This week, Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, Santiago Arcas, and Image Comics give you a glimpse of the future. Unfortunately, as is usually the case in these scenarios, it isn’t a pretty sight.
As a note, this review is spoiler-free.
Written by Greg Rucka
Illustrated by Michael Lark“FAMILY,” Part One
In a dystopian near-future, government is a quaint concept, resources are coveted, and possession is 100% of the law. A handful of Families rule, jealously guarding what they have and exploiting the Waste who struggle to survive in their domains. Forever Carlyle defends her family’s holdings through deception and force as their protector, their Lazarus. Shot dead defending the family home, Forever’s day goes downhill from there…
Following the Occupy movement, the common theme of the Haves versus the Have Nots has become even more prevalent in fiction, borrowing trappings from the wave of protests that were, however briefly, a hot news topic. Unfortunately, the biggest mark the Occupy movement has left on fiction is a new set of labels by which to identify your generic good guys and your equally generic bad guys while pretending there’s something deep about your “subtle” renaming of the 99% versus the 1%. In the real world, labels are crutches that allow us to mentally homogenize entire swaths of people; is it any surprise, then, that they are crutches for writers as well?
“Lazarus” refuses to take the easy way out. Our primary character, Forever Carlyle, is part of one of the handful of families who run this dystopic world, as opposed to a young revolutionary from the serfdom. Instantly, sympathy is risked — how badly can we feel for an aristocrat when the rest of the world is living in squalor and slavery? Within a single issue, though, the point is clear: even in a fictional society where there is no gray area between those who rule and those who serve, unlike our highly ambiguous reality, you can’t simply take a chunk of a population and declare every single member “evil.” Is Eve better off than the majority of this world’s inhabitants? Undoubtedly, but even so, she is yet another victim of the same social class she belongs to. She may be part of the Carlyle’s muscle, but considering she has been effectively brainwashed and lied to all of her life by those who should love her and be honest with her, it doesn’t seem fair to label her as part of the problem. With the haves-versus-have-nots theme it is easy to label one side as uniformly bad and the other as uniformly good;”Lazarus,” however, manages to show complexity in a world where it should be pretty clear cut — which says a lot about our own, slightly more reasonable reality.
Greg Rucka has long been one of the most talented writers in the industry, and in this issue he demonstrates his flexibility. The action scene that the issue opens with is different from the more fast-paced, explosive scenes that are typically seen, opting instead to be more gradual and foreboding — appropriate, considering it involves a body getting up when, by all accounts, it should be dead as a door nail. While this is partially accomplished by the pacing of the panels, the accompanying autopsy-like narrative is what seals it. The objective, detailed descriptions of where the bullets entered and how much damage they did make it all the more horrifying that this woman is still getting back up to her feet before our very eyes, especially since the scene is framed from the soon-to-be-deceased’s perspective at points. On the other end of the spectrum, the characterization in this first issue is solid as a rock. Beyond the paradoxically naive assassin lead, two characters stick out: firstly, her brother, who reeks not of cartoon evil, but of real-world self-serving; secondly, and most notably, the old man who… well, who we most likely will not be seeing again. The scene with him and Eve shows an incredible amount of restraint, with Rucka refraining from whacking us over the head with The Point, instead saying what needs to be said to affect Eve — and us — and nothing more.
Continued belowThe visual storytelling in this issue is handled by Michael Lark, who is as on point as always. Particularly notable is his incredible grasp on body language. Compare Eve at the opening scene of the issue with how she appears in almost any other scene; without modifying anything but the way that she carries herself, Lark doesn’t only make it abundantly clear that Eve is on the offensive, but that it’s almost more of a robotic “attack mode” than anything natural. Similarly, the reason Rucka doesn’t need to overdo “the old man scene” is because so much of that excerpt is carried by Lark; both characters appear to stand resolute, but through their expressions it is clear that only one truly believes what they are saying. Beyond the fine body language, Lark delivers the smooth, clear storytelling that defines his oeuvre — I can’t remember the last time I read a Lark page that was anything less than effortless to comprehend. He’s joined in this series by colorist Santiago Arcas, who adds a remarkable sense of depth and texture to Lark’s already excellent pages. Any moment where Lark forgoes background work in order to focus on the meat of the action, Arcas keeps the background from becoming flat, without distracting at all from Lark’s deliberate framing.
It’s difficult to make dystopian science fiction stories fresh these days, but “Lazarus” pulls it off beautifully, showing more depth in its first issue than many stories in the genre do by the time they’re done. In the post-Occupy resurgance of Haves versus Have Nots literature, Rucka avoids sticking to labels, addressing a complex topic with significantly more maturity than many of his peers. The issue is a visual treat, with Lark and Arcas working in perfect harmony, which is particularly impressive considering, as far as I can tell, that they have never worked together. At $2.99, and with some impressive back-matter to enjoy, there is no reason to leave a copy of “Lazarus” #1 on your shop’s shelf this week.
Final Verdict: 9.0 – Buy
