WARNING: The following contains spoilers for The Unexpected #6 by Steve Orlando, Roman Cliquet, and Jeromy Cox, on sale now!

The DC Universe is filled with all kinds of cosmic horrors these days. The Batman Who Laughs is on the loose, the Totality (aka, the building blocks of the Multiverse) has come to Earth, and Barbatos, the evil god from Dark Nights: Metal, is still imprisoned at the bottom of the Dark Multiverse.

Both the Justice League and Justice League Dark are also dealing with invasions of godlike beings, so the universe doesn't exactly need another cosmic threat. So it imply makes sense, then, that The Unexpected #6 has brought back one of the most terrifying villains the DC Universe has ever faced: Mandrakk, the Dark Monitor. It feels like something big is on the horizon.

RELATED: First Official Look at Arrowverse's Elseworlds the Monitor Revealed

Learn to Expect the Unexpected

Readers of The Unexpected have followed Neon the Unknown and Firebrand's unexpected journey through the DCU over the last few months. An unstable isotope of Nth Metal has brought them into harm's way over and over, but the truth finally stands revealed when Neon, Firebrand and Hawkman travel between dimensions to a land long-time DC fans never thought they'd see again: the world of Nil, the former homeworld of the Monitors.

Last seen in Grant Morrison, J.G. Jones, and Doug Mahnke's Final Crisis, Nil was left desolate following the elimination of the Monitor race. As we discover here, it looks like the world is exactly how it was left a decade ago, a place of ruins and overgrown plant life. But one key point of interest is still left standing.

RELATED: Arrowverse: Monitor Co-Creator Marv Wolfman Reacts To First Look

Neon and company discover a tombstone with the words "To Be Continued" inscribed on it, but what does it mean? Readers of Final Crisis will remember that this is what Superman chose to write on his grave following his battle with Mandrakk, the Dark Monitor. While the Monitor race may be long gone, it turns out that some things don't go away so easily.

One of the Tempus Fuginauts—the successors of the Monitors—then confronts the party and tells them the truth about the isotope. It turns out it's not Nth Metal at all, but actually a concentrated piece of Bleed, the membrane between alternate universes. It is then that everything comes together, because who do we know that feeds on Bleed? Mandrakk, the ultimate evil, has returned.

NEXT PAGE: Mandrakk Is Back - But What Does That Mean for the Rest of the DC Universe?

When last we saw Mandrakk in Final Crisis, he was being staked to death by the Green Lantern Corps, or so we thought. Readers of The Unexpected know that the return of Mandrakk has been hinted at since the beginning of the series; in fact, he seems to have been manipulating the events of the series up to this point.

Initial antagonist Alden Quench, aka Bad Samaritan, was a disciple of the DCU's ultimate villain, and had been working to bring his master back to life. As it turns out, all Mandrakk needed was the isotope of Bleed to return at full strength. But what does the resurrection of this character mean for the current landscape of the DCU?

RELATED: DC's He-Man/Injustice Crossover Kills Off A Major Villain... Finally

According to Morrison's story, Mandrakk was the first probe sent into the universe by the Overmonitor before he was utterly corrupted by all of existence. Who that Overmonitor is has never been made clear, but some believe it to be the original Monitor from Crisis on Infinite Earths. Though that character was killed before the end of the story, he has recently resurfaced in Dark Nights: Metal, and is expected to feature in the pages of Justice League at some point during Scott Snyder's run on the title.

It's worth wondering what the return of Mandrakk means for the original Monitor, if anything at all. Will we ever learn how the two are related?

What Does the Future Hold?

Dax Novu as Mandrakk the Dark Monitor

Now Neon, Firebrand, and Hawkman are left unprepared to face Grant Morrison's ultimate cosmic vampire, and it's hard to see how such a gathering can hope to overcome a threat that required dozens of Supermen from around the Multiverse to defeat.

RELATED: DC Gives Black Manta His First Superpower (And Aquaman Gets a Sick Burn)

That then leaves us with questions about the nature of this series, and where this story goes from here. The Unexpected only has two issues to go before the book comes to an end, but can the story of Mandrakk's return really come to completion in that span of time, or is this leading to something bigger?

Other titles to come out of Dark Nights: Metal aspart of the New Age of Heroes have been cancelled, however, they too hint at a greater story waiting to be told. Both The Immortal Men and New Challengers came to an end while also hinting at major storylines still yet to be told. Could the end of The Unexpected lead into a bigger story somewhere that will deal with the return of Mandrakk, and the threat that remains the Dark Multiverse?