DC K.O. is wrapped up this week from DC Comics with DC K.O. #5. And in the final issue of the event series by Scott Snyder and Javi Fernández (as well as Joshua Williamson, Xermánico, and Wes Craig), everything gets wrapped up with a bow and everyone lives happily ever after. HA HA, just kidding, that’s not how comics work. Spoilers past this point, but in the final pages of the issue, it’s revealed… An Absolute Crisis is coming for both the DC Universe and the Absolute Universe.
Look, you probably could have seen this coming a mile away, but the way that Snyder and company get there is still pretty surprising. I’ve give this a little bit of the ol’ ending explained treatment if you’re confused, and if you haven’t read the issue, continue to turn away here.
In short, when we open Lex Luthor has won the tournament, and is about to go mano a mano with Darkseid for the fate of the universe. Only thing, Time Trapper, aka Doomsday, has discovered a secret over in Superman, thanks to Lois Lane and Superboy Prime: he was not created to destroy Superman, he was created to give him life. What happens next is pretty complicated, but the distilled version is that Doomsday sacrifices himself and all his future and past lives to power up Superman with enough Alpha and Omega Energy to first fry Luthor, then take on Darkseid.
It’s not quite enough, so Superman tricks Darkseid into pummeling him back to the Big Bang, where we get a glimpse of the classic DC Comics “big hands” creation myth; and this time, Superman’s big hands? You know you’re the one. He goes on like a blister in the sun to kick the snot out of Darkseid, rips the Heart of Apocalypse out of his chest to bring back all the fallen K.O. tournament contenders, and wins the day. Darkseid is defeated but not destroyed, because Superman doesn’t do that. And the now cosmically powered Superman, who has infused every atom of the DC Universe with his positive, Alpha Energy (the opposite of the negative, Omega Energy Darkseid has infused into the creation of the Absolute Universe), tells his friends he has one thing left to do, but will be back.
So to be clear, Superman is gone for a while, which leads into the mini-“Reign of the Superboys” event that will run through the Superman-family titles in his absence. But Superman is not dead, and neither is Darkseid.
There’s more, though. After your requisite tease for the upcoming “Next Level” books including Lobo, Deathstroke: The Terminator, Batwoman, Legion of Super-Heroes (which surprisingly seems like it might focus on Darkseid’s Absolute Legion, lost in time and on the run), and even Jonah Hex, and more, we get a further look down the road.
Turns out, Darkseid has been a tricky little minx… While the DC Universe has been cut off from the multiverse, other than a little crack in space and time in the Justice League Watchtower that leads to the Absolute Universe, it seems Darkseid is not cut off. And in fact, he’s been running — and winning — tournaments all over the multiverse, gaining Omega Energy not just from the DCU and the Absolute Universe, but everyone. “Once the infinite Earths fall,” Darkseid says, “There will be a crisis of absolute proportions!”
…And that is superimposed on an image of Darkseid looming over worlds all marked with an enormous Omega symbol. Bum ba BUM.
So while DC hasn’t explicitly said “Absolute Crisis is coming in 2027,” well… I will eat an entire plate of crudités if it’s not. Actually, I might do that anyway. In fact, Snyder and Williamson have been pretty open from the launch of the All In Special that splitting DC into the mainline and the Absolute Universe’s was the kick-off of “Act I” of the story they were telling, with the end of that at DC K.O. “Act II” begins now with new titles under Next Level, as well as the mainline books, and likely ends with Absolute Crisis, fully pitting the DC Universe against the Absolute Universe. And as for “Act III”? As my friends in the Spice Girls often say, “Ah, you’ll see.”
Anyway, this last part is pure speculation. But you knew a Crisis was coming because DC loves a Crisis. Whether this will lead to a line-wide reboot, a soft reboot, or no boot at all? Well, we’ll likely have to wait until next year to find out.
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