| Darkseid | |
|---|---|
 Textless variant cover ofJustice League: Odyssey #21 (June 2020). Art by Will Conrad. | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #134 (December 1970)[1] |
| Created by | Jack Kirby[2][3][4] |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Uxas |
| Species | New God |
| Place of origin | Apokolips |
| Team affiliations | Darkseid's Elite Female Furies Intergang Secret Society of Super Villains Legion of Doom Injustice League |
| Notable aliases | Lord of Apokolips God of Evil Anti-Life God Boss Dark Side |
| Abilities | See list
|
Darkseid (/ˈdɑːrksaɪd/)[5] is a supervillain appearing inAmerican comic books published byDC Comics. Created by writer-artistJack Kirby, the character first made acameo appearance inSuperman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #134 (December 1970), before being fully introduced inForever People #1 (February 1971). Formerly known asUxas, Darkseid is aNew God and the tyrannical ruler of the planetApokolips. His ultimate goal is to find and gain control over theAnti-Life Equation to enslave themultiverse by eliminating all hope and free will in sentient beings. Regarded as one of the most powerful beings in theDC Universe, Darkseid serves as one ofSuperman's greatestadversaries and thearchenemy of theJustice League.
Darkseid has been adapted in various media incarnations, having made his live-action feature debut in the 2021DC Extended Universe filmZack Snyder's Justice League, portrayed byRay Porter.Michael Ironside,Andre Braugher,Tony Todd, and others have provided the character's voice in media ranging from animation to video games.
Darkseid was created by writer-artistJack Kirby to serve as the chiefantagonist of his "Fourth World"metaseries. The character was first seen briefly in a series of cameos that started inSuperman's Pal Jimmy Olsen #134 (December 1970), before making his first full appearance inForever People #1 (February 1971). Kirby modeled Darkseid's face on actorJack Palance and based his personality onAdolf Hitler andRichard Nixon.[6][7]
Though Darkseid was originally conceived as the primary villain for theNew Gods, he would eventually be established as an archenemy of Superman and the Justice League.[8]
Darkseid has had a large influence in pop culture and other comics; most notably, Kirby's creation is credited as the inspiration forMarvel Comics' high-profile villainThanos by his creators.
Mark Evanier, who spent several years as Kirby's assistant, has stated that 'Darkseid' is pronounced "As if spelled 'dark side,' as in 'the dark side of man's nature'", noting that this was "how Kirby always pronounced it around me"; however, Evanier has also stated that "at least once, when some fan who pronounced it 'dark seed' was excitedly telling [Kirby] his theories about the character, [Kirby] went along with it, rather than correct the kid."[9]
Prince Uxas, the son of King Yuga Khan and QueenHeggra and the second-in-line to the throne ofApokolips, plotted to seize control over the planet from his older brother,Drax.[10] When Drax attempted to claim the fabled Omega Force, Uxas murdered him and claimed its power for himself. His skin turned to stone, and Uxas rechristened himself as Darkseid.[11][12][13][14] At some point, he fell in love with an Apokoliptian scientist and sorceress named Suli, with whom he had a son,Kalibak. However, Heggra orderedDeSaad to poison Suli out of the belief that she was corrupting her son.
Following Suli's death, Darkseid's heart grew even colder and his disdain for his mother intensified when she forced him to marry a woman named Tigra, with whom he had another son,Orion. Seeking vengeance against Heggra for killing the one he loved, Darkseid ordered DeSaad to poison her so he could finally become the supreme monarch of Apokolips. Darkseid then tried to force Tigra to eliminate Orion, but the latter was ultimately traded withHighfather's son,Scott Free, as part of a peace treaty between the warring planets of Apokolips andNew Genesis.[15] This trade eventually became a setback for Darkseid, with Orion growing up to value and defend the ideals of New Genesis as a powerful champion in opposition to his father. The prophecy foretold that Darkseid would meet his final defeat at the hands of Orion in a cataclysmic battle in the fiery Armaghetto of Apokolips. Likewise, Darkseid and his training minion,Granny Goodness, were unable to break Scott Free's spirit after a long, torturous upbringing and Free ultimately managed to escape Apokolips, taking with him theFemale FuryBig Barda, who he married. Free, now known as the superhero Mister Miracle, and Barda began living on Earth, and Darkseid used this "betrayal" as a pretext to declare the treaty with New Genesis abrogated so the planets could resume their conflict.
