Short Box: Lazarus #1TP

Lazarus (2013) HC / TP

#1TP

Release: Oct 09, 2013

Cover: Oct 09, 2013

Creators

Writer	Greg Rucka
Artist	Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano, Brian Level
Cover Artist	Michael Lark
Colorist	Santi Arcas
Letterer	Michael Lark, Stefano Gaudiano, Brian Level
Editor	David Brothers

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Given the recent news that, fittingly enough for a book called “Lazarus,” it will be returning, I thought I should take a quick look at the beginning of a series that provides a horrifying look at the kind of world certain people in the real world are trying, with increasing success, to build.

Though it debuted in 2013, the setting of Lazarus could very much be a post-Project 2j025 world, a world where nations have been supplanted by “regions” that are plutocracies ruled by families that hold ultimate power. Government, at least as we understand the term, is largely nonexistent.

The families that rule the world coexist uneasily, with alliances within alliances, and wars that range from cold to hot. Each family maintains its territory as it sees fit, with varying structures to provide something like governance for their people.

Each family has a Lazarus, a champion who represents the family in combat. Each Lazarus is enhanced in some way.

The main focus of the stories is on the Carlyle family who control the western half of what used to be the United States of America. Even more specifically, the focus is on the family’s Lazarus, a young woman named Forever, who, unlike most of her counterparts, is an actual member of the family.

Forever has been genetically enhanced to be stronger and faster than regular humans, and is able to heal from virtually any wound. She is intensely loyal to her family and serves as their Lazarus with distinction, but a mysterious message causes her to begin to suspect that there’s something her family is not telling her, and that, indeed, they may not be her family at all.

All of this is happening against the backdrop of a cold war that’s getting hot, a war that Forever will have to set aside her doubts to win. But can she?

While Forever’s story is compelling and the art from Lark is fantastic, it’s the governing structure of the Carlyle territory that has always stood out to me, resembling as it does what seem to be the ultimate aims of a certain political party.

The Carlyle system is a hierarchical one with three tiers.

At the top is Family.

Next are the Serfs, who serve the Family. Serfs encompass all types of skilled laborers, including doctors and scientists.

Everyone else is Waste.

While most Serfs live in relative comfort, albeit with very limited freedom, the Waste are largely left to their own devices, with the Family providing only the absolute minimum of services, and occasional opportunities to move up to the level of Serf via aptitude tests or military service.

Every location visited within a story provides a breakdown calling out the population by Family, Serf, and Waste. Though the Waste population almost always greatly outnumbers the other tiers, the Waste seem incapable of standing up for themselves and taking back their power, choosing instead to just keep their heads down, giving in to despair, or dreaming of one day being called up by their betters and no longer having to live as temporarily inconvenienced Serfs.

If it all sounds too bleakly familiar to enjoy, especially now, well…you’re not wrong, but it actually is enjoyable thanks to the narrative being told against this depressing backdrop, and its return is one of the few things I’m looking forward to in 2025.

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