by Greg Rucka, Michael Lark, and Santi Arcas; Image Comics
So
much of our collective imagination is based around the idea that there have
been golden ages, times which were morally, or creatively, or materially better
than today. Sometimes I wonder if we are in such a golden age today, a golden
age that threatens to teeter off into some kind of corporate police state run
by an oligarchy of plutocrats. And it seems that Rucka, Lark, and Arcas have
worry about this too. In Lazarus they portray a future where a dystopian North
America is controlled by extremely wealthy families, who, through their
stranglehold on scarce resources and strength of arms, rule as merchant princes
over retainer Serfs and piteous, countless Waste. A future that seems like the
logical extension of our current economic disparity, of personified corporations,
of commodified natural resources, and of uncontrolled climate change. It is in
this terrible and plausible future that Lazarus tells the story of Forever
Carlyle, the genetically enhanced, superhuman Lazarus enforcer of the Carlyle
Family and the complicated familial and situational conflicts she is embedded
in. Lazarus: Family, the short first volume of the series, is effectively the
opening scene of the ongoing comic: the first chapter succinctly establishing the
premise of Forever, and the rest of Family constructs the larger world and the
dynamics of Family Carlyle. As such Lazarus Volume 1 is so much more intriguing
than satisfying, but it has certainly left me hungry for more.
Word
count: 238
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