Yes, he conquers worlds, and yes, he's hell-bent on universal domination, but that definitely
isn't all there is to Darkseid. From his origins to his best comic book moments, everything
you ever wanted to know about Darkseid.
When Jack Kirby was concocting the idea of Darkseid for his short-lived but influential
Fourth World stories, he envisioned the ultimate evil in Darkseid. He modeled the Tyrant after
Adolf Hitler, the real-life embodiment of evil and tyranny, whose universal lust for
power and control is reflected in Darkseid's actually universal lust for power and control,
with Apokalips exemplifying a tyrant's ultimate dream: a world of total control with no resistance.
The one aspect of Darkseid that wasn't modeled after Hitler? His face. That was somewhat
modeled after the actor Jack Palance.
Between 1960 and 1969, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee co-created a number of the most influential
characters in Marvel history — the X-Men, Thor, Iron Man, the Silver Surfer, the Fantastic
Four, and more. Kirby left for DC Comics in 1970, where he was given a blank check to
develop his own mythology for the brand. He came up with a series of comics centering
around a series of New Gods. Of these Gods, the most frightening was the menacing villain
Darkseid, a vastly powerful, purple-hued villain to serve as a foil for DC's most powerful
superhero team.
With Kirby at DC, Jim Starlin was put in charge of growing Marvel's array of cosmic titles.
He created a new cosmic villain in the character of Thanos and overtly acknowledged his inspiration
from Kirby's work on the New Gods... but not Darkseid. Starlin had copied Metron, the New
God knowledge-seeker in his Mobius chair, until Starlin's editor Roy Thomas suggested
he should rather copy Darkseid instead. Thanos transformed from a thin new god to a massive,
purple-faced tyrant that worships Death, and the rest is history.
In DC comics history, there was a First World named GodWorld, which existed 18 billion years
ago. It evolved for 3 billion years into the Second World, and the humanoid lifeforms who
lived there began to attain godhood through a gradual increase in power. This era saw
vast advances in cultural and scientific advancement, and the Old Gods became some of the most powerful
beings in existence. Ten billion years later, GodWorld fell into internal conflict between
powerful factions of gods, culminating in Ragnarok, the destruction of GodWorld, and
the release of a massive wave of energy throughout the universe, seeding worlds with the potential
to evolve gods of their own in what became known as the "Third World."
GodWorld itself split into two divergent planets: the good New Genesis ruled by the wise and
powerful Highfather, and the warlike, dark, and evil Apokolips. The "Fourth World'' emerged
when these beings attempted to attain Godhood, around 30,000 years ago. These New Gods and
their two planets began to wage war.
Of the two planets which the New Gods inhabit, Apokolips and New Genesis, the latter is an
effective utopia while the former is a massive industrial city dedicated to intergalactic
war and dominance. In one origin story, Darkseid was born Uxas, son of the rulers of Apokolips.
His older brother Drax had attempted to claim the Omega Force, itself a source of legendary
power, when Uxas killed Drax and took it for himself. Darkseid was transformed into the
craggy-faced monstrosity he's best known as and took the throne of Apokolips for himself.
In the New 52 title relaunch, Darkseid was retconned from New God royal lineage to a
lower-class resident of the world of the Old Gods. He manipulated them into turning on
each other, and proceeded to absorb their power as they fell. In this iteration Darkseid
and the Highfather are brothers, forming the origins of Apokolips and New Genesis, respectively.
Just as Darkseid wasn't always a ruler, he also wasn't always the pure-evil, hard-hearted
God of Evil we know. Following his absorption of the Omega power and renaming himself Darkseid,
he fell in love with a scientist and sorceress named Suli. They married in secret, against
the wishes of his mother Queen Heggra.
Suli began to gradually tempt Darkseid toward goodness and away from his plans of universal
domination, and together the two had a son named Kalibak. Darkseid's mother Heggra, fearing
Suli's positive influence over her son, had Suli poisoned. Darkseid became even more hateful
in his heart, and as his mother forced him to marry a woman named Tigra, who gave birth
to Darkseid's second son, Orion, he sought his revenge, ordering Desaad to poison Heggra
in retaliation for her killing his love and to stake his claim as ruler of Apokolips.
In the longstanding war between Apokolips and New Genesis, the two worlds achieved a
temporary peace with a novel deal: the rulers would exchange sons, each raising the other's
progeny. Darkseid gave up his second son, Orion, to be raised by the New Genesis ruler,
while the latter sent his son Scott Free to live in Apokolips where he was "trained" and
tortured by Darkseid's minion Granny Goodness.
For his part, Scott Free found he had a godlike ability to escape effectively all traps. He
eventually used this ability to escape to Earth with his wife Big Barda, becoming the
hero Mister Miracle. Orion, on the other hand, became aligned with the side of good as the
greatest protector of New Genesis, and the one prophesied to defeat Darkseid.
Still, at least one of his sons followed in Darkseid's footsteps. Darkseid's first son
Kalibak is evil, often serving as Darkseid's second-in-command, though comics lore has
made it clear that Darkseid respects his heroic son Orion more than the son following in his
footsteps.
As a New God, Darkseid has a number of powers that make him among the most formidable of
DC villains. His skills and powers include immortality, impossibly strong and durable
physiology, unrivaled tactical prowess, and a command over the Omega Effect, a form of
energy that allows him to omit Omega Beams, powerful energy beams that can lock onto and
never miss a target. They can shift direction in mid-air, destroy planets, move faster than
speedsters, and even harm the likes of Superman. And that doesn't even include his Omega Sanction,
the "Life Trap," where an individual gets trapped in a parade of increasingly dreadful
and hopeless artificial lives.