Darkseid's goal was to eliminate allfree will from the universe, supplanting thePresence as its Supreme Being. To this end, he sought to unravel the mysteriousAnti-Life Equation, which gives its user complete control over the thoughts and emotions of all living beings in the universe. Darkseid had tried on several other occasions to achieve dominance of the universe through other methods, most notably through his minionGlorious Godfrey, who could control people's minds with his voice. He had a special interest in Earth, as he believed humans possess collectively within their minds most, if not all, fragments of the Anti-Life Equation.
Darkseid intended to probe the minds of every human to piece together the Equation. This has caused him to clash with many superheroes of the DC Universe, most notablySuperman. Darkseid worked behind the scenes, using superpowered minions in his schemes to overthrow Earth, including working throughIntergang, a crime syndicate which employs Apokoliptian technology and later becomes a religious cult that worships Darkseid.
One thousand years in the future, Darkseid has been absent for centuries and is almost completely forgotten. He returns and comes into conflict with that era's champions, theLegion of Super-Heroes. After using both scientific and magical methods to enhance his power, Darkseid transposes the planets Apokolips andDaxam—which places Daxam under a yellow sun and gives each of its inhabitantsKryptonian-like superpowers equal to those of Superman. Darkseid places theDaxamites under his control and uses them in an attempt to conquer the universe. However, he is eventually defeated by the Legion and many of their allies.[16][17][18][19][20]
Seeing other deities as a threat, Darkseid invadesThemyscira to discover the secret location of the Olympian deities, planning to overthrow the Olympians and steal their power. Refusing to aid Darkseid in his mad quest, the Amazons battled hisParademon troops, causing half of the Amazon population's death.Wonder Woman was able to gain her revenge against Darkseid for killing so many of her sisters by placing a portion of her own soul into Darkseid. This supposedly weakened the god's power as he lost a portion of his dark edge.
InGrant Morrison's 2005Mister Miracle limited series, it was revealed that Darkseid had finally discovered theAnti-Life Equation, which he then used to destroy theFourth World altogether. TheNew Gods fled to Earth, where they hid. Highfather and his followers were now a group of homeless people.Metron used a wheelchair, theBlack Racer was an old white man in a wheelchair,DeSaad was an evilpsychiatrist,Granny Goodness was a pimp (or "madam") for theFemale Furies and Darkseid himself was now an evil gang leader who is referred to only as "Boss Dark Side". It is revealed that Darkseid actually gave theSheeda North America in return forAurakles, Earth's first superhero.[21] This was, in turn, purely for Darkseid to getShilo Norman, whom he considers the "Avatar of Freedom", in his clutches so that he could eventually destroy the New Gods.
As prophesied, Orion returns to Earth via boom tube for his final battle with Darkseid. During the fight, Orion kills Darkseid by ripping his heart out, which created a firepit of Apokolips from Darkseid's chest cavity (in reference to the prophecy of their final battle).[22] As Darkseid dies, a battered, wounded Orion walks away from the battlefield, having "won" the battle against his father once and for all. However, Darkseid's life essence endured even the death of his body and fell back in time, where he was reborn as "Boss Dark Side", aided by his resurrected minions and the supervillainLibra.
Once again bound to the form of a human, "Boss Dark Side" began to appear in a number of titles in the run up toFinal Crisis. InThe Flash vol. 2 #240, he led an army of fanatics, their will broken by the "spoken form" of theAnti-Life Equation, to kidnap the Tornado Twins. InBirds of Prey #118, he runs his Dark Side Club where superhumans fight to the death, brainwashed by drugs produced byBernadeth. InTeen Titans #59, it was revealed that he had employed theTerror Titans to capture the Teen Titans and use them in his club fights.
