The Forever People's Mother Box found the Anti-Life Equation in Sonny Sumo,[11] but Darkseid, unaware of this, stranded him in ancient Japan.
[13] Upon being told by the Dominators of their planned invasion of Earth, Darkseid promises not to interfere on the condition that the planet is not destroyed so his quest for the equation is not thwarted.
Upon learning of the Martian philosophy that free will and spiritual purpose could be defined by a Life Equation, Darkseid theorized that a negative equivalent must exist.
During the series Young Justice, it was stated that the mystical heroine Empress has a piece of an Anti-Life Equation, which gives her limited mind control abilities.
Libra used the Anti-Life Equation to turn several members of his Secret Society of Super Villains into Justifiers while some of Earth's superheroines and supervillainesses were converted into new versions of the Female Furies.
After Darkseid's disappearance, the Calculator tasks himself with the role of tracking down the fragments of the Equation left in the internet, which had taken the appearance of floating diamonds in Alta Viva, an in-universe multi-player online game similar to Second Life.
Some eons later Darkseid would use a fraction of its power in his invasion cycles of the Earth 2 parallel universe;[17] soon it was revealed that others possessed the full Equation but lacked the incentive to use it.
[21] In Jim Starlin's mini-series Cosmic Odyssey, the Anti-Life Equation is revealed as a living shadow-based deity that corrupts and destroys everything it touches.
This revelation shocks even Darkseid, who teams up with the New Gods and a group of superheroes from Earth to stop the Anti-Life Equation entity, ultimately sealing it off from their reality.
In issue #4 of Neil Gaiman's Sandman series, the demon Choronzon mimics the form of 'Anti-Life' when challenging Dream to 'the Oldest Game' - a battle of wits in which the two must define increasingly powerful entities in turn.
[22] In Walt Simonson's Orion series, the Equation is portrayed much like in the original Kirby comics, ignoring the version shown in Cosmic Odyssey.
[23] In Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle mini-series, Darkseid (or Boss Dark Side, as he was calling himself) gained control of the Anti-Life Equation, which is stylized in narration as: loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + self-worth ÷ mockery ÷ condemnation ÷ misunderstanding × guilt × shame × failure × judgment n=y where y=hope and n=folly, love=lies, life=death, self=dark sideBy speaking said equation, Darkseid can insert the full formula into people's minds, giving them the mathematical certainty that life, hope and freedom are all pointless.
[25] In the New 52, the Anti-Life has much of the same powers it had before,[26] Yuga Khan having used it to bring back the dead Old Gods to aid him in battle against his sons, Dreamer Beautiful using it for the first time to resurrect a deceased Mark Moonrider, and Darkseid himself using a fraction of it to draw unsuspecting victims to their end by broadcasting it over his parademon hive factories.
[27] Once claimed, the Life Equation has the power to redefine reality to a universal to multiversal degree, enabling the user to change the formula to remake all of existence.