DC K.O. #1 - My Honest Thoughts
Darkseid is… dead. Darkseid is… King Omega.
Spinning directly out of the DC All In Special from last year, Darkseid's death led to the creation of the Absolute Universe. Now, it's time for his resurrection as the ultimate threat: King Omega. DC is launching a publisher-wide event with tons of titles directly tying into the story—they're going all-in on this, and it's great.
After a brief hiatus from DC to focus on indie comics, Scott Snyder returned last year alongside Joshua Williamson to lead this next chapter. He's now writing the 5-issue series DC: KO. With Superman issues #28-30 and Justice League: The Omega Act Special building up to this event, the setup has been fantastic. DC has crafted a really cohesive event (at least so far) that doesn't suffer from the dreaded interconnected crossover syndrome that usually results in weaker storytelling.
For those of you who haven't read much DC in the past year or so, no worries—this issue does a brilliant job setting up the tournament. As someone with close to zero knowledge about fighting games/Mortal Kombat, I was initially skeptical and thought this would just be meh, but I'm glad I was wrong.
The art by Javi Fernandez and colors by Alejandro Sanchez are incredible and bring this book to life. In this larger-than-normal comic issue, we get some fantastic panels.
SPOILERS AHEAD
When DC released the brackets for the tournament, I had a few guesses about who would make it to the top. While I didn't 100% expect Batman to be the winner, I was expecting him to at least make it into the tourney. Luckily I didn't bet anything, because poor Bruce is unfortunately suffering from a stab wound to the chest courtesy of Joker. It makes sense with the Batman: Knightfight comic releasing next month, but damn—I was not expecting that so soon.
Darkseid has always been a menacing threat in the DC universe, but the hierarchy of the DC universe is about to change with King Omega (sorry, I had to). The panels where we see him storming through Gotham, Themyscira, and Oa are brutal and insane.
I mentioned I was a bit skeptical earlier about having a whole tournament event, but I'm honestly really hooked. The setup with the Quantum Quorum explaining to the League that to save the universe they'd essentially need to reboot everything is brilliant—and it's funny because they directly acknowledge the New 52 and are like absolutely not, no reboot. So what's the next best option? Having 32 of DC's finest heroes (and villains) battle each other in this fourth-dimensional tournament to determine who becomes a celestial entity capable of stopping Darkseid from conquering the future. It sounds wack, it IS wack, but it's so good.
The tease at the end with the Absolute heroes? Chef's kiss. Cannot wait for them to start interacting.
Verdict
This is not an issue to miss. DC is going All-In, and so should you. With a very captivating story, it's already a thrilling ride with a fantastic creative team, and I cannot wait to see how this plays out over the next couple of months.
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