Comics
Review: ‘Lazarus’ #4
After all the major players have set up the pieces, “Lazarus” #4 lets loose on the action and holds no prisoners. The bad guys are about to learn what happens when they cross with Forever Carlyle. Readers have a plenty to enjoy with the “Lazarus” series as the pages become littered with guns, bullets, and dead bodies.
Written By: Greg Rucka
Art By: Michael Lark
Publisher: Image Comics
Price: $3.99
Release: Oct.2, 2013
Trained to be the perfect soldier, Forever Carlyle has been genetically engineered to obey and protect the Carlyle Family. But after a heist gone horribly wrong, Forever starts to see the cracks in the political system where power rests solely in the hands of wealthy families. Following orders from the Carlyle patriarch, Forever journeys into Mexico to prevent war with the Morray Family. The Carlyle twins, Johanna and Jonah, have a different agenda as they secretly betray their father’s wishes.
Johanna and Jonah are plotting against the Morray family, hoping to get rid of Forever in the process.
Writer Greg Rucka lets his characters reveal their true intentions while delivering the pulpy action. Though they have been in the background in previous installments, Dr. James Mann and Dr. Bethany Carlyle have a lot more to do in this issue. Readers finally get to see just whose side these characters are on. After being played around like a pawn, Forever will discover the true mastermind, the person who is really pulling the strings behind the operation.
During the intense action sequences, Rucka jumps back and forth between the surprise attack on Forever and the research facility. As Dr. James Mann and Dr. Bethany Carlyle bicker back and forth, Forever’s vital signs unexpectedly skyrocket. While Forever is fighting back against a rogue team of assassins, Dr. Bethany Carlyle is learning just how unkillable her perfect soldier really is. We also learn the hidden secret as to what makes Joacquim, the protector of the Morray family, so different from Forever.
When artist Michael Lark illustrates action sequences, you feel like you need a bucket of popcorn right beside you. Lark keeps the action running at full speed, especially when he transitions between locations. Notice how Lark keeps the violence roll out in one shot. Surrounded by a four-man team of assassins, Forever takes them all down with a round swing of her sword, slicing their throats.
Your jaw will drop as soon as you see how Lark splashes blood on the panels. After being wounded from the missile attack, Forever has a metal spike sticking out of her leg. She has to pull out that same spike from her leg, in order to use it in the fight. Lark doesn’t hold back, letting readers see what happens when a sword is plunged through the chest.
When readers reach the last page of “Lazarus” #4, they will be so geared up for the next story arc. If you love action movies, you’re definitely going to enjoy how Forever Carlyle kicks butt in the “Lazarus” series.
4/5 Skulls
Reviewed by – Jorge Solis
IDW Dark and Paramount recently joined forces to launch limited comic book tales set in the worlds of Smile and A Quiet Place, and we’ve learned today that they’ll continue hanging around in those franchise universes with two brand new limited series tales.
Entertainment Weekly has exclusively revealed this afternoon that IDW Dark’s Any Given Smile debuts in September, while A Quiet Place: Rising Tides arrives in November.
First up, from writer Stephanie Williams and artist Pablo Collar, Any Given Smile puts a football-themed twist on Parker Finn’s successful Smile movie franchise.
The five-part limited series is “set in January 1995, during the American Arena League football championship game in St. Augustine, Florida. The rising superstar of the Sharks, backup quarterback Dupree, is feeling the pressure from his teammates, the fans, and also the city’s gambling underworld, to whom he owes a considerable debt. Meanwhile, a sports journalist investigates a string of suicides that may be connected to the big game. At the very least, they are connected to a sinister entity that preys on the minds of its victims.”
From writer Declan Shalvey and artist Luke Sparrow, A Quiet Place: Rising Tides will also be a five-issue limited story. The comic book tale “brings the creatures to the Florida Keys, where a father-daughter duo attempt to survive on water in a houseboat.”
EW further details, “This tense family reunion coincides with the arrival of the vicious creatures that hunt through sound. Grace and her dad find safety on the open ocean, but she’ll have to make landfall sooner or later; the father’s oxygen tank and their supplies are running low, while a hurricane swiftly approaches.”
Learn more about both comic books over on Entertainment Weekly.
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