Warning: SPOILERS for Harley Quinn #22Harley Quinn’s death and resurrection puts her among some of DC’s most iconic heroes. Harley has been growing in popularity for years: a fan-favorite character for her humor, her fraught romantic life, and her murky morality. But with one dip in the Lazarus Pits—magical water that has the power to heal and even resurrect—Harley Quinn has become part of a superhero tradition that includes Superman, the Flash, Jason Todd, and countless others.
Superheroes have been dying on the page practically since their inception, but the now-iconic hero resurrection trope became popularized in the 1990s with the Death and Return of Superman storyline. 30 years after Superman’s apparent death in Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding’s Superman #75, the event is still causing ripples both in-universe and in how creators choose to tell their stories. Since Superman’s return from the dead, countless DC heroes have rejoined the living, including heroes whose deaths had massive repercussions on the DCU, like the Flash’s death in Crisis on Infinite Earths and Robin Jason Todd’s death in Batman: A Death in the Family. Now DC readers have come to expect only temporary deaths, and part of experiencing a death in a superhero comic is then predicting when—and how—that character will return down the line.
Readers don’t have long to speculate when reading Harley Quinn #22 by Stephanie Phillips, Matteo Lolli, David Baldeón, Rain Beredo, and AndWorld Design, which sees Harley die and come back to life in the span of a single issue. The story, appropriately title “Who Killed Harley Quinn?,” frames itself as a murder mystery. In a flashback sequence, Harley is assaulted by a mystery attacker, but she dies of a gunshot wound before she or her best friend, Kevin, can see who attacked her. Kevin, Harley’s body in tow, seeks out the League of Assassins and convinces League member Angel Breaker to (successfully) use the Lazarus Pits to revive Harley Quinn from the dead.
With her death and immediate resurrection, Harley Quinn has officially joined the ranks of iconic DC characters like Superman and Jason Todd. In fact, this splash page wherein a screaming Kevin holds Harley’s corpse in his arms echoes two famous images from DC history: Batman cradling Robin’s body after Jason’s explosive death and Superman holding a dead Supergirl on the cover (by the late and legendary George Pérez) of Crisis on Infinite Earths #7. Since Harley has already returned from the dead—using the dangerous and unstable Lazarus Pits, no less—the question remains of what she will do with her second chance. Will she seek revenge on her killer, or will she continue on her path towards redemption?
Given Harley Quinn’s popularity, it was only a matter of time before DC decided to use her death for story material—but no one could have guessed she would return so quickly. But with her practically immediate return to life, Harley has become part of a long DC tradition of heroic resurrections. Surely fans will see the consequences of Harley’s dip in the Lazarus Pits—which famously cause instability in their users—and hopefully the resurrection trope will be used to its fullest and most emotional extent as Harley Quinn begins to solver her own personal murder mystery.
Check out Harley Quinn #22, available now from DC Comics!
