Michael LarkRezensionen

Well this was a strong finale for the current story arc. War between the houses reaches the climax that would put Middle Ages to shame, total annihilation and wipe-outs taking place left and right. This culminates with the session between Carlyle and Hock families. What comes pouring out shows how things started and how they ended - world thrown into turmoil and carved out by new feudal lords. Forever takes a desperate action, forced by her family's decisions - question is will she be able to pull it out, it is just too many moving parts in every direction.

I wont go into more details here because everything I say would be a spoiler, trust me lots of things take place.

Pretty good closure and I cannot see where it will go next. In parallel to main story famous Carlyle exile might just make his way back on the stage - as it usually goes in stories like this, he has a grudges of his own.

Highly recommended.

Slow to start. By the end of the book I was engaged and ready to read book two.

For someone who likes cop-shows in the vein of Homicide: Life On The Streets (they even have The Board), and Batman, this hits the spot pretty well. If anything a bit too much Batman.

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great comic on a perspective we dont see often (the civilian side of living in a crazy city known for having a guy run around with a bat costume), with a pretty current take on the police for its time. a few issues falter (e.g. the catwoman and josie stuff) but overall its pretty darn good. this could make a great show.

I really like this sci fi series about war, assassination, political intrigue, and family drama, but it can take a little while to get back into the complex story with its large cast of characters.

The start here is even a little slower than usual as we take a long side excursion with a secondary character to see what he's been up to since dropping out of the main story. It's an engaging but sad tale of civilians trying to get by with their daily lives as the distant winds of war blow ever closer.

The final two-thirds of the book jump us back into the main storyline as Forever Carlyle tries to slice through all the family entanglements that are keeping her and her little sister stuck in a system where they are seen only as weapons of destruction. Big developments occur as the current storyline reaches it finale, marking a major turning point in the series. I look forward to seeing what comes next.

FOR REFERENCE

Contents:
• Prelude: Part One [Lazarus #27] / Greg Rucka, writer; Michael Lark with Tyler Boss, artists; David Brothers, editor
• Prelude: Part Two [Lazarus #28] / Greg Rucka, writer; Michael Lark with Tyler Boss, artists; David Brothers, editor
• Fracture II, Chapter One [Lazarus: Risen #5] / Greg Rucka, writer; Michael Lark, artist; Alejandro Arbona, editor
• Fracture II, Chapter Two [Lazarus: Risen #6] / Greg Rucka, writer; Michael Lark, artist; Alejandro Arbona, editor
• Fracture II, Chapter Three [Lazarus: Risen #7] / Greg Rucka, writer; Michael Lark, artist; Alejandro Arbona, editor

Brubaker and Rucka doing what they do best!

Good crime graphic novel of course! Enjoyed it very much.

A superb volume, continuing to follow the hard-working detectives of Gotham City Police Department's Major Crimes Unit (the only one, it is implied, with an organisational reputation for having no corruption, each member being hand-picked by the now retired James Gordon). A short and cute one-shot story about the receptionist and Bat-Signal-wielder aside, the book is taken up by three larger investigations -- each utterly different from the other, except in that they are dark, gritty and engaging. The first story is a thriller where a mysterious sniper assassin keeps killing Gotham officials in the days before Christmas, and the police are at their wits end to stop the next one from happening. The second has a female accountant turn up dead in a dumpster, creating an investigative chain of events that sees us follow six different detectives (in partnered groups of two) over the course of three days to figure out how and why she ended up there. The third story is the best in my eyes (which is saying something), where an unexpected public suicide cause two detectives to re-open an 8 year old case about a school bombing, once belonging to the disgraced former cop Harvey Bullock.

If you like crime noir and think a dash of Batman's fantastic rogues gallery at unpredictable intervals sounds like a great additional ingredient, "Gotham Central" is about as good as it gets.

So this is by far the highest rating I've given a book I've DNFed. It is a wonderfully organized background volume for the lore of Lazarus, perfect for fanfiction writers or anyone intending to play in a Lazarus-based RPG. I intend on doing neither of those things, so the encyclopedic presentation read a little dry. However, I can definitely see myself using it as a reference while I continue the actual storyline. The level of thought, detail, complexity, and believability the creators have put into this world, as laid out in this volume, is incontrovertible evidence for why the actual storyline works so incredibly well.

