Characters for Greg Rucka's Feudal Future comic series from Image Comics, Lazarus. This will be organized by family affiliation, beginning with the Lazarus of the family, then the head of the family, and so on.
open/close all folders
Family Carlyle
Forever Carlyle
Commander Forever "Eve" Carlyle MK VII
The Protagonist of the series, the genetically-engineered Lazarus of Family Carlyle.
- Action Girl: A female Lazarus would have to be this.
- Affectionate Nickname: The people she's closest to call her "Eve". Once she meets her successor Forever Mark VIII, the younger version begins calling her "Seven".
- Anti-Hero: Pragmatic Hero type. She isn't even close to above killing, being a Super-Soldier, but she treats her work as a Lazarus as more of a job and a duty than something she enjoys doing. All things considered, she probably would like to rest and enjoy herself, but she's been so indoctrinated she has a hard time doing anything but her work.
- Back from the Dead: From the way she talks about being shot in the head, it seems that she actually does die momentarily every time she gets fatally injured, but she comes right back soon after. Doesn't mean it doesn't hurt, though.
- Beneath the Mask: Forever is a cool, badass, and hyper competent Super-Soldier who can handle just about any mission or interaction with other soldiers without anything ruffling her. She's also a young woman who is easily embarrassed because she's incredibly inexperienced doing anything other than being a soldier. Dancing, wearing dresses, getting a First Kiss are all experiences she has to live through in the first few volumes, and it's sometimes easy to forget how flustered the stoic badass can get with such things.
- Break the Cutie: Issue #5 featured a sequence of an eleven year old Forever, later revealed to be, in fact, a new Forever being raised secretly in the current time, forced to fight and defeat an adult woman to be given the family sword. Not surprisingly, she fails, and Malcom coldly reprimands her. The look on her face is heartwrenching.
- Colonel Badass: Forever's role in the Carlyle military structure. Since she is technically outside the military structure, (not to mention a member of the Family) "Commander" is merely a formal title. She's also the direct commanding officer of the Carlyle Special Forces called Daggers.
- Commanding Coolness: As Commander of the Daggers.
- Healing Factor: She can heal, but not necessarily mend her bones. Doing so requires her to re-break her bones or force them into position before they can heal the wrong way.
- Immortality Hurts: Every time she is seriously wounded or comes back to life, it hurts.
- Implied Love Interest: Though they don't really act on it much, she and Joacquim Morray have feelings for one another. Several others, both in the Carlyle and Morray families, among others, have noticed this.
- A Mother to Her Men: Her interactions with the Carlyle soldiers show that she is meticulous in remembering their names, deeds, and backgrounds. She also has something of a Fire-Forged Friends relationship with particular soldiers that she favors for their honesty and competence, like Orioso and Casey Solomon.
- Super-Soldier: As Johanna explains, she's not just a Lazarus. She's the Lazarus that other Lazari measure up against.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: Downplayed Trope, but she has some more hints of the tomboy aspect to Sonja Bittner's girly girl around men's advances.
SPOILER CHARACTER
Forever "Eight" Carlyle MK VIII
The newest iteration of the Carlyle Lazarus, initially seen as an eleven-year old girl, but grown to fourteen by the time of Risen.
- Action Girl: Although she hasn't seen active deployment yet, her training has been even harsher than Eve's was, so her skills are probably correspondingly better.
- Affectionate Nickname: Once she meets her predecessor Forever Mark VII, Marisol and Eve both begin calling the younger version "Eight".
- Beneath the Mask: Eight is in some regards a regular teenage girl: she likes to read, play video games, and watch television. But as her training becomes more and more demanding, with a commensurate decline in the affection she receives, she becomes surly and disrespectful before falling into a depression which leads her to attempt suicide. Meeting her "sister" Eve breaks her out of it, since she now has someone who can relate to what she's going through.
- Break the Cutie: In issue #5, she's shown being forced to fight and defeat an adult woman to be given the family sword. Not surprisingly, she fails, and Malcom coldly reprimands her. The look on her face is heartwrenching.
- Gamer Chick: One infographic showed her leaderboard rankings on several games, and she's been repeatedly disciplined for staying up late to play instead of going to bed on time.
- Healing Factor: Can heal from being thrown into a steel wall at 50+ miles per hour in less than two minutes.
- Precision F-Strike: When Beth asks why she's being rude after recovering from an injury, Eight snaps "Because it fucking hurts, Beth!"
Malcolm Carlyle
Malcolm Carlyle
The morally ambiguous head of Family Carlyle.
- Abusive Parents: All indications are that he was never a particularly loving father, generally being more of the strict, distant, and demanding sort. All his children have certain issues about trying to live up to his expectations and always failing to do so or otherwise being trapped in his shadow.
- Ambiguously Evil: He's ostensibly trying to keep the world together the best he can, but his treatment of Forever, including deciding it best to drug her further to make her forget about what she learned about herself does not paint him in a flattering light. He loses the 'ambiguous" part when it was revealed he murdered Hock's sister for convivence and helped undermine the World's governments in order to lead the world to its current destitute state. All so he can help shape the future of mankind in accordance to his will.
- Beneath the Mask: Seemingly a loving father, benevolent ruler and reluctant overseer. Risen #7 reveals the world's current state of culling, poverty, slavery and suffering where part of his grand plan. A plan to reshape the world to a "better version" according to his vision.A vision he is willing to sacrifice billions, his own family and Leah the women who loved and trusted him to.
- Big Good: He's ostensibly this to his side of the Conclave War, but see Ambiguously Evil above. As Rucka is fond of pointing out, there really are no true heroes in the story, and the world is in the shape it's in largely because of Malcom's actions. Subverted when it is revealed that the world's current shape was due to Malcolm undermining the world's government's for his benefit. Also the reveal that he murdered Hock sister Leah for convenience, shows that he was never as benign as he pretended to be. As well as showing the only difference between him and Hock , Hock is honest about the kind of person he is.
- Broken Pedestal: To his son Jonah when his father ordered his death. To his wife Abigail who believed that Leah finding out that Malcolm cheated on her lead to her suicide. To Hock his former friend who believed Leah finding out that Malcolm cheated on her and Malcolm breaking up with her lead to Leah killing herself. To Forever who figured out Malcolm murdered Leah in cold blood and covered it up.
