After JUSTICE LEAGUE #44, there was no telling where the rest of Darkseid War would go. With issue #45, we see the story is far from over. The second act has begun and we're seeing some big changes for the team.

We've seen teams go through changes time and time again but not quite on this scale. The change is so big it's resulting in six Darkseid War one-shots.

We've seen a change with a couple members already. Not all members go through a change here but the ones that do go through pretty big ones.

There will be some spoilers for JUSTICE LEAGUE #45 below!

The Flash

Last issue, during the fight between Darkseid and Anti-Monitor, Darkseid called forth the Black Racer, an aspect of death. In order for it to be summoned, it needed to have a sentient host. That honor was thrust upon Barry Allen.

Barry Allen is now the God of Death. It turns out he's actually kind of okay with this. He told Mister Miracle that he's not like the past hosts of the Black Racer. He doesn't want to escape death, he wants to control it.

Superman

Superman and Lex Luthor were separated from the team. Because of Apokolips' atmosphere, Superman was cut off from the rays of a yellow sun. Lex had a bright idea on how to get Superman powered up and he's probably regretting it now. The energy from the pits of Apokolips are deeply affecting Superman.

He gives Lex a pretty good beating and plans to leave Apokolips. If Superman is now the God of Strength, at least he won't have to worry about power fluctuations.

Batman

Batman is the other character we've already seen start his change. When he say upon the Mobius Chair, he gained knowledge about pretty much anything and everything. With the "war" supposedly over, Batman is ready to return to Gotham as...

The God of Knowledge. Batman is planning on focusing his energy on his personal battle against evil. He wants to be the Batman that "Gotham needs."

We still need to know what the heck the the Chair told him when he asked about Joker.

Shazam

It seemed like things were pretty calm. With Darkseid and Anti-Monitor gone, the team was left to regroup. Suddenly Shazam started painfully hearing voices. What was interesting is there was more than one. There was talk about using him as a vessel. There also seemed to be a fight among these voices as to who got to use him. In the end, Billy was transformed.

Shazam is now a God of Gods. What does that mean? We know, as Shazam, he possessed the power of several gods. But being a god of the New Gods, that could mean something entirely different.

Will he be able to handle all this power?

Lex Luthor

After Lex's encounter with Superman, he was discovered by some of the locals of Apokolips. They asked if he was the human savior prophesied that would change everything. Of course Lex would say yes.

In order to test the claim, he would have to get hit by Darkseid's Omega Effect, as it returns to Apokolips. If he was indeed worthy, he would survive.

Looks like Lex was worthy. Pretty scary what this could mean. Lex is now the God of Apokolips.

What about the rest of the team?

Wonder Woman is already a god. Cyborg just gets left out in the cold again. What's interesting is Hal Jordan is getting his own Darkseid one-shot but hasn't been proclaimed as a god. Batman told him he'll need to go back to Oa since the Parademons would be drawn to places of power and the brightest is Oa.

We have a lot to look forward to in the next chapter. We won't want to miss the one-shots to find out more about these transformations and how they might affect their humanity.

Green Lantern should become the god of being a badass and just kill everyone but shazam and flash and then form a justice League that's actually worth anything... at all

Looking forward to seeing how this will turn out.

I would love to see Lex and Superman position reversed, to see if the Omega Effect would of corrupt Clark and see how Lex would of reacted to becoming the God of Strength and finally be able to content with Superman on a more physical level.

I can not freaking believe Cyborg was left out in the cold AGAIN. The new 52 was the worse thing to ever happened to Cyborg. A glorified Taxi cab for the justice league.

damm that's my Shazam,

God of Gods bitches.

So Superman is now a god of strength, I wanna know Thor's reaction about this.

Hey, he is also their internet connection.

Well I haven't liked Captain marvel's characterization throughout this run of Justice League, but at least they can introduce something cool with the power (although I'd much much prefer correct characterization).

1. It's not the New 52 anymore

2. Other then being kinda left out of this event he's gotten more time to shine in the book then any other member of the League and now he has his own solo series

Cyborg just gets left out in the cold again

Again? other then Amazo Virus (in which almost every other hero was sidelined) he's been a major player in each story line that's been part of this run of Justice League, even headlining the book during Forever Evil when the rest of the League was out of commission.

A better question is where is Aquaman, Captain Cold, and Luthor's sister?

Y'all gotta leave that Joker bit alone already. It was just meant to show how all-powerful Bruce was in the moment. It was extremely obvious it's something we're not meant to know

Hal Jordan should have been the God of Light.

Aquaman-> the god of water.

Cyborge -> the God of .... Wait shouldn't the guy who can link to every computer be the real god of knowledge? He has tech from Apokolips (new god tech), he should of hacked the chair (build by a new god)???

Cyborg -> God of Insignificance!

It's official, Batman's chair is more useful than Cyborg!

Black Character getting pooped on...typical...

Because he is just a token character on the League.

What about Cyborg solo series?

I honestly think Cyborg was just a bad character for the league. He doesn't bring anything new but better transportation. If they needed an African American super hero the should have used someone else. Umm maybe Black Lightning and instead of Shazam maybe Icon. Anyone can think of anyone who they think could had done a better job?

Storyline continues to be strong and interesting. With all the 'Godly' transformations, i'm most curious about Captain Mar--uh, Shazam. The way his powers work and how they're influenced now by the new gods seems really fascinating.

@truemarvel: lol there are people that don't even want him on the team at all.

"...is having an *effect* on the team." :)

A pity that the sagas are "Disordered" ... We know that after the Darkseid war Lex Luthor will return to human.. This is his best opportunity to get the hell out and betray the JL, when the antimonit be defeated. but it seems it will not, in "the Truth" appears as ally..

