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Meet Xanthe, DC's latest supernatural hero from the Spirit World

An exclusive preview of Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1 introduces the new character

Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1
Image credit: DC

Move aside, Mr. 13 and the Phantom Stranger: DC has a new guide to the afterlife, and they’re making their first appearance in this week’s Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate one-shot… but you can get a sneak peek thanks to Popverse’s exclusive preview of “The Envoy.”

Xanthe was first introduced to the world via a tweet from editor Jessica Chen in November last year, with Chen teasing that they would “fight Chinese vampires with some help from Constantine and Cass Cain Batgirl.” That’s a fair summation of what happens in 'The Envoy, A Spirit World Story,' by Alyssa Wong and Haining, but it’s far from the full story — as you can see from the exclusive preview below.

Quite where Xanthe will appear next remains a mystery, but it’s worth noting the subtitle of 'A Spirit World Story' using here; Spirit World was a DC horror anthology published in 1971 featuring the work of Jack Kirby, Sergio Aragonés and Neal Adams. DC has a history of reusing classic titles in its back catalog for new series, most recently with Tom King, Mitch Gerads and Evan Shaner’s Strange Adventures mini — could a similar fate be planned for Spirit World at some point in the near future as part of the 'Dawn of DC'?

Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate is the latest in DC’s Lazarus Planet one-shots, and it introduces a number of new players to the DCU at the beginning of the Dawn of DC (there might also be a tease about a potential Batman-themed event later this year if you squint); Popverse has a sneak preview of three of them, including Circuit Breaker and the Doom Patrol. The one-shot issue is available February 14.


It’s not just the Doom Patrol that’s getting a makeover as part of the Dawn of DC; revisit what Tom Taylor and Nicola Scott had to say about the new Titans series.

Graeme McMillan

Graeme McMillan: Popverse Editor Graeme McMillan (he/him) has been writing about comics, culture, and comics culture on the internet for close to two decades at this point, which is terrifying to admit. He completely understands if you have problems understanding his accent.

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