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Lazarus: Fallen #1-6

Lazarus Volume 8

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The Eisner Award-winning team of LARK and RUCKA return with the final series about Forever Carlyle!

In a neo-feudalist world ruled by the ultra-wealthy Families, each has a Lazarus, raised and trained to be the instrument of that Family's will.

Finally free of her father's control, Forever is going to burn it all down.

Collects Lazarus: Fallen #1-6

168 pages, Paperback

Published January 20, 2026

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About the author

Greg Rucka

1,526 books1,937 followers
Greg Rucka, is an American comic book writer and novelist, known for his work on such comics as Action Comics, Batwoman: Detective Comics, and the miniseries Superman: World of New Krypton for DC Comics, and for novels such as his Queen & Country series.

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5 stars
26 (28%)
4 stars
47 (52%)
3 stars
16 (17%)
2 stars
1 (1%)
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
Profile Image for Urbon Adamsson.
2,199 reviews119 followers
March 11, 2026
EN It’s been more than three years since I read the previous volume of Lazarus.

Unfortunately, this — which is one of my all-time favourite series — has had a slow development. This is largely due to the high standards set by the creators and the amount of time it takes the artist to draw every panel, but the final result is definitely worth the wait.

Sadly, the series is also entering its final saga. I sincerely hope that once it concludes, the creators decide to open up this intellectual property to other authors so they can create new works set in this universe. It would be a real shame to let such a fantastic world simply fade away.

I loved this volume, as expected. However, there was one thing I didn’t like, and I’m not even sure why they chose to do it specifically in this volume, because I don’t remember it happening in the previous ones. There are many speech balloons written in French. At first I tried using Google’s real-time camera translator on my phone, but that completely ruined my immersion in the story, so I eventually stopped. At the end of the volume there are supposedly translations for all those balloons, but they are quite decontextualized and don’t even include everything. It’s a pity because it leaves non-French readers at a disadvantage compared to French readers.

That said, it is still another extraordinary volume of Lazarus.

--

PT Já passaram mais de três anos desde que li o volume anterior de Lazarus.

Infelizmente, esta — que é uma das minhas séries favoritas de sempre — tem tido um desenvolvimento lento. Isso deve-se ao elevado nível de exigência dos autores e ao tempo considerável que o ilustrador demora a desenhar todos os painéis. Ainda assim, o resultado final compensa claramente a espera.

Também com alguma pena, a série está agora a entrar na sua saga final. Espero sinceramente que, depois disso, os autores decidam abrir esta propriedade intelectual a outros criadores, permitindo-lhes desenvolver novas histórias neste universo. Seria um verdadeiro desperdício deixar morrer um mundo tão rico e fascinante.

Adorei este volume, como seria de esperar. No entanto, houve um pormenor de que não gostei — e nem percebo bem por que razão foi feito desta forma especificamente neste volume, porque não me recordo de isso ter acontecido nos anteriores. Existem muitos balões de texto em francês. No início ainda tentei usar o tradutor em tempo real do Google com a câmara do telemóvel, mas isso acabou por quebrar completamente a minha imersão na leitura, pelo que desisti. No final do volume existem supostamente as traduções de todos esses balões, mas estão bastante descontextualizadas e nem sequer incluem tudo. É pena, porque acaba por nos colocar em desvantagem em relação aos leitores de francês.

Seja como for, continua a ser mais um volume extraordinário de Lazarus.
Profile Image for Theo.
1,230 reviews57 followers
January 31, 2026
I’ve loved this series since it started, and I’m glad that Rucka, Lark, and the other creators will get to see it through to the end. (Knowing it’s getting an ending makes it much easier to recommend this series.)

There were moments when I had to pause to recall the various plots, since we’re so deep into the story. It’s funny to consider how much more this has become about Family.

