Why DC K.O.’s All Fight Month is Practically Perfect

With December wrapping up, the second round of the DC K.O. tournament has ended, with only eight fighters remaining. The set-up for this brutal contest of heroes and villains is that Darkseid has returned, stronger than ever. The only hope for the multiverse is for someone to obtain the Heart of Apokolips and use its reality-warping powers to defeat Darkseid. Now, DC’s most fantastic characters are competing in a deadly tournament to gain control of the corrupting artifact. Instead of cramming eight fights into one issue, All Fight Month ingeniously spreads the matches across several tie-ins and one-shot issues. With so much more breathing room, All Fight Month has become more than just a mindless action-packed event, but instead is a fitting tribute to DC Comics’ best characters.

DC K.O.’s second round saw many strong and iconic contenders fight for the chance to get the Heart of Apokolips. These fighters include Superman, Wonder Woman, Red Hood, Lobo, Lex Luthor, Aquaman, Captain Atom, Harley Quinn, Cyborg, Zatanna, and Jay Garrick’s the Flash. Despite each fight taking place within the span of a single comic, DC successfully manages to perfectly balance heart-pounding action, deep-cut references, and character arcs in a way that’s both exciting and emotional. While some are certainly better than others, All Fight Month is an overall resounding success, with quality writing and action across all eight issues.

DC Pays Tribute to the Long Histories of Its Characters and Their Different Incarnations

A significant part of the second round of the DC K.O. tournament is that the Heart of Darkness allows the combatants to select and transform into any version of themselves from the past or future. Through this method, heroes and villains can obtain significant power-ups in the hopes of gaining an edge against their opponents. Yet this feature is more than just a simple design change or even a chance to show off new abilities. Instead, it’s a way for the writers to pay tribute to the numerous different versions of popular heroes and villains that DC Comics has amassed.

Over its 80+ years of publication, DC Comics is well-known for having its characters undergo drastic changes in certain storylines to shake things up. The second round sees the return of many of DC Comics’ most powerful and memorable iterations of their heroes and villains who haven’t been seen in years or even decades. These include fan-favorite versions like Superman One Million, Kingdom Come Wonder Woman, and Planet Rann Swamp Thing. Furthermore, All Fight Month also presents incarnations that other writers would rather forget, including New 52 Lobo and Warrior Guy Gardner. Instead of picking only popular incarnations, All Fight Month ingeniously creates an all-encompassing celebration and acknowledgement of the long history of its characters’ variations, both good and bad.

The variations the heroes and villains take often serve a thematic purpose and help elevate the fights on an emotional level. Captain Atom’s obsession with winning leads to him adopting his villainous Monarch form; Red Hood transforms into his “Death of the Family” incarnation when fighting the Joker; and Etrigan turns into Superdemon when battling Lex Luthor. Almost every form is relevant to each fighter’s character, making the transformations more impactful. All Fight Month also introduces all-new incarnations that have thematic weight, including Titanic Cyborg, Captain Atom Superman, and Horus’ Avatar Hawkman. By including the concept of form selection, All Fight Month creates a masterful story that acts as a loving tribute to DC’s past while also paving the way for its future.

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All Fight Month Explores Why These Characters Fight

All Fight Month is more than just an empty series of clashes between popular characters with different powers; it carries a lot of thematic weight. Even the matchups reveal the similarities and differences between the fighters. These include the optimistic Superman vs the militaristic Captain Atom, the high-tech Cyborg vs the elemental Swamp Thing, the deep-sea Aquaman vs the high-flying Hawkman, and the wise Jay Garrick vs the loose-cannon Guy Gardner. All these conflicting personalities lead to action-packed fights and the opportunity for various fighters to reflect on what they’re fighting for.

Even when limited to a single issue, each battle of All Fight Month offers compelling story arcs to its combatants. Instead of having the narrative focus on a single character while completely sidelining the others, All Fight Month lets every fighter shine, even if they still end up losing. The losers are also given epic feats of power, deep-cut references to their lore, and emotional moments. These moments include Captain Atom criticizing how the universe (and DC writers) have sidelined him, Red Hood realizing that he’s not defined by his past, and Harley Quinn motivating Zatanna to fight with all her heart. All Fight Month lets every fighter show off the full extent of their power and narrative potential.

Moreover, the central theme throughout All Fight Month is the question of what motivates these characters to keep fighting and where they draw their strength. As these heroes and villains are pushed to their limits, they question why they keep getting back up for another round. As stated earlier, the forms the fighters take often shape their drive to win. Wonder Woman sees her ideal self as fighting alongside her Wonder Girls; Cyborg incorporates the powers of his found family, the Titans, into his Titanic form; Lex nearly sacrifices his soul for victory; and Zatanna learns to stop holding back her mystical potential. All these moments and more exemplify what makes these characters such icons in the comics: their compelling motivations, which drive their indomitable willpower.

All Fight Month succeeds because it offers everything that this scenario can offer and more. The event doesn’t take the easy route of telling a series of mindless battles between popular heroes and villains. What the event does instead is use the format of a fighting tournament to offer a celebratory tribute to the histories of its biggest characters, as well as thought-provoking introspections into their identities and motivations.

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