The following contains spoilers for DCeased: War of the Undead Gods #2, now on sale from DC Comics
DCeased has introduced some pretty twisted takes on classic heroes, with longtime fixtures of the universe being reduced to raving and ferocious figures. But even as the universe picks up the pieces from the Blighted-Ones spreading across Earth, another threat has revealed just how terrible it really is.
The threats within DCeased: War of the Undead Gods #2 (by Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Andy Lanning, Rain Beredo and Saida Temofonte) may be far more dangerous than anyone realized, as the Blighted-Darkseid gaining a Yellow Lantern Ring might not even be the worst of it.
Across the DC Universe, Darkseid is usually held up as one of the be-all, end-all villains; a force to be reckoned with, even by the universe's most powerful heroes. The God/King of the hellscape known as Apokolips, has been their timeline's most dangerous force in almost every incarnation. But in the world of DCeased, Darkseid was merely the vessel. In his attempt to use Cyborg as part of his plans for the Anti-Life Equation, Darkseid exposed himself to a destructive disease of the mind as the Anti-Life Equation turned into a sentient virus. Darkseid and Apokolips were seemingly destroyed at the beginning of the first DCeased storyline -- but DCeased: Dead Earth revealed the 4th World figure had survived as one of the infected Blighted-Ones.
DCeased: War of the Undead Gods has focused on his return, as the infected Darkseid quickly spread the virus to New Genesis, infecting the rest of the New Gods (and a newly arrived Supergirl) with the disease. The New Gods soon spread out across the cosmic, with Darkseid himself traveling with Supergirl to Sinestro's homeworld of Korugar. The advanced world was quickly wiped out, and Sinestro's attempts to counterattack only resulted in the death of him, his allies, and the corruption of Warworld. If anything, Sinestro only made the situation worse, as the Unliving Darkseid was able to lay claim to the Sinestro Corps Ring left behind by Sinestro in the wake of his demise.
What makes matters worse though -- even beyond the fact that a Darkseid empowered by a Sinestro Corps Ring and driven feral by the Anti-Life Virus -- is the effect it's had on the Mother Boxes. The sentient computers of the New Gods, Mother Boxes are an important function in the DC Universe. They can be limitless teleporters, impressive power generators, and even deadly weapons. But the Mother Boxes can also seemingly be infected and become Blighted Ones. Black Racer, the New Gods herald of death barely rescues Barda from being exposed to the Doom Tube created by one of the corrupted Mother Boxes; a portal that only the dead or Blighted can pass through.
The Mother Boxes have such power at their cores, even the New Gods weren't able to comprehend their full potential. If the Mother Boxes have been truly corrupted, then they could easily unleash their power on the rest of the universe. Doom Tubes alone could be a serious threat -- and the revealtion that they operate with the undead in other forms opens up the possibility that something like Nekron and the Black Lanterns could easily get involved. Darkseid and his corrupted Boom Tubes are an entirely different kind of threat than even the survivors of DCeased have encountered, and it could set the stage for some pretty brutal battles going forward.