Harley Quinn completes her next trial in this week's DC Comics universe... but she's got a more powerful adversary coming next: the former Suicide Squad star Enchantress, returned from the dead. Harley has been working her way through a series of trials to become DC's new cosmic goddess - and in Harley Quinn #60, she's up against an army of alien bugs!
She's trapped in S.T.A.R. Labs with the creatures, but (as with her other trials so far), she learns that there is more to the bugs than meets the eye. Instead of simply having to stomp her way through these latest enemies, she learns that they are being created by an alien that is held out of its own dimension, and what it really wants is to be returned home. Lesson learned, next jewel on her belt earned... but Harley's trials aren't over yet. The final panels of Harley Quinn #60 reveal something massive - that Enchantress is back, and she's got big plans for Ms Quinn.
As Harley wonders 'what's next' (silly Harley - hasn't she learned not to jinx these things yet?), the comic reveals a familiar, hooded-and-caped shape bursting up from the ground in flames. The Enchantress is back - and she is definitely packing some rage. She reveals "I burned in Hell, and they never came for me. June Moone burned away, but I survived. Now there is only The Enchantress. I will have my revenge on mankind, and my secret weapon will be Harley Quinn!" Looks like this next challenge is going to be a doozy.
DC fans will remember that Enchantress has been missing from the pages of DC Comics for the past year, since Suicide Squad #39. She, along with the rest of the Suicide Squad, was battling Amanda Waller when she met her end. This issue revealed that Amanda Waller's files on her Task Force X included how to kill them, and that includes how to create an interdimensional portal to send Enchantress 'back where she came from.' As a horrified Killer Croc watched, the woman he loved was ripped apart and dragged through the portal to Hell. Since then, Croc and the Squad have definitely been feeling her loss. But somehow, it doesn't seem like this return is going to make them any happier.
Enchantress' opening words reveal that while she is back, with all her powers, June Moone didn't survive... which means that all the power of the Enchantress is back in DC, without any mitigating, human, side to balance that out. That could be incredibly dangerous for all of DC - but it seems like Enchantress won't be unleashing her full powers right away. Instead, she's got a plan for Harley, and it's likely that this plan is going to involve pretended to still have June within her, to manipulate Harley into committing some kind of evil scheme. And we may even see Killer Croc return to get his scaly heart broken again. However, given the theme of the challenges so far, there may be a twist at the end of the next issue... we'll have to wait and see.
Harley Quinn #60 is available now from DC Comics.