Well, this should get all our brains spinning. DC released the following image today:

In lieu of an explanation, we got this quote:

"Let the battle cry be heard in the land, a shout of great destruction."

Somehow, it ties in to DC's major event following 52, but what that is, no one knows for certain. Dan DiDio has mentioned in interviews that it would involve the New Gods, who have been largely absent throughout Infinite Crisis and 52.

Couple it with last week's puzzle in the back of DC books, which revealed what most of us had already figured out -- the multiverse still exists -- and things don't so much fall into place as at least look a little less jumbled.

Okay, triple it, because not only did a recent issue of Flash - the Fastest Man Alive reveal that Wally and the other speedsters could possibly still be alive on Earth-2, that Earth clearly had other versions of already established characters, such as an apparently younger Jay Garrick who was still the Flash.

We know Superman's crying, because in major crossover events, he's the first to weep like Lon Lopez at one of The Rock's movies. You've got Ion and the "classic" Wonder Girl, not Troia. A figure that looks like an Elseworlds Batman could be exactly that, or it could be someone new. As for me, I'm just happy there seems to be a place for Mary Marvel, who's currently in a coma in The Trials of Shazam.

For now, we can all just scratch our heads, but maybe you can pick out a clue from our upcoming podcast, which features guest Keith Champagne talking about World War III.

Derek McCaw