The more unopposed the undead army is, the more power it seems to gain. Besides getting new gods, then undead superwoman, DCeased: War of the Dead #2 (created by Tom Taylor, Trevor Hairsine, Andy Lanning, Rain Beredo, and Saida Temofonte) simply adds to their arsenal by giving them control of Warworld and an undead Darkseid with a yellow lantern ring. However, the full capabilities of this anti-life virus have yet to be explored. After conquering Warworld’s technology, it is possible to infect the Ring of Lights.
This creates a number of troubling possibilities for how warfare could develop. The rings are all connected to the central battery that powers them, but if a single ring could be damaged, that could mean that even the central battery could be unsafe. The heroes are already at a distinct disadvantage, and the loss of any resource, big or small, could turn the tide firmly against life.
From the beginning, the Anti-Life Virus was an infection unlike anything else in the DC Universe. When it comes to victims, it makes no distinction between organic or technical systems. So the virus can spread at an untraceable speed before it’s too late. However, so far, readers have only been able to see how this affects Earth-0-based technologies. Televisions and phones seem to be easily destroyed by it, but it has now proven to be easy to infect and overcome with more advanced technology.
Mother boxes, such as living computers connected to the source itself, are affected by anti-living viruses, transferring their power to the undead. Taking over the world at war is its next great achievement, taking control of one of the deadliest weapons in the universe. If it can do all that, it should be easy to infect the lantern ring. Darkseid hasn’t done that yet, but that’s probably because he doesn’t feel it’s necessary yet. Maybe he’ll wait until there are more lanterns in his jurisdiction before corroding the ring.
Beyond that, there’s a bigger problem to worry about — the possible fragility of the central battery. It’s a form of technology that leaves all the light rings behind. If Darkseid manages to infect it, it could theoretically infect all lanterns in the entire universe at once. This could turn one of the best defenses against the undead on a galactic scale into a weapon against the living.
The Anti-Life Virus Dilemma could also be an introduction to this reality by the Black Lantern Corps. An army of undead lanterns complemented Darkseid’s already considerable strength. In turn, they might be able to resurrect the dead themselves, not just through infection, but by actually activating the corpse to act as a soldier. Hopefully the surviving heroes can band together and fix things before any of these scenarios play out. However, given how dark the series has been so far, that seems unlikely.