Take a look at any issue of Lazarus that’s been released so far and you automatically understand why Forever Carlyle deserves a shout-out in this article.  She’s the Family Carlyle's Lazarus-she’s chemically engineered and has the sole purpose of protecting the Carlyle’s at any cost. Issue #4 just came out on Wednesday, and Forever has her biggest moment in the comic thus far.  Her own brother and sister (technically, she’s not really their sibling since she is, after all, more or less a science experiment) betray the Family and send a missile after her and another Lazarus, Joacquim Morray.  The two Lazari are in the Sonoran Desert after they’ve negotiated between their own Families, and the missile leaves both Joacquim and Forever in grave danger.  To add to the mess, the traitors sent a unit of their own Family’s soldiers to finish the job.  They get Forever up off the ground and it looks like she’s about to have her head cut off.  She says that the soldiers have to listen to her since they work for the family, and Forever is higher up in command than her brother and sister.  One soldier listens to her and kills the soldier who’s about to kill her.  This gives Forever just enough time to pull out a pole that was lodged into her leg from the explosion and go to town on the soldiers with a little help from Joacquim.  From roundhouse kicks to the face to slicing multiple enemies’ throats at once, it’s all here.  The last soldier even surrenders and says that he was just following orders.  Forever doesn’t seem to care and puts his own sword through his neck.

Forever’s loyalty and her will to protect Family Carlyle at any cost make this book a very interesting read, especially considering she doesn’t know she’s not even really part of that Family at all.  She gets the hint to that in the last panel of issue #4, so we’ll have to see next story arc if she’ll still do anything for those that are just using her.  Not to mention the multitude of other things going on and the story/world created by Greg Rucka are brilliant.  Be sure to pick up the new issue if you’ve enjoyed the series thus far, and if trades are your thing, the first four issues are collected in a trade paperback and coming out next Wednesday, October 9^th.