The Flash Glimpses the Heart of the Totality in Justice League #7

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Justice League #7 by Scott Snyder, Jim Cheung, Mark Morales, Walden Wong and Tomeu Morey, on sale now.

With Lex Luthor looking to use the energy source known as the Totality to reshape the multiverse in the latest Justice League arc, the superheroes are certainly up against the wall. Lex proves to be as formidable as ever, backed by an all-new Legion of Doom and a mysterious cosmic doorknob offering him insight into the Totality.

Come Justice League #7, another person gets a glimpse into what the Totality can really accomplish, and in the process he discovers some of the multiverse's darkest secrets. This is none other than one of the League's most brilliant scientific minds: Barry Allen (aka the Flash).

Previously, we saw a couple other faces get a peek behind the Totality's curtain and how it ties into the multiverse. Martian Manhunter realized the destruction of his planet was more than what it first seemed, something that's been paining him since he began studying the breach in the Source Wall at the end of Dark Nights: Metal, which allowed the Totality to slip through and travel across the DC Universe timeline. It also helps that he has some weird link with Lex, who time-traveled and used his knowledge of these secrets as inspiration to remake reality.

Notably though, it's Vandal Savage who ended up with the greatest understanding of these secrets. He learned them after exposure to a meteor in the prehistoric days, which is why he warned Lex just before his death that he was playing with fire. This issue even retconned things a bit to reveal the meteor which powered Vandal up as an immortal warlord was actually part of the Totality. This is what allowed Vandal to see its true power. Well, whatever mysterious details Vandal found out in his experience, the Flash now knows as well.

This comes after he harnesses the Still Force in order to stop Sinestro's Ultraviolet Corps from accessing the Invisible Spectrum and using Umbrax to attack Earth. The Still Force, as well as the other six mysterious forces of the universe, have some unknown connection to the Totality. So, when Barry taps into this force, somehow he's able to peer into the inner-design of the Totality. He realizes he's seeing what Vandal saw and it petrifies him in the same way. Barry witnesses the "blueprint of a universe" that never came to be, with humanity at the center, and it dawns on him that maybe these deep, dark secrets of the multiverse were never meant to be known.

Barry's visions remain vague though, leaving readers guessing as to its grand design. We see a metropolitan city, which appears to be Gotham or Metropolis in the future; a volcanic area which may well be where Lex's ambitious Legion has set up shop; life beneath the ocean; an unknown society surrounded by grass; what seems to be a circuitboard; some sort of galactic explosion; and lastly, a prehistoric snowstorm with a saber-tooth tiger trying to survive. What they mean, well, that's as good a guess as anyone's, because not even Flash could make sense of what he saw.

Given that he found White Martians in a secret underwater base with Wonder Woman and Aquaman in the last issue, Flash believes recent events (including the new forces) all tie into each other, but he just doesn't know how. He admits, however, that the Totality felt "angry," so he needs to work diligently to figure out how to decipher his visions.

It'll take some work but with the Totality revealed to be a power core for creating a universe, it's a reassuring notion knowing the Flash has something Vandal didn't have when he was exposed to the Totality in the caveman days -- Barry's got a League of geniuses and fearless heroes ready to help him get all these secrets decoded to preserve the fabric of reality.

CBR

A Justice League Member Has Uncovered The Multiverse's Dark Secrets