Lazarus Planet is a Winter 2023 event from DC Comics. It is a spinoff of Mark Waid and Mahmud Asrar's Batman vs. Robin, serving as an interlude between its penultimate and final chapters. The event also acts as a bridge between the conclusion of Dark Crisis and the launch of Dawn of DC, serving to set up plot points and characters for the latter.
During the events of Batman vs. Robin, the Demon Nezha sought to gain control of Earth's magic and fuse it with the Lazarus Pits. Bruce and Damian Wayne, who were caught up as pawns in the demonic scheme, attempted to stop Nezha... but things didn't quite go according to plan.
That climactic confrontation resulted in the destruction of Lazarus Island. This in turn triggered a volcanic eruption that spread Lazarus Resin all across the globe. In addition to the expected ecological damage, the Resin's mystical properties are wreaking complete and utter havoc with the scientific and magical corners of the DC Universe.
With the Justice League having disbanded during Dark Crisis, and magic still compromised thanks to Nezha, Damian will have to step up to coordinate the heroic response, contain the fallout, and take stock of this brave new world.
Prelude
- Batman/Superman: World's Finest #1-5
- Batman vs. Robin #1-4
- Monkey Prince #9
Main Story
- Lazarus Planet: Alpha #1
- Monkey Prince #10-11
- Lazarus Planet: Assault on Krypton #1
- Lazarus Planet: We Once Were Gods #1
- Lazarus Planet: Legends Reborn #1
- Lazarus Planet: Next Evolution #1
- Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1
- Lazarus Planet: Omega #1
- Batman: Legends of Gotham #1 note
- Batman Vs. Robin #5
- Lazarus Planet: Revenge of the Gods #1-4
- Wonder Woman #797-798
Tropes Featured Lazarus Planet:
- Apocalypse How: Class 1. The volcanic eruption that's spread Lazarus Resin is causing ecological catastrophes in the form of superstorms. The mystical nature of said superstorms is also overloading basic technologies (digital, mechanical, etc.). Naturally, global society has been thrown into chaos and is inching closer to a Class 2.
- Arc Welding: In addition to helping set up Revenge of the Gods, the Shazam! story from We Once Were Gods also ties together Shazam Family-related threads from Tim Sheridan's Teen Titans Academy and its Shazam: To Hell and Back spinoff, Doc Shaner's Mary Marvel-centric New Champion of Shazam!, and Christopher Priest's Black Adam maxi-series.
- Back from the Dead: Though hinted at back during Flashpoint Beyond, Next Evolution officially resurrects Ra's al Ghul.
- Big Bad Ensemble: King Fire Bull and the Devil Nezha both serve as the main antagonists of the event, as their millennia-old rivalry threatens to spill over and endanger the entire planet.
- Bittersweet Ending: King Fire Bull is shut down and imprisoned by the Spectre, whose magical power (along with other mages) has been restored. However, Black Alice is Faking the Dead after using her powers to restore the others. The damage done by the Lazarus Storm can't be undone and, unknown to Damian, Nezha is in possession of Batman's body, setting the stage for Batman vs. Robin's finale.
- Body Horror: Quite a few, including the merged Batman and Nezha, and Doomsday trying to grab purchase on the Martian Manhunter.
- The Bus Came Back: Zodiac Master, a wanna-be villain that only showed up once in the DC Rebirth era over in Batgirl and the Birds of Prey series returns in Dark Fate
- Covers Always Lie: The cover for We Once Were Gods features Yara Flor, who doesn't appear at all in any of the stories on the issue.
- A Day in the Limelight: For the magical corner of the DC Universe. The event also serves as a showcase for DC's B and C-list characters (ex. Blue Devil, Zatanna, etc.), setting up new status quos for them going into 2023.
- Demonic Possession: A variation. The prologue reveals Bruce and Nezha have been fused together following the events of Batman vs. Robin #4.
- Enemy Mine: Because King Fire Bull is a threat to everyone, villainous magic users fight alongside heroic ones to stop him.
- Face–Heel Turn: The Wizard Shazam has totally flipped his lid at the end of "The Price of Eternity" as Billy taking in the Rock of Eternity has locked him out of it.
- Grand Finale: Revenge of the Gods serves as the climax of Wonder Woman (Infinite Frontier).
- Heroic Sacrifice: In the We Were Once Gods story "Songs of Pain", Raphael Arce attempts to use his brand new Empathic Powers, but accidentally enables the remaining memory of Doomsday to try and find purchase in his body. Even the Martian Manhunter can't stop him. Arce pushes his Empathic Powers to the absolute limit, trapping the memory of Doomsday inside a crystal that was once Arce's body.
