Lazarus Planet - We Once Were Gods #1 // Review

There was a fight between Batman and Robin. A volcano was unleashed, which spread a weird kind of fallout all over the world that continues to have its effect in Lazarus Planet: We Once Were Gods #1. The 40-page issue features four stories of superpowers amplified and mutated. Writer/artist Francis Manapul opens the issue with a tale of a rural encounter with power being defended by Aquaman. Writer Dan Watters and artist Max Dunbar follow Martian Manhunter into a brush with Doomsday. Diana and the Amazons of Themyscira encounter revenant armies led by Theseus in a story brought to the page by writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson and artist Jack Herbert. The issue closes out with writer Josie Campbell’s continuation of her tale of the New Champion of Shazam, which is rendered by artist Caitlin Yarsky.

There has been a great deal of chaos that has come from the Lazarus volcano. The magical energy brings forth a lost race that quivers with overwhelming hunger and is being shepherded by Aquaman. A little closer to civilization, the magical fallout from the eruption has resurrected the memory of one of the most powerful threats to humanity, which Martian Manhunter is going to need a little help to deal with. The gods have already shown restlessness of late in the pages of Wonder Woman. The Lazarus volcano isn’t going to make things much better for them. Meanwhile, Mary uses the power of Shazam to contact the Rock of Eternity in hopes of freeing her lost brother. 

The stories share a theme of power and awakening, but there isn’t enough of a strong central story to make the issue feel cohesive. Manapul’s opening story gives the reader a pretty strong impression of the event from the perspective of those living in the shadow of the superpowered. Watters does a good job of crafting a psychic drama that reaches into the heart of some of the mythology of the DC Universe. Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s battle between Wonder Woman and Theseus is interesting, but it lacks the necessary space to feel satisfying. Campbell’s been giving Mary Marvel a lot of strength in the course of her own mini-series. The chapter that closes this issue feels like a very natural progression.

Manapul’s art at the beginning has impressively raw tension and drama that serves as a solid opening for the issue. Dunbar channels a great deal of fantastic energy to the page in the psychic battle with the memory of Doomsday in a story that also manages to modulate quite well into a silent moment. Wonder Woman looks suitably heroic standing up to a powerful warrior of ancient legend, as brought to the page by Jack Herbert. Yarsky manages the sophisticated artistic articulation necessary to remain focused on the dramatic weight of a story that also happens to include Hoppy the talking rabbit. 

Each story fills its pages in a way that progresses the current concerns of a nice array of different characters, but without a whole lot to connect the stories, it feels like a group of one-shot stories uncomfortably crammed together. The scope of the Lazarus Planet crossover feels impressive, though. It’s just too bad that there couldn’t have been more of a direct connection between all of the stories that went beyond vague thematic notions.

Grade: B-