Originally published on Patreon
The first issue of the Lazarus Planet event seemed to be setting up some interesting things. It looks like some lesser spotlight heroes were getting a chance to shine, and that some new powers and dynamics were being introduced. It also had a pretty clear story, with a group set out on important goals that were leading to an overall conclusion. Lazarus Planet: Assault on Krypton, in comparison, feels incredibly disjointed and disconnected, and raises some concerns for the other event tie-ins.
This book is split into four separate stories, most of which have no connection to the main book events. They seem to instead be looking to set up some new changes for some existing characters. These characters are all tied to the Superman mythology; hence the book's name. And there's one of the first real issues with this one-shot. It's called Assault on Krypton, yet has nothing to do with Krypton, other than featuring some Kryptonians. The opening text for the book seems to try to make the title feel justified by telling us that a volcano did bad stuff to Krypton years ago and was called the 'Assault on Kyrpton', and a volcano is doing bad stuff now, so basically the same I guess.
The first story centres on Dreamer, who finds herself being caught up in the events of Lazarus Planet: Alpha when she's drawn through Batman's dreams as he's being checked over in the medical wing at the Hall of Justice. She, Damian, Supergirl, and Batman figure out that the dream of Doctor Fate's helmet means that she needs to try and track down Doctor Fate. Delving into the dream world she finds Khalid trapped inside a dream world. With the help of a mysterious voice she's led to the Helmet, and emerges from inside it in a Lazarus Pit.
This story seems like it's setting up for some important stuff that's likely going to play a part in later chapters of the story. So, if Nia turns up out of nowhere with the Helmet of Fate, this will be why. But outside of that it doesn't really seem to do anything particularly new or interesting other than introducing Nia and Kara in the comics for the first time.
The second story is all about Jon Kent, who's in the middle of stopping a young shoplifter when the magic storm hits town. It causes Jon to spark with blue lightning, which hits the guy he's with and gives him fiery volcano powers. After Jon recovers he and the shoplifter fly around the city together, helping people out. Come the end the shoplifter steals Jon's lightning charged cape, and leaves a note behind for him with his new code-name, 'Ash'. This story seems to be setting up a bit more of the Electric Blue Jon that we know is coming in his new series; something that has already been teased.
It doesn't really do much with Jon that's not been done elsewhere, and the only real addition from this story is it giving him a flirty antagonist in Ash. Not a full out and out villain by any stretch, Ash feels more like Jon's Catwoman; someone out to steal, have fun, and tease the hero. If Ash doesn't end up playing a part in the new series with Jon I don't really see what this story actually does.
The third tale focuses on mercy Graves, Lex Luthor's right hand woman and bodyguard. When the storm hits she's struck by a huge bolt of lightning, and thrown into a load of Lex's armour. This seems to infuse her body with nanite-like technology, transforming her even more into a robotic entity. It seems like her body is fully machine now, and she's able to shift and shape her limbs into a variety of tools and weapons, including blades, spines, shields, and blasters. With new stuff coming for the Superman family it seems like this newly powered-up Mercy will be able to pose more of a challenge for them.
The final story brings us Power Girl stuff. Power Girl was already in the Lazarus Planet: Alpha, and this tale takes place somewhere in the middle of that. It seems that during her fight with the demons she ends up in some weird kind of other-space; which leads her to think that she might be dead as she sees her life flashing in front of her. After passing through this she ends up coming into contact with Omen, the psychic Teen Titans character. Its here that Karen learns that she's developed psychic powers, and the two heroes fly off together to figure it out. As with the other stories, this is more setting up for stuff outside of Lazarus Planet, though it does promise to tie into the Omega issue.
Overall, this book felt like a bit of a mixed bag, and kind of a let-down. It's mostly only tangentially connected to the events of Lazarus Planet, and other than the magic rain falling across the Earth giving people new powers it's mostly got nothing to do with it. The events in most of these stories are going to be taking place in other titles, and whilst I'm not against all of these changes and the big status-quo shifts that are supposed to be coming it does feel like perhaps expectations of what this book would be based on the title has led to me feeling a bit disappointed.
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