Secrets of the Omniverse and Army of the Great Darkness (Justice League Incarnate Breakdown and Dark Crisis Theories)

Secrets of the Omniverse 

and the Army of The Great Darkness

Breakdown of Justice League Incarnate;

Dark Crisis Theories

I'm back!

This post is divided into 7 parts, feel free to read one at a time. 

This post is also available on Reddit.

First... 

Quick Recap:

    Joshua Williamson has been in charge of the greater story of DC Universe ever since the end of Death Metal and Future State lead to the current status quo of "Everything Matters" and the rise of the Omniverse. He's written two mini-series':

• Infinite Frontier 
• Justice League Incarnate

He's also made an upcoming final issue for the current JL series: 

Death of the Justice League

Which leads up to this year's big event: Dark Crisis

    He's done a great job picking up pieces from all over DC history and building a story that cohesively ties it all together. Everything from all the previous Crises, the Great Darkness Saga, the Great Evil Beast, Multiversity, the Metal Wars and so much more. For my previous in-depth reviews of those details along with my previously proven theories about Infinite Frontier (such as the return of the Empty Hand and Godhead Darkseid), see my previous post made after Infinite Frontier, though I'll do my best to recall them all here too of course.

I. The Origin of the Omniverse

"In the Beginning..."

As I've covered, Justice League Incarnate not only acts as a second act to Infinite Frontier but also finally gives us a sequel for Multiversity, with the titular team, the Empty Hand & Gentry, Multiverse-2 and even the return of Darkseid's Godhead all being paid off. It also introduces Doctor Multiverse, a Thanos analogue on Earth 8 and more.

It also gives another retelling of the birth of the DC Multiverse, which reconciles previous creation accounts from both Crisis on Infinite Earths and Multiversity:

A black Infinitude, an imperceptible burning light, and the darkness screaming as that light exploded into the multiverse.

"And then!" an imperceptible "Flaw" in the blinding light of purity that is the Overvoid, represents the Multiverse coming to be in what we would know as the Omniverse.

JLI #4 brings them both together here:

To sum it up:

• In the beginning, everything was nothing, an infinite black void of darkness. 
• The light of life (likely the same as White Light of the Life Entity) shines in the darkness and grows to become the pure "perfection" of the Overvoid.
• The "Flaw" or Multiverse is brought forth from there, turning the Overvoid into the canvas of fiction, the blank comic page where stories are drawn. Worlds and stories are made

From there we see the other previous Crisis events recalled from this new perspective, along with the recent saga by Williamson worked with Scott Snyder and James Tynion on that occurred over the two Metal events sandwiching No Justice, their Justice League run and Year of the Villain, officially dubbing it the "Metal Wars". Though Grant Morrison's Superman & the Authority referred to it as that on page first as Clark there recalls acquiring the Source Wall/Genesis Fragment after it, which is referring to Philipp Kennedy Johnson's Action Comics too.

There's a lot of history and cosmology being tied together here. It also of course plays into having a biblical element in the creation of the Multiverse too. Especially with how it handles the Great Darkness. 

Speaking of which, that leads to the next segment.

II. What is the Great Darkness?

"...and darkness covered the abyss..."

The Great Darkness or Great Evil Beast first appeared in Alan Moore's Swamp Thing, which we naturally also see called back to in that issue.

It's that primordial nothingness that existed before everything, when everything was nothing, before God said:

"Let there be light"

It's the opposite of the Presence/Source, the supreme being of everything.

Because it's not a "thing" in the same way everything else is, and is the opposite of a being that's supposed to be the ultimate source of good and creation, then naturally this Beast is the source of evil and destruction.

We see in JLI #4 that it was behind the fall and actions of many of the Multiverse's greatest threats, including: 

• Mobius the Anti-Monitor starting the first Crisis (COIE)
• Superboy-Prime's corruption (IC)
• Dax Novu's rise as Mandrakk the Dark Monitor (FC)

Something I briefly touched on beforehand, is that there are many "ultimate evil" characters in DC that follow the same pattern, to name three:

• Perpetua, one of the Hands tasked with creating Multiverses, rebelled against the Source, the supreme being of the Omniverse.
• Mandrakk was Dax Novu, said to be the greatest of the Monitors who as a race served Monitor-Mind, the consciousness of the Overvoid, which he essentially rebelled against after his corruption.
• Lucifer Morningstar, the devil himself, prince of darkness, was a former archangel who rebelled against the Presence.

