Originally published on Patreon
This issue of the Lazarus Planet one-shot's has a strange mix of existing characters and brand new ones that feels kind of odd. Some of the existing characters get a new development, some don't, and as such it feels a bit disjointed in what we're supposed to be taking away from this issue.
The first story deals with Rene Montoya, who is still both The Question and the GCPD Commissioner for some bizarre reason. She absolutely needs to quit being a cop and go hero full time. When some strange killings re happening in Gotham she sets out as The Question to stop it, and manages to do so. And that's about it. She doesn't seem to learn anything, doesn't come to a new decision, doesn't develop new abilities, nothing. She begins and ends the book pretty much the same, and it makes me question (ha, ha) why she's even here. I like her, I want to see more of her, but this felt kind of pointless.
The second story follows Raven as she travels to a small town to deal with a trio of kids who've been turned into demons with a connection to her father, Trigon. It feels like we get dropped into the middle of this story, with the town pretty wrecked and ruined, and her and Beast Boy already there; and it does feel like you've missed something because of this.
Come the end of the story we've basically got one of the kids going off with Trigon to become his new son. This might be setting up stories to come for Raven and the Titans, but it also feels like one of those things that could easily never, ever come back again. The story also feels really odd because none of the characters really feel like the characters they're meant to be. It's not Raven in this story; or at least any Raven I'm familiar with. She acts like a different person throughout, and I found it hard to really click with her; which is a shame as she's one of my favourite DC characters.
The next story introduces City Boy, a teen with the powers of Jack Hawksmoor, the ability to communicate with urban environments. He uses this to scavenge for useful and valuable stuff around Gotham. This gets the attention of Nightwing, who makes a brief appearance here. There's not a whole lot to this story other than it introducing readers to City Boy and painting him as a reluctant, roguish hero. That's about it. The story doesn't really do anything exciting, or even engaging, and City Boy doesn't really come across as a character worth keeping an eye on.
The final story focus on Firestorm, who doesn't have a good day thanks to the Lazarus storm. One part of Firestorm, Professor Stein, gets thrown out of the matrix, and is left a withered old man. When investigating the scene of the incident later on with some Star Labs techs, Ronnie is forced to fuse with one of the people there to stop a threat. Whilst they get on well and are able to function as a decent Firestorm, once they unfuse the man is left aged just like Stein. It seems like Ronnie is in a situation now where anyone who fuses with him to make Firestorm is set to get their life essence drained from them.
Now this is an actual interesting new development. It gives Firestorm something new to deal with. It's a mystery that needs solving. It will raise the question of if Robbie should even just quit being a hero. This gives an interesting starting point to new Firestorm stories.
Overall, this was kind of a poor issue, and might be the worst one of the Lazarus Planet event yet. There are some good characters here, but most of them sadly get used in weird ways that makes them kind of unappealing.
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