DC Gives One of Its Biggest Villains A Godly Upgrade

DC has brought its epic “Absolute Power” crossover event to an end and wasted no time segueing into its universe’s next “All-In” era. That new era begins with the release of DC All In Special #1, a comic that wastes no time setting up big new stakes for the new DC Universe status quo. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman and some key allies have rebooted the Justice League as “Justice League Unlimited,” offering an all-inclusive roster of DC heroes, housed in their biggest and best Watchtower base orbiting the Earth. However, the League barely opened the doors of its new base before one of their oldest and most fearsome villains attacked! 

WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW! 

Darkseid has been lurking in the shadows of the DC Multiverse ever since being brainwashed and controlled by Pariah and The Empty Hand as a servant of The Great Darkness (during the “Dark Crisis” event), a power Darkseid once hoped to harness. He returned to Apokolips hoping to still harness the darkness and prepare for a great war he saw coming, and in DC All-In Special #1 it’s revealed that Darkseid used his time away to build himself one of DC’s most powerful devices: the Miracle Machine, able to grant wishes to the user its bonded with. Darkseid’s wish (not surprisingly) requires a campaign of death and destruction across the cosmos (even killing his own son, Kalibak!), to find one pivotal cosmic figure: Jim Corrigan, the Spectre. With the power of the Miracle Machine, Darkseid wishes to be bonded with the Spectre entity, recreating himself in a whole new godly image. 

The evolution doesn’t end there, though: Darkseid/Spectre’s fight with the Justice League Unlimited culminates in Superman using a combination of magic and the Spectre’s influence to finally obliterate Darkseid. However, through the Spectre Darkseid learned that he is a universal constant tied to the creation of life across the multiverse; when Amanda Waller sealed off the multiverse during the start of “Absolute Power” she inadvertently imbued Darkseid Prime with the true totality of his power. Darkseid is able to finally locate one of the hidden centers of the new DC multiverse: Alpha World or Earth-Alpha, which Darkseid – now having transcended his physical form – is able to reshape into a world of his own making, giving birth to DC’s “Absolute Universe.” 

Darkseid is Now the Absolute God of his own universe, which actually explains a LOT about the Absolute versions of Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman we’ve seen in the previews for the new line of DC’s Absolute Universe books: the heroes are targeted by Darkseid to have their origins and missions remade in his hellish image – in Wonder Woman’s case, literally making her a daughter of Hell. Poor Booster Gold ends up stranded in the Absolute reality, where he bears witness to the godly version of Darkseid, and the Dark Legion squad he’s already set loose. 

According to the cliffhanger ending of DC All In Special #1, Darkseid will seek to secure control of the Absolute Universe and lead it as an army to conquer Earth Prime and the main reality of the DC Universe, soon afterward. 

DC All In Special #1 is now on sale.