This is how Justice League #45, out today, begins. It’s a bit of an understatement.


Spoilers, of course.

So, if you’ve been following along with the “Darkseid War” arc in Justice League, you’ll know that issue #44 ended with something that’s been in the planning for quite a while in DC’s comics: Darkseid himself bit the dust.


Usually, the defeat of one of their strongest and most regular opponents would cause the Justice League to be a bit happy. But things have gotten incredibly weird over the course of “Darkseid War,” mainly because the Gods of DC’s universe have been dropping like flies, only to have their mantles taken by the various members of the League. Batman has already become even more of a smarty-pants by becoming the God of Knowledge, and the Flash, who was used to kill Darkseid, has been merged with the Black Racer... making him the new God of Death.

That’s not all this week though. As the team tries to figure out what the hell happens in a world without Darkseid, various other League members end up having divinity thrust upon them. Seriously, this is like an Oprah Winfrey-level of deity handouts. “Look under your seats everyone! You get a godhood! You get a godhood! And you! And you!”


Superman, the new God of Strength, beats the ever-loving crap out of Lex Luthor, just because he can—and leaves him bloodied and near-death on Apokolips, Darkseid’s former domain. Shazam, for seemingly little reason, gets turned into the God of Gods, which I’m not even a sure is an actual thing. But hey, it’s not like the rest of this issue is anything but full on craziness.


Justice League #44 saves its best bit of madness for last, though. The battered Lex is picked up by a group of people on Apokalips looking for the next vessel to absorb Darkseid’s “Omega Force”—basically the energy that gives him all of his power. The implication was that they were looking for Superman, but Lex basically bullshits his way into fulfilling their prophecy, and then this happens:


Yup. Lex Luthor is basically Darkseid 2.0 now. How is there still another half of this storyline to go? It’s blatantly obvious at the moment that Justice League is telling a story that wasn’t part of the status-quo shuffling of “DC You”,but this is sort of crazy. Maybe in the best way, maybe in the worst—it’s tough to tell among the Godsapalooza of Justice League #45.

It sure is fun to read for now, though.