These three were creations of the DC God, two of them being their best once, yet somehow they fell, became corrupted and each originated evil in their own way. Mandrakk specifically is confirmed by Grant Morrison to be an allusion to Lucifer, with the Monitor as angels and the Superman Thought Robot being Michael and here we now know that he, along with Prime, Barbatos and many others, was manipulated to doing so by GEB.

Really the Great Darkness was always there, and it just made so much sense for it to be true source of all evil, the Anti-Source if you will. It even first appeared in a story concurrent to COIE. Similarly, as I said before, I always had a theory that it was related to a certain character who also fits this criteria and was also once known as "The Great Darkness". Who is it you ask?

III. Darkseid is...(the Great Darkness?)

I already linked my previous Infinite Frontier post, but if you haven't here is the preceding Darkseid guide post to get in-depth context on how his "True Form", "Godhead", "Darkseid is", and all that stuff works. I've had a talk with u/declan5543 about Darkseid's relationship with the Great Darkness, how it works and all that. Here's an expansion of those thoughts.

• In Jack Kirby's original Fourth World saga, it was constantly implied that Darkseid was some sort of fundamental element of evil in the universe, the "Tiger-Force behind all things". Yet, Darkseid was also the son of Heggra and nephew of Steppenwolf. He feared a prophecy that his son Orion would destroy him. Now at the surface, there seems to be a contradiction here, one which you can probably guess is resolved by those above ideas (or that Darkseid is just full of it), but let's take a look at how Kirby's successors portray him.
• In Mark Evanier's, New Gods run, he leans more into this "human" side of Darkseid. We learn about his first wife Suli who he loved and lost, which JLI even called back to, as well as his father Yuga Khan.
• In John Byrne's run, we learn of his brother Drax and his past name of Uxas. "Darkseid" was a name in Apokoliptian lore, known to and feared by the brothers. Uxas stole the Omega Effect from Drax, taking "Darkseid"as his god name. In Walt Simonson's Orion, he's even vulnerable to Orion's use of the Anti-Life Equation and we again see his fear of Orion in general.

So what am I getting at?

"Darkseid is" everything the Great Darkness represents in a more personal form. In the end he too is an avatar of it, and  "Darkseid" the name, True Form and cosmic idea likely exists beyond Uxas (the "human"/alien god). Uxas is just the most common host, hence his emanations/avatars, in the Multiverse. But that is not to say Uxas is not Darkseid. "Darkseid is", and also he becomes one with it as other hosts and beings under the Anti-Life Equation do. Uxas the person himself may not exist outside of time, immaterial and constant, but he is in union with something who is. Again it's a dark theological parallel, see Hypostatic Union

"He is God from the essence of the Father, begotten before time; and he is human from the essence of his mother, born in time;"

There are actually many situations where Darkseid is not Uxas as well, whether temporarily or in other universes. These include:

• Kingdom Come and Earth 12 where Orion becomes Darkseid after killing him. The same almost happened to him in Simonson's run, and perhaps could happen now since classic Orion is back by the end of JLI. 

• Then there's Seven Soldiers, Final Crisis and Darkseid War, where Boss Dark Side, Dan Turpin and Lex Luthor each become hosts to Darkseid. Luthor is the one who retains his identity most when he took the Omega Effect but it's implied that he too was losing it as he calls himself Darkseid at one point. 

• Here in JLI he even takes a new host in the form of Ulrich Saxman, a DC comics Editor on Earth-33/Earth-Prime, trying to get Calvin Ellis and Dr. Multiverse to make him win for sales. His name is based on Uxas, just like Boss Dark Side is to Darkseid.

Lastly in the 30th/31st Century, we know he'll rise again known as titular villain in the LOSH story: "The Great Darkness Saga".. As of this writing, Brian Michael Bendis is doing a remake of it involving the League. It'll be interesting to see how that ties in. So, Darkseid is actually a part of the GEB too, yet for a time his "human" or "Apokoliptian" self seemed to have caused him to rebel which JLI shows. Now, with his Godhead reformed and all his fragmented power focused on one, he is his ultimate self. 

Yet he isn't quite its greatest avatar or pawn...

IV. The Empty Hand of the Great Darkness

    The Empty Hand was created to be the ultimate threat to the DC Multiverse and act as the metaphorical representation of us the comic readers' empty hand or apathy after discarding a comic book. He was the leader of the Gentry, the big threat in Multiversity. He was behind the corruption of Nix Uotan into a second Dark Monitor (like his father before him), and even the resurrection of Darkseid on Earth-51. He destroyed a universe and turned its Earth into an Oblivion Machine, and was feeding on Multiverse-2.

