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Lazarus: Fallen #1-6
Lazarus Volume 8
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
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
4 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
Greg Rucka
1,497 books1,927 followersGreg 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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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.”
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.
Review of advance copy
Another fabulous chapter in the Lazarus epic. The writing and illustrations mesh seamlessly as the plot moves forwards to final confrontation.
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✨
3.4✨
February 19, 2026
The end looms?
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews