Lazarus Planet: Revenge of the Gods #4 // Review
Wonder Woman has been granted the power of Shazam by newfound friend Mary Marvel. She’s using that power to defend the world against Hera, who has crowned herself queen of the gods. The battle between gods and mortals ignites into its fiery conclusion in Lazarus Planet: Revenge of the Gods #4. Writer G. Willow Wilson takes the lead story featuring art by penciler Cian Tormey and inkers Raül Fernandez and Wade Von Grawbadger. Also featured in the issue: Amazon Queen Nubia leads a defense of Themyscira against the god of the dead in a story by writers Michael W. Conrad and Becky Cloonan with art by Alitha Martinez. The volume closes with a tying up of loose ends between Captain Marvel, Mary Marvel, and the wizard Shazam by writer Josie Campbell and artist Caitlin Yarsky. Colorist Jordie Bellaire grants the action a dazzling radiance with her colors in the first and third stories.
Wonder Woman may have the benefit of quite a few friends, but Hera wouldn’t be trying to take over all of the earth alone. She knows full well that she has strength in the form of an alliance with various gods who will come to her aid. Wonder Woman is not without her strengths to counter the gods. Meanwhile, Nubia struggles against one of the more notable gods of death in a conflict with the power to right the imbalance that has developed for the Amazons. Mary Marvel is granted a gift all her own in a meeting between gods and their earthbound emissaries.
Wilson has a gift for working with strikingly complex concepts with clear, clean simplicity. In the first story of the issue, she lends a bit of dramatic complexity and intensity to a simple clash between gods and godlike powers. Conrad and Cloonan’s work with Nubia continues to close out the writing team’s work with Wonder Woman and the Amazons in a way that should lead to a promising future in the months to come. Campbell’s journey with Mary Marvel has been a lot of fun...from her own series to her appearances in Lazarus Planet and beyond. Her appearance here feels like a nice potential conclusion to Mary’s journey with Campbell.
Tormey pummels the page with an intensity truly worthy of godlike clashes. Bellaire’s coloring gives the percussion the kind of overwhelming explosiveness it needs to really come across with the right intensity. Wonder Woman is majestic, wielding the power of Shazam in a tasteful fusion between her iconic costume and the iconography of C.C. Beck’s Captain Marvel, who made his debut one year before hers. Martinez gives impressive dramatic weight to Nubia’s climactic moment in the second story. Yarsky continues to give substantial emotional gravity to Mary in another satisfyingly visual dramatic chapter for the young hero.
Wilson gives Wonder Woman the warmth and passion that she so richly deserves in one of the biggest combat sequences she’s ever been a part of. Mary’s adventures continue in Shazam!...which is written by Mark Waid. Is it too much to ask to have Campbell continue to write her adventures as a back-up feature in that series as well?
