WARNING: The following contains spoilers for DCeased: Hope at World's End #10 by Tom Taylor, Marco Failla, Rex Lokus and Saida Temofonte, on sale now.
The survivors in DCeased: Hope At World's End are finding their chances of surviving decreasing by the second. In previous issues, Wally West, Max Mercury, Jesse Quick and Bart Allen/Impulse did their best to slow the spread of the virus, but the techno-virus spread too much, and their efforts just weren't enough. As they try and figure out where they can take the survivors, Max proposes the team needs to find another Earth where the Anti-Life Equation isn't wreaking havoc. The Speedsters use the Cosmic Treadmill to rip a hole in space and go to a different Earth. Everyone is safe and the problem is solved, right?
As survivors were being processed to be taken to safe places like the Gotham Garden, the world is suddenly torn open and an infected Black Adam and Hawkman emerge with an anti-life army of the infected. Usually, these characters are at odds with each other, as will be seen in the upcoming Black Adam movie, but due to the infection, the anti-life equation has altered their personalities enough to make them forget their past battles and join together to lead an army against the survivors.
Hawkman, created by Gardner Fox and Dennis Neville, is a continuity nightmare to untangle. What's important here is that he and Black Adam have been at odds with each other on and off for a long time. For example, in Black Adam: The Dark Age, by Peter Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, Christian Alamy, Norm Rapmund and Nathan Eyring, the two have a brutal fight over Isis' Amulet.
So, why have these two enemies teamed up to lead an army together? The Anti-Life Equation. This is a mathematical formula that allows anyone who knows it to dominate the will of anyone. Created by Jack Kirby, the Anti-Life Equation was the driving force behind the 2009 DC event, Final Crisis, and it's the basis of the techno-virus that has decimated the planet in the DCeased series. The Anti-Life Equation works when the knower of it inserts the formula into people's minds, thereby establishing with mathematical certainty that life, hope, and freedom are all pointless. Those infected lose their sense of self and all individuality is erased.
Forgetting their previous animosity due to being taken over by the Anit-Life Equation, Black Adam and Hawkman are now united in their sole mission to infect the remaining survivors. Being two of the more powerful of the infected, Black Adam and Hawkman are natural choices to lead the infected army.
DCeased: Hope At World's End #10 ends with Black Adam flying through Atom Smasher, infecting him. Things look grimmer than ever as one of the survivors' most powerful allies was taken out instantly by Black Adam, and the main battle hasn't even begun. Just imagine what Hawkman and Black Adam can do by combining their power.