A little bit of the story's pacing felt artificially slow, especially when Forever, Infinity, Jonah, and the rest of our heroes (?) are in the desert, waiting. Even if it is very emotionally meaty to see Forever being jealous of others getting the life that she wants for everyone (including herself), but Forever is willing to sacrifice herself and her own changes for them to have it. I feel this a lot in how slow true change is, what I didn’t have in my own young life that the “kids” have now, and how I’m ready to stab those trying to take away those rights and gains and ruin the kids’ lives in the way that they hinder mine and killed my ancestors.

I am delighted to see Sonja kind of doing her own thing again. Though she still may be on her mother’s mission.

Joanna’s story makes me sad. Same with Casey. Hock’s ending took some of the horror out of him, even if he serves as a contrast to Malcolm.

Lark remains one of the top comic book artists to showcase movement on the page. Lazarus has always been very action-focused. Sure, a lot of fighting, but people never stay still for long.
Profile Image for Laika.
234 reviews84 followers
February 8, 2026
Lazarus is a dystopian original comic series that has been going on in fits and starts for something like fifteen years now, across at least three different titles. Despite the creative team’s questionable project management skills, they are very dedicated to the project, and Fallen is to be the grand finale of the whole saga. The first arc of it feels like it’s actually living up to that promise, even if it requires some abrupt shifts in characterization and focus to make the story work.

The story picks up after genetically engineered super-soldier/bodyguard/assassin Forever Carlyle went rogue, rescuing her younger sister/upgraded future replacement and destroying the facility they were both created and raised in. Much of the volume is spent effectively dramatizing the three year time skip that follows, for both Forever and her father’s efforts to capture her. The result is, at least for the first issues, (I think intentionally) abrupt and disjointed, before finally refocusing on a new ‘here and now’ for both central plots. Even then, and even with the massive reveal upon the final page, this is still mostly a couple hundred pages of table setting – well done table setting that does feel like it’s setting up for an explosive climax, but still table setting.

The notes at the end of every issue throughout Lazarus’ entire run have always been consistent that there really is a grand plan and that the broad strokes of what’s going to happen were known from day one. There are enough neat reveals and connections that I basically do believe this, but the shift between the last series and Fallen to get on track for the final confrontation feels very abrupt. A lot of previous plots and areas of focus are tied off as quickly as possible or just forgotten about, and a great deal of use is made of the time skip for convenient off screen character development (Casey especially, and to a lesser extent Abigail and Malcolm – though the book never really figured out what it was doing with or how to integrate Abigail into the story to begin with). Personally I find pivoting to focus on the Free and actual rebellion against the oligarchical families far more interesting than their decades-old personal feuds and melodramas, but for how much they were the overwhelming focus of the story so far it’s odd to see how sharply they’ve been abandoned. The way his story’s tied off also just cements Hock’s identity as an incoherent plot device of a character.

The other reason to think the pivot to a plot focusing on guerrilla revolutionaries is happening more quickly or more completely than might have been planned is the degree to which current events seem to have radicalized the author. Not that the notes and letters at the end of each issue weren’t fairly political beforehand, but every one in Fallen so far is somewhere between a cry of despair and a manifesto. Not incredibly hard to draw a line between this and the portrayal of Carlyle and its allies going from ‘better than the alternatives, and also look at all these cool super-badass Delta-Force-ish spec ops action sequences’ to the straightforwardly horrific villains they always ostensibly were in the lore.

I’m interested and at this point pretty committed. Assuming they do come back from the break between trades on schedule, I’ll almost certainly keep reading. Though if history is a guide that is a very big if.
Profile Image for Clint.
1,193 reviews13 followers
February 9, 2026
4.5 stars
Lazarus returns, kicking off the first arc of its exciting final run of issues. That means a lot of setup and piece-moving here, but it’s presented with Rucka’s usual mix of geopolitical savvy and moving interpersonal drama, plus the occasional action spectacle. The relationship between Forever and Infinity continues to evolve as well; in an ironic twist, Infinity’s lack of years being a no-nonsense killing machine (compared to Forever) gives her a youthful social grace that’s leaves her unexpectedly more mature in some ways than Forever. Otherwise, more than one pair of friends are cruelly set in painful opposition. I can’t wait to see what this setup turns into.