InFinal Crisis, Darkseid begins to take over Earth and corrupt themultiverse with the aid of Libra, who converts much of theSecret Society of Super Villains to his cause with the aid of theCrime Bible and theHoly Lance. Darkseid is also joined by the souls of his fellow evil New Gods, who, like Darkseid, now possess either modified human bodies or the bodies of other superpowered beings, such asMary Marvel.
Darkseid also arranges for detectiveDan Turpin to be lured into the Dark Side Club, where Turpin is turned into Darkseid's "final host", as his Boss Dark Side body has begun to mummify due to Darkseid's presence. With his legion of followers and allies aiding him as he undergoes his latest "rebirth", Darkseid successfully conquers the Earth with the unleashing of the Anti-Life Equation onto mankind. However, the rebirthing process is far from complete as Turpin's mind and soul, while corrupted by Darkseid's essence, remains in control over his body. However, at the same momentShilo Norman, the "Embodiment of Freedom" is shot byS.H.A.D.E. operatives, thus signalling the "Victory of Evil". Darkseid wins control over Turpin, who is transformed to resemble him. Darkseid then gains the fullest of his power, his "fall" having the effect of compressing and crumpling spacetime around Earth.
After escaping from captivity,Batman shoots Darkseid with the same radion bullet that killed Orion, while Darkseid simultaneously hits Batman with the Omega Beam, sending him back in time and then "infecting" Batman with Omega energy that will cause him to jump forward in time, with disastrous results when he reaches the present. Darkseid is mortally wounded, but not before his Omega Sanction teleports Batman intoprehistoric times. Remains believed to be Batman's (later revealed to be the last of the many Batman clones that Darkseid created) are found by Superman, who confronts Darkseid. As Darkseid mocks his old enemy for failing to defend Earth, it emerges that in Darkseid's fall through the multiverse, he created a doomsday singularity that now threatens all of existence. When Superman attempts to physically assault him, Darkseid reveals that he now exists inside the bodies of all those who fell to the power of the Anti-Life Equation and that killing Darkseid will kill humanity. Darkseid then reloads the gun that was used to shoot him, to kill Orion by way of firing the bullet backwards in time (a move Superman deems to be suicide due to the paradoxical nature of his actions: the bullet used to kill Orion is ultimately fired at him by Batman and is now poisoning him to death).
Before Darkseid can use the Omega Effect to kill Superman,Barry Allen andWally West lead the Black Racer to Darkseid and making contact with him frees Turpin from Darkseid's control. Wonder Woman (having been freed from possession by one of Darkseid's minions) uses theLasso of Truth to bind Darkseid, effectively freeing humanity from the Anti-Life Equation. In his final effort, Darkseid's essence appears and tries to seize the Miracle Machine Superman has created; however, Superman uses counter-vibrations to destroy him. Furthermore, the last piece of Darkseid's plan fails when Batman escapes the Omega Sanction.
