If you thought DC Comics‘ upcoming event DC K.O. stood for “DC Knock-Out”? You thought wrong, my friend. As revealed in this week’s edition of writer Scott Snyder’s newsletter, the “K.O.” part of the title actually stands for… King Omega.
“DC K.O., it stands for King Omega, although that’s not announced yet,” Snyder said, announcing it. “Darkseid has become a King Omega in the DC universe right now, or the King Omega, which is the entire totality of Omega energy over in the Absolute Universe. And he’s coming over to attack.”
DC K.O. kicks off on October 1 with a prologue issue, Justice League: The Omega Act Special #1, by Joshua Williamson and Yasmine Putri, before continuing with the main, five-issue series (and tie-ins) a week later on October 8 with DC K.O. #1 by Snyder and artist Javier Fernández, and later joined by Xermánico. In it, 32 heroes need to compete to gain enough Omega energy to challenge Darkseid, who now “exists outside of space and time, he’s become so incredibly powerful,” Snyder continued. “I was talking to Deniz Camp and part of the fun of the series at this point is that Darkseid is omnipresent. So it’s almost like all the kinds of fears that you have that make you want to cede control to somebody else, that make you want to give up and feel like, ‘I’m going to stop trying.’ That’s Darkseid in every atom and every cell.”
While the heroes fight to crown one of their own King Omega, “at the core of the earth, a heart of [Apokolips] is already forming. This is the device that Darkseid uses in the Absolute Universe, which you learn in issue one, to gather all of the Omega energy unto himself and become the only god, the only celestial being.” Instead, they’re hoping to take that energy and “funnel” it into one of their own instead, in order to save the present because Darkseid has already conquered the future.
When they head to this heart of Apokolips, to defend itself, it creates a five-level tournament that forces the heroes to fight with “no compassion, no mercy.”
However, Snyder was careful to explain two almost opposing ideas here… That yes, this is “coded in 10 layers of bloody candy fun. Out of control, violent candy fun,” though it’s also not “edgelord bulls**t.” He teased there will be some red band issues, but is mostly PG-13, Saturday morning cartoon style fun.
But at the same time, it still has “a very personal message, which I think will become apparent as you get closer to the end. So it’s not just some kind of big escapist bubblegum thing.”
Well? Is it bloody candy, or is it not bubblegum? You have to choose, Snyder!! Just kidding. Clarifying further, it seems likely that the “very personal message” is about Superman. “As you get deeper in, you’ll see it’s a personal Superman story about what I think about Superman and why he’s such a great character,” Snyder explained.
Anyway, in the rest of the newsletter, Snyder also teases a bunch more about what will happen outside the main event comic. There’s going to be a “voting thing at New York [Comic Con] that’ll be a lot of fun that we’ll announce soon that’ll allow you to participate.” There will also be incentives, in stores, and “special months where we have tie-ins.” Snyder also teased that “Fight Month” is coming to DC in December, where “you’re going to have matches between some of the great contestants, the champions. And again, that’s going to be a blast. I’m writing one of those.”
He also noted that he’s “not a big believer” in events that last for 12 issues, though he didn’t completely put aside the idea that he might do one mega-event one day. Instead, DC K.O. won’t interrupt most series and is mostly self contained because, “I know right now your wallets are tight. We want to keep it modular. We don’t want you to have to interrupt a lot of your other series.”
And as for what’s next after DC K.O. ends in March of 2026? We’re still a ways away from that, but that will head towards the third act of the story that began with DC All In, and continues with the second act, being DC K.O. Snyder noted that afterwards, there will be some additions to the Absolute Universe line, and then there are some books added to the main DC line which he thinks “are going to get you very, very excited. We’re about brushing up the line itself in all kinds of fun ways.”
Could one of those announcements be Legion of Super-Heroes, something Mark Waid teased back at WonderCon? I’m going to say: probably.
DC K.O. hits stores on October 8, 2025.
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