Comics
Review: ‘Lazarus’ #2
After an impressive first issue, “Lazarus” #2 continues to be an exciting and action-packed sci-fi thriller. Characters are deceptively playing their own mind games and even their dialogue has double meaning. The “Lazarus” series keeps running at full speed, and doesn’t even try hitting the brakes.
WRITTEN BY: Greg Rucka
ART BY: Michael Lark
PUBLISHER: Image Comics
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASE: July 24, 2013
After witnessing a group of thieves robbing her house, Forever Carlyle was shot right in the head. Forever came back from the dead a different person. She is starting to see the flaws in the system where power rests in the hands of wealthy families. As her reawakening continues, Forever even hesitates following her orders. Forever doubts she can continue to stay absolutely faithful and loyal to the Carlyle family. After resurrecting from the dead, Forever is starting to wish she never came back.
Writer Greg Rucka sends readers to a distant future that is quite believable and resonate. In the opening pages, Rucka demonstrates how the wealthy Carlyle family dabbles in politics. The siblings of the Carlyle family have their game plan against their father, Malcolm. Forever doesn’t even realize she is just a pawn, a lab rat, in their mind games. If Forever is supposed to be the shield and sword of the family, none of the siblings actually see her that way. If she doesn’t play by their rules, they will get rid of Forever.
Because she was genetically engineered to be the perfect solider, Forever followed her orders and never disobeyed. But ever since her resurrection, she is discovering more about her humanity. Her conscience is always in a battle against her instructions. Malcolm heightens the inner struggle, asking Forever how it felt to kill someone. She doesn’t know how to respond to Malcolm’s questions, as if afraid to speak her mind. Even when Forever spits out a plausible answer, she doesn’t even buy it.
When Michael Lark illustrates action sequences, he really knocks it out of the park. Lark carefully blocks out the action in the panels, so that the readers doesn’t miss a beat. When the Carlyle siblings fight, the sister slams her brother’s head against the table and twists his arm. While the sister is pinning her brother to the table, she uses her free hand to reach out and grab a kitchen knife.
Lark presents a future that is technologically advanced and poverty-stricken at the same time. When Forever is being given her medical exam, notice the clock in the background. There is a glowing hologram on the table telling you, the reader, what time it is. When Forever is on her road trip, Hollywood is clearly missing a bunch of its big white letters. The hills have now become a haven for homeless people and pollution has caused the grass to die.
Through the sci-fi genre, “Lazarus” #2 has a lot to say about the war between the Haves and Have Nots. The next issue looks really promising as Forever takes a road trip outside of California. Interestingly, we’re going to see what has happened to the rest of the world in this dystopian future.
4/5 Skulls
Reviewed by – Jorge Solis
Comics
‘You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive’ – IDW Dark’s Next Horror Comic Will Make You Question Reality
Five friends. Four houses. One perfect life. Bloody Disgusting is excited to exclusively announce You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive, a brand new horror comic from IDW Dark.
From Eisner-Nominated writers Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly, and rising horror artist Heather Vaughan, You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive is described as a “paranoia-laced, socially-conscious, horror mystery that will leave you questioning reality, and reveal that this crafted world is more of a nightmare than the idealistic dream they were expecting.”
Phoebe Joplin has never questioned the world her parents built: a secluded community where she and her friends were raised to be smarter, stronger, and better than anyone else. No distractions. No dangers. No secrets. Until the night of their graduation.
When one of them dies under impossible circumstances, Phee starts to pull at the edges of her perfect life—and what she finds is something far more terrifying than she ever imagined.
Because this place isn’t a sanctuary. It’s a cage. And no one who discovers the truth ever leaves it alive.
Collin Kelly & Jackson Lanzing (Batman – One Bad Day: Clayface, Star Trek: The Last Starship) co-write the upcoming IDW Dark horror comic, featuring art by Heather Vaughan.
Jackson Lanzing said in a statement to Bloody Disgusting, “You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive is in many ways a spiritual successor to our last creator-owned horror, The Principles of Necromancy – a dive into the promise and consequence of playing god with the blood of innocents. But the Hivemind book this reminds me of most is Clayface: One Bad Day. This is a deeply human story with intensely raw emotions – five best friends and their five mysterious parents, tearing one another apart for the promise of some impossible glory that’s waiting just beyond their darkest actions. We’re thrilled to be bringing this story to life with our long-time partner in crime, editor Heather Antos, at IDW Dark – and we’re particularly excited to give our Clayface fans a new, brutal and emotional horror made just for them.”
Adds Collin Kelly, “We’re deconstructing a feeling that seems universal these days; our elders have a death grip on their power, without any intention of giving it up to the generations that come next. YNLTPA is about growing up with the limitless potential of the future… and realizing how much it’s a lie we’ve been fed to keep us under the yoke of the past. Bringing this brutal experience to life is our artist and co-creator, Heather Vaughan, who brings an incredible amount of humanity to our cast. But it’s in our youthful leads that Heather’s art really shines – you are going to fall in love with these young people, even as they go through the worst experience of their lives. What we’ve all crafted together is going to be tragic, painful, but above all else, sincere – with a future so uncertain, there’s only one thing we can trust: you’ll never leave this place alive.”
“Some horror stories are about monsters in the dark. YNLTPA is about realizing the monsters raised you,” previews Senior Group Editor Heather Antos. “Working with Jackson Lanzing and Collin Kelly on this series has been a dream in the darkest possible way. They’ve built a story that’s layered, brutal, and deeply emotional, and every issue gives artist Heather Vaughan opportunities to push the art into places that feel both haunting and deeply personal. Some horror comics will keep you up at night…this is one that will stick with you for years to come.”
The first issue of You’ll Never Leave This Place Alive goes on sale October 14, 2026! Make sure to pre-order at your local comic shop by September to guarantee a copy.
Exclusively check out the various covers for Issue #1 down below.
IDW Publishing’s horror imprint IDW DARK features comics like A Quiet Place: Storm Warning, Smile: For the Camera, The Exorcism at 1600 Penn, Beneath The Trees Where Nobody Sees, The Twilight Zone, Event Horizon: Dark Descent & Event Horizon: Inferno, and more.
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