Lazarus Planet: Next Evolution #1 // Review
Lazarus Island exploded. Now everything’s...weird. Some of the weirdness is outlined in the one-shot anthology Lazarus Planet: Next Evolution. A quartet of stories examine some of the fallout from the eruption. Writer Ram V and artist Lalit Kumar Sharma explore the emergence of the mysterious Vigil. Flatline goes to Tokyo to visit the remnants of Ra’s al Ghul in a story by Brandon T. Snider with art by Laura Braga. Dead Eye faces off against a deadly target in a story written by Chuck Brown with art by Alitha Martinez. Finally, college student/superhero Red Canary stares down a bronze pig named Rachel in a remarkably fun closer by writer Delilah S. Dawson and the art team of Brandt & Stein.
Gotham City is dealing with a very dangerous little bit of Lazarus Residue that could be a great deal of stress for a great many people. Thankfully, Vigil is looking after it. Flatline’s venture into Tokyo will involve an investigation into one of Batman’s most powerful villains. Dead Eye gets a job from the Astral Plane...so it’s not going to be something easy. Red Canary is dealing with the craziness of Seattle, which has been animated with a dark pandemonium. Things continue to tumble out of control in the fallout of the Lazarus explosion.
Ram V’s chase after a MacGuffin in Gotham City is largely unimaginative. Snider’s story of Flatline is a rather unfortunate meeting between an interesting character and a dull concept for a story. Brown does the best he can do with a simple hired murder. Really the only story with any bite is Dawson’s rush through weirdness in Seattle. Much of the appeal of THAT story lies in Dawson’s distinctive spin on the life of a college-based superhero and all of the thoughts that end up running through her mind while dealing with the weirdness of the supernatural.
The art does a competent job of delivering a variety of action sequences to the page. Sharma’s shadowy Gotham City is a nice contrast to Braga’s similarly shadowy Tokyo. Sharma keeps the action at a distance as Braga gives Flatline the close-ups in a satisfying fight sequence. Martinez is working with some pretty powerful imagery with Dead Eye’s hunt. By far the best all-around visual execution in the whole issue has to be Brandt and Stein’s stylishly anime-inspired roll through Seattle with a cool-looking Red Canary.
There’s a definite feel for new material reverberating through the one-shot. It’s all very familiar. Nothing too edgy or ground-breaking. It’s fun to see a few relatively new characters going through the motions that others have been treading for decades. With any luck, one or two of the characters in the one-shot will really take off. Red Canary has a lot of charm. So does Flatline. Time will tell if they manage enough momentum to make it into the distant future.