- The Chessmaster: He is always looking several moves ahead, and can perceive angles and the intentions of his opponents in ways nobody else can match. Deconstructed in "Risen" #7, when Forever realizes he had to have been the one to personally murder Leah Hock, rather than her committing suicide, since he would never leave such a vital part of his plans to chance.
- Crazy-Prepared: He has strategies and plans in place for nearly anything that can happen, often seeing both good and bad events coming well before they come to pass. Hock does manage to surprise him at the Conclave, however.
- Dark Lord on Life Support: For the fourth arc, "Poison," he is bedridden and isn't even conscious. He gets better.
- Didn't See That Coming:
- He is a master of reading events and be prepared for any circumstance. He can foresee all too well the actions of both Hock and Bittner at the Conclave, but [[spoiler:Hock manages to surprise him with the poison tailored specifically to Malcolm. Malcolm knew Hock would try to steal the secrets of the Carlyle's longevity treatments, knew how Hock would dangle the possibility of it to try to lure other Families to Hock's side, etc. Malcolm didn't realize Hock would also use the information to craft a Perfect Poison to kill Malcolm and grab a crucial early advantage in the their conflict if Hock lost the inevitable Combat by Champion.
- He doesn't realize until near the end of Risen #7 that Forever has been freed of her conditioning, and pays for it.
- The Don: As the head of Family Carlyle. Given this family is the one most seen, we see the most of his dealings, which are very close to mob dealings in practice, up front, giving him this appearance most of all, compared to Jakob Hock. Or so he would have you believe...
- A Lighter Shade of Black: Make no mistake, Malcolm Carlyle runs a ruthless and repressive regime. He will undertake underhanded and immoral schemes in a second to maintain his power, and crossing him or the rules he sets out for his realm is almost certain to prove a very costly or fatal mistake. And while he seems willing to do and provide more for the average person living under his rule than most families, by modern real world standards it's still a very strict life lacking many basic freedoms. When you put him against someone who literally drugs his people into being mindless obedient slaves, however, there's no doubt that Carlyle is the preferred choice It is later revealed the reason the system exists, where million starve and suffer, is due to his plan to "save the world" his way. In the end, ironically Hock is revealed to be the lesser evil of the two.
- Manipulative Bastard: The comic "Risen" #7 laid bare his manipulations. Knowing in the future he would need an enemy to gather allies around. Someone lacking his ability but enough resources to throw his "allies" at until they are weakened enough to be absorbed by House Carlyle. He intentionally allowed his wife Abigail to discover that he was cheating on Leah while with her. Knowing her guilt would drive her to confess this to Jakob Hock, both Abigail and Jakob believing the affair lead to Leah’s "suicide". Malcolm knew that Jakob would become enraged by the betrayal and would become Malcolm’s anthesis, the perfect enemy that Malcolm would use to shape the new world. It was a plan that took decades to come into fruition with the following Conclave War. When Hock realized what Malcom had done, he is both impressed by its brilliance and bitter at how he fell for it.
- Moral Event Horizon: In-Universe. It's revealed in Risen #7 that he didn't just dump his girlfriend (and Jakob's sister) Leah after getting involved with Abigail. He murdered her and made it look like suicide. Everyone who hears about this immediately abandons him once it is found out.
- Older Than They Look: It's implied he's about the same age as Jakob Hock (110 or so), but whereas Hock looks like a decrepit old man, Malcolm looks more along the lines of sixty or so. This is due to his extensive genetic work to give his family longevity treatments.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Malcolm runs his empire entirely on this. There appears to be no societal prejudices along racial, ethnic, or gender lines, and Malcolm disapproves of pointless cruelty and violence, (cruelty and violence for a purpose are fine, but not just for the sake of it or to enjoy it) and that's just the tip of the iceberg. The man runs his empire in a coldly efficient manner with the constant aim of gaining and maintaining his family's power, and doing so as effectively as possible by getting the greatest contribution possible out of his subjects.
- Sword Cane: Has a concealed pistol in his cane for quick assassinations if need be. However, he doesn’t get the chance to use it on Hock.
- Took a Level in Kindness: possibly. After surviving the poisoning attempt and being forced to step down as the head of the family he appears to have mellowed out a bit.
- Visionary Villain: Hock accuses Malcolm of this. A system of indentured slaves, millions starving “waste”, forgotten cultures. Constant struggle of life or death of the lower castes. All in the name of saving humanity. When Hock asks if humanity was in the end saved despite so much loss and death. Malcolm coldly replies he wasn’t done yet.
Johanna Carlyle
Johanna Carlyle
The elder daughter of Malcolm Carlyle, in a relationship with her twin brother Jonah.
- Anti-Hero: Unscrupulous Hero version. She's not above being absolutely horrendous to people, but she has her own moral code and will stand by it no matter what, to the point that she covertly goes over Malcom's head to tell Forever at least part of the truth about herself.
- Black Sheep: At the start of the series. She goes so far as to call herself the "wastrel" of the family in the second volume, although part of her plan in using Jonah was to give herself the credibility to move beyond this and prove her worth and competence.
- Brother–Sister Incest: One of her earliest scenes has her in bed with her twin brother Jonah.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: If Johanna hasn't stabbed you in the back yet, just give her time. If the situation changes or you outlive your usefulness, she will prove to have no loyalty except to herself.
- Heel–Face Turn: Seeing Forever bedridden after her assault with the Anvils, missing a leg, causes her to break down in tears. By the time Forever calls out Malcolm on how he has lied to her about herself and he opts to drug her until she forgets, she instead shows Forever the entire story to make sure she can decide for herself what she wants to do with herself.
- Manipulative Bastard:
- Not above manipulating everyone and anyone, up to and including Jonah, Forever, and the next Forever to get what she wants. While she does seem to truly care for Forever (at least a bit), she's also not above manipulating her, showing Eve the truth about her origins and trying to sway Eve to her side in a possible coup.
