Art by: Baloemar Rivas, Chris Burnham, A.L. Kaplan, Haining
Colors by: Ivan Plascencia, Brian Reber, A.L. Kaplan, Sebastian Cheng
Letters by: Carlos M. Mangual, Steve Wands, Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou, Janice Chiang
Cover art by: Marquez Sanchez
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: February 14, 2023
Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1 delivers four short stories centering on new or seldom-seen heroes as preludes to their future adventures.
Is It Good?
Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1 is an odd comic to critique. The issue is an anthology of four shorts that all end with a "To be continued..." cliffhanger for another series coming in the future. All shorts have something to offer, but none firmly tie to the Lazarus Planet event. You could take these shorts out of this anthology with a few minor tweaks, and you'd never know they had anything to do with the Lazarus Storm.
In other words, Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1, like the previous Lazarus Planet issues, seems an odd excuse to have an anthology of #0 prelude stories. If you've invested in the Lazarus Planet event, you could skip this issue and miss nothing.
Whisper Of The Moth
Huntress enters Arkham Tower to seek out stragglers who might have been trapped or infected by the Lazarus Storm. What Huntress finds is a cavalcade of low-tier Batman criminals driven to violence by a whisper from one touched by the poison rain - Killer Moth.
Somehow, Killer Moth develops the power to sever "moral restraint" in others. It's an odd choice of abilities and harder to picture on the page. If it wasn't for Huntress's narration, you would have thought the crazies in Arkham had gone a little crazier. The art's very good, and the pacing is excellent, but the story's hook is weak.
Storm Damaged
The Doom Patrol is called to a secluded island by the U.S. Military to save a group of soldiers and scientists trapped by a "thing" in an underground bunker. What the Doom Patrol finds can make your worst fears a reality.
This short is an excellent introduction to the Doom Patrol with a simple adventure that fits within the team's wheelhouse. The monster is weird, the method used to save the day is suitably unorthodox, and the ending leads right into the forthcoming Doom Patrol series. There's practically nothing here that has anything to do with the Lazarus Storm except for the monster's origin.
8 Seconds Of Still Force
A street performer, who spends his days re-enacting the time a small Western town was saved from the Turtle by the Flash, gets a healthy dose of Lazarus Rain. When another passerby randomly emits destructive energy bolts from a Lazarus Rain transformation, Jules Jourdain suddenly finds he can tap into the Still Force to absorb and redirect the dangerous energy.
Well, if you're looking to introduce a new hero with the Turtle's powers, this short is as good as any. The plot is simple, the character work is solid, the dialog is rough, and the art is decent. Surprisingly, this character has potential.
The Envoy: A Spirit World Story
Xanthe Zhou, a magic wielder and ex-patriot from the Spirit World, pays a visit to her grandmother's grave, only to find the cemetery infested with Jiangshi - vampires who take blood and Qi. When Cassandra Cain/Batgirl and John Constantine arrive to lend a hand, the fight gets much better before it gets much worse.
Alyssa Wong's short but entertaining adventure introduces readers to the supernatural side of DC and sets up a series with Cassandra Cain on the wrong side of reality. This short completely ignores the currently-running Batgirls series, so it's unclear if this series is or isn't out of continuity. However, the art is solid, the dialog and pacing are spot-on, and the short ends on an intriguing cliffhanger.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Bits and Pieces:
Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1 delivers four short stories that act as preludes to other DC series coming in the future. The shorts are interesting and end on solid cliffhangers, but almost nothing in this collection has anything to do with the Lazarus Planet event.
7/10
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