Altogether, these powers make Darkseid beyond a formidable foe. His most devastating capability,
however, comes from his lifelong pursuit of the Anti-Life Equation, a mathematical equation
that grants him total control over all sentient life through "proving" the futility and hopelessness
of life and freedom.
"For years, he has searched the galaxies for the legendary anti-life equation, a formula
that would give him complete control."
Anyone who hears it is subject to Darkseid's absolute control, and it can even grant reality-distorting
powers. It's a long equation, but its mastery granted Darkseid the ability to attack Earth,
enslave billions, and attempt to reconstruct the planet as a New Apokolips in Final Crisis.
Here's the Anti-Life Equation in its full glory:
loneliness + alienation + fear + despair + self-worth ÷ mockery ÷ condemnation ÷ misunderstanding
x guilt x shame x failure x judgment n=y where y=hope and n=folly, love=lies, life=death,
self=dark side
Of course, what exactly the Anti-Life equation is changes depending on the story. In Jim
Starlin's Cosmic Odyssey, the Anti-Life Equation is said to be part of a nearly all-powerful
Anti-Life being, one pushed out of this reality by Doctor Fate but which is beyond even Darkseid's
control.
In Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers series, a sort-of reimagining of DC's earlier team
the Seven Soldiers of Victory, Darkseid has discovered the Anti-Life Equation that allows
him control over the free will of all sentient life. Darkseid's actions destroy the entire
Fourth World of New Gods, both Apokolips and New Genesis, and the New Gods retreat to Earth
by possessing human bodies.
In Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle #2, we meet Boss Dark Side, a version of Darkseid in human
form who runs the Dark Side Club. We discover that after his death at Orion's hand, the
immortal New God falls backwards through time and becomes mortal, attached to a human form.
His plan here is to use the Anti-Life Equation to command fanatical followers, alongside
a super-team of young villains called the Terror Titans. One complication: his human
host is rapidly decaying due to the human form being unable to contain his powerful
New God essence. We see him take over another human host, Metropolis detective Dan Turpin,
before attempting to conquer Earth once and for all during Final Crisis.
Darkseid's love of waging war against gods has taken him across the universe, but one
thing many folks don't know is that he once waged war on demi-gods as... an infant. Of
Darkseid's many children, he has four sons and one daughter, Grail. Grail was born from
the union of Darkseid and an Amazonian assassin, Myrina, upon one of his visits to Earth. She
fled with the young Grail to raise her in secret, hoping one day the girl could grow
powerful enough to kill Darkseid.
During the Darkseid War, the arc that transitioned the DC Universe from the New 52 to Rebirth,
Darkseid dies. An adult Grail resurrects the New God using an ancient Amazonian ritual,
depositing his soul in the body of an infant. The new infant Darkseid wants only one thing
for sustenance — souls. Grail proceeds to hunt down the children of the Olympian ruler
Zeus so their demigod essences can feed and empower the young tyrant. Even as an infant,
Darkseid is a willful, murderous, controlling megalomaniac, and one hellbent on absorbing
the power of other gods.
While many of his worst plots are against fellow gods he's a major antagonist to the
Justice League, especially the Man of Steel himself. Superman is one of the few mortal
entities who has withstood his Omega Beams, and his exemplary ability to inspire hope
flies in the face of the hopelessness that Darkseid literally tries to create in his
foes.
At the same time, Darkseid has reluctantly partnered with Superman on multiple occasions.
Each time the two were faced with an enemy that endangered both.
"Why should we help you?"
"Because my enemy is your enemy."
In 1998's Cosmic Odyssey, Darkseid has to join a slew of heroes including Superman in
order to stop escaped aspects of the Anti-Life Entity at the heart of the Anti-Life Equation...
of course, Darkseid has plans of his own, but he still works alongside Superman for
a time.
In Our Worlds At War, the DC Universe and its heroes are threatened by Imperiex, the
embodiment of entropy who has continually destroyed the universe to remake it in a perpetual
cycle. Darkseid ends up partnering with a host of heroes including Superman, Wonder
Woman, and the Martian Manhunter to stave off the assault of the cosmic menace.
Darkseid's machinations for defeating Earth and its heroes have always involved a variety
of elements including treachery, the collective might of his minions, his own formidable powers,
or the Anti-Life Equation. Ever the tactician, Darkseid has sometimes resorted to more unique
efforts to undermine his enemies, including interfering in Earth's politics to sow chaos
for a potential takeover.
In the six-issue series Legends, Darkseid uses Glorious Godfrey's powers of mind control
and persuasion to turn humanity against the heroes of the Justice League. His motivation
is his own dissatisfaction with the legendary status of Earth's heroes, who continue to
inspire humanity and impede his ability to conquer.
In The Dark Knight Returns: The Golden Child Darkseid teams up with the Joker to effectively
re-elect Donald Trump. The latter is not directly named, but his image is used in parts of the
comic while Trump-like phrases are scattered throughout. Darkseid enlists the Joker as
an "agent of chaos" to get Trump elected, antagonizing the populace and sowing so much
division among the people that they become pliant for his domination goals.
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus, even more Looper videos about your favorite
comic book heroes and villains are coming soon. Subscribe to our YouTube channel and
hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.