- In general, psychological manipulation and exploitation are her greatest skills. She has a talent for knowing or finding the mental, emotional, and psychological weaknesses of others and using it to her advantage. Perhaps the best example is when she plays good cop to Forever's bad cop when interrogating a young woman who was part of anti-Carlyle terrorist cell. The woman was dedicated enough to allow Carlyle soldiers to have their way with her as a distraction for her team, and later to resist Forever's questioning for quite awhile, but Johanna comes in with a few well chosen words and an offer of a genuinely better life, and the woman cracks within minutes.
- More Deadly Than the Male: She is far more manipulative and ruthless than either of her brothers.
- Number Two: After Stephen steps down from this role during the war against Hock, Johanna takes it over, even performing as acting head of the family due to Malcolm being sidelined by his illness. Malcolm himself doesn't seem entirely pleased by her ascension, but he lets her keep the position while he recovers and works with her to see if she can handle the reins of power.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: When the war with Hock started badly and Johanna believed that Carlyle was likely to lose, she formulated a plot to kidnap Eve and sell her off to another family in return for Johanna being taken in. Only a chance to take Stephen's place as acting Head of the Family changed her mind.
Bethany Carlyle
Dr. Bethany Carlyle
The doctor (and sort-of 'mother', i.e. co-creator) of Forever Carlyle, she is Malcolm Carlyle's younger daughter and the head of Carlyle's medical and science divisions.
- Accidental Murder: Is accidentally shot by James and seemingly dies in Risen #7.
- Berserk Button: Mocking her relationship with James. When Jonah did so in the first volume, Bethany physically assaulted him and openly said that she would have tried to kill him if Stephen and Malcolm hadn't broken up the fight.
- Brutal Honesty: Bethany frequently shows that she doesn't feel any particular need to be diplomatic or consider the feelings of others, she will speak her mind without any attempts to soften her words.
- Drowning My Sorrows: She gets drunk and high off her ass in Risen #1 due to several factors, including but not limited to feelings of self-doubt and worrying about her father.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Subverted. It initially seems that this is the case, but her interactions with Forever (especially her decision to re-drug Forever into compliance, to say nothing of how she treats Eight) show she can be very unpleasant and is not quite as moral as people would believe.
- Jerkass: She is frequently quite rude to Forever, and seems to feel that since Forever is an artificial human (and one of a number of potentially replaceable clones), she doesn't have to treat Forever as an actual person. In the Risen arc, it's explained that part of her attitude is that Bethany herself is the one who has had to euthanize each previous Forever when they failed or were otherwise unable to continue living, and not being completely heartless about killing people who are genetically her sisters, she's adopted an approach of treating Eve and Eight (and presumable future Forevers) as tools instead of people to spare herself further pain.
- Kick the Dog:
- At the conclave, she viciously shuts Forever down when Forever is deeply disturbed by Doctor Hock's leering and groping during a dance Forever was more or less forced to accept. She also essentially "slut shames" Forever for showing interest in Joacquim and dancing with him.
- She is in favor of drugging Forever into compliance instead of trying other methods to sort things out.
- She purposely inflicts serious injuries on Eight just to see how long her healing factor will take to work, and prevents the girl from being given any comfort to distract her during the process.
- Pet the Dog: She is implied to take an interest in the various doctors and scientists that work for Carlyle, and is warm and generous to them.
- Ship Tease: Bethany and James openly flirt with each other in issue 4, and then take to the dance floor at the Family Conclave.
- The Smart Guy: Her role in the family is to be the head of their scientific efforts. She has quite an ego about it too, and is also smart enough to realize when she's not up to a task and needs to call in help.
Jonah Carlyle
Jonah Carlyle
The Obviously Evil Jerkass son of Malcolm Carlyle, in a relationship with Johanna.
- Bad Boss: One of his first acts is forcing Forever to execute one of their workers for misconduct, despite the fact that she, he, and the worker (and likely everyone else) knows that said person didn't actually do anything wrong. His management of the city of Los Angeles is implied to have been quite a horror show of incompetence and indifference to the people living in the city, to the point that the cruelly despotic Mad Doctor Hock, who drugs his people into compliance and uses bioweapons to Kill the Poor, speaks with disapproval about Jonah's tenure ruling L.A.
- Break the Haughty: Jakob Hock's tortures of him break him to the point of actually being relatively kind to Forever when they next meet. This leads to her sparing his life.
- Cain and Abel: Tries to kill Forever with a missile strike at the end of the first arc, "Family."
- Death Faked for You: Forever helps him fake his death at the Conclave in return for the information he provided her about her origins.
- Eyepatch of Power: After "Conclave".
- Faux Affably Evil: He tries to put on a friendly, personable facade, apparently without considering that people remember all the times he wasn't so personable, and he doesn't bother putting in the effort to keep the facade up for long.
- Obviously Evil: With his Jerkass tendencies and obvious contempt of Forever, Malcolm doesn't even seem remotely surprised to learn that he tried to have her killed.
- Riches to Rags: Goes from a member of a prominent Family to a serf after his faked death. However, his genetic treatments keep, meaning he is less vulnerable to illness than those around him, to their confusion.
- The Starscream: In the first volume he is angling for a greater share of power in the family, possibly with the aim of taking over it entirely alongside Johanna.
- Starter Villain: For the series. He's an extremely low cog in the totem pole of villainy, but he serves as the first threat Forever faces.
- Too Dumb to Live: He was an obvious traitor to his family and had no exit plan for what to do should he be found out. This resulted in him fleeing with nothing to trade that would interest another family and no safe place to go. And he made the worst possible decision by going to the ruthless Mad Doctor Hock, although the range of the vehicle he used to get away made Hock about the only possible choice.
- Took a Level in Kindness: After his Break the Haughty, he is much nicer to Forever, offering her information before she fakes his death. When he finds his way to a family of serfs, he is much nicer still, eventually marrying and having a son, working hard, honest labor as a fisherman, and openly treating his adoptive family with love and care.
- Unwitting Pawn: It's implied that Johanna was setting him up for failure all along in the first volume.
Stephen Carlyle
Stephen Carlyle
The oldest and kindest of Malcolm Carlyle's children, he is Malcolm's presumed heir at the beginning of the series.
