WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Justice League #37, by Scott Snyder, Jorge Jimenez, Alejandro Sanchez and Tom Napolitano, on sale now.

There are countless worlds across the multiverse, each full of heroes dedicated to protecting lives and spreading justice. With the arrival of Perpetua in the core DC Universe though, all those realities are at risk of being destroyed by the dark goddess.

Justice League #37 reveals the ultimate fate of one such world, Earth-44, and how it's destroyed by Perpetua and used as a weapon in her war against the beings of creation who believe in justice.

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SYSTEM ERROR

Earth-44 is one of the worlds of the DC multiverse. This is the home of the brilliant inventor Doc Will Tornado -- an apparent combination of the robotic Red Tornado with the creator of the Metal Men, Will Magnus. On this world, the bipolar super scientist decided that the world needed heroes. If none were going to magically appear, then he'd just have to build them himself. To that end, he created the Metal League. Gold Superman, Iron Batman, Platinum Wonder Woman, Mercury Flash, Nth Metal Hawkman, Tin Elongated Man and Lead Green Arrow became the dedicated protectors of their world. But they are in no way prepared for what comes for them in Justice League #37.

Perpetua has been making her way through the multiverse, destroying the realities that don't fit into her darker designs for creation. Arriving at Earth-44, she gives them a chance to surrender and give in to doom. Instead, Doctor Tornado stares her down and tells her that the machines he created have "more divinity in their metal hearts" than she's ever known. But before she can wipe the world out (much as she did to the steampunk home of Gotham By Gaslight Batman in previous issues), Perpetua realizes Monitors have been separated. Trying to get rid of her enemies once and for all, she takes Earth-44 and throws it at the Monitors. The act seemingly kills Doc Tornado and everyone on his world, including the Metal Lague. It takes the acts of the World-Forger to keep this planet bomb from killing all hope for the multiverse, but he's seemingly killed in the effort.

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HOW IT COULD GET WORSE

It was a genuinely optimistic world of wonders, but nothing good ended up getting to come from it. That's what makes the apparent fate of the world so disheartening. Instead, the world was wiped out in a heartbeat by an uncaring cosmic figure to be used to try and destroy others. It's unlikely that any of the Metal League survived the event unless they were off-world with Justice Incarnate and fighting alongside the rest of the multiversal Justice League in the core DC Universe.

This also means Perpetua just found a new use for the worlds that she's trying to destroy. In fact, she could just start wiping out multiple universes with one another. That's the kind of power Perpetua is operating at, so far removed from prior threats like Darkseid, the Anti-Monitor or even something like Barbatos from the Dark Multiverse. She's even shown pinpointing her target from across reality, allowing her to essentially turn any planet into a sniper rifle on a universal scale. It proves just how dangerous she is and how powerful she can be when fully unleashed, making the stakes the heroes are fighting for all the more dangerous.

Justice League #38 releases Dec. 18.

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