DC KO #5 review

It’s the finale to DC’s latest event, and Superman is in trouble.

Well, he’s dead, killed by Lex Luthor.

But that’s only one Superman. It turns out that the ‘games night’ flashbacks we’ve been seeing as asides while heroes bashed each other in a cosmic clash to become the King Omega weren’t the flashbacks they seemed.

A pocket universe! Time Trappers have form there, as Legion of Super-Heroes fans know. So while Superman is dead, he’s also alive. Schrodinger’s Superman? A sliver of the regular guy who’s now taking over his role?

This comic doesn’t care. The series has gloried in being stupid, an unashamed excuse for good guys – and sometimes bad – to bash seven bells out of one another. So, in Superman last week Doomsday learned he wasn’t, as believed, created to destroy, but to resurrect the Man of Steel, and then vanish from reality. Better get on with it, then.

It’s time for Superman to rebuild Earth, lately turned into a mini-Apokolips by Darkseid.

His work done, Superman fights Darkseid, falling backwards through time, until finally he looks set to deliver the winning blow, cheered on by the Heart of Apokolips, the machine that arranged the reality busting bouts between the King Omega contenders. And which is absorbed into Superman’s chest, upping his power levels.

Rather than kill his foe, Superman rips out the Heart, causing a blast that send Darkseid back to the Absolute Universe he’s been lurking in of late. It also makes all the heroes and villains reappear

Everyone can get on with their lives… except the Man of Steel.

Tell us more!

Perfection gives way to, well, it looks like regular DC Earth, though an epilogue does hint at changes.

And back at games night, which seems to have been reabsorbed into the regular reality.

Does the game ever stop? It’s one darn event after another, and wouldn’t you know it, Darkseid is already plotting new mischief, with former Flash Barry Allen getting the first clue.

A laughing Darkseid reveals to the reader his true plan.

There’s going to be an Absolute Crisis.

Give me strength. DC KO has had some fun moments, but can’t it also have a happy ending for heroes and readers alike, at least for a few months? The Mr Terrific panel nods to solicitations telling us heroes are getting new powers, exactly as happened at the end of the Absolute Power event.

And the Absolute Universe is part of an Absolute Multiverse? Of course it is… well, I won’t be following their Crisis, and fingers crossed it won’t cross over into the regular DCU. I tried a few Absolute books, they’re not my cup of tea.

Darkseid’s evil Legion, which last week’s Superman hinted would turn on Darkseid, are absent for all but one panel. When they do appear, it’s with the hint that they’ll be back. Why? They’ve served their story purpose, bring on a shiny, good Legion. Could Superman’s mystery mission be to ensure the birth of a classic Legion, like the one hinted at during his perfect world scenario?

I can see Superman not killing Darkseid, perhaps thinking – stupidly, to be honest – that exiling him to Absolute space would mean he’d see the back of him, but it means ultimate Evil goes unpunished.

I didn’t love Doomsday Clock start to finish, but liked a lot of it and loved the idea of a Metaverse centred on Superman; it’s good to see it referenced here, with wiggle room for readers to believe it or not.

Why does Superman remake Earth and then fight Darkseid? Why not beat him first, then go straight to the second do-over, if ‘perfection’ isn’t what you actually want? There is something about him having the whole world in his hands…

The worst thing about this mini-series has been the super-chatty Heart of Apokolips, which has somehow gone from being the Arcade-style gamesmaster, out to trick the heroes, to Superman’s number one cheerleader. The voice given it by writer Scott Snyder is hugely annoying. What the heck is it all about? That panel with Cyborg is a near guarantee it’ll be back – wasn’t nicking Boom Tube tech enough for him?

I get that for the readers DC KO is meant to be akin to a pro-wrestling match, but Superman saying ‘Ding Ding’ to Darkseid, and talking of ‘tagging in’ the good and bad guys near the end of the book – who then do nothing – is a bit much.

Scott Snyder doesn’t write the whole issue, Joshua Williamson handles the games night scene and coda. Snyder certainly keeps the story moving, while Williamson lays down the hints/threats at what’s coming up.

Most of the art in this extra-length issue is pretty decent to great, illustrator Javi Fernández and colourist Alejandro Sánchez do an especially good job with the Darkseid fight scene, giving us an imposing dark god and a majestic Superman, complete with glowing Omega crown. Other highlights include Doomsday doing a Superman-style shirt rip, the creation of ‘Earth Paradise’ and a happily temporary King Lex.

Xermanico draws the games night pages as he has throughout the mini, and they’re pretty decent, but what really lets the book down are the scrappy stylings of Wes Craig in the final pages – the montage of moments, Barry Allen carrying comic books that look like compact discs, the peek into the Absolute Universe. I’ve seen a lot better work from him – he’s currently drawing Absolute Wonder Woman – so I can only assume he was rushed. Very, very rushed.

Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou does a good job with a lot of different fonts; I hate the Heart’s hysterical typeface here as much as I did when it first popped up, but that’s a stylistic choice for the story – someone might love it.

The cover image by Fernández and Sánchez is so hidden by the cut-out style DC KO ‘peepholes’ it may as well not be there.

All in all, this mini-series has been very frustrating – some fun moments along the way, but far too much ‘this happens then this happens and ooh, here’s a new rule for the tournament, and why don’t we kill everyone and bring them back and kill them again and blow up the universe…’ Without known parameters, a strange sports story is more frustrating than entertaining.

But, my tastes aren’t the same as everyone else’s; how was it for you?