- Benevolent Boss: He takes a keen interest in the Carlyle Serfs working for him and goes to lengths to accommodate them. Furthermore the sourcebook states that the area under Stephen's control is both one of the most efficiently run places in the world and is probably the most generous Carlyle areas to both Serfs and Waste.Major population centers in the Mountain Domain have long-reflected Stephen Carlyle’s personality and have, in the main, benefitted from his managerial expertise and his reasoned approach to governance. Denver is the most obvious example; the city is well-run and maintained, and includes some of the best support services for its resident Waste population anywhere in Carlyle Territory. Amongst the bureaucratic Serf population, assignment to Denver or its satellites is considered a prime posting.
- The Dutiful Son: The most charitable view of his behavior and actions within the family. Malcolm, being a rather Grumpy Old Man and not big on sentiment, seems to think of Stephen as a Yes-Man instead.
- The Face: Part of the role he plays for the family is being a good public face and being a PR man for the public.
- Marry for Love: Averted. Stephen has a longtime (male) companion, but he is unable to marry for love due to the fact that it may become necessary to make a political marriage.
- Not Afraid to Die: Or at least, not afraid to go forward with public events despite the very real threat of an imminent terrorist attack. Whether this is admirable and shows his devotion or simply foolhardy and shows he doesn't appreciate the gravity of the threat against him (which is how Forever views it) is up to the reader to decide.
- Number Two: He starts the series as the presumed heir to Malcolm, however he eventually is replaced in this role by Johanna.
- The Peter Principle: When he is forced to briefly take command of Family Carlyle when his father is bedridden, he proves somewhat inept at it, as he's not very skilled in matters of war and is just not ruthless enough to use the same unscrupulous and immoral manipulations Malcolm would. He's a good subordinate and manager, but not a good overall leader. Johanna does say that he would make a good Head of the Family in peacetime... however the truth is that the nature of the world the Families have created means that at best one is always in a Cold War with the other factions, and at worst it's a World War.
- Straight Gay: Played with. While he's by no means Camp Gay, and very little deal is made of his homosexual relationship, if any, he's still not assertive enough to lead the family. Therefore, he's portrayed as a weak leader, but not because he's too girly.
James Mann
Dr. James Mann
Bethany Carlyle's consort, one of the highest ranking scientists and Serfs in the Carlyle territory, he is one of the doctors who work on the Lazarus program and keep Forever performing at peak efficiency while also making tweaks and changes to allow her to perform even better than she currently does. He's actually been part of the program since it began sixty-plus years prior, and, similar to Bethany, he is Forever's sort-of 'father' i.e. co-creator.- The Confidant: Subverted. He urges Forever to treat him as one, but he's quick to spill anything she tells him or he surmises if it might affect how she performs as the family Lazarus.
- Doting Parent: It's clear from his interactions that he feels something like fatherly pride and affection for all versions of Forever.
- Killed Off for Real: Is executed by Carlyle troops after accidentally shooting (and possibly killing) Beth.
- Nice Guy: He's something of a natural diplomat who is personable with everyone.
- Ship Tease: James and Bethany openly flirt with each other in issue 4, and then take to the dance floor at the Family Conclave. It's likely they're in a position similar to Stephen's where James and Bethany are a longtime couple but cannot officially marry just in case Bethany ever needs to make a political marriage.
Arthur Cohn
Secretary Arthur Cohn
Malcolm Carlyle's oldest friend and his chief/most trusted advisor.
- The Consigliere: Malcolm's favorite sounding board and the man whose advice he respects most. During the Conclave, Malcolm and Arthur plot the strategy and maneuvers of Carlyle together, complete with Forever serving both men tea and referring to Arthur as Mister Cohn.
- Honest Advisor
- Only Friend: He has been the often solitary Malcolm's friend for decades and decades, going back to their teenage days.
- Shoot the Dog: How he sees turning information over to Johanna that allows her to displace Stephen as the acting Head of the Family during the Conclave War. He's clearly reluctant to do this, but he also sees that Stephen isn't the right person to lead the family during the war, and so does what is necessary to put a more capable leader in place.
Michael Barrett
Dr. Michael Barrett
A farm-raised but highly intelligent Waste-caste young man who becomes a Serf in a Lift to work for Carlyle. He is in a longtime romantic relationship with Casey Solomon, one of Forever's soldiers.
- Closest Thing We Got: In need of help for Malcolm in the "Poison" arc, Michael is brought in by Bethany, and aids in solving the problem of the poison itself. Afterward, he's assigned to the Lazarus project, and Johanna later recruits him to break Forever out of her conditioning.
- Disappeared Dad: His biological father died when he was a child, and his mother remarried Joe Barrett, who Michael calls "Dad".
- Non-Action Guy: In contrast to Casey, he's a doctor with no combat training.
Casey Solomon
Seargent Casey Jeannie Solomon
A farm-raised Waste-caste young woman who becomes a Serf on Forever's authority when she stops a terrorist attack. She joins the Carlyle military, and after further distinguishing herself, becomes a member of the Dagger special forces team (soldiers who directly support Forever on her deployments). She is in a longtime romantic relationship with Michael Barrett.
- Action Girl: She joins the military due to her toughness, determination, and shooting ability.
- Action Girlfriend: To Michael Barrett.
- Badass Normal: She's no Lazarus, but she's got good enough instincts and action to get Forever's attention and recommendation for the Anvils. Furthermore, she's apparently so good that she gets recommended for the Daggers, Forever's special operations military force.
- Deceased Parents Are the Best: Casey's parents died of an unspecified illness when she was a girl, and she was raised by her grandfather Dennis, her only surviving family member.
- Determinator: Casey is nearly unstoppable when she makes up her mind to do something. Need to find a way through hundreds of miles of badlands filled with bandits in a short time frame? She'll do it. Stab her in the guts? She'll come after you when you walk away and kill you with the same knife. Put her on a Suicide Mission? She'll press on even after her Super-Soldier commander appears to die, leaving the mission even more hopeless than it had been before, and give it her best shot.
- Fiery Redhead: Casey Solomon certainly qualifies. She doesn't take crap from anyone (to the point of actually insulting Forever at their first meeting, though she didn't know who Forever was at the time), and her callsign is "Spitfire".
- Hero Worship: She's clearly come to feel this way for Forever, big-time, since their mission to retake Duluth. In fact, as Risen #4 shows, she's not even comfortable calling Forever by name, even after Forever asks her to. Basically, she seems to view Forever as her savior and seemingly refuses to do anything which could disappoint her.Forever: Knew you wouldn't let me down.Casey: No, ma'am. Not ever.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: She doesn't even bother to cover her foul mouth. Others swear rather often, but she's got more of them.
