Those of you who read DC regularly or have just gotten into them thanks to the Absolute Universe are no doubt familiar with Darkseid, if only because he possesses one of the most deceptively difficult to pronounce names in comics (it’s “Dark Side”, not “Dark Seed” for those confused). He’s a cool villain, and while he can be overplayed at times, in the hands of the right team, he makes a compelling case for being at the top of DC’s big bads. With the God of Evil once again flexing his muscles in DC KO, it seems like a good time to appreciate the stories that gave him his reputation.
The New 52 is a divisive era of DC comics, to say the least, but the retooled origin of how the Justice League first came together remains one of its strongest showings. Simply put, you need an appropriate explanation for how DC’s heavy hitters came together, especially when each of them was just starting out, each of them showing varying levels of inexperience and arrogance, the kind everyone has before the world reminds them, to quote legendary philosopher Qui-Gon Jinn, “there’s always a bigger fish.”
Darkseid was most definitely the bigger fish in this case, incomparable to the low-level threats they had been dealing with up until that point. After they repel his initial incursions (no not that kind), the big man himself steps out of the shadows, and requires a coordinated team effort to bring down. It makes for compelling stuff, a solid reason for why the Justice League exists, and some of the best art Jim Lee has ever produced.
Before the Great Recession necessitated the New 52, DC (and Marvel for that matter) were at an interesting point where they genuinely seemed prepared to let characters evolve, even if that meant ultimately retiring them or killing them off, at least for a longer period than was traditional. Such was the case with Final Crisis, which was envisioned by Grant Morrison to be the Ragnarök of the New Gods. Now, various behind the scenes shenanigans led to these plans shifting in various strange ways, but Morrison being Morrison, the end result was still quite compelling, as Darkseid does something few villains ever do: he wins, demonstrating why exactly he was such a threat to them for so long, with Batman famously deciding to make a “once in a lifetime exception” to his golden rule in the most iconic moment of the storyline. All-in-all, a fitting send off, even if it didn’t last as long as intended.
So, allow me to explain an interesting tidbit of comic book history. When Jack Kirby first created the New Gods, his dream was to create a compelling modern mythology, drawing upon the tropes and traditions of ancient pantheons to tell modern epics. Their inclusion in the DC universe was effectively incidental to that goal. Naturally, such an ambitious and personal project failed to land with mainstream audiences, and the original saga went uncompleted. The characters became an oddity, like so many unusual creations of the Big Two that have fallen to the wayside over the year. Darkseid became a forgotten footnote.
And then Paul Levitz was writing Legion of Super-Heroes. His run on those characters is largely why they persist in the DC universe to this day, a core part of DC’s mythos rather than a Silver Age oddity, and the peak of his run was this, The Great Darkness Saga. In the 31st Century, the Legion are doing routine peacekeeping missions when they discover a group called the Servants of Darkness, are gathering seemingly unrelated artifacts and knick-knacks for their mysterious Master, whose power is shown to outclass not only the Legion, but many of the heroes they revere. Levitz needed someone who could be the big bad, and he found Darkseid. I don’t want to say too much more, but if you ever want to know why the Legion keep popping up, why Darkseid even now fixates on them, check this book out. You won’t regret it.