SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Justice League of America #17 (and DC Comics greater Rebirth storyline), on sale now.


Steve Orlando and Ivan Reis' conclusion to the "Panic in the Microverse" storyline not only confirmed <"/tag/justice-league-of-america">Justice League of America's unexpected connection to the central mysteries of DC Comics' Rebirth, it also hinted at how precisely Dr. Manhattan was able to so fundamentally rewrite the laws of the universe. Issue #17 also saw a legacy passed down from one hero to another, and suggested the imminent return of another team of heroes, in an issue packed full of action, resolution and setting the stage for the next big battle.

Dr. Manhattan and The Krona Connection

Longtime DC fans will have encountered at least one, and possibly several, variations of the Krona myth. Krona was a scientist, one of Oa's Guardians, who was obsessed with probing the origins of the universe. The other Guardians warned him against his hubris, but nevertheless Krona built a cosmic viewer to witness the beginning of time. Where he saw…

… a hand emerging from the void.

Cataclysm immediately followed, and Krona was banished. From there, the legend changes depending on who's telling the story (in some versions, it turns out the hand is Krona's), but when Krona appears in anything but a flashback, he's usually presented as a mad god.

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Relevant to the current issue of JLA, though, is that this origin myth features prominently in Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC's original universe-shattering epic. In the classic series by Marv Wolfman and George Perez, part of the Anti-Monitor's plan involves being there at the dawn of the universe so that his is the hand Krona views, and thus all of creation can be remolded in the Anti-Monitor's image. This scheme is thwarted by the Spectre, who arm-wrestles the Anti-Monitor to a draw at the dawn of time.

The suggestion here, then, is that Dr. Manhattan has succeeded where the Anti-Monitor failed, and reaching his hand through the void on a quantum level -- as well as, perhaps, at the beginning of the universe, since he can time travel -- is what allowed him to create the New 52 universe.

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Atoms Splitting

Speaking of succeeded where his predecessor had failed, after Ryan "The Atom" Choi takes down the villainous Dr. Aut to save the microverse, Ray "The Atom" Palmer gives the younger scientist a heart to heart talk acknowledging his unconventional heroism. Ray officially passes the torch, as well as a shiny new costume to replace the battle-damaged armor, to Ryan to continue his legacy as the Atom.

Palmer admit that, though he created the Atom persona, Choi "perfected" it. For his part, Palmer announces his plans to remain in the microverse with Preon, mapping the connections between realities. He has discovered evidence that another scientist is stranded in the subatomic world, one Dr. Jay Abrams of a world called Angor. Though Ray doesn't know it yet, on his world, Abrams is better known as Blue Jay.

Blue Jay is a member of a team of heroes variously known as the Champions of Angor, or the Justifiers, created as analogues to Marvel's Avengers -- Dr. Abrams' character maps to Yellowjacket, Hank Pym's alias at the time. The world of Angor is also home to the Extremists, a Lord Havok-led team of villains that recently made its Rebirth debut in this very title. Ray Palmer's offhand mention would seem to indicate that Angor's heroes Blue Jay, Wandjina and Silver Sorceress may be soon taking the stage, as well.

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The arrival of Angor's heroes would track well with Orlando and Reis' pattern of drawing from all eras of Justice League comics, but especially the early Giffen/DeMatteis/Maguire years. Though Blue Jay and company were created back in the '70s, their most prominent appearance was in the first arc of 1987's Justice League. In that storyline, he, Wandjina and Silver Sorceress were survivors of a dead world, making the voyage to ours to prevent a repeat of the nuclear disaster that doomed their planet -- saving humanity whether we like it or not. Re-introducing these characters via a scientist's journey through the microverse may suggest that Blue Jay and company may once again have multiversal ambitions, though this time with a focus on science.

Prometheus Unbound

Finally, the JLA's next big villain is revealed. Afterthought, it turns out, is merely a harbinger for Big Bad Prometheus, who mentions that he has a "new body" and "new brain" as a result of injuries sustained in Orlando's Midnighter series.

Prometheus, too, has seen his ups and downs through the years, but some of his most famous stories are his first. Created by Grant Morrison as the anti-Batman, Prometheus' criminal parents were killed by police, and so he has honed his body through technology to wage a one-man war against justice. After an origin story in 1998's New Year's Evil: Prometheus special, the villain had his first confrontation with the League in Morrison and Howard Porter's JLA #16 -- where he claimed a decisive victory over the heroes until Catwoman, in disguise, cracked her whip between his legs.

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Later, Prometheus was responsible for murdering Red Arrow/Arsenal Roy Harper's daughter and cutting off his arm during the controversial Justice League: Cry for Justice series, which led Green Arrow to execute the villain. The New 52 and Rebirth gave hero and villain alike a bit of a fresh start in these areas.

And so the fight for, and against, Justice continues.