- Tattoo as Character Type: Casey, under the "Organizational Emblem" category. She has the Carlyle seal on her right bicep, and the Dagger insignia under her left collar bone.
- Took a Level in Badass: Casey has taken several. First, she went from being a tough-as-nails frontier farmgirl to a Carlyle soldier; then from Carlyle soldier to trainee Dagger (Forever's personal squad); and as of Risen, from Dagger trainee to full-on special-ops style efficient killer.
Family Bittner
Sonja Bittner
Sonja Bittner
The Lazarus of the Bittner Family, and a good friend of Forever.
- Amazonian Beauty: Sonja is definitely attractive by conventional standards. She's also quite muscular and very strong, strong enough to send Forever flying with a punch, or to perform a hip throw that sends the enormous Captain Mueller a rather far distance.
- Berserk Button: Do not insult her family or cause them harm. You won't live to tell about it.
- Beware the Nice Ones: It's sometimes hard to remember because so much of the time we see Sonja acting shy around men or coming off like an adorable little sister to Forever, but Sonja is a major ass kicker. She is nearly an even match for Forever, defeats and kills Cristof Mueller, a berserker about three times her size who is hopped up on a dizzying array of combat enhancing drugs, and as shown by her introduction, a normal soldier is just as helpless against her as against any other Lazarus.
- Guile Hero: She's not above tricking and taunting Captain Mueller into a rage to allow her to get the upper hand in a duel.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Of a sort. She's not above wounding soldiers rather badly, even from what could be her own side, but she's actually a very kind person who loves her family and gets embarrassed around flirting boys.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Of a sort with Forever.
- Mighty Glacier: Only in comparison to Forever. Forever tends to incorporate a lot of unorthodox and very agile movements such as flips into her fighting style, while Sonja is much more of a stand toe to toe and fight it out sort. Furthermore, her blade is considerably heavier and slower than Forever's. By any reasonable standard for a non-Lazarus, however, Sonja is a Lightning Bruiser and is ridiculously fast.
- Nice Girl: Don't insult her family, and she's actually very kind, no matter who you are.
- Replacement Goldfish: Serves as a replacement Lazarus for Forever after she was injured in battle, serving as her substitute on the Daggers.
- Tomboy and Girly Girl: The Girly Girl to Forever's Tomboy. See Forever's entry for more.
Sevara Bittner
Sevara Bittner
The head of Family Bittner and mother of Sonja.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: possibly. When an epidemic breaks out in her territory, soldiers with hazmat suits, firearms, and flamethrowers are sent to contain it. While not explicitly identified, who else could the belong to besides Bittner?
- The Ditherer: She takes a lot of time to consider Carlyle's offer of alliance. Too much time, as she is still officially Hock's ally when he needs to name a champion for a Combat by Champion against Forever and the Carlyle family. Hock, being the notorious Jerkass that he is, purposefully chooses Sevara's daughter Sonja to twist the knife.
- Meaningful Name: Played with. "Sevara" sounds like the English word "severe" which one would think would be associated with an Iron Lady or an Ice Queen, instead Sevara is known for being indecisive and her Family is considered something of a second stringer. However the name itself is an Indian name meaning "Sea Fairy" and the Bittner holdings include a lot of land on the Atlantic Ocean, and areas like Scandinavia that are historically associated with sea voyages.
- Neutral Female: She doesn't do much on the whole beyond shouting in fear for her daughter's life at the Conclave.
Family Morray
Joacquim Morray
Joacquim Morray
The Cyborg Lazarus of Family Morray.
- And I Must Scream: At the end of the Cull, he is forced to attack Forever and side with the Zmey, his body's programming keeping him from doing anything about it.
- Cyborg: Contrasting from Forever, he is partially cybernetic instead.
- Dying as Yourself: Possibly. He seems to be back in control of his body by the time he dies, but the Ambiguous Situation coupled with his I Cannot Self-Terminate begging for a Mercy Kill leads to him dying anyway.
- Freakiness Shame: He feels self-conscious about his cybernetic parts. At one point, he tells Forever that he was afraid that if he kissed her, all she would taste was oil and metal.
- Implied Love Interest: Though they don't really act on it much, he and Forever seem to have feelings for one another.
- Killed Off for Real: Is killed by Forever in Risen #2.
- Punch-Clock Hero: Seems to be a more run-of-the-mill Lazarus, only doing his job and not really caring about much else. It helps that his uncle seems to let him look around at the sunset and such without complaint. He also shows much less care about being a military commander than Forever does: notably, when a Sergeant for the Morray family disobeys orders in Volume 1, Joacquim randomly picks out a nearby soldier to be promoted to replace the sergeant, obviously not knowing or really caring if the person he chose is up to the task.
- Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Seems that way, anyway. Not that anyone but Forever seems to notice.
- You Are in Command Now: In Issue #3, Joacquim kills a Morray sergeant for defying his orders and promotes another soldier from the squad as the man's replacement on the spot.
- Your Head Asplode: Forever obliterates his head with a pipe in "Lazarus: Risen" #2, unable to be sure if he is in control of himself again.
Edgar Morray
Edgar Morray
Uncle of Joacquim and head of Family Morray.
- Cool Old Guy: He's an affable older man willing to show more respect and hospitality to allies or foes alike than simple diplomacy call for.
- Killed Off for Real: Along with all his wife, children, and second nephew in Risen #5, making Morray extinct.
- Kingmaker Scenario: Morray's military support or lack thereof can potentially tilt the balance in a worldwide conflict, despite the fact that logistical problems (particularly their difficulties in feeding their population, as Forever points out in volume one) means they can't look to conquer the world themselves.
- Nice to the Waiter: Of a sort. He's aware of Joacquim and Forever being friendly, and offers to have her join his family for dinner after she relayed a message to him.
Family Hock
Jakob Hock
Dr. Jakob Hock
A pharmaceuticals expert who lords over his subjects as the head of Family Hock.
