Warning: contains spoilers for Justice League #62!

Marvel's Deadpool famously knows he's in a comic, but DC's Justice League Dark just gained their own brand of comic awareness, and it beats Wade Wilson's in several important ways. An official offshoot of the Justice League, the Justice League Dark handle magical problems, now led by Zatanna after Wonder Woman's apparent death at the conclusion of Dark Knights: Death Metal.

The Justice League Dark are currently working to stop Merlin, who fans know plans to wipe all magic but his own from the face of the Earth. To do that, he's attempting to gather his objects of power, including the Eternity Book. Unfortunately for Merlin, the Eternity Book has already been destroyed, prompting him to visit the Library of Babel - a magical realm which contains every possible book that ever has been or ever will be written. The Justice League Dark give chase, ultimately figuring out the next stop on Merlin's quest, but not before team member Ragman learns a disturbing truth about his existence.

Related: Loki Is The Reason Deadpool Knows He's In A Comic

The team's plan to find Merlin hinges on finding the Man of the Book - a magical being who protects the Library of Babel. Realizing that one of the near-infinite number of books must contain instructions to find him (since such a book could possibly exist, and is therefore in the library), the team get to reading, and the first book Ragman chooses just happens to be Ram V's author notes on Justice League Dark's 2021 narrative. Of course, this story is itself written by Ram V (with art from Xermanico), and Ragman has accidentally stumbled across notes on his own life, hastily slamming the book closed when he happens across a spoiler of an event yet to come, then glancing at the reader as if he now knows he's being watched.

Justice League Dark Ragman comic awareness

The spoiler Ragman stumbles across is that Zatanna is hesitant to use her magic because the eldritch villain known as the Upside Down Man gains more control over her every time she pushes the limits of her power. This is something Zatanna has yet to admit to the team, and shows one of the chief ways the Justice League Dark's comic awareness beats Deadpool's. Though he's shown a very limited ability to predict future events just by guessing where his narrative is most likely to go next, knowing he's in a comic isn't usually all that helpful to Deadpool, and if anything he tends to have an antagonistic relationship with his writers.

Another way Ragman's discovery differs from Deadpool's comic awareness is that it doesn't necessarily have to redefine his life. Deadpool's comic awareness has caused him an incredible amount of suffering - he once stole the Infinity Gauntlet just so he could tell off his own readers for enjoying his pain - but Ragman and the Justice League Dark are free to brush off the existential horror of being in a comic by reasoning this is just one possible book in a near-infinite library. What's more, Ragman's discovery can actually lead to change in the canon universe, where Deadpool's biggest moments of comic awareness tend to be confined to his own series, with his stranger moments ignored in Marvel's wider continuity (such as the time Thor believed he'd killed Wade, and he and Daredevil simply shrugged it off.)

Having had his own brush with the author, Ragman now has a chance to head off Zatanna's problem getting any worse - an advantage that may even help the team prevent Merlin's dark victory, as seen in DC's recent Future State event. The Justice League Dark may not make their fourth-wall-breaking awareness a major facet of their future adventures like Deadpool, but in this case that just means they get all of the advantages and none of the drawbacks of one of the weirdest and most powerful abilities in comics.

Next: Every DC Character Who Knows They're in a Comic