For the second week in a row after Absolute Evil #1, it’s clear DC Comics isn’t holding back on wild, game-changing twists. That’s because in DC K.O. #1, which is in stores today — and spoilers past this point — Batman dies, an Absolute Universe crossover happens, and writer Scott Snyder even spoils that at the end of the story, the heroes lose, and Darkseid wins. Seriously.
That’s a jaw-dropping amount of twists, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg in what happens in the issue. The broad strokes, before we get into the wild specifics, are that a year after “dying” in the DC All In Special, Darkseid essentially became the Absolute Universe. He conquered the future, where the Legion of Super-Heroes live, and has been working his way back to “our” time in order to take over the main DC Universe, as well.
As DC K.O. #1 opens, we get a glimpse of what will happen seven days in the future, when Darkseid takes over the entire universe all at once, consuming it. To stop him, the heroes hatch a dangerous plan… It turns out that there’s a Heart of Apokolips, the sort of engine that powers Darkseid’s home planet, at the center of the Earth. Darkseid’s goal is to activate it and consume the “Alpha Energy” that comes from Earth Prime, and add it to his “Omega Energy.” Instead, the heroes take the villains of the world off the board (though they don’t — more on that in a second), evacuate the Earth, and decide to restart the Heart of Apokolips using the Omega Energy that Booster Gold gathered from his time in the Absolute Universe.
Once there, they will be sent through five levels of Mortal Kombat style challenges, with 32 contenders. Each level, the winners will gain more Omega Energy, which will corrupt them more and give them more power. But the end result — at least they hope — is that one of them will get enough energy to become King Omega, restart the Heart to make it a positive force to counter Darkseid’s negative force, and bring everyone back to life.
Pretty complicated, right? The short version is the DC heroes need to fight to the death, and only one will win. You get it now. Anyway, let’s talk spoilers.
We’re Not Doing The New 52 Again
The first real surprise in the issue is a meta moment from writer Scott Snyder (the art in the issue, by the by, is from Javi Fernández and Xermánico). While trying to figure out what to do, the Quantum Quorum, a group of time travelers including a skinny Doomsday called The Time Trapper, suggest a solution: “Give up and start over.”
And to explain how that would work, Time Trapper explains that this sort of new timeline creation happened “not that long ago” and a being “Restarted you all. Restarted everything and everyone. Eventually, this timeline was reabsorbed, but for a brief period, it existed outside larger reality.”
In case it wasn’t clear what he’s talking about, we see the New 52 versions of the Justice League, as in the 2011 DC Comics reboot that followed the Flashpoint event. After a brief discussion of how it would work, the heroes shoot it down. But like I said just above, this scene almost plays out like a DC editorial meeting, as they discuss whether this is yet another opportunity to reboot or soft reboot the DC Universe (a la Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, and yes, Flashpoint).
The answer is that whatever the DC universe looks like at the other end of DC K.O., don’t call it a reboot — at least, not yet, this is merely Act Two of the three act story that started with the DC All In Special. You’ll have to wait to next October to see if they’re like “okay, let’s do a New 52, actually.”
Batman Dies, And So Do A Bunch Of Other Characters (But They’ll Be Back… Probably)
Once the Earth is evacuated, the heroes wait until one day before Darkseid is supposed to arrive before entering the tournament area. Time will slow down the closer they get to the Heart, so they can just chillax and die. And die, they do. We get to see what is essentially the entrance to the tournament, not even the head to head match-ups themselves, and already plenty of characters are taken off the board.
In fact, Billy Batson, aka Shazam, dies before the “gauntlet” as it’s called even begins, smashed by one of the massive guardians of the tournament. Z-list character Damage is the next to die (basically DC’s Hulk), followed by the space-faring Adam Strange. Jay Garrick accidentally summons some Omegademons, aka Parademons from the end of time… And he survives, but a number of other character in silhouette including Green Arrow are murdered. Ambush Bug also dies shouting about how he’s an “obscure character” at “extremely high risk of death.”
But the real shocker is saved for last… While Superman tries to help as many heroes through as possible, Batman, in massive Bat-armor, tells him he needs to stay focused. It’s Batman who needed to focus though, because he’s impaled by a spear with a very telling “Bang” flag that pops out.
Yep, sure enough, after nearly 80 years: Joker kills Batman.
Alongside Joker is Lex Luthor, King Shark, Starro, Cheetah and Giganta, who have avoided being sidelined. How? We don’t know yet, though Lex seems the likely culprit.
As the villains head to the tournament, Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes) and Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) both die, as well. That leaves the 32 champions DC Comics previously teased with a twist… Joker has taken the place of Batman in the showdown, meaning he’ll be going up against Star Sapphire first (and smart money says Red Hood, second).
Here’s the thing, though… If one of the heroes wins, they’ll all come back, as long as that hero can fight the urge to become Darkseid 2: More Darkseid Than Usual. And at least when it comes to Batman, he’s starring in the upcoming Knightfight tie-in miniseries, which finds him battling Batmans from alternate universes where all the Robins became Batman. So to crib a line from Princess Bride: They’re only mostly dead.
The Absolute Universe Trinity Arrives — Or Is It Darkseid’s Three Destroyers?
There’s more, though. It’s revealed that the entire issue is narrated by none other than the Heart of Apokolips, which teases more surprises including “his three destroyers. Horsemen, from a world where his rule is absolute. Monsters.”
On that page, though they’re in shadow and we only see their bottom halves, it’s clear this is the Absolute Universe Trinity of Absolute Batman, Absolute Superman, and Absolute Wonder Woman. But in their books, they’re heroes — so what’s going on here?
This part is speculation, but we know that Darkseid has conquered the future of the Absolute Universe, and is working his way backwards through time. So it stands to reason that these three are from a future point in the Absolute Universe — not where we see them now — where they’ve been corrupted by Darkseid. If that’s accurate, it puts a ticking clock over the future of those three titles, as we wait to see whether they’ll fall to their dark future, or rise up against it.
I would tend to think the latter, but we’ve already seen with Absolute Flash that Wally West in that title can become a great hero, or a great villain. This reveal potentially does the same to all the Absolute Universe characters.
Darkseid… Wins?
The final shocker is saved for the end of the Heart’s narration.
“But if you want to know the real truth, the final one, I’ll tell you,” the Heart explains. “It’s that none of them win. Not Clark, not Diana, not Mari or Eel. None. Because what they don’t know is that there is one last champion among them… The King himself. That’s right… Darkseid, having taken the form of one of their own. So no, friend, the game isn’t beginning… It’s already over.”
Oh, and in case you were wondering who Darkseid has taken the form of? Yeah, it’s Booster Gold. And given “Booster’s” Omega Energy is the thing that powered the Heart to begin with, it’s clear that Darkseid has indeed set the board in his favor.
So will Darkseid win? Is that it for the DC Universe by the end of DC K.O. #1? We’ll just have to wait to find out…
DC K.O. #1 is in stores now.
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Wow, this sounds truly awful
I am reading the first issue and am confused about how the Heart of Apokolips ended up in the center of the main Earth. The book states that Darkseid put one in the heart of Absolute Earth but never says where the one in the main Earth came from.
My assumption was that either Darkseid put it there, as well, or the way it ended up there is TBA? I think there’s some info they’re holding back about all this that we don’t know yet.