Originally published on Patreon
First thing first, whilst I'm enjoying the Lazarus Planet event for what it is, I'm starting to get a bit annoyed at how the series seems to have somewhat misrepresented stuff. Some of this is promo material, others are covers, but in these cases the series seems to be promising certain things and then either barley delivering, or not at all. For example, Yara Flor is on this cover, but she doesn't appear in this book. Jon Kent's new Superman Blue powers were shown on the cover of Lazarus Planet: Assault on Krypton and on promo material, yet didn't feature beyond sparks of electricity coming off him. And here we have J'onn transformed into a big, Doomsday-like creature, as was also on promo material, and it lasts all of three panels. Not to mention, variant covers featuring characters and situations not in any books. I get that they're trying to build hype and sell their books, but I'm getting tired of waiting and hoping for certain things based on the material DC puts out, only to be disappointed.
But, on to this actual issue. As with the last Lazarus Planet tie-in, this book features a couple of short stories that are using the Lazarus Rain to set up some new things for the future; some of which will be coming in later series, others in other parts of the event.
First up is a pretty well crafted and creepy story that sees a group of regular folks walking through the green fog of the Lazarus Rain on the beach, where they find a couple of people laying in the water. They take the one that's alive to a house, tie him up, and wait to see if he wakes up. When he does he goes a little crazy, and manages to escape the home with the family dog after hurting one of the men. Chasing after him, they find him on the beach where Aquaman protects him. Turns out, he's one of the Trench, who've been transformed into a more human-like form; and there are a lot more than just him.
The story has decent tension and atmosphere thanks to the slow build up, the focus on regular people rather than super heroes, and the wonderfully spooky artwork. This also sets up an interesting new drama for Arthur and the other Atlanteans, as a vicious enemy of theirs ends up needing help. But, as this issue makes clear, there is something a bit more Trench-like hiding underneath. I'm looking forward to seeing where this story might go.
The next story is the Doomsday one. J'onn uses his psychic abilities to monitor the Earth during Lazarus Planet and comes across a human who has developed his own psychic powers through that. He's using his abilities to draw the negative and harmful emotions out of people, leaving them feeling peace instead. The issue is, he's in Metropolis, where the psychic stain of the fight against Doomsday as lingered. Doomsdays memory gets inside the man and starts to transform him. J'onn tries to take it off him, nearly becomes the big monster from the cover, but the man takes it back from him before that happens, and transforms himself into a crystal to stop Doomsday.
This is the one story where I was left kind of going 'huh?' because I'm not sure what the point of this one is. Could this be setting J'onn up on a new quest to revert that guy back to human? Could the Doomsday psychic virus thing still be lingering inside him ready to turn him into a monster? Maybe. The book doesn't make it clear what, if anything, could come from this, and if we should be keeping an eye open for anything in the future. As someone who loves the Martian Manhunter I was looking forward to this story, and was left thoroughly let down.
The third and fourth stories are definitely the most important in this book, as they not only tie together, but lead into its own Lazarus Planet mini-series.
The first takes us Themyscira, where the dead that surround the island have risen, and are assaulting the Amazons. Warriors from multiple eras are walking out of the ocean and assaulting the shores of the island whilst spirits claw their way out of the Well of Souls, and Dooms Doorway is attacked from the other side. Whilst the dead aren't the deadliest of enemies for the warrior women, their sheer numbers pose a problem for the Amazon.
The second follows Shazam and Malik as they team up to try and find Billy Batson, who's trapped inside the Rock of Eternity. It's nice to see Malik getting to interact with a nicer member of the Shazam dynasty, and the story here is quite good. The two characters work well together with Mary being the more experienced hero and Malik being the new guy. They manage to find a way to free Billy from the Rock that doesn't rely on fists and screaming a magic work until something breaks, so it felt like it offered a decent conclusion.
Both of these stories are building towards the four part mini that's coming soon, and looks set to be one of the better parts of the event. I also thoroughly enjoyed having Hoppy there, and really hope he continues to stick around as Shazam's new companion. I feel like the writer on this story understands bunnies well to thanks to the exchange they have that reveals Hoppy keeps chewing power cables and refers to them as delicious 'long candy', which as someone with house bunnies I can say absolutely lines up with reality. Bunnies are little buggers for loving eating cables.
These one-shot tie ins are proving to be a little bit of a mixed bag thanks to not every story seeming to really do anything or matter, and the expectations not meeting reality. That being said, they're still decently enjoyable, and it's nice to see how this event is affecting different corners of the DC universe, even if they're not directly involved.
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