Doctor Impossible manipulates theCrime Syndicate of America into helping him resurrect Darkseid via a machine that draws energy from themultiverse. The resurrection backfires and creates a new being known as the Omega Man.[23]
In September 2011,The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Darkseid's name is first invoked by a Parademon inJustice League #1.[24] He is later mentioned again inJustice League #2,[25] and inJustice League #3 Darkseid makes his first appearance in the series, seen in a vision byVictor Stone after he is injured by an explodingMother Box.[26] In the final pages ofJustice League #4, Darkseid himself appears.[27] InJustice League #5, the League confronts him but they are overpowered by him, when he severely hurts Superman with his Omega Beams and breaks Green Lantern's arm.[28] Finally, inJustice League #6, Darkseid is driven out when Cyborg activates the invaders' Mother Boxes and Superman forces him through a boom tube. The incidents that occur in these issues make Darkseid the first foe the newly formed League faces as a team. The issue also reveals DeSaad andSteppenwolf, referring to Darkseid's daughter and their ceaseless search for her across countless worlds.[29] Darkseid's daughter escapes containment inJustice League of America's Vibe after the dampeners on her cage are temporarily disabled.[30]
In the New 52 continuity, there is only one set of New Gods across the multiverse. As Darkseid invades Prime Earth inJustice League, he sends Steppenwolf to do the same, with greater success, onEarth 2, resulting in the deaths of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, and stranding Helena Wayne and Kara Zor-L on Prime Earth. Five years later, Darkseid once again invades Earth 2, which never fully recovered from his armies' earlier assault, and it is revealed that he andHighfather of New Genesis struck a deal allowing him the unchallenged right to invade Earth 2.
InDarkseid #1, his background story was revealed. Formerly a farmer named Uxas, he hated the deities of his world. So he traveled up to their mountain while they slept and tricked them all into fighting each other. As they were all weakened from the war, he killed them one by one with his scythe and stole their power before destroying his world and creating Apokolips.
InJustice League: The Darkseid War (after the retirement of the "New 52" imprint), Darkseid comes into conflict with theAnti-Monitor. Darkseid's daughter Grail leads the Anti-Monitor, who is revealed to be a scientist named Mobius, to Darkseid for the former to kill the latter. Mobius believes that with the death of Darkseid, he will be free from being the Anti-Monitor. After an intense battle, the Anti-Monitor fuses the Black Racer with Flash and sends it after Darkseid. Using the fused Flash and his own powers, he kills Darkseid. With Darkseid dead, the universe is unbalanced as it has lost its God of Evil.Lex Luthor later fuses with the Omega Sanction, becoming the new ruler of Apokolips.
After killing the Anti-Monitor using an Anti-Life Equation-poweredSteve Trevor, Grail resurrects Darkseid through thenewborn child ofSuperwoman. The child has the same powers as his father Mazahs, with the ability to steal the powers of others. Stealing the new "God" abilities of the Justice League, Grail fuses them with the child and brings Darkseid back to life. However, he is under her complete control. Grail later attempts to redeem herself by seemingly killing Darkseid with the Anti-Life Equation. However, it is later revealed that she reincarnated him back as a baby with the intention of teaching him differently.
InDC Rebirth, Darkseid killsZeus and absorbs his power to return to his original form.[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]
After countless alien planets being held captive byBrainiac's race are freed, they venture into an unknown area of outer space called the "Ghost Sector." After remembering a prophecy his father told him, andnoticing the crack in the Source Wall, Darkseid lures Cyborg,Starfire, andAzrael to the Ghost Sector in an attempt to use their powers to conquer the multiverse.[39]
Being successful with the team's entrapment, Darkseid reveals to Cyborg that a bond was established between them when Cyborg merged with Darkseid'sMother Box. According to the prophecy, the alien worlds were hidden because of theOld Gods they worshipped.
InInfinite Frontier, Darkseid is trapped in Earth-Omega following the restoration of the multiverse. He regains his original form by fusing with his alternate universe counterparts. Darkseid's former henchmen reunite with him on Earth-Omega and remain by his side as he gains a new follower named X-Tract,Cameron Chase'sEarth-Two counterpart.[40]
Darkseid battles the Justice League Incarnate, but is defeated by the Great Hand and sent to a mysterious place where he is controlled byPariah and the Great Darkness.[41] He is freed afterNightwing fends off the Great Darkness and returns to Apokolips.
InDC All In, Darkseid bonds with theSpectre using the Miracle Machine before allowing himself to be killed in battle with the Justice League to become unbound from time and space. He travels to another universe and corrupts it with his influence, transforming it into theAbsolute Universe.[42] Darkseid's death brings imbalance to the universe, leading to the events ofNew Gods (vol. 5).