- At Least I Admit It: Jakob is a monster, but he is fully aware of it and makes no excuses. Part of why he hates Malcolm isn’t just their bitter rivalry, but that Malcolm is just as bad, if not worse, and tries to cover it up with excuses or it being what he "had" to do.
- Big Bad: Of the Conclave War.
- Child Prodigy: In the field of biochemistry. According to background materials, Hock's older sister Leah, who was already held a deep interest in the subject, introduced him to the subject of chemistry as a young boy while he was homebound due to his health issues. The two sold their first chemical patent to Pfizer before Hock hit adolescence.
- Create Your Own Villain: Invoked by Malcolm Carlyle, as he finally realized at the Conclave and explains in Risen #7. Malcolm needed someone to counterbalance against him in the new world he was creating, so he pushed Jakob into position to be his villain, and did not care at all who he hurt to get there.Jakob Hock: Everything I’d done, everything I’d become, all to oppose you. I would turn left merely to spite you turning right, that was my hatred for you. You had me blind with it. Which is what you wanted. You needed a villain. You needed an enemy. So I became yours.
- Cult of Personality: Hock's drugs and propaganda have resulted in this. As Sister Bernard puts it, in Hock lands, Hock is the religion.
- Delicate and Sickly Hock nearly died of a respiratory infection as an infant, and his health was permanently effected by it. He was homebound throughout much of his childhood.
- Drugs Are Bad: Keeps his populace complacent through extensive drug regimens.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As a young man Jakob Hock was utterly devoted to his older sister Leah, nearly to the point of co-dependence. Her suicide at a young age nearly broke him. Or rather, Malcolm Carlyle murdering her and then staging it as one, which he learns in "Risen" #7.
- Evil Is Petty: Hock has no shame about taking actions or hurting people purely to satisfy grudges with no practical or pragmatic benefit resulting from it. The sourcebook section on Hock is full of this, recounting grudges with minsters and advisors that Hock has seethed over for years afterwards, resulting in alienating potential allies and valuable helpers for little reason. But pettiest of all might be the way Hock treated Quebec City, after capturing it and other Bittner territories in Canada during the Hock-Carlyle War. Quebec City was the original home of Family Bittner, even before the breakup of nations and rise of the Neo-Feudal Family system, and as such Bittner poured an extraordinary amount of wealth and resources into making it one of the jewels of their empire. Rather than taking it over and taking advantage of the city's resources and capabilities, Hock did his best to completely level the city, largely just to spite Bittner for siding with Carlyle.
- Evil Old Folks: He's just as old as Malcolm, but he doesn't have the longevity treatments barring the fact that he can more easily walk after his treatment of Jonah. He's also a monstrous dictator.
- Evil Overlord: Serves as a kind of Big Brother figure within his domain, completely ignoring non-serfs' existence (and thus giving Limited Advancement Opportunities), releasing manipulative propaganda to lie about the other families, et cetera.
- Friendless Background: Aside from his beloved sister, Jakob had a tremendously isolated background and all throughout his life he had few if any companions his own age. As the sourcebook says at one point, "Jakob Hock has no friends, and he wouldn't know what to do with them if he found some."
- Jerkass: Hock is rude, petty, vindictive, and will Kick the Dog just to make a point or twist a knife in someone.
- Just the First Citizen: He's only known as "Doctor Hock" by his subjects.
- Mad Doctor: This is him in a nutshell.
- Non-Action Big Bad: He doesn't do any fighting himself whatsoever, only underhanded poisonings and the like. A Justified Trope, considering he's an extremely old man and couldn't really fight if he wanted to.
- Playing with Syringes: When not drugging people, his "doctor" behavior amounts to this. For a key example, see what he did to Jonah Carlyle.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: Played with. While he isn't always soft-spoken, he does act that way when he's at his most monstrous.
- Sore Loser: His response to the fact that his participant in the Combat by Champion at the Conclave lost (particularly because he did not count it as a victory unless the winner killed the loser), is to declare war on Malcolm Carlyle and give him a dose of very dangerous poison.
- Tragic Villain: Hock’s choices were his own. His hatred for Malcolm Carlyle lead him to become Malcolm’s anthesis. A man who was ruthless, brutal, and built a system of chemical dependence and cult like worship to counter Malcolm’s feudalism. Hock actions have no excuse, and knowingly became a monster to avenge his sister’s suicide. The tragic part was not only him becoming a despot in order to fight the man who hurt his sweet sister. But in the end it was all part of Malcolm’s plan. Hock thought he was avenging his sister suicide. Not knowing that that Malcolm staged the suicide and leaked his affair with Abigail so that Hock would become his counterbalance in the new world. Hock thought his choices were his own, not knowing he was always part of someone else’s plan. Once it is all revealed, Forever and the Carlyle family are more on his side than Malcolm's in their conflict.
- Villain Has a Point:
- His criticism of Sevara Bittner for being a fence sitter who can't make a decision and his speech to the other Family Heads about how Malcolm Carlyle will probably never share the longevity treatment that the others so desperately crave both have a fair amount of truth to them.
- According to the sourcebook, Hock is the only faction in the world to reject Carlyle's neo-feudal model, and instead his territory is run as the closest thing to a modern nation state in the world of Lazarus. It's an absolutely horrific nation-state, considering that non-citizens effectively have no human rights whatsoever, brainwashing of the public through propaganda and drugs is an unquestioned everyday fact of life, the head of state has experimented with biological superweapons that caused enormous loss of life among his own people, and political enemies or anyone who outlives their usefulness can be turned into mindless drugged zombies forced into manual labor. All that said, the overwhelming majority of inhabitants of Hock territory are citizens with full and equal rights under the law, when in all other regions of the Earth the majority of humanity are Waste, with their station varying from being a few steps above slaves to actually being flat out slaves of that territory's Family. Furthermore, it's worth noting that Hock territory is run according to a written charter with guaranteed rights for citizens, including full healthcare and education, while in other territories the law of the land is essentially the whims and dictates of the ruling Family and their subordinates. So, it could be said that Hock runs his territory as a kind of enlightened dictatorship. Sister Bernard's interaction with Michael Barrett on the way to The Lift–where she was very surprised to see that Michael can read despite being born to a Waste family–speaks volumes about the state of education in Carlyle lands if you're not serf class or higher, and similarly the fact that Michael wasn't able to get glasses with the correct prescription until the Lift testing says similar thing about basic medical access. Hock's propaganda may contain all sorts of outrageous lies, but it's not wrong about the fact that, at least in certain ways, the quality of life for the average person in most other areas is lower.
