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Don’t Miss This – “Lazarus: Risen” by Greg Rucka and Michael Lark

By | November 27th, 2019
Posted in Columns | % Comments

There are a lot of comics out there, but some just stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This week, we look at “Lazarus” by Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, and Santi Arcas, with particular concentration on the running “Lazarus: Risen” quarterly series.

Who Is This By?

Greg Rucka is a very famous name in modern comic books, with Eisner Award wins in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2011 alongside a Harvey Award in 2004 and a GLAAD Media Award in 2010. His work is intensely varied in the amount of stories and companies he has worked with, with the following being only a sampling. At Oni Press, he has written “Queen and Country” in 2001 to 2007 and has been writing “Stumptown” since 2009. At DC Comics, he has worked on “Gotham Central,” “Detective Comics” intermittently between 1999 and 2010, “52,” “Wonder Woman” from 2003 to 2006 and 2016 to 2017, and a plethora of stories featuring Renee Montoya as the Question, along with currently writing the twelve-issue 2019-2020 “Lois Lane” maxi series. For Marvel Comics, he wrote runs on “Elektra” from 2002 to 2003, “Wolverine” from 2003 to 2004, and “The Punisher” from 2011 to 2012, among others. At Image Comics, he has written the continuing “Black Magick” since 2015 and “The Old Guard” since 2017.

Michael Lark has done a vast amount of work for DC Comics, with a not inconsiderable amount at Marvel Comics as well. At DC, he penciled and inked “Terminal City” from 1996 to 1998, “Scene of the Crime” in 1999, “Legend of the Hawkman” in 2000, and most famously worked with Greg Rucka on “Gotham Central” from 2003 to 2005. At Marvel, his penciling includes the “What If Karen Page Had Lived?” one-shot in 2004, Ed Brubaker’s 2006-2009 run on “Daredevil,” 2011’s “The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger – The Battle of Tull,” and 2012’s “Winter Soldier: Broken Arrow.”

While most famous recently for “Lazarus” itself, Santiago “Santi” Arcas has also done coloring work on a variety of DC Comics issues, including a history of working with Greg Rucka in particular, and occasional work alongside fellow “Lazarus” collaborator Eric Trautmann as well: he colored issues of “Checkmate” from 2006 to the volume’s conclusion in 2008; the last two issues of “Crime Bible: Five Lessons of Blood” during the latter year; and the entire backup ‘Captain Atom’ arc for Rucka’s “Action Comics” run in 2009 and 2010. Arcas has also provided the coloring work for “Vixen: Return of the Lion” in 2008 and 2009, and for the New 52, he colored the first five issues of “Resurrection Man” in 2011 and 2012, along with occasional issues in other New 52 titles.

What’s It All About?

Art by Michael Lark and Santi Arcas

“Lazarus: Risen” is a continuation of the story of 2013-2018’s “Lazarus” series, following up three years after the end of the ‘Cull’ arc released in 2017.

After the fall of conventional governments in the so-called “Year X,” the world was split up under the guiding hand of a collection of corporations run by families. In this neo-feudal society, people are split up into “family” members (the upper class), “serfs” (the middle class) and “waste” (the un-counted lower classes). Each Family has its own specialization, from genetic engineering to pharmaceuticals to electronics to mechanized hardware, and many of them have their own super soldier, known as a “Lazarus.” These Lazari are outfitted with the latest in whatever methods the individual families have, allowing them to engage in feats of combat of which un-altered troops could only dream, and by and large are utterly loyal to their own people, even if they have some semblance of camaraderie amongst themselves, though they won’t hesitate to duel each other to the death if need be.

Art by Michael Lark and Santi Arcas

“Lazarus: Risen” picks up in the heat of the Conclave War, a global conflict between the allies of Families Carlyle and Hock after the events of the third arc of the series. The latest Lazarus of the genetic modification-centric Family Carlyle, known as Forever Carlyle, is forced to continue her struggles as a ruthless commander on the battlefield and off while trying to maintain her own independence from the manipulations of her Family, who are also quite literally her relations by blood.

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On top of the war, there is also intense political intrigue, all of which is shown through not only the comic itself, but also the fictitious propaganda pieces in place of most advertisements and the prose stories integrated into each issue of “Risen,” each from a different author.

What Makes It So Great?

Art by Michael Lark and Santi Arcas

One of the best things about the entire “Lazarus” saga, which continues into “Lazarus: Risen,” is its focus not on just one person, but on an entire side of a conflict, and even extension beyond those parameters. Using characters as high ranked as the heads of Families to even the lowest serfs, crossing borders between territories and more, Rucka and company visit people from a wide variety of professions: doctors like Michael Barrett, soldiers like Casey “Spitfire” Solomon, and journalists like Seré Cooper are just a small selection of the various persons even outside of the core Families, creating a living, breathing world in the midst of a horrible war.

Furthermore, the use of super soldiers is portrayed in a way that does not diminish the capabilities of hardened, normal combatants, nor does it make them seem inhumane. Instead, the higher level of conflict merely showcases how far about the league of a normal person the Lazari generally are, though both they and non-augmented people are allotted ample room to be vulnerable, both for better (in terms of friendships and other close connections) and for worse (horrible injuries inflicted by one group or another).

Art by Michael Lark and Santi Arcas

Rather than use up-front exposition (barring some select instances), “Lazarus: Risen” examines its story by letting the world itself tell their story, and trusting the readership to be smart enough to fill in the blanks between disparate elements where necessary.

Pacing shifts from fast-paced, chaotic combat to calm, quiet after-action reports, situation room scenes, or even just quiet talks between friends or family, but none of it feels unnatural. The quick, horrifically brutal combat, which can shift without missing a beat from swords to firearms to mercilessly beating someone’s head to a pulp with a fallen pipe, is terrifying in its apparent realism, never shying away from the fact that these people are, while soldiers, also very much human beings.

We know why they cry. And it is something we all could do.

How Can You Read It?

Cover by Michael Lark

“Lazarus: Risen” is available wherever comic books are sold. The latest issue, “Lazarus: Risen” #3, is out today, with the sixth numbered trade paperback, encompassing the three issues, ‘Lazarus: Fracture I,’ coming January 15, 2020. Overall, issues of “Lazarus: Risen” release roughly every three months.

If you’re looking to catch up on how the story got to its current point, there are three hardcover editions, labeled ‘The First Collection’ (“Lazarus” #1-9), ‘The Second Collection’ (“Lazarus” #10-21), and ‘The Third Collection’ (“Lazarus” #22-26 and “Lazarus X+66” #1-6). There is also a collection of “sourcebooks” on three of the different Families from the Carlyle perspective, called ‘Lazarus: Sourcebook Collection Volume One.’ Lastly, two issues, “Lazarus” #27 and #28, have not been collected in any volumes thus far, but serve as a prelude to the “Risen” series.

Outside of comics, there are other multimedia pieces connected to “Lazarus” as a whole, including elements included within the pages of “Lazarus: Risen” itself. Green Ronin Publishing has published a campaign setting based on the series called The World of Lazarus for their Modern AGE tabletop role-playing game, for which game designer Crystal Frasier (Pathfinder) writes ‘World of Lazarus: Tools of War’ segments in each issue of “Risen” to provide more material for player. Furthermore, Amazon has optioned a television series based on “Lazarus,” though minimal news has come out about it since 2017.


//TAGS | Don't Miss This

Gregory Ellner

Greg Ellner hails from New York City. He can be found on Twitter as @GregoryEllner or over on his Tumblr.

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