Review by Avi Pollock
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist/Cover Artist: Michael Lark
Colorist: Santiago Arcas
Letterer: Ariana Maher
Publication Design: Eric Trautmann
Back Cover Art: Richard Howe with Michael Lark
Thanks to Image Comics for the review copy!
Let me start by saying I’m a huge Greg Rucka fan. He (along with Brubaker and Bendis) is one of the best writers in the crime/mystery comic genre and his storylines are often epic in scope. (If you haven’t read Queen and Country you should stop reading this article and pick it up right now). The Lazarus series is truly epic, taking the crime family concept and making them billionaires who have divided up the world in a future dystopian world. I was a huge fan of the series and devoured the first 6 trade paperbacks as they came out. And then he kind of pulled a George R. R. Martin on us and stopped a regular publishing schedule with only 3 issues published in 2019, 2 in 2020 and one each in 2021 and 2022. Somewhere in that time frame I dropped the book. The challenge with an epic is it’s hard to remember all the details with such a lag between issues and I didn’t bother.
Then I saw an interview where he said that this was the 20 issue endgame and beginning with Lazarus Rising #1 would follow a regular publishing schedule again and decided to see if I could jump back in without having to go back and reread everything.
The good news is the book is as compelling as ever. There is a recap in the front reminding of the context of the world and where we left off in the narrative with the Forever sisters and their rebellion against their father, the Carlyle family, and the ruling families overall. 25 pages covers 2.5 years in time with 3 segments – the first that has Carlyle soldiers trying to capture Forever Carlyle right after she goes rogue, that ends in an explosion and death. The second segment takes place almost a year later and has us visiting with the patriarch Carlyle and his daughter Johanna who he continuously berates and demeans as they discuss their progress taking over territory and looking for Forever. The final segment gives us a peek into where the sisters are hiding 2.5 years since they left. Although the back 2/3rds of the book feel more like set up rather than pushing the story toward an end, you get the feeling he is just moving the chess pieces into position and that everything will pay off. Also on the positive side Lark’s visuals really drive the story giving it a cinematic quality that makes you almost visualize the characters coming to life off the page.
The only problem I have is I really don’t remember most of the details of who the characters are anymore. Although the book has a lot to like even reading it cold, I know that I’m missing the details of the past 40+ issues that would make this book truly great. I really wish given the long hiatus that they would at least have put in a family tree of the characters which I think they had in some of the trades. That would have made this a much more enjoyable read then trying to search my memory to remember who the character reveal on the final page was.
I think my strategy is going to be to skip the individual issues wait for the trades to see if he can keep the planned schedule and reread from the beginning so I can embrace the full epic storytelling and what I’m sure given my belief in Rucka and Lark will be a fantastic ending to a great series.
Rating: Cold read – 7/10; If my memory was better – 10/10
Lazarus Fallen #1 is now available.
Are you going to pick up the comic? Feel free to leave a comment below or chat with us on Threads at @theconventioncollective, or Bluesky at @theconcollective.bsky.social
We’re always looking for new