- We Used to Be Friends: Long ago, he was childhood friends with Malcolm Carlyle.
Family Rausling
Cristof Mueller
Captain Cristof Mueller
The abrasive Lazarus of Family Rausling.
- The Berserker: Fights like one, for certain.
- BFS: Being German, he wields a zweihander (a two-handed sword similar to the Scottish claymore).
- Fatal Flaw: Wrath. He can get easily angered and thus lose control of a fight.
- Frontline General: Despite the fact that he's probably a higher rank than even Forever (albeit from a completely different army), he still takes the front in any and all conflicts. Unfortunately, this works to his detriment, as he was killed due to being in a position where he was fighting an enemy Lazarus and her support troops without having adequate support.
- Jerkass: He's an unrepentant asshole.
- Mighty Glacier: His combat style seems to rely on brute force more than anything, and he's tripped up as soon as someone can get around him.
- Off with His Head!: Sonja cuts his head off.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Seems to believe in a system of eugenics, as he refers to the wheelchair-bound Lazarus Li Jiaolong as a "genetic mistake".
- Psycho Serum: All of Mueller's Lazarus abilities come from drugs supplied by Jakob Hock. This isn't unique (Sonja Bittner was the same way), but Mueller's drug regimen wreaks far greater havoc with his temper than Sonja's. This could be either because he hasn't been a Lazarus as long as Sonja (in that she could perhaps be used to the effects) or Rausling had Hock customize his regimen to specifically invoke this outcome (as Li Jiaolong seems to imply).
- Up Through the Ranks: He was born to Waste parents and earned his rank in the Rausling military and eventual promotion to Lazarus purely on merit.
Luka Rausling
Luka Rausling
The head of Family Rausling and husband of Claudia.
- Defiant to the End: He doesn't beg for his life, only shouting at Joacquim and Sonja that Malcolm Carlyle will use and throw them away like anyone else. He's Killed Mid-Sentence for it.
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: Seems to indicate this to Sonja before she cuts his head off in revenge for what happened to her mother.
Claudia Rausling
Claudia Rausling
The wife of Luka.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Begs for her life before she is killed.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Joacquim stabs her through the gut.
Family Li
Li Jiaolong
Li Jiaolong
The cybernetically-enhanced Lazarus of Family Li. He has a frail and sickly appearance, and seems to focus primarily on enemy analysis and calculation.
- Asian and Nerdy: The cybernetic, Asian Lazarus whose cybernetics are given more focus than those of Joacquim.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: His analysis of the other Lazari at the poker game, especially Cristof Mueller, counts as this. See here for his analysis of the poker itself.Jiaolong: I do not cheat. I do not need to. You drew for the straight and ended up with garbage. This is the third time you've tried that and failed. You're a slow learner. And as far as that goes... Wening could have taken this hand, but she cut herself out of a full house when she discarded her seven.
- Cyborg: Has Electronic Eyes and a Machine Monotone, at least.
- Electronic Eyes: Which apparently have Stat-O-Vision.
- Handicapped Badass: Implied to extend even beyond his Awesomeness by Analysis and his ability to break and deconstruct a wrathful berserker like Mueller. After Jiaolong dresses down and humiliates Mueller, Zeferino Cardoso, the Lazarus for the house D'Souza, tells Mueller he got off very, very lightly.Cardoso: You have no idea how lucky you just got. You have no idea what Jiaolong can do.
- Machine Monotone: His speech pattern seems to be this.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: His Establishing Character Moment is one to Captain Mueller.Jiaolong: Now let's talk about you, Müeller. Cristoff, thirty-one, Waste-born, parents deceased, father unknown... selected for Rausling military service. Brought to the family's attention for merit while serving with Martins against Nkosi... selected Lazarus after six-month trial following the death of your predecessor, Caspar Wolf. I completed a spectrographic analysis of your perspiration and respiration over an hour ago. You're swimming in a soup. Three tocopherols, two tocotrienols, two sarms, all courtesy of Doctor Hock's benevolence... it's a lot of enhancement, at least for one kind of performance. It also accounts for your difficulty controlling your temper. I've also matched the traces of perfume on your skin and clothing... that combined with two of the other drugs in your system is... shall we say, suggestive. Shall I name the lady in question? Or would you rather apologize for calling me a plate of shit?
Family Vassalovka
The Zmey
The Zmey (The Dragon) / Semyon Stepanovich Morozov
The Vassalovka Lazarus, the man known only as "the Zmey" is more of a monster than a Super-Soldier, acting as a source of psychological terror instead of a force multiplier.
- Ax-Crazy: Far worse than even Cristof Mueller in that respect. He massacres tons of people, Eats Babies, and laughs while he does it all, with no real reasoning, chemical or otherwise, for what he does.
- Battle Trophy: Keeps the heads of those who tried to kill him as trophies. He has special places to put the heads of the Lazari already picked out.
- The Dreaded: Invoked by Vassalovka, as they deliberately use The Zmey as a weapon of terror and to demoralize the enemy. Malcolm points out that his attacks are aimed at simply causing as much fear in Vassalovka's enemies as possible, and that this trope is part of the danger of confronting the Zmey. Any attack on him that fails to kill him simply adds onto his legend and makes him seem even more like an unkillable Juggernaut.
- Dual Wielding: Dual wields an axe and a flail. He barely needs either one, due to his Super-Strength.
- Eats Babies: Is seen eating a baby in his very first appearance.
- Establishing Character Moment: First, before he appears, the first we see of him is the sheer carnage of one of his displays in issue 25. When he does appear in issue 26, the very first thing he does on panel is eat a baby from Atop a Mountain of Corpses, and he gets worse from there.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He had a beloved sister, Katerina. Unfortunately, that did not keep him from killing her along with the rest of his family when commanded by Vassalovka.
- Faster Than They Look: Thinking that this mountain of muscle who wields oversized weaponry must be slow is likely to be a fatal mistake.