    Here he returns and it is revealed that he is the Hand of the Great Darkness. In many ways he's the opposite of Perpetua. She was a former Hand of the Source, tasked with creating Multiverses and rebelled by trying to corrupt, everlasting one. An evil perpetual multiverse. TEH is the Hand of the GEB, and is tasked with the ultimate end of everything, to finally end the never ending story that is the Omniverse by finally closing the page forever.

    There have been previous theories that it was the true reason for the New 52, which Multiversity implied. Rebirth even shows a hand reaching out and changing the timeline. That ended up being Dr. Manhattan, and now we know The Empty Hand is the reason he arrived in the DC Multiverse in the first place (as I theorized). Rebirth also has Wally allude to a war between light and dark. Death Metal arguably could've been what that became, but this fits too. Especially now that The Empty Hand initiated the formation of an army of Dark villains that all reality would fear too take on.

V. Crisis: The Army of Darkness

We've known for a while now that a bunch of the Great Darkness' avatars will be playing parts in the next big event, and with the announcement of DotJ and Dark Crisis we know them as the Dark Army, a collection of dark villains(?) that each could challenge the League by themselves already.

I've covered some of them before at the end of the IF series but some new faces have come up too, and Pariah is also confirmed to be in league with the GEB, acting as its second in command. There are also two questionable characters who may or may not be part of the army. 

I've already covered The Empty Hand and Darkseid  a lot so let's break down the others one by one.

Doomsday

• Probably the weakest one here (not counting Deathstroke), which says a lot about the others. Doomsday's power and adaptations have fluctuated over the years in-between deaths and reboots. Rebirth Doomsday (as seen in Jurgens' AC and Tynion's 'Tec) seems to be mostly back to basics, though stronger and smarter than originally. The GEB could've gave it back its strongest abilities but if not, the timeline doing an Anti-Reboot could have too, just like it helped restored Darkseid's godhead. It doesn't seem to have sentience like it did when he was brought back by Lex after Imperiex destroyed him. He could just be an easy mindless living weapon for for the army.

Ares

• With Diana's prominence in Death Metal and Infinite Frontier #0, and her coming close to godhood in those stories, it makes sense he'd be here. As the Greek god of war, he'd benefit from the conflict arising and joining this army. Ares is also no stranger to having darkness related powers, and was a major villain in the Genesis event when the Source Wall broke for the first time because of the Godwave returning. There he rebelliosuly broke the alliance between the god, killed Highfather and was trapped in the Wall after.

Eclipso

• Once the first agent of the Presence's Wrath and the cause of the Great Flood, Eclipso is another fallen angel, trapped in a Black Diamond known as the Heart of Darkness. He was the big villain in a recent arc of Jeremy Adams' Flash run where the Spectre told Wally God was proud of him (good for Wally). This was apparently before the Quintessence were killed.

Speaking of which.

Spectre?

• The first questionable character is the Spectre, Eclipso's successor. The non-human side of the Spectre was once Aztar, a fallen angel who approached Michael and asked for forgiveness. To atone for his rebellion, he was stripped of his identity and became the new embodiment of divine vengeance. Perhaps the Great Darkness was able to take hold of Aztar after his defeat? Hopefully he gets restored back to the light. Jim Corrigan originally came to peace at the end of John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake's run, and later refused to return (which is how we got Hal Spectre). He deserves his rest and happy ending IMO. Maybe Crispus Allen will come back?

Neron

• Another fallen angel and this time an actual lord of Hell. Pretty obvious choice to be here. He's recently appeared in the latest Shazam run. Definitely the most literal devil-figure on this team.

Nekron

• The big villain of Blackest Night and a lord of the dead, he's another obvious choice. BN also references the darkness before creation and it makes sense that it would connect to the Great Darkness. Darkseid had the power over a Black Lantern ring in IF, which hinted at that too.

Upside Down Man

• A newer primordial dark magic villain that has ties to the Dark Multiverse and is the breakout villain of Tynion's Justice League Dark. It was inevitable that it would come back. I wonder how much magic and Dark Multiverse elements would be involved here.

Deathstroke?

• Although not seen as a soldier among the army, Slade's front and center in this event and is currently a big part of Shadow War. He could have direct connections to them as well. Even Flashpoint Beyond pointed out how prominent he's been with his new criminal empire and his imposter that started a war with the League of Assassins. The newer generations definitely have their hands full with his new Secret Society before taking on the Great Darkness.

