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The ever timely and prophetic series of Lazarus returns after three long years, once again in a new format. Lazarus: Fallen #1 returns to the original page count and format from the pre-Lazarus: Risen days.
The creative team of Greg Rucka and Michael Lark promises that this time, they hope to remain mostly monthly with breaks between arcs for the rest of the series. But can they keep this promise?
‘Picking Up The Pieces’ — A Ruthless New Status Quo
Lazarus: Fallen #1 wastes no time, picking up only 47 hours after Lazarus: Risen #7 and its many game-changing events. The addition to the normal location and year captions telling us how much time has passed since Forever went rogue is a really nice addition, keeping us aware of the passage of time yet also reminding us of the tension hanging over everyone.
The opening sequence of the issue, with the presumed deaths of Hock and Sonja Bittner, offers a striking contrast to how these characters were portrayed before. When we first met Hock, he was terrifying — a looming, ruthless presence. Now, he comes across like a worn-out old man, so drained that his final act is driven purely by spite.
Greg Rucka has always excelled at weaving subtle character details, but the revelations about what became of Hock completely reframe him in Lazarus: Fallen #1, making him feel so much different than before.
He’s still despicable, but the tone of it has changed. Same with Sonya, she was intimidating when we first met her, yet the friendship she had with Forever humanized her. Now she is on the opposite side of Forever, that intimidation factor is back, but this time with more malice. Great way to reel us long-time fans back in after all this time.
The best bit of Lazarus: Fallen #1 though is Malcolm Carlyle. He was always a monster, but now the monster has no need to sit back. He gave Johanna the opportunity to prove worthy to be Head of Family, she failed in his eyes. She did some thing very similar to him, the apple doesn’t fall from the tree, but in order to try something new, she damned Malcolm’s entire empire.
Michael Barret is a great example of this, a Waste given Serf status, and one who willingly doesn’t bow before the pressure of the Family. Malcolm needs both of them, but they are also disgusting to him, which is why he doesn’t really have conversations with them. He states, he demands, he does not debate, nor does he ask. The monster has laid himself bare.
‘Endurance In Limbo’ — How Time Shapes The Lazarus Saga
In the back pages of Lazarus: Fallen #1, Rucka spells out the roadmap: there are twenty issues left in the series overall. This current arc will run for six issues, followed by a few months’ break before the next arc kicks off. This cycle will repeat until the story wraps up. It’s a solid plan, and we truly hope it sticks. But we can’t ignore the ongoing delays — those have to factor into how we discuss and review this series.
A review isn’t just about the themes, the writing, or the art — it’s also about the context surrounding the piece. Lazarus: Risen #7 arrived a full year after issue #6, and now, after three more years, we’re only just seeing a new installment. This series kicked off back in 2013, and over the years, the creative team has made plenty of promises — from a return to monthly releases to shifting to quarterly issues with expanded page counts.
But not a single one of those promises has panned out.
In our last review three years ago, we joked about how the series could end up lasting until 2028 at the rate it was going. Well, now we’re more than likely going to blow past that. That’s fifteen years to get twenty-six issues, a miniseries, and seven triple-sized issues. In that time, children will have been born and come close to graduating from high school.
We love the work this team puts into the series — you can see their passion shining through on the pages of Lazarus: Fallen #1. It feels like they never left. But that’s the problem: they did leave.
The Beginning Of The End? Lazarus: Fallen #1’s Long-Awaited Return
Lazarus: Fallen #1 marks a huge return for the series. So many story threads are starting to weave together, and Jonah’s appearance at the end has me genuinely excited for what’s next. But those constant delays and broken promises have definitely chipped away at some of my love for the series. Still, we hold out hope that we’ll see Lazarus reach its conclusion someday — and one can only hope that Lazarus: Fallen #1 is the true beginning of that journey.