Magic has gone crazy. A magical volcano has erupted, causing peril all over the planet. The demon known as King Fire Bull was dealing with personal matters when he detonated the volcano in question. Now, Earth’s heroes have to deal with the demon in Lazarus Planet: Omega #1. Writer Mark Waid continues the Lazarus Planet storyline with a massive issue-length magic battle that is summoned to the page by the art team of Riccardo Federici and Mike Perkins. The full-length battle is a little tedious without much modulation on the part of Waid, but the art is gorgeous throughout. 

Robin, the Monkey Prince, and Zatanna are all working on trying to contain the demon that started all the trouble with a volcano on some distant island. It’s a powerful demon, so they’re having some difficulty containing it all. Thankfully, the cavalry is about to show up...a cavalry including Martian Manhunter, a couple of Green Lanterns, Superman and Son, and Wonder Girl. As it’s only less than six pages into the conflict when this happens, there’s going to be a hell of a lot of complications to deal with as things progress. Invariably, things will get a bit confused before the fog of the battle clears.

Waid rolls through a modulated combat sequence that doesn’t offer much in the way of emotional engagement. It’s difficult to care a whole lot about what’s going on as it’s clear who will win, and none of the actual beats in the battle feel like anything more than a lot of weird energy flowing across the page. One moment is pretty much like the next, as individual moments are more clearly defined by the presence of various familiar faces than anything of any deeper engagement.

Federici and Perkins do a good job of making everything feel suitably iconic. Every hero strikes a heroic pose as massive amounts of magical energy shoot across the page. It all looks very moody and deeply atmospheric on so many levels, but without much of a conceptual skeleton to work with in Waid’s script, it all has the feeling of a music video for page and panel. It all looks cool, but it lacks enough definition to draw in the reader beyond looking really, really cool. (Which it does. It’s seriously cool. It’s just kind of hard to care too much about it, is all.)  

The Lazarus Planet crossover is clearly reaching some sort of a climax. It must be. It’s been going on for a long time now. And there’s certainly a hell of a lot going on in the pages of Lazarus Planet: Omega...there are a lot of...characters in the issue and everything. It’s just too bad that there isn’t that much to define all of the action. There isn’t a coherent attitude that’s animating any of it. It looks good, but there’s no question of the outcome, and there isn’t enough to engage the reader beyond the surface of the page.

Grade: B-