VI. Legacy: The Five Generations

"...and this light was the life of the human race..."

The whole Infinite Frontier saga so far has a large emphasis on legacy and history.

We also know the five generations now too.

1. Gen 1 - Original JSA members
2. Gen 2 - Classic JLA members
3. Gen 3 - Titans 
4. Gen 4 - Young Justice
5. Gen 5 - Newest Gen

5G was averted, but some are afraid it's only delayed and it's happening now anyway. Rest assured, Joshua Williamson has confirmed Dark Crisis will not be messing with any of the current ongoings like Philipp Kennedy Johnson's Action Comics, so Clark will be fine/back. As for Bruce, he's getting new superstar creative teams for both Batman and 'Tec, so he's not going away either.

    As for what's actually happening to the League, they could still die and get resurrected, but from solicits the previous theory of Pariah trapping them in dream worlds (Infinite Tsukuyomi style) just like with Barry will be the case. It seems like it'll deal with a lot of things unaddressed as well, such as Clark losing Jon's childhood. This also again reminds me a lot of Tom King's Mister Miracle mini, which I always thought of as an Anti-Life/Omega Sanction world. Pretty sure Scott and Barda are still missing so this may be how they return too. I wonder if Shilo Norman and the new Lightray (apparently dead but may be resurrected) on the Authority could be involved. To defeat the Dark, the newer generations would have to get through and bring them back to the light. 

While there are 5 generations, the fifth isn't the only one getting the spotlight, and the first 2 aren't going to be gone forever. This is a chance to celebrate some of the best aspects of DC comics: its eras and generational history, and it does in a way that rewards everything in the past and building for the future.

Of course, we've seen this tried out before with Rebirth, Doomsday Clock and the Metal Wars, but this is also building off of those taking their best aspects and learning from mistakes, which leads me to the final segment:

VII. The Divine Continuum

I haven't covered much of it, but Flashpoint Beyond is also happening concurrently. It's not only a sequel to Flashpoint, but to Doomsday Clock, Infinite Frontier and Justice League Incarnate too. 

• DDC - Mime and Marionette are back, Jenny Slater's watch is involved and the Time Masters are now involved. 5G being averted and Prime Earth being called the Metaverse is called back to. 
• IF - Pyscho Pirate disappeared in the end of IF and came back here, making this the new event he was talking about.
• JLI - Thomas was apparently destroyed by Darkseid's Omega Beams, but here's here and he remembers everything. 

This could be another Omega Sanction situation again, like with Shilo, or the Metaverse could've created another new copy Earth like Earth-1985. Why not just kill him? Darkseid's had history of his Omega Effect sometimes working randomly without his control, dating back to the Forever People's first encounter with him. This could be the will of the Great Darkness. 

It's also here that we get an interesting diagram of the 

Divine Continuum. 

Under Space is the Omniverse, and under Time is Hypertime. 

I actually discussed both these concepts in a post before along with the Metaverse. 

To cover all of it and explain in this new context:

• Hypertime holds timelines of alternate versions of one universe. With Future State and Futures End, we also know timelines exist in Hypertime that include their own alternate Multiverses too since a Multiverse has its own timeline of events. It looks at reality on the basis of time and events and how they align and alternate, with timelines converging and diverging. So it makes sense that Hypertime here exists adjacent or complementary to the Omniverse.
• The Omniverse on the other hand is all about space, looking at worlds like they're places. Think of it this way, Omniverse is like a continent, a Multiverse is a country and a Universe is like a city. The Metaverse is the Capital City and changes to it, changes the whole nation. Here it seems "Multiverse" also refers specifically to the collection of Earths/normal universes ("Orrery of Worlds"), with the Sphere of the Gods and Dark Multiverse being above or separate.

It's an interesting way to look at how DC cosmology works, and now the Totality of reality can literally be called "DC". 

Speaking of Totality, the new team from the end of IF has yet to explore both of the new centers of reality and they still have a mission too prevent more reboots. Perhaps they'll learn about this "Divine Continuum" and describe it more thoroughly there too, especially with the Great Darkness threatening it all.

"Everything Matters". I know many have been less than happy as I am with the last events, and I got my start here talking about that, but I really do think, everything actually is very connected. At least more than they were last time. I guess time will tell if I'm right. Either way though, DC will survive like it always has and the Resurrection of the Justice League is practically guaranteed so there's nothing to worry about there. I'm hopeful and hyped for what's coming.

Happy Easter Sunday 

"...the light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness has not overcome it."