waste”.  You can really see a visual difference.  Forever is better than these soldiers – on both sides.  She knows it, they know it.  It isn’t even a question.

Lazarus #4 – Review

By: Greg Rucka (writer), Michael Lark (art & letters), Brian Level (art assists), Santi Arcas (colors)

The Story: Forever recovers from an assassination attempt.

Review (with SPOILERS): This is another very strong issue of Lazarus.  Even if I have a few nitpicks, I’m becoming more and more interested in the series.

The action picks up moments before the assassination attempt against Forever and Joacquim from last issue.  But – cleverly – we don’t just watch the two of them get bombed and then stand up, dust themselves off and start fighting the bad guys.  Instead we get this nifty scene from the Family Carlyle compound that acts as a control base for Forever.  Of course, the first thing they notice is that she has stopped moving; why has she stopped?  You can imagine monitoring the situation and not knowing when someone stopping means there is a problem and when it just means they’ve stopped.  It’s a little like when a friend goes for a walk after dark, but doesn’t really tell you when they’ll be back: When do you start to worry?

Lazarus #3 – Review

By: Greg Rucka (writer), Michael Lark (art/letters), Stefano Gaudiano & Brian Level (art assists), Santi Arcas (colors)

The Story: Political intrigue swirls within and between the ruling families.

Review (with slight SPOILERS): This is another pretty snappy issue for this promising series.  Already, by this third issue, Rucka and Lark have settled the story into a very comfortable pace and I’m enjoying it a lot.

The thing that strikes me most about this issue is just how confident it feels.  Both Greg Rucka and Michael Lark have been around the block a time or two.  You know how sometimes you read a new series by new creators and it feels like they’re trying to blow your mind with an incredible story concept or an awesome splash page?  There’s none of that going on in Lazarus.  It’s kinda like Rucka and Lark just know that they have a good story and they know that if they tell it in a proper way, it’ll be enjoyed by fans and sell pretty well.  There’s no need for extra bombast or hype…it’s just a high quality story.  As I read this issue, it just felt like a supremely competent issue by guys who know how to make comic books and tell stories.

That competence and confidence is important because a lot of the themes that seem to be developing in Lazarus are a little derivative.  This issue shows our main character Forever (the ultimate weapon of the Carlyle family) meeting her counterpart of the Morray family.  Immediately, they have this kind of warriors’ respect for each other.  That isn’t anything we haven’t seen in a ton of war movies: Tomorrow we may kill each other, but for tonight we are brothers-in-arms.  Forever and Joacquim respect each other and understand the odd position they are both in, but they’ll do their duty if their family tells them to fight.