Lazarus Book 1: The First Collection

A good first story arc collected in this high quality edition, with extras taken from the comic rear pages and new stuff just for this hardback.I hope the next story arc, 'Conclave', gets the same treatment as I've really enjoyed re-reading the story in this format, well worth it for a price not much more than the 2 Trade Paperbacks it collects.

Great hardcover, love the deluxe version. Excellent concept, loving the artwork too. If your looking for a good sci fi story then grab this. You won't be disappointed. Touches on subjects like the state of the economy in a dystopian future.

Surprisingly enjoyable. I was not prepared for the originality of this story.

GREAT BOOK.

Bought the graphs, now I have the hardback. Story and art great, in fact all great!

Having already read Volumes 2 & 3 (with some difficulty regarding continuity), it is rewarding to read the first volume and see how things started and developed. Lazarus refers to Forever, part of the Carlyle family that dominate grain production in the USA in this collection about a possible future: there are the dominant families, serfs and waste – those who are neither family nor serfs. There is rivalry between the dominant families with bloodshed spilt but the Carlyle family is split and conspiracies abound.All is not as it seems – especially regarding Forever's existence. Flashbacks give us more information about her “creation”.Engaging stuff, well worth a look and highly recommended.

Collecting the first two arcs of Lazarus, this Hardcover edition is a beautiful creation. The quality is top-notch, with a fabulous cover by Owen Freeman, which I hope will show the progression of Forever throughout the series. Even if you own the first two volumes, like me, and you love this series, like me, I would strongly suggest purchasing this as the extra content at the back is so worth it. There is a world-map which illustrates the different territories that the families hold, and also has extensive biographies on each family and their Lazarus.I have already reviewed the other Volumes so without repeating myself too much, all I have to say is the writing is incredible (Rucka has been nominated for over 20 Eisner Awards with many wins) and Lark's attentional to detail in his artwork is stunning.

The story running through issues #1-9 of Image Comics’ new series from Greg Rucka and Michael Lark is collected as Lazarus. This has previously been collected as two paperback volumes. I attach my reviews of those below. To save you time, this is a superb dystopian science-fictiony story, with excellent plot, script and artwork.Volume 1:The story running through issues #1-4 of Image Comics’ new series from Greg Rucka and Michael Lark is collected as  Lazarus Volume 1 TP . This is an expertly written and superbly illustrated story. The setting is sketched in with a caption and a bit of dialogue here and there; no exposition or huge chunks of descriptive detail are needed for the reader to be able to read between the lines with just a glance and for a fully-formed world to manifest, such is the skill of the creative team. I can write a paragraph here to describe the setting of the story, and that would be more descriptive text than the writer needed to use.THE SPOILER ZONEThis is a dystopian/post apocalyptic sort of future based on Mafia families and stories – though the rulers are not the Mafia as such. In fact the ones we meet all have Scottish surnames, though that must be just a coincidence, surely…? Anyway, the only people who matter are members of the Families; they have ‘serfs’ who work for them and the rest of the population are ‘the Waste’. Think about all the ‘good’ Mafia stories you have seen, and it falls in to place.Each Family has a Lazarus – a super-soldier who is the protector/hitman for the family members and who works directly for the Father.The first issue introduces all the players, sets up their characters and the background. It seemed fairly obvious what was going on, and there are a few obvious plot lines for future development. However, it is still a masterfully constructed and illustrated story – you don’t just create such a complex world that the reader can understand straight off without careful planning.For a detailed breakdown of the individual issues, see  Lazarus Volume 1 TP .XxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxVolume 2:The story running through issues #5-9 of Image Comics’ new series from Greg Rucka and Michael Lark is collected as  Lazarus Volume 2 TP . This story is set in a dystopian future America, where a small number of Capitalist Families control various territories their internal economies, and the general population works for them as bonded ‘serfs’ or else have to fend for themselves. Think American Mafia writ large. The Families each have an Enforcer, known as a Lazarus because of their enhanced regenerative abilities, who is a highly skilled killing machine. We follow the Carlyle Family, and their Lazarus, Forever Carlyle, who was the focus of the first volume. She has received a text message claiming that she is not really a member of the Family, which we know to be true – she is genetically modified human raised and indoctrinated to think that she is.This volume shows us, in flashback, Forever’s ‘childhood’ training and indoctrination, while in the present we see her busy running security on the Family’s latest recruiting drive, (a ‘Lift’) to which a family of ‘Waste’ – free but destitute Americans – are making their way having lost their farm to flooding. As the Barrett family (family with a small ‘f’) treks towards the Lift (and showing us some of the background of the world outside the Family’s network), Forever discovers that there is a terrorist movement targeting it. All the story strands come together at the climax of the volume in a bit of a clichéd finale – the things you were expecting to happen do happen as you expect, with no twists. However, the artwork is superb – this looks like a Hollywood blockbuster (but in the Sergio Leone style), and the scripting and plotting is also excellent. But it lacks the fifth star simply because it didn’t subvert expectations. I suppose the creators were too busy concentrating on creating a believable world with not a single element out of place to want to spoil it by adding an extra ingredient for its own sake. So, I suppose, that does earn it a fifth star; plus the fact that is head and shoulders above the usual superhero or dystopian future stories that we are normally inundated with. Despite the super-soldier main character, and the bursts of violent action, this is much closer to classic dystopian science-fiction than it is to comic book antics. This volume shows us just what the Family has to offer the destitute population, despite our modern-day natural and mainly left-liberal dislike of the world that they run. Despite our dislike of the regime, the world would apparently be a much worse place without it.THE SPOILER ZONEFor a detailed breakdown of the individual issues collected in this volume, see  Lazarus Volume 2 TP .