One small but frustrating decision is the absence of translation for the pervasive French dialogue. I love foreign language media, and don’t even mind a lack of translation when it fits (e.g. the POV character doesn’t understand it either), but it’s incredibly off-putting to include this much untranslated text in an English language comic when everyone in the scene understands what’s being said and the conversations go this far beyond basic phrases. Not fun feeling like I need a camera translate app constantly ready to read a comic.

“Precedent is not validation, only justification.”
Profile Image for Lucas Felker.
8 reviews
May 2, 2026
Absolutely metal [and mental] way to end this volume. Can’t wait to see where this goes from here.

Very grateful I didn’t keep up with this from the beginning of publication. Started reading this in 2015 and dropped it by accident, assuming it was long concluded after all these years.
Learning how the release schedule took shape, hiatus after hiatus would’ve killed my investment in this world. But catching up all these years later has been incredible.

So Rucka please don’t make us wait too long for the next volume, I ask selfishly. I gotta see what comes next for the gang. Incredible final page and I will remember it for a while, but not Forever..
Profile Image for Jake Kilroy.
1,395 reviews9 followers
February 28, 2026
I once again thought this was the last volume, and I am once again ready for more. Banger ending that sets up (what I blindly have to assume is) an all-out war amongst the families in this infuriatingly bureaucratic mafia-meets-martial-law dystopia. Solid development of Eight as a kind of tragic inverse for Forever. What do you miss out on when you believe yourself—or are scientifically designed and artificially created to be resolutely—beholden to others?
Profile Image for Alejandro Dodds.
166 reviews1 follower
March 2, 2026
I love this series. It continues to be amazing. I dinged it one star because of the lack of translations when characters spoke French (I believe) and I had no idea what what was going on. I get it, there are context clues and maybe the writer wanted to extend to the reader the feeling of being in a foreign land. But my eyes just glazed over when there was no way for me to figure out what was going on.
178 reviews1 follower
March 29, 2026
Wow, this dystopia seems a lot more realistic than it did when the series started 13 years ago... Beyond that, it's hard to know what to say about volume 8 of a slow-burning series. It's good, it's keeping all the balls in the air effectively, and it's reassuring to know that the creators have a plan to go through to the ending. There is a lot of setup for the new status quo, but it never feels like wasted time.
Profile Image for Villain E.
4,121 reviews20 followers
March 1, 2026
An interstitial volume. Not a lot happens, but it does end in a different spot than ot began.

Forever and Infinity are on the run with Forever's brother and his family. Infinity is growing up. Daddy Carlysle continues to be a manipulative ass. Sonja Bittner is following Forever.

The art is as beautiful as always. The writing is fine, but slow.
Profile Image for Patrick.
160 reviews2 followers
January 29, 2026
Lararus heads pick up steam as it heads for the finale. Loved the reveal at the end, picking up a thread from the beginning of the book that I had forgotten about at this point. Both excited to see where this is going and sad to see it coming to an end.
91 reviews
Review of advance copy
January 18, 2026
Another fabulous chapter in the Lazarus epic. The writing and illustrations mesh seamlessly as the plot moves forwards to final confrontation.

Profile Image for Mee Too.
1,204 reviews5 followers
February 7, 2026
I kinda remember the story and also this didn’t make me want to go back and re-read the last 7🤷🏽

3.4✨
Profile Image for Andrew Dickinson.
12 reviews
March 11, 2026
I thought this was the final trade, but it isn’t. Really struck with this volume with how much it’s Lark’s book with Rucka trusting a lot of the storytelling to him.
Profile Image for James.
4,499 reviews
May 17, 2026
The Carlyle sisters escape and cause trouble in the lands for the Family. Guerilla tactics. Some direct confrontation with other Lazari. The cruelty of the Family is shown.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews