Spirit World is a six-issue miniseries by Alyssa Wong with art by Haining. It is published by DC Comics as part of their Dawn of DC initiative. It spins off from events in Lazarus Planet.
When longtime Batgirl Cassandra Cain gets stuck in the realm of spirits, magic user Xanthe Zhou teams up with John Constantine to bring her home. In order to do that, however, Xanthe will have to confront their own past and do battle with some powerful spirits.
Spirit World contains examples of:
- BFS: Xanthe's preferred weapon is a giant Chinese-style broadsword.
- Chinese Vampire: In the first issue, Cass does battle with jiangshi, the Chinese equivalent of vampires.
- Gods Need Prayer Badly: In the Spirit World, all status is derived from offerings from mortals. Spirits who get lots of good offerings can reside quite comfortably in the afterlife, but those who don't get offerings gradually fade away. This is what drives the Spirit Collective; Wan Yujing was a famed poet in life, but as so few remember her works in the present, she was on the verge of fading away forever.
- I Know Your True Name: Subverted; Xanthe's still-living parents try to bind them by using a spell that incorporates their deadname. This fails because that's not what Xanthe calls themselves anymore and thus considered isn't their true name.
- Spirit World: It's in the title; Cassandra Cain has become stuck in the Spirit World, where the spirits of the dead reside until they are forgotten.
- Wanted a Gender-Conforming Child: Xanthe's parents do not recognize them as nonbinary and try to bind them with a spell. This backfires, as the spell uses Xanthe's deadname, which is not recognized as their true name.
- Was Once a Man: At the heart of the Spirit Collective is a woman, Wan Yujing. In her lifetime, she was a famous and respected poet, and after her death, her spirit was sustained quite well on offerings from her admirers, but over the intervening centuries, she became forgotten and her status in the afterlife declined. She started the Spirit Collective in a last, desperate bid to sustain herself.