- How We Got Here: Monkey Prince #10 explains how Supergirl got to the Hall of Justice and called in help, as well as revealing her changing powers.
- Humiliation Conga: Jon goes through this in his story in Assault on Krypton as he has to babysit a thief while dealing with his powers going wonky. When he thinks the thief has lost his powers and is going to go to jail for his crimes, it turns out he lied and stole Jon's cape in the process.
- Instantly Proven Wrong: Mercy Graves tries to warn Lex Luthor from standing in front of the windows as the storm in Metropolis gets worse, especially with them up top on Lexcorp Tower. Luthor's nonplussed - the windows are reinforced for these things. A split second later, Mercy saves Luthor from a bolt of lightning that shoots through.
- Interquel: More or less, as again it's serving as an interlude between the penultimate and final issues of Batman vs. Robin.
- Kryptonite Factor: Supergirl experiences an ironic variation/inversion. Thanks to Lazarus Resin exposure, solar radiation now weakens Kryptonians rather than empowers them.
- LEGO Genetics: In Next Evolution, Amanda Waller reveals that this is what's going on with the Lazarus Rains: the rains are breaking down Metahuman DNA and rebuilding it into something new.
- Mass Super-Empowering Event: Played straight with global exposure to the Lazarus Resin empowering non-Metahumans (such as Mercy Graves). Zizagged with existing heroes, who are finding their own abilities either augmented or thrown out of whack thanks to the Lazarus effect.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The Justice League's decision to disband at the conclusion of Dark Crisis backfires here, as the hero community is now without the disaster relief and coordination structure the team normally provides.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: Though the Lazarus Storm gets quelled and the stolen magic restored to the rightful owners, the people the storm empowered or altered remain that way, and magic itself may behave differently from such drastic tampering.
- Post-Modern Magik: Mercy Graves gets transformed into a transforming cyborg by exposure to the rain and then physical contact with one of Lex's Warsuits.
- Power Incontinence: Thanks to the Lazarus Rain affecting everything, a lot of heroes are having their old powers crap out on them or their new ones causing problems. A few examples:
- Supergirl's Kryptonian powers seemingly now only work in the dark, with sunlight weakening her.
- The Firestorm Matrix now ages up the one it joins up with.
- Ragtag Band of Misfits: Without the Justice League, Supergirl is forced to call in anyone who gets her message, leading to Mary Marvel, Power Girl, Cyborg, Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes), Blue Devil and Zatanna to join her and Monkey Prince with Damian, Bruce, Talia and Black Alice literally crashing in soon after.
- Sequel Hook:
- Power Girl's story (and the changes to her powers) in the Assault On Krypton one-shot will continue directly into Leah Williams' backup feature in Action Comics #1051-1053. Similarly, Jon's own story and changes continues into his upcoming title Adventures of Superman: Jon Kent.
- The Wonder Woman and Shazam! stories in We Were Once Gods lead into the Revenge of the Gods mini-series, while Aquaman's story suggests a brand new Aquaman title is coming during Dawn of DC.
- Revenge of the Gods will in turn lead into Mark Waid and Dan Mora's Shazam! (2023).
- City Boy's, Xanthe's and The Vigil's stories continue in the Dawn of DC initiative "We Are Legends"
- Firestorm's stories seem to suggest more with them in the Dawn of DC era.
- The Doom Patrol story from the Dark Fate one-shot will likewise continue directly into Dennis Culver's Dawn of DC relaunch. The Huntress' story seems to set up the partially unveiled "Knight Terrors" event, Circuit Breaker's story continues over in DC Pride 2023 and Envoy's continues in Spirit World.
- Start of Darkness: King Fire Bull was originally Red Boy, an orphaned god who came to Nezha after Darkseid murdered his parents. He trained under Nezha until he unwittingly discovered a Mother Box, sending him to Apokalips. Red Boy tried to battle Darkseid and was joined by Nezha before Darkseid revealed Nezha's role in his parents' deaths and he tried to kill him, only for Nezha to turn against him and strike him down. As a god, Red Boy can't be killed so easily, so he came back and absorbed his parents' magical powers, becoming King Fire Bull.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Justified (and lampshaded by Damian in the Alpha issue). The Justice League disbanded at the end of Dark Crisis, leaving the global heroic response handicapped as everyone struggles to contain the damage on their ends.
- Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: Red Canary is a struggling college student who would rather fight off threats than go to classes. This puts her in contrast to her buddy Sideways, who would really rather not miss his trigonometry test.
- Zombie Apocalypse: In Wonder Woman's story in We Were Once Gods has Lazarus Resin causing Hades releasing its dead, causing enemies of the Amazons to head for Themiscyra to exact revenge.
