Lazarus Planet: Legends Reborn #1 – Alex Segura, Alex Paknadel, Greg Pak, Dennis Culver, Writers; Clayton Henry, Christopher Mitten, Minkyu Jung, Jesus Merino, Artists; Marcelo Maiolo, Romulo Fajardo Jr, Sunny Gho, Colorists
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: The third Lazarus Planet one-shot focuses on some bigger names—including former Titans Nightwing, Raven, and Beast Boy, plus Renee Montoya and Firestorm. So how does this anthology play out?
“Masks and Monsters” by Segura and Henry puts Renee Montoya front and center, as she investigates a serial killer who stopped—and then started up again with ten times the viciousness. Going by the book isn’t working, so she pulls out the old Question costume and gets pulled into a dark and creepy story of a mutated killer, missing kids, and a dark corner of Gotham that even vigilantes hesitate to enter. The Lazarus Planet ties are only tentative, but it’s good to see how how the street-level heroes are dealing with this event.
While the first story didn’t have too many ties to the main book, “Trilogy” by Paknadel and Mitten definitely does. Following Raven and Beast Boy as they deal with a church hostage situation perpetrated by three half-demons activated by the Lazarus Rain, we see Raven pushed to her limits as she’s forced to confront her demon half and deal with some villains who believe genetics is destiny. But towards the end, it becomes a much darker story than I was expecting, especially with only ten pages to unravel things.
“City Boy” by Greg Pak and Minkyu Jung follows up on the new character introduced in the Wildstorm special, who has a similar power set to Jack Hawksmoor. His ability to connect to cities allows him to pick up on the memories of objects and fulfill their purpose for them—whether he wants to or not. As he arrives in Gotham and encounters Nightwing, he’s swept into the sewers by a strange robotic question, which leads him on an odd wild goose chase for the true owner of an old tiara. It’s a clever story featuring a new hero who isn’t always likable, but is very intriguing.
Finally, Dennis Culver and Jesus Merino reinvent Firestorm after a long time in flux and some major developments in Doomsday Clock. Picking up on that cliffhanger, Ronnie is still holding a grudge against Stein for his manipulations, but they’ve reformed the Matrix to fight the Lazarus Rains—until the rains force them apart, with devastating consequences. Ronnie is forced to form a temporary alliance with Dr. Ramirez of STAR Labs to fight an antimatter creature, but the ending reveals a dark twist to the Firestorm powers now. It’s fine, but I think the character has been through too many twists and turns to shake up the matrix over the years.
Overall, this is a good one-shot, but only the Pak story really felt full of potential to me.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
