DC Just Teased Its Next Big Event, And I Can’t Wait
Events are a staple of long-running superhero comics. Ever since the veil of canon was pierced and standalone characters were able to cross over, publishers have been finding new and larger-than-life ways to up the ante. The latest example has been making its way across the DC Universe over the past few months, with the DC K.O. event pitting heroes, villains, and even some characters from other universes in a fight against Darkseid.
This week brought the event’s final issue, DC K.O. #5, which crowned a new “King Omega” to battle Darkseid… but didn’t stop there. The closing pages of the issue teased what the future is about to hold for the DC multiverse… and it has the potential to be something bonkers.
***Spoilers for DC K.O. #5 from Scott Snyder, Joshua Williamson, Wes Craig, Xermánico, Javier Fernández, Alejandro Sánchez, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou below! Only look if you want to know!***
DC K.O. #5 culminates in Superman gaining the power to become the King Omega, and proceeding to fight Darkseid across space and time before he can destroy all of reality. Superman ultimately gains the upper hand by calling in virtually every hero from the DCU, and then proceeds to reshape reality to something more stable. The protagonists of DC’s Next Level books are teased, and Clark fades into the cosmos for a bit so he can do something.
The issue’s epilogue reveals that there’s more going on than meets the eye, as Darkseid is very much alive… and waiting in the wings to launch an even bigger attack. As he puts it, his “creations” in the Absolute Universe remain “unfazed” and “undisturbed” as Absolute Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman were previously called to be his heralds from some point in the future.
He also has “another army growing”: of characters from across the DC multiverse, who each fought a similar battle to find their own King Omega. We see a few of those battles: Ultraman vs. Owlman on Earth 3, Vixen and Calvin Ellis on Earth-23, etc. Each victor from the different worlds will ultimately be called to serve Darkseid, who teases that “… there will be a Crisis of Absolute proportions!”
Absolute Crisis?!
Sure, there’s a valid argument to be made that DC keeps serving up new Crisis events, with it only being four years since 2022’s Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths most recently threatened to destroy and remake the universe. But given the smash success of DC’s Absolute Universe, an alternate “Elseworld” reimagining iconic DC heroes and villains from the foundation, it was arguably only a matter of time until the words “Absolute Crisis” hit publishing. Even the prospect of the Absolute Trinity meeting their main-universe counterparts was a huge draw of DC K.O., and it was fun seeing them break Darkseid’s mind control and briefly join forces in the event’s fourth issue.
Of course, this initial tease of “Absolute Crisis” doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s immediately on the horizon. Part of the fun of long form comic storytelling is that plot threads can be carried across years of publishing… as evident by DC K.O. itself, which picked up on things from as far back as 2018’s Doomsday Clock. During the recent ComicsPro convention, DC did announce that the Absolute Universe will be getting some sort of event series later this year, and that retailers “will not have to explain to customers what a crossover is.”
But that doesn’t necessarily mean that that event series is Absolute Crisis… after all, the heroes of the Absolute Universe have only just barely begun to met, much less form any semblance of a team. Either way, given how well both the main and Absolute universes are doing right now, the promise of both of them crossing paths in this specific kind of Crisis is exciting, whenever it happens.
DC K.O. #5 is now available wherever comics are sold.
(featured image: DC)
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