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As Wonder Woman travels through the DC Animated Multiverse, she finds a version of Darkseid corrupted by the most destructive force in the universe.
WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Justice League Infinity #4, on sale now from DC Comics.
The comic book miniseries Justice League Infinity has continued the story of the classic animated series Justice League Unlimited and the DC Animated Universe. Expanding the scope to encompass the entire multiverse, Wonder Woman has found herself in a parallel universe that includes a drastically different iteration of the villainous New God Darkseid. And as the Amazonian superhero learns this Darkseid’s sad tale, she discovers that not even the Lord of Apokolips is immune to the corrosive effects of the powerful Anti-Life Equation.
Introduced by Fourth World creator Jack Kirby, the Anti-Life Equation is a mathematical formula capable of completely robbing mass amounts of people of their free will, leaving them susceptible to complete subjugation. Believing the essence of the Anti-Life Equation to be residing within humanity’s collective subconscious, it was Darkseid’s obsession to gain dominion over the Equation that repeatedly drew him to Earth. On a couple of occasions in the comic book universe, Darkseid succeeded in unleashing the Anti-Life Equation upon the DCU, forcing the heroes to scramble and overthrow the New God’s rule. And in Justice League Infinity #4 (by J.M. DeMatteis, James Tucker, Ethen Beavers, Nick Filardi and AW’s DC Hopkins) one universe’s Darkseid has fallen prey to the Equation himself.
As reality continues to fracture around Amazo and the Justice League, Wonder Woman arrives in a universe where this world’s version of Diana Prince not only caused Darkseid to declare a truce with Earth but also taught him the meaning of love as they entered an unexpected romantic relationship. However, a cataclysmic event left virtually all life in the universe wiped out, including this world’s Wonder Woman, leaving Darkseid as the sole survivor of this desolate reality. As Darkseid and the main DCAU’s Wonder Woman confronted an imposing figure bearing the form of Hades, Diana realizes this villain wasn’t the Greek god she knew from her own world, but the Anti-Life Equation given physical form, born from the subconscious and now tormenting Darkseid as the last two entities remaining in this universe.
In the main DCU, Darkseid learned of the Anti-Life Equation from the Martians, reasoning that if the Martians could live in harmony with a single, collective mind through the Life Equation, a powerful antithesis must exist somewhere in the universe. During Grant Morrison’s JLA run, Darkseid gained access to the Anti-Life Equation in an alternate timeline while the crossover event Final Crisis had Darkseid control the world through the Equation before being defeated by Superman and the Green Lantern Corps. The DC Extended Universe would have the Anti-Life Equation play a prominent role in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, with the Equation carved into Earth’s surface, leading Darkseid and Steppenwolf to target the planet in hopes of acquiring it.
The Anti-Life Equation has always been something of an obsession to Darkseid as the single object in the universe capable of giving him what he wanted: complete control over all sentient life.
In one universe, the Equation personified has become Darkseid’s worst nightmare and a remainder that as one of the more insidious forces in the entire DCU, the Equation may be beyond the control of any single figure, even a New God. And in this alternate universe, that mistake has cost this world’s Darkseid everything.
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