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As DC prepares for their Dawn of DC event that spans 2023, Lazarus Planet: Alpha kicks off the series of single issues that help build the Lazarus Planet event. Written by Mark Waid and Gene Luen Yang, with art by Riccardo Federici, Billy Tan, and others, plus color by Brad Anderson, Lazarus Planet: Alpha picks up after the eruption of the Lazarus volcano. For background on this lead-in, check out Batman/Superman: World’s Finest 1-5, and Batman vs. Robin 1-5. Batman vs. Robin in particular details the lead-up to the eruption and the disastrous climate disruption that the characters face in Lazarus Planet: Alpha.

Lazarus Planet: Alpha features several of DC’s characters teaming up together to combat a massive magical ecological occurrence as a result of the aftermath of the Lazarus Volcanic eruption. There’s a heavy focus on the effects and attitudes about magic in the DC Universe. There’s also a slightly convoluted exploration of the ecological impact of messing with the balance of nature, but it almost just reads as an excuse to throw in Poison Ivy and Swamp Thing to the story.

Character-wise, Lazarus Planet: Alpha has some very interesting choices. All-in-all, I felt most characters were underutilized, outside of Damian Wayne, who takes the narrator position.

Damian Wayne is not my favorite Robin. Like many others, I haven’t loved the often whiny and spoiled character direction he’s been taken in over the past few years. Every time it feels he’s got some character growth, he regresses back to the spoiled brat first introduced in 2006’s Batman and Son arc, with few exceptions. I loved the development of his character for DCeased, and Lazarus Planet: Alpha presents a very similar version of that Elseworld characterization.

Lazarus Planet: Alpha allows Damian to interact with other DC heroes as a leader separate from his father. Batman’s injuries keep him from taking charge and it’s great to see him publicly acknowledge Damian’s skill and intelligence when he tells the others to follow his son. Of course, Damian is still a bit of a jerk, and when Black Alice and Monkey Prince talk about Robin’s stand-offish and jerk behavior, I laughed out loud. Hands down my favorite panels of storytelling in the issue (followed closely by Poison Ivy’s comment about everyone forgetting she has a PhD in Botanical Studies and sassing Talia al Ghul.)

I’m also a huge fan of Monkey Prince for multiple reasons. For one, I love Bernard Chang, who does the art on Monkey Prince’s books, and his passion for the character has been so clear, it makes me happy. Secondly, I have a personal history with the Monkey story, as I worked on Jamie Hewlett’s (Tank Girl) and Damon Albarn’s (Gorillaz) stage adaption of Monkey: Journey to the West in 2013. Seeing the references to the original folklore and how DC is tying it into this event is exciting not only because I know the story. It’s exciting because of the effort and thought that is present to bring in other cultures’ stories and link them with the DC Universe. As readers, it’s not uncommon to see a comic event bring in elements of classic fairy tales and mythology and twist them slightly to help create the comic’s story. But it’s uncommon to see folklore beyond the standard Eurocentric stories taking center stage in a major comics event. Lazarus Planet: Alpha is bringing the story of Monkey to a wide audience more directly than previous adaptations of the story. (Yes, I’m talking about you, Dragon Ball.)

If you’re not up to date on the lead-in to this event, it’s very hard to follow. For me, that tends to be a bit of a red flag. I think the most successful comic book events are ones that make a solid jumping in point to the brand. Lazarus Planet: Alpha does not fit that classification. It’s billed as a single issue that ties into other number 1 issues in the event, but it’s lacking the cohesiveness that makes a single-issue story stand on its own. I know it’s the first single issue of the event, but personally, I think it would have been better suited to make these stories into a mini-series of their own title rather than single issues.

Final verdict: If you’ve been following the Lazarus event lead-in, you’ll probably be very hyped about this next installment. If not, I suggest waiting until all the single issues are released because this event is screaming for a trade collection.