DC K.O. is a crossover event that sees the main DC Universe heroes battle each other to become the King Omega – a champion strong enough to defeat Darkseid and powerful enough to remake the DC Universe in their own image. DC K.O. #4 finds its King Omega, and it’s a character most people probably already saw coming. I myself ironically predicted it in DC K.O. #2.
In addition to finding its King Omega, the event’s penultimate issue also states its endgame. Unfortunately, it’s not quite clear what that endgame is or if it will be consequential at all. Even more so, given how past Crisis events did little to change the status quo despite teasing “bold new eras”. It’s enough to say that, to this day, only the Anti-Monitor has succeeded in changing the status quo of the DC Multiverse for the next 40 years.
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Will Darkseid dethrone the Anti-Monitor as the first villain in 40 years to reshape the DC Universe for the foreseeable future? Will there be no turning back this time? That appears to be the endgame Darkseid alludes to in issue #4’s final pages, when he talks to Saturn Girl about needing to be something “more” than a god before DC K.O. kicks off in issue #1. But where his goals get a bit jarring is in his wanting to use the Absolute Universe as a weapon to achieve that.
At best, DC K.O. #4 picks up on some of the plot threads established in the Absolute Evil one-shot – namely the bit about that Earth’s villains being aware of Darkseid as their “God” and their uniting against the rise of their world’s heroes. This seems to be further validated by Darkseid in DC K.O. #4 when he confirms that he’s in the cell of every living being in the Absolute Universe. This also allows him to control the future versions of the Absolute Universe’s Trinity present in this story.
While Darkseid being able to control the heroes of the Absolute Universe does make story sense (given that he is this world’s origin), at the same time this takes away their agency. This also effectively makes their fight against Earth-0’s heroes less impactful than it should be. At best, it’s still fun to see the Earth-0 heroes react to the existence of their younger Absolute Universe doppelgängers. But that’s pretty much the extent of the novelty.
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For instance, both Wonder Women are shown to have the same penchant for kindness and empathy. But when Darkseid takes control of Absolute Wonder Woman, her “darkness” comes through in a way that humors her mainstream counterpart. Similarly, it’s fun to see Earth-0’s Superman be impressed (and alarmed) by the technology and impulsivity of his younger Absolute doppelgänger. Unfortunately, they don’t interact long enough for this to land in the humorous way it intends. This is also not helped by the fact that Absolute Superman’s impulsivity is actually controlled by Darkseid.
The Earth-0 Batman does return to the tournament after the events of DC K.O.: Knightfight #4, but the interaction with his Absolute Universe counterpart is also short-lived. At best, both Dark Knights are shown humorously trying to one-up each other when showing off their gadgets and combat skills. But this display only shows how much alike they really are, right down to having the same sense of humor. This remains true, even with Darkseid possessing Absolute Batman.
When the Absolute Universe heroes do regain their agency, what happens afterwards sadly underwhelms as well. This is largely due to the Absolute heroes never getting the opportunity to free themselves from Darkseid’s stranglehold, with the latter simply releasing them once he no longer needs them. This effectively establishes that the Absolute heroes were never really here as characters but as plot devices to move the main DC story forward.
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At best, it does feel like there was an opportunity for a more impactful resolution for the Absolute Universe heroes given the setup. But this may have been one of those instances where the limited page space didn’t allow for that to be better fleshed out. Even more so since all the heroes had to be eliminated in this issue to name the King Omega for issue #5.
Though issue #4 is a flawed penultimate issue, it does deliver a fun final battle between the heroes of two Earths before the King Omega is finally named. It’s also a final battle that would have benefited from giving the Absolute Heroes more agency to better show how these heroes truly differ, resulting in more meaningful interactions. This would have also required using the remaining pages that were ultimately taken up by the epilogue to pull off.
While the epilogue does state something of an endgame for the final issue to play out, it’s also going to have to deliver on a big payoff to Darkseid’s threat of remaking the DC Universe in his own image. It will also need to be mindful of how it executes that to not hurt the current success of the Absolute line. After all, two of its high selling points are easy accessibility and a stronger focus on character-driven stories. Dragging the Absolute Universe into future main DCU events could easily hurt that, especially if the payoff isn’t worth the cost of using these characters.
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