WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Justice League #33

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Everything we know about DC’s Mother Box technology has just changed, now that Cyborg has claimed his spotlight in the METAL mega event. It went without saying that as the villains of the Dark Multiverse converged on DC’s Earth in search of powerful metals, the Mother Box that transformed Victor Stone into Cyborg would come into play. What we didn’t expect was that Cyborg’s union with the New God gadget would be the most important part of the entire story so far.

If that sounds like a lot to place on Victor’s shoulders, it should. Especially since he’s spent the recent chapters of METAL without his actual shoulders attached. Not since the Cyborg Batman of another world got the drop on him, and the rest of the evil Batman dissected and exploited Cyborg’s programming for their own purposes. That’s all changed, along with the existing science behind the Mother Boxes to begin with. Once Victor started listening to the little voice inside his head… calling him to one of the DCU’s biggest mysteries of all time.

The action happens in Justice League #33, with the heroes of Earth defeated by their corresponding evil Batmen, and brought together to be strapped to the cosmic tuning fork at the heart of METAL’s drama. It’s at this point that Victor’s time seems up, with the villains needing only to access the “Element X” inside of his body to bring their plan to fruition. Luckily - as pictured above - the Element X is what the Mother Box is built out of.

The sentient device makes a deal with Vic: allow it to stop sharing his body, and unleash its full power into a human form… and stop the villains in their track. Vic, ever the team player, has no choice but to ruin the evil Batmen’s day.

Vic’s exclamation should be the readers’ first clue that the “override” didn’t go exactly as the Mother Box had hoped. As it explains to Vic before the procedure begins, the Mother Box was born of the “World Forge itself,” tied far more directly to the cosmic fabric of the DC Multiverse than ever suggested before. Through his communion with it, the Mother Box shows Vic the entirety of the 52 realities of DC’s Multiverse, confirming the stakes of the current METAL threat. He need only stop resisting the pull of the Mother Box, let go of his humanity, and allow it to evolve him into his most “perfect” form. Obviously, leaving behind the person he once was.

Thanks to a last minute assurance from Raven of the Titans - able to get a message through to Vic in his cosmic state - he arrives back on the scene. More powerful. More aware. And having clung to the person inside of the machine… since it hasn’t led him astray just yet. And if Cyborg’s ability to access Boom Tubes made him seem like a powerful force, the extra access to the Mother Box’s true power has changed things significantly. Taking the Justice League on a trip through Hypertime (which even Flash hasn’t been able to control navigate properly) the heroes set out on a “Hail Mary” play to save the day.

They’re going to “Hack the Multiverse.” Assuming this isn’t also part of the villains’ plan. Obviously.

Justice League #33 is available now.