Warning! Spoilers for DCeased: War of the Undead Gods #3 ahead!The DC Comics Universe is currently facing an overwhelming amount of darkness with Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths, but an even greater darkness is unfolding currently in the pages of DCeased: War of the Undead Gods.
Right now the heroes of the DC Universe are facing a multitude of threats; in the mainstream universe's Dark Crisis event they face Pariah and a threat literally called the Great Darkness. DCeased depicts a universe where Darkseid has accidentally unleashed a corrupted version of the Anti-Life Equation that turns anyone infected into essentially a zombie known as the Anti-Living. Since Dark Crisis is a major Crisis event, readers wouldn't be wrong for thinking that the threat posed there is the bigger one, but due to a reveal from Ares, it seems the DCeased universe is facing a much darker crisis.
Throughout Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths by Joshua Williamson and Daniel Sampere, the heroes of the DC Universe have been locked in a life or death fight against Pariah and the Great Darkness. The Great Darkness has managed to take over almost every heavy hitter in the DC Universe, from Darkseid to Deathstroke. Just about every major villain is under the thrall of the Great Darkness, which makes it seem like a truly unbeatable threat. But in another universe the heroes are up against an even more daunting challenge, as revealed in Tom Taylor and Trevor Hairsine's DCeased: War of the Undead Gods #3. In this third installment of the DCeased trilogy, the surviving heroes of the previous two volumes thought they understood what they were up against. They believed they were fighting a corrupted version of the Anti-Life Equation, but Ares reveals that what they face is something much darker. The heroes learn that they are up against Erebos, the Greek personification of darkness and shadow and the son of Chaos.
The Great Darkness Can't Compete With Erebos
Erebos is a primordial deity, meaning it predates the likes of Darkseid and pretty much anything else. This reveal shows that the threat the heroes face in DCeased is every bit as dark as the threat they're up against in Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths. In fact, every single thing that the Great Darkness has accomplished, Erebos has either done better or exceeded at. The Great Darkness has managed to take over the minds of Darkseid, Deathstroke, Neron, Doomsday and a host of others. But in DCeased, Erebos has managed to take over the minds of Superman, Wonder Woman, Darkseid, Highfather and more. While the Great Darkness was thought to have killed the Justice League, it turns out that they are actually more or less fine, just trapped in alternate worlds. Erebos, however, managed to outright kill Batman, Barry Allen, and Wonder Woman.
While the heroes of the main DC Comics Universe have absolutely got their work cut out for them with fighting the Great Darkness in Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths, it seems the heroes of DCeased: War of the Undead Gods are in for a much bigger struggle against the true darkness that is Erebos.
