Meet Tartarus - DC's Thanos in Justice League Incarnate #1 preview

Justice League Incarnate #1
(Image credit: DC)

DC's version of the Avengers - the Retaliators - will return in November 30's Justice League Incarnate #1 for its version of the Infinity War - the Eternity Conquest... featuring its version of Thanos - Tartarus, but there's more going on here than what it seems.

Check out this preview of Justice League Incarnate #1:

This story is part of DC's new multiversal version of the Justice League, the Justice League Incarnate, which is an all-star version of the team recruited from across the various universes that make up the DC Omniverse - including the Marvel-like Earth-8 where the Retaliators are from.

cover of Justice League Incarnate #1 by Gary Frank (Image credit: DC)

It's part of what series co-writer Joshua Williamson calls "the second act in the Infinite Frontier Saga," which is the name of the over-arching DC era we're currently in - as well as the recent limited series of the same name. 

Justice League Incarnate #1 is written by Williamson and Dennis Culver, with art from Andrei Bressan, Brandon Peterson, and Tom Derenick. Subsequent issues that will take place on different Earths will be illustrated by rotating artists.  

The aforementioned Infinite Frontier series set the stage for a major new Crisis series featuring a leveled-up Darkseid as the main threat, in which Justice Incarnate are major players. 

Justice League Incarnate #1 variant cover (Image credit: DC)

"Justice League Incarnate must race across multiple worlds to stop Darkseid from gaining control of the greatest force in the Multiverse," Williamson has said previously. "Each world they visit has its own awesome artist!"

DC reveals to Newsarama that the team is indeed defending the Multiverse against  "the one true Darkseid" after a "devastating defeat" at his hands.  

Justice Incarnate is made of up President Superman (or Calvin Ellis) of Earth-23, Captain Carrot of Earth-26, Mary Marvel of Earth-5, Aquawoman of Earth-11, and Doctor Multiverse of Earth-8. 

Justice League Incarnate #1 variant cover (Image credit: DC)

The publisher says its mission is a "last-ditch effort to stop the end of every possible universe as we know it!"

In addition to being the writer/co-creator of Birthright which was illustrated by Bressan for Image Comics (which just ended its 50-issue run), for DC Williamson is the former long-time writer of The Flash. He also currently writes Robin, Deathstroke, Inc, Future State: Gotham ( with Culver), and is taking over the main Batman title with December 7's Batman #118.

Now's as good a time as any to rank all of DC's Crises from best to worst.

Chris Arrant

Chris Arrant covered comic book news for Newsarama from 2003 to 2022 (and as editor/senior editor from 2015 to 2022) and has also written for USA Today, Life, Entertainment Weekly, Publisher's Weekly, Marvel Entertainment, TOKYOPOP, AdHouse Books, Cartoon Brew, Bleeding Cool, Comic Shop News, and CBR. He is the author of the book Modern: Masters Cliff Chiang, co-authored Art of Spider-Man Classic, and contributed to Dark Horse/Bedside Press' anthology Pros and (Comic) Cons. He has acted as a judge for the Will Eisner Comic Industry Awards, the Harvey Awards, and the Stan Lee Awards. Chris is a member of the American Library Association's Graphic Novel & Comics Round Table. (He/him)

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