With the announcement of DC's newest event, "Lazarus Planet" comes potential game changers for the ongoing DCU. One of the featured stories will involve massive changes to the Earth's population. After a volcanic eruption covers the planet with Lazarus resin, the substance causes people to develop powers, or alters existing ones. However, a lot is still unknown about what exactly will be happening during the new event, and the resin's original power might come into play in a truly horrific way.
As confirmed in Harley Quinn #22 (by Stephanie Phillips, Matteo Lolli, Davvid Baldeon, Rain Beredo, AndWorld Design), despite the changes made to them over the last few months, Lazarus resin can still resurrect the dead. If so, then by blanketing the Earth in resin, it might cause a mass resurrection of the planet's deceased, adding an undead army to the chaos.
Harley Quinn Confirmed That Ra's al Ghul's Lazarus Resin Has Changed
The Lazarus pits have never been reliable, even in the best of times. However, after exposure to the Great Darkness and Nezha's recent interference, they have become so unstable that even the League of Assassins no longer wants to use them. The big fear was that the pits would not bring back the dead, but result in horrific changes to the revived person. Lazarus Planet certainly validates these fears, but on a scale much worse than anyone could have imagined.
However, when Harley was dropped into the pits, their original function still seemed to be working properly. She was successfully revived, but there seemed to be a violent shift in her personality as a consequence. In the past, it was not unheard of that usage of a Lazarus pit does caused someone to go temporarily insane. But in this case Harley was lucid and seemed to be relishing the idea of violence against the responsible individual. If that is the case, then any undead potentially brought back in Lazarus Planet might be inclined to kill at random.
DC's 'Lazarus Planet' Could be Affected by This Change
The changes that will come to the living are already one of the biggest questions going forward. However, if the dead come back as wekk, then it needs to be considered how that may take shape. After all, this isn't full immersion and the majority of Earth's dead are buried below the ground, so only a tiny amount of the already heavily dispersed resin could reach them. This in turn could result in only a partial resurrection. The DCU's Earth is a big place. If this does come true then the planet is about to get crowded very quickly.
Of course, there could be some beneficial consequences to all of this. The recently dead and/or murdered might be brought back. People with fatal wounds could be healed in the dispersal. These are some of the potential benefits if such an event were to occur. All of this hinges upon the resin retaining its restorative properties upon the eruption though.