A Sense of Doubt blog post #3932 - Engineering the Battle: DC Comics' K.O. - Comic Book Sunday for 2511.23

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3932 - Engineering the Battle: DC Comics' K.O. - Comic Book Sunday for 2511.23

Superhero battles have always been a main draw of comic books. Hence the Marvel rule of at least one battle in each issue, even when that means inventing a reason for heroes to fight each other. 

Heroes battling each other are immensely popular, which is why DC-Marvel cross overs sell really well, like the recent Batman-Deadpool issue.

Often the reasoning to get heroes to battle one another is very flimsy. Or it takes place in an alternate world, history, or future, like the Batman-Superman fight in the classic Frank Miller The Dark Knight Returns or Shazam (Captain Marvel) blasting Superman with the magic, transformative lightning in Waid and Ross' excellent Kingdom Come.

Marvel created Secret Wars for a lot of hero-hero action or even Civil War, pitting Iron Man and his allies against Captain America and his. 

So, DC is looking for a sales boost and a way to capitalize on the success of the summer's Superman movie. And so Scott Snyder hatches the idea of a superhero tournament, in which they must compete with each other, to the "death." AND he ties it into the return of Darkseid that has been brewing for some time.

So, let me see if I understand the premise here. Darkseid's return rewrote the universe so he's a primordial force, created at the beginning of the universe to house Omega energy (the opposite of Alpha energy, the energy of creation) that fuels the "infernal machine" of Apokolips and Darkseid himself.

Apparently, EARTH is the greatest source of Alpha energy in all reality, and Darkseid wishes to destroy it, to transform the earth into a "new Apokolips." And so at the beginning of the universe, he places a (not the, a) "heart of Apokolips" at earth's core, and this made him KING OMEGA, a historical entity now laced throughout earth's history.

Now this heart is connected ONLY to Darkseid and serves him only and since the launch of the new era of DC history, the ALL IN phase, there's plenty of evidence for earth being transformed into a new Apokolips (fire pits, parademons).

The heroes hatch a plan to "restart the heart" and force it to select a new champion, someone other than Darkseid. Apparently the heart is sentient, and so it has the intelligence and wherewithal to create a TOURNAMENT in which the heroes battle to become the heart's new champion. To do so, they must battle to the "death."

For the same reason that in the beginning of the issue that it's established that Clark (Superman) prefers collaborative games to competitive games (he wants everyone to win), he is not having the plan to defeat all of his friends (because he's clearly the front runner, favorite).

But that's their only choice.

There's no other way to stop Darkseid from turning the earth into Apokolips.

The whole heart of Apokolips premise is not the silly part.

The silly part is that the heart would invent a human-style tournament of champions that can be merchandised in comics, films, and games.

But Wonder Woman and Batman win him over.

Of course, it's not as simple as it sounds. The heart of Apokolips could choose a villain to be the champion, so the heroes try to lock all the villains away in the Phantom Zone.

Of course, that doesn't work.

AND Batman gets eliminated, not included in the tournament (he's not DEAD, surely).

DC chose an interesting array of characters to battle, providing high-profile features for many heroes not known by a general comic fan readership (casual readers and fans, not the hard core), which may elevate some of these characters to new focus in the universe or even their own titles.

The combatants:

The premise is a stretch for me, but what would a creator need to do to justify a tournament of this kind for heroes?

At least, it's tied into the ongoing storyline of the entire DC comic book universe.

https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/dc-comics/dc-ko-(2025)

DC K.O. (2025)

Publisher: DC ComicsRelease: Oct 2025 - PresentIssues: 2Critic Reviews: 19  User Reviews: 37

Avg. Critic Rating = 8.4

Avg. User Rating = 8.1

The Heart of Apokolips has transformed Earth into a hellscape in preparation for the return of Darkseid! The end of the DC Universe is here! The Justice League’s only chance to defeat Darkseid is to enter a deadly tournament, an epic and over-the-top battle royale that will surprise you! The World’s Greatest Heroes fight to become the champion to enter the ring against Darkseid, but there’s a catch…the closer you get to the Heart of Apokolips, the more it corrupts you, changes you into something dangerous. Which DC character has what it takes to make it to the end? Who is willing to do what it takes to win it all, even if it means taking down their friends and family? You want to get nuts? Let’s get nuts

ISSUE ONE
https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/dc-comics/dc-ko-(2025)/1

19 reviews. Two at 10/10. 

Lots of reviews in the 9-8/10 range.

Three 7/10 and a 7.5/10.

My own rating is 7.9/10.

Low review is 3/10.

https://www.youdontreadcomics.com/comics/2025/10/8/dc-ko-1-review

I really agree with this part: 

It’s a profoundly silly idea in a lot of different ways. That doesn’t mean that it’s not going to be fun, though. Snyder has taken a very weak premise  that seems more suited to a video game and fleshes it out in a way that feels as though it might turn into something. If Snyder can build enough narrative momentum to make it work, the K.O. crossover might actually have some thematic depth to it. Don’t bet on it, though. Mega-crossover events don’t have a great track record for being terribly well-executed. 

Thanks for tuning in.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2511.23 - 10:10

- Days ago: MOM = 3797 days ago & DAD = 451 days ago

- New note - On 1807.06, I ceased daily transmission of my Hey Mom feature after three years of daily conversations. I post Hey Mom blog entries on special occasions. I post the days since ("Days Ago") count on my blog each day, and now I have a second count for Days since my Dad died on August 28, 2024. I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of Mom's death, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of her death and sometimes 13:40 EDT for the time of Dad's death. The blog entry numbering in the title has changed to reflect total Sense of Doubt posts since I began the blog on 0705.04, which include Hey Mom posts, Daily Bowie posts, and Sense of Doubt posts. Hey Mom posts will still be numbered sequentially. New Hey Mom posts will use the same format as all the other Hey Mom posts; all other posts will feature this format seen here.