Flipping through the volume allowed me to stumble on some interesting tidbits, like the "grief farms," which are basically online government-sponsored and controlled spaces for (in effect, primarily male) users to vent their furious energy that the government weaponizes against its political enemies. Sounds terrifyingly familiar and believable, no?

Gotham Central has been sadly hard to find for a long time, but these new reprinted editions are great stuff. The praise for this series is nigh-universal, and it's obvious why. The premise is slap-your-forehead, why-didn't-I-tihnk-of-that good: police procedurals in Gotham City, with time constantly running out before the Batman takes over. (How this got passed over for a series, I'll never know.)

In The Line of Duty collects three arcs, and they're all great:

- The title arc introduces the team and does a great job of setting up the tension between the police and Batman. I don't want to say too much as there's a spectacular surprise in the first few pages.

- Motive is a great Firefly story that reminded me a bit of early CSI episodes.

- Finally, Half a Life is a spectacular close to the collection -- it deals with long-time (okay, at least fan favorite) Batman supporting cast member Renee Montoya being outed as a lesbian, and it is just well-written from start to finish.

My biggest quibble is that Rucka's art can make it hard to tell some officers apart, but that does't change the fact that this is a great premise, well-executed. Get on this.

At this point, I kind of feel like the momentum from the Bendis run is spent, and Brubaker hasn't put in a lot of his own (no shade on Michael Lark). I think I'm done at this point.

I think some of the characterization feels a little off here, and the "climax" definitely feels rushed, but Brubaker and Lark/Aja are so damn good on this that I barely care. As good of an ending as we were going to get to "Daredevil goes to jail".

The hits just keep coming with Gotham Central. Despite the clear interference of the War Games storyline that was sprawling across the Bat-books at the time, there's some really excellent work on display here: "Keystone Kops" is a solid story focused around one of the Flash's Rogues turning a GCPD beat cop into a monster, and the title story is a nice, if a little simple, mystery focused around a murder that may or may not have been committed by Catwoman. (This is saved in large part by Alexander's artwork, who is a cut above the usual Lark art, in my opinion - his faces are a lot more expressive and distinct.) Heck, even the requisite tie-in story, "Lights Out", with the police dismantling the Batsignal following a PR break with the Batman, is a really nice piece of character work. Disappointed that the next collection is the last one.

Brubaker and Rucka's second go at the Gotham Central premise is just as good as -- possibly even better than -- their first.

"Daydreams and Believers" is a fun little character one-shot about Stacy, the MCU secretary in charge of operating the Bat-Signal, and is a nice, surprising bright spot in the collection.

"Soft Targets", the first arc in the book, is just incredible -- my favorite Gotham Central story so far, and probably one of my favorite Joker stories. I don't want to give away too much (you can probably guess a lot just from the cover of the collection), but it's a great story, with plenty of twists and turns, backroom politics, and a satisfying noir climax.

"Life Is Full Of Disappointments" is the weak point of the collection -- the premise is interesting enough (a case is passed amongst several different partnerships in the MCU, each of them uncovering more clues than the last), but it just feels disjointed and confusing. This is also the only portion of the collection where the superhero/supervillain angle to the story feels tacked on instead of a natural part (The Huntress shows up for a brief conversation).

"Unresolved" more than makes up for this, however, as it's another great story (a man from one of the detectives' pasts resurfaces, literally in the midst of a hostage situation) which also has some great twists to it.

Overall, it's a spectacular collection. Michael Lark's art (I think I might have incorrectly pinned this on Greg Rucka last time - I am a fool, etc.) is still muddy but improves considerably here. (His naturalistic Joker is a true terror in Soft Targets). Highly recommended.

Following on the end of Bendis's run - with Murdock in jail and his identity basically exposed - was going to be a tall order, but Brubaker fills it magnificently. It's a bit slow to get going, but when it does, it's great. This is the rare example of a story that's packed with supervillains - something I usually hate - that feels like it actually works. Looking forward to the next volume.

liked it, but somewhat less than the first book

Secret Wars. Never read it. What a cluster****.

Okay. So now I've read a bit of it and I'm utterly confused.

BUT. The bits where Jessica Jones freaks the hell out while looking for her Luke, freaking the hell out of her baby's father?

Well, that was gold. The rest was just backdrop.