- Hero Killer: When he's sent into battle, the first thing anyone thinks is run. Sir Thomas is killed by him, while Forever and Sonja barely escape with their lives.
- Hidden Depths: He's actually rather cultured, and fairly intelligent. He even feels for the plight of lesser houses (insomuch as he himself was once a member of one), but sees what he does as Necessarily Evil (though his Battle Trophy collection begs to differ).
- Hulk Speak: In battle, he speaks with single words that make out a sentence, one period after each each word. This seems to be a side effect of the process that gave him his abilities, since despite this way of speaking, he's obviously smart enough to respond to what's said to him, even taunting Forever during their fight. It turns out in Lazarus X+66 issue 6 that this is an affectation, and he is fully capable of speaking normally.
- I Am a Monster: Readily admits as much when pressed on it, but acknowledges that other Lazari are similar.Vladislav Maratovich Mstislavskiy: You are nothing but the vilest monster! Inhuman and cruel!
The Zmey: And what do you think a Lazarus is, Vladislav Maratovich Mstislavskiy, but a monster? Some pretend otherwise, to be sure. Some wear a pretty face and a comely form, but make no mistake, we are all of us monsters just the same. - The Juggernaut: He's a huge man and a nigh unstoppable and unkillable force on the battlefield.
- Lightning Bruiser: He's easily eight feet tall and so muscular that it looks like he bench presses Volvos, but still quick enough to hold his own against three other Lazari at once.
- Made of Iron: To a degree greater than most other Lazari. Thomas nails him with a direct hit from a rocket launcher, and it doesn't even slow him down.
- Names To Run Away From Very Fast: Crosses over with Only Known by Their Nickname. A "zmey" is a dragon in Slavic Mythology.
- One-Man Army: He's sent in to destroy. When Malcolm Carlyle figures out he's out there, he implies that when sending in Forever, Sonja, Joacquim, and Sir Thomas all at once, there is a danger he might end up killing four Lazari by himself.
- Playing with Syringes: In order to create the Zmey, Vassalovka combined practices and technologies from Carlyle, Hock, Meyers-Qasimi, and Minetta.
- Secret Identity: He is a formerly weak member of a vassal house to Vassalovka, something they had him kill his entire family to keep people from learning.
- Shadow Archetype: He's seen as a Lazarus if it were built to be a monster instead of a soldier.
- Smarter Than You Look: Despite his appearance he's really rather intelligent, even philosophical. He pretends to be otherwise in order to fit into the boogeyman image that Vassalovka wants and to get opponents to underestimate him,
- Super-Strength: Has it far and above any other Lazarus, to the point of being able to rip a man's head off with his bare hands and hardly any effort.
- Tragic Villain: He never really wanted to become a Lazarus at all. Vassalovka split apart his family and forced him, the weakest member, to become a candidate for their Lazarus process. He figures if someone manages to kill him, so be it, but nobody has managed it by the time of Lazarus X+66 issue 6.
- Where I Was Born and Razed: The first thing he was told to do after becoming the Zmey was annihilate his entire family in order to keep the secret of his identity.
Family Meyers-Qasimi
Alima Meyers-Qasimi
- Badass Adorable: Quite young and petite, in contrast to other Lazari, and her first appearance has her excited to meet Forever. She can also turn a Russian Special Forces team into mincemeat with with a word.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Although she's had very few appearances, she's also been portrayed as a very cute, enthusiastic, polite person. But when she goes up against a Vassalovka military squad, she takes them out quickly and brutally.
- Cyborg: Can control a cloud of nanite bugs to do work for her, looking akin to a cloud of sand.
- Dual Wielding: During the trial-by-combat, she is seen with two swords on her back. In the X+66 comic, she wields them to lethal effect against a militia group in Northern Africa.
- Fangirl: She's one for Forever, a fellow Lazarus.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": She squees at meeting Forever during the conclave.Alima: It is a great honor to meet you, Commander Carlyle.
Forever: I'm not sure honor is the wo—
Alima: But it is! I studied every Lazarus for my training, all of them. You are amazing!
Forever: No, I'm blushing.
Family Armitage
Thomas Huston
The Lazarus of the Armitage Family, who control the former United Kingdom and Ireland. He tends to take a nothing personal/professional soldier's approach to being a Lazarus, and definitely appreciates the ladies.
- Big Brother Mentor: Implied to be or have been this to a number of the other Lazari. Notably, at the conclave Forever says he is the man to teach Mueller how to calm down and learn the customs among the Lazari, and when Joaquim takes Forever onto the dance floor, (cutting into a conversation that Thomas and Forever were having), Thomas seems happy for them and raises a glass to them along with saying "Cheers, mate."
- Brain Uploading: The Armitage Lazarus is uploaded from one host to the next. After the death of the one to the Zmey, another came up who is more suave and is a Black man.
- Captain Ersatz: He's basically James Bond, if Bond stories took place in the future, and had an In-Universe explanation for why Bond's face keeps changing.
- Casanova Wannabe: He tries to put on a smooth front, but most of the women he hits on don't seem to appreciate it. His next body is more suave about it.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: His second body appears to be modeled on Idris Elba, which has to be some sort of Mythology Gag (not to mention quite hilarious) since Sir Thomas is basically James Bond and since 2008 there have been numerous rumors, (not to mention tons of fan debates, petitions, and campaigns) regarding Elba playing Bond.
- Friendly Enemy: He gives a speech about how only the Lazari can truly understand each other, and while they will kill each other if they are ordered to that's no reason to hold a grudge or to miss out on a chance to socialize with the only other people in the world who understand you.Sir Thomas: We may not all of us be friends, but we're the closest we've got. We're Lazari, and that makes us different from everyone else in ways they will never understand. We know our loyalties, same as we know the purpose we serve to our respective families. We may all be set to killing each other before this is over. We'll all do as we're ordered. Doesn't mean we have to like it.
- Off with His Head!: Is beheaded and killed by the Zmey.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: He is pretty chill about most things, including being quite casual about being in a combat zone, where he is putting more effort into trying to seduce the reporter accompanying him than anything else... until he sees the carnage left by the Zmey, at which point he becomes quite serious, commanding, and focused on business.
- Racial Transformation: The Lazarus after the one who was killed by the Zmey is a Black man, but still has the memories of his predecessor.
