“Can you hear that? The world is screaming.”

The great thing about comic books is that nothing is off limits inside their pages, especially when we’re talking about iconic characters from the worlds of Marvel and DC. We’ll surely never see a gory Marvel Zombies movie on the big screen (sigh), but we got that very five-issue limited comic book series back in 2005. And this year, DC has their own brutal horror series.

Just launched today, the six-issue event series DCeased brings a global pandemic into the DC Universe when Darkseid unleashes a techno-organic virus that infects the world’s networks and spreads to millions of people through anything with a screen. Those affected try to remove the virus from their minds by scratching and ripping at their own flesh.

But once the virus takes hold, they become rage-monsters. And no, DC’s heroes aren’t immune.

Written by New York Times best-selling writer Tom Taylor, DCeased #1 is now available at your local comic book shop as well as digitally through comiXology, and it kicks off with the Justice League defeating an invading Darkseid… or so they think. Unbeknownst to Superman, Wonder Woman and the gang, Darkseid didn’t come to Earth to conquer it but rather to kidnap Cyborg, bring him back to Apokolips and use his technology to create an “anti-life equation” (with the help of Black Racer!) that will allow him to control every sentient being on the planet.

Alas, the whole plan gets corrupted and, long story short, Darkseid himself gets infected; he then literally leaps into the world’s core and unleashes the virus on all of humanity. Through Cyborg, returned to Earth, the virus quickly spreads through cell phones and social media platforms, resulting in bloody chaos and the immediate infection of 600 million humans.

Humanity’s only hope is the Justice League, of course, and particularly Batman; humorously, as Batman and Superman’s sons note, the fact that Batman isn’t very social kinda-sorta makes him the perfect hero in a world destroyed by a virus spread through social media. But Issue #1 quickly throws a wrench in that plan with a bonkers final tease for the five issues to come.

I won’t spoil what happens in the last couple pages of DCeased Issue #1, but let’s just say that Taylor and the team are wasting absolutely no time in fucking up the DC Universe proper. The issue’s final image is a bloody, gruesome shocker that would make for one hell of a poster in the horror fan’s bedroom. If the first issue is any indication, literally NOBODY is safe.

Be sure to search for DCeased’s variant covers, many inspired by classic horror posters!