Root is the new lex luthor, Lex the Iron Man of DC.. although the fans will be hated(Root) for a long time..

I can't wait for the 6 Darkseid War one shots to come out.

"God of Gods" is SO bada**

The DC writers clearly have no ambitions for Cyborg. I am still confused about why he became a main Justice League character. If they needed a token minority then Static Shock would have been much more appealing.

It's also boring that most of the characters that received god powers received powers that already align with their personality. All that's going to happen here is that the characters will be similar, but more powerful. That seems redundant. Superman could have already been considered a god of strength, I would rather see what happens if Superman gained more knowledge or had to confront death.

But hurt alert! But hurt alert!

I can't wait to see what shazam looks like

True. :D

I am legit struggling not to be that DC events > Marvel events guy atm

Wonder Woman is the God of War right?

Is it just me or does this sound like fanfiction?

Or Vixen, with this animal power she is more "unique" the Cyborg and his generic tach power.

Well Superman could already be considered a Sun God, which would make more sense for him. In fact Apollo, the Greek Sun God called him Sun God in Future End.

Honestly, with Vixen, she's basically less useful than Wonder Woman, but she can only use one power at a time(flying, strengthx100, speed). Sure, she could get Hawk vision or heat sense, but that's what Superman is here for.

Here's an idea. If we need a token black, just replace Hal with John Stewart. After all, the GLs are all practically interchangeable in power-sets. In fact, Stewart would probably use the ring better. But Geoff Johns and other Hal fanboys would shed hair over their ONE TRUE GL schtick. The only thing we'd be missing from Hal would be his fratboy personality, which we can give to Shazam since he's such a bad boy now.

So looks like they left out Aquaman again. Also what steve trevor? Power ring? Lena Luthor? This is a little far fetched but remember how bruce waynes father survived being shot? So what if the joker is really Thomas Wayne!!?

@drgnx: The chair wasn't built by the New Gods.

@crimsonmist: Yes

So Batman is going to go back to Gotham to join up with Ro Bat Cop and Bruce Amnesia? All right I'll let it go.

So, I told my brother, who loves Batman but doesn't read any comics, about the Batman-Mobius-Chair-Joker's-real-name thing and showed him the page and he interpreted it as an implication that the Joker is the man who killed Bruce's parents. I'm no expert on Batman lore so I don't know if that actually makes any sense, but once my brother said that I reread the page myself and totally bought it as a possibility, just based on how its written.

Is Justice League in its own continuity? It and Wonder Woman are the only DC comics that I subscribe to, so I have very little insight into what's going on with the characters elsewhere, but isn't Superman losing his powers in his book and Gordon running around as Robo-Batman in the Batman books? How are these drastic changes in JL supposed to affect the series of the individual characters?

Pretty ridiculous and random fanfiction is more like it, most of the League becoming gods all at once is kind of rushed and tacked on in this issue IMO.

SWEET JESUS!!!!!
Cool i'm down for the Superman,Batman,Shazam, Flash Gods. All Hail the Gods!!

Um why is Wonder Woman's costume changed? Didn't she have on something else......geez this woman changes costumes like nobody else. Every time I see her she is in a new outfit not saying its bad, but just stick to one please. (To bad not many other heroes don't go through costume changes as fast as WW)

@divell: Hercules must be jealous. The DCYou ought to bring in Hercules as a villain. Back in the Golden and Silver ages he was an enemy of Superman who tested his strength against Superman's but got replaced later by Atlas. Why not bring back Hercules?

@_rain: I was honestly thinking the same thing but too many people would get mad if its not Hal. I think Stewart just works better because of what the mainstream media. A lot of people think the Green Lantern is Stewart anyways. I still think it would be better to take off Cyborg though.

Lex is going to be so disappointed when it turns out Darkseid's soul (conveniently residing in those Omega Beams) is slowly possessing him.

really hoping shazam becomes a major player as the story moves forward so we can see what he's really capable of i think he's a bit underestimated by the rest of the league

Na, Hercules is not god of strength, Thor is. Herc is just a Superstrong demigod who can beat Supes and Thor with both hands on his back. ANd they don't bring Herc bc of Marvel's Herc's popularity. They would be copying Marvel.

If i'm not mistaken doesn't Hercules become a god when he completes the Labors?

To be fair, since his name is Shazam now, this arguably is his correct characterization for Shazam who has his own differences with Captain Marvel, despite, at their core being the same person.

There are already two Apollos anyway. The actual God and the former member of Stormwatch.

Bruce and Luthor bring the exact same qualities to the table, Wonder Woman, Shazam, and Superman all have similar powersets, though with their own specialization. In versatility, Cyborg could probably stomp Bruce and Luthor and build better versions himself. Underutilized? No doubt. Generic? Hardly.

Everything was fanfiction at some point.

Not really. DC introduced their Hercules awhile back. I think it was in an Aquaman annual when he teamed with Wonder Woman. Apparently he'd fought and/or been tortured by demons for centuries until he was driven mad. Wonder Woman hinted about wanting to go save him once their current mess was dealt with.

You can't copy something in the public domain, but you can add on to it, which is what Marvel has done with Thor and to an extent Hercules.

@suemorphplus209: Hercules actually fought Aquaman in issue 31 of his run. He was trapped in Atlantis' hell with the giant-born and became crazy and Aquaman defeated him and trapped him in a labrynth for eternity.. So I don't think Hercules is going to be around any time soon.

@jonny_anonymous: Sounds like one. Bet you could find something similar on FanFiction.net. lol

nope, Hercules completed the labors to redime himself for killing his wife and sons/daughters (story varies). He is still a demigod.