DCeased Finally Reveals How a Justice League Powerhouse Got Infected

DCeased: Hope at World’s End finally reveals how a powerhouse Justice League hero became a zombified Blighted One who ended up killing the Flash.

WARNING: The following contains spoilers for DCeased: Hope at World’s End #12 by Tom Taylor, Marcos Failla, Rex Lokus, and Saida Temonfonte, on sale now.

In the first DCeased series, a zombified Martian Manhunter came to the Fortress of Solitude, launching a brutal attack that would bring about the apocalypse just a bit faster. J’onn J’onnz phased into the Fortress where Superman and Earth’s other heroes were holed up and trying to figure out a solution to this techno-Anti-Life virus that doomed their world. And unfortunately for humanity, J’onn’s assault to turn Barry Allen’s Flash into a Blighted One.

While it wasn’t clear how exactly J’onn himself was turned, DCeased: Hope at World’s End #12 shows that he went down fighting another DC heavyweight in a heroic last stand.

In the series, J’onn was part of the crew that Superman summons when Jon Kent calls out for help in Nantucket. They’re trying to evacuate around 20,000 refugees when Black Adam, Hawkman and other infected soldiers arrive. They’ve turned Atom Smasher into a Blighted One, leaving a reformed Black Manta to try to help Damian Wayne, Stephanie Brown/Robin, Wonder Girl, Blue Beetle and the others, but Black Adam’s legion shows them no mercy.

Luckily, J’onn, Wonder Woman, Black Canary’s Green Lantern, Barry Allen and Wallace West’s Kid Flash arrive to help out. Superman and Wonder Woman target the power-hitting Black Adam but unfortunately, the numbers game proves to be too much. Seeing as the heroes are also distracted by trying to save humans as the fight ensues, it just feels like an insurmountable task. Things get even worse when a stray optic blast from Black Manta blows a boat engine up, forcing the League to save those refugees from the ensuing flames. J’onn’s caught in the fray, but knowing he could lure the Blighted Ones to their death, he withstands the fire as if it wasn’t his biggest weakness.

He telepathically connects to the other heroes to get them to come save the refugees on board but this allows Black Adam to slip in and infect him with a mortal wound. Knowing he’s going to become a monster soon, J’onn drops to the ocean bed and phases in, hoping to lock himself into this rocky prison forever. With everyone still mentally connected to him, they feel his agony and fear of death. These moments take a hefty toll on all of the heroes, but it especially wrecks the younger heroes, who just weren’t prepared for an experience like this.

With this, J’onn disappears, giving us the real backstory as to how he turned evil and eventually came to the Fortress. While we’ve seen plenty of major heroes die in DCeased, Martian Manhunter’s death is arguably the most impactful, both because it neutralizes the League’s telepathic link and because it creates a deadly domino effect that leaves the Flash, Superman and Wonder Woman infected. While many of these heroes go back to Ivy’s garden mourning the loss of a leader, little do they know the terror to come still when J’onn totally loses his mind and decides to rise back to the surface as a fatal foe.