DC Comics’ next event, Lazarus Planet, gets its official first issue today with Lazarus Planet: Alpha, spinning out of Batman vs. Robin #4. The event is closely tied to Damian and his family the Al Ghul’s, as Lazarus Volcano has erupted, spewing dangerous and transformative chemicals into the atmosphere. Now it’s a race to stop the chemicals from flowing, but at what cost to our hero’s powers?
Damian Wayne is very much the central character of this event. You can tell from the very start, as the first panel reveals Damian is determined to “fix” the situation. With him are his mother, Talia, Black Alice, and Batman, who is reeling from the effects of a Lazarus Pit. Storms are affecting the entire planet, and chaos reigns at the moment. Riccardo Federici is great at capturing the chaotic situation in this opening scene, with gloomy green clouds hovering all around by color artist Brad Anderson.
Things are pretty bad.
And that’s the theme of much of this issue. As heroes become aware of what is happening, they realize their powers are dampened or don’t even work. Magic abilities are being quenched, and the laws of science are going topsy-turvy. The main villain is the King Fire Bull and his two protectors. A sequence is devoted to King Fire Bull fighting Cyborg, Power Girl, Zatanna, and a few others, while Nezha gets to tussle with Swamp Thing and Poison Ivy. Federici’s painterly quality gives the fight scenes an epic feel that’s cinematic in its own right.
Batman is in a bad way.
Credit: DC Comics
Given all the chaos, the main story is a bit too simplistic for my tastes. The heroes are fighting, but aside from putting villains down for the count, the end goal isn’t in sight. It’s early yet, but most of this issue is relegated to showing how the heroes are outmatched and unsure how to proceed. The art looks gorgeous, but the general pace is a bit slow due to fewer panels per page. There’s a nice moment with Monkey King and Black Alice, but for the most part, none of these characters grow, change, or get any new info.
The backup is by Gene Luen Yang and Billy Tan and features a flashback story with a past Monkey King interacting with a far different-looking Nezha. They aren’t enemies, and we can see things weren’t so tumultuous surrounding Nezha at the time. They team up to fight the main villain in the main story giving some context regarding how we got here. Visually you get the sense we’re witnessing gods spar, which aligns with the general idea behind Lazarus Planet as gods factor heavily into the narrative. With science and magic going haywire, it seems the god heroes will need to rise. If it wasn’t obvious from the main story, this backup does well to show us the lost history of gods will factor into this event, and they’ll be the ones taking up much of our attention.
If you enjoy big epic art with lots of action, you’ll dig Lazarus Planet: Alpha. As the first issues of events go, there isn’t quite enough here to dig your teeth into as it’s not clear how the heroes will proceed, but it certainly establishes every hero on Earth is at a disadvantage. The stakes are in play, and Lazarus Planet brings a uniquely crafted and epic adventure you’ve never seen before.
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