As aNew God, Darkseid is one of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe, with immortality, strength, and several other powers and abilities.
Darkseid's best-known and most-used power is shooting Omega Beams from both of his eyes. Powered by a cosmic energy source called the "Omega Effect", the beams are an intense form of heated energy that can act as a concussive force, can disintegrate organisms or objects, can cause a target to have never existed and can resurrect fallen beings killed by them. During the Final Crisis, Darkseid used his Omega Beams to grant power to Mary Marvel and her powers afterwards were based on Anti-Life rather than magic. Darkseid has pinpoint control of this energy and can direct the beams to travel in straight lines, curve around corners and even pass through matter or other forms of energy. Some super-powered beings, such asSuperman andDoomsday, can resist the Beams, although in the case of Superman, with a great deal of pain. Orion andDiana were able to deflect them, Firestorm once used his powers to redirect them, and, in a crossover story,Galactus was unaffected by them. Darkseid sometimes uses the beams to punish those who fail him but are too valuable to kill outright, returning them to life when he requires them again.
Darkseid can teleport himself or others through time and space.[43]
Darkseid's Omega Sanction traps organisms in a series of alternate realities in which they die. Upon their death, they are resurrected in a new reality, in which they die in a worse and more painful manner than the previous.
Darkseid is depicted as immensely strong. He has effortlessly broken aGreen Lantern Ring with his bare hands, easily overpowered two Kryptonians simultaneously and defeated the entire Justice League. He can move at great speed, once catching Superman off-guard,[44] and can react in nanoseconds.[45] Even without his full power and strength, Darkseid has held his own against an Olympian God, such as Zeus. He can increase his physical size, his true form as a New God being almost incomprehensibly massive.[46]
Darkseid has powers oftelepathy andtelekinesis, and he can create psionic avatars.[47]
In "The Great Darkness Saga", Darkseid displayed a range of deity-like powers, such as transposing the positions of two planets in different solar systems, taking mental control of the entire population of a planet, instantly absorbing all the information from another being's mind, pronouncing a curse, manifesting the worst fears of other beings as realities, and easily defeating incredibly powerful beings, such asMon-El,Mordru, and theTime Trapper. He has also displayed godly powers by sensing the death of his son, Orion[48] and fluctuations of the energy of the "Godwave".[45]
Darkseid is a highly skilled hand-to-hand combatant, who has been trained in theart of war onApokolips. Hiscombat skills combined with his superhuman powers make him one of the strongest beings in theDC Universe. He is proficient in the use of several different types of weapons, even though he rarely uses them, due to his other powers like the Omega Beams.
Despite Darkseid's extraordinary physical powers, he rarely engages himself personally in confrontations, as he prefers to use his superhuman intelligence to manipulate or control others to his ends.[49]
As the ruler of Apokolips, Darkseid has access to all of its military and technological resources.
While Darkseid is a deity and immortal, having lived for several hundred thousand years, he is not invincible and has been killed on several occasions.[49] Darkseid is able to drain the life force of other godly beings to rejuvenate himself or return to his full power. Demi-gods are capable of slowly rejuvenating Darkseid, but a god such as Zeus can return Darkseid back to his original form by draining the demi-gods.[38]
Darkseid appears in theInjustice: Gods Among Us prequel comic.
Darkseid appears in the crossover comicInjustice vs. Masters of the Universe. He battles Superman andHe-Man before being killed by the latter, after which he is transformed into pure knowledge and claimed by the elders ofGrayskull.
Darkseid is the main antagonist of the crossover comic seriesDC x Sonic the Hedgehog. He arrives inSonic's universe via the Ragna Rock to obtain a new source of power from the sevenChaos Emeralds, leading Sonic and his friends to team up with the Justice League to stop him.[50]
Darkseid is featured in theDC Extended Universe.
Darkseid was ranked as the 6th Greatest Comic Book Villain of All Time byIGN and the 23rd Greatest Villain of All Time byWizard magazine.[86]
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