Somehow… Darkseid has returned. It’s all been leading to this. Ever since the “All In” era in DC began with the All In Special one-shot that dropped a year ago, many of the mainline titles like Joshua Williamson’s Superman run and Justice League Unlimited have been building up to this bombastic event. Now it’s time. There are 32 competitors but only one can be crowned “King Omega” to take on Darkseid. Who will prevail? Here are my thoughts on DC K.O. #1.
To be honest, I thought the premise of this event was really silly, even for a superhero comic. But as we have gotten closer to the launch of issue #1, my excitement level gradually increased. So shout out to DC’s marketing team for doing a good job these past few weeks. From the announcement of the combatants to the reveal of the tournament bracket, I feel that DC has done an excellent job hyping up the event. Now, is the comic actually worth all the hype? I say yes… for now.
Darkseid is so OP, he can be anywhere at the same time.Writer Scott Snyder does a serviceable job with taking storylines that started in the All In Special, Superman, Justice League Unlimited, etc., and weave them in a somewhat coherent way to establish why the heroes have to fight in this tournament to defeat Darkseid. Snyder is usually good at taking outlandish and over-the-top ideas and crafting compelling narratives with those ideas, i.e. what he’s doing right now with Absolute Batman. But with DC K.O. #1, while it’s a fun ride, the story is a little convoluted for me.
With a premise like this, I do not expect the story to be groundbreaking and force me to look deeper at the philosophical message it is trying to tell. What I do expect is that the story be coherent. For the most part it is, but I can see where a brand-new reader would be completely lost. But as the event goes along and the actual tournament begins, I feel that the story will become more focused.
The artwork was really solid. Javi Fernández is the primary artist, and I really appreciated his work on Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s run on Batman and Robin (and you can check out my review of the first issue of that run here). So when I heard Fernández was working on this event, I knew the artwork was in the right hands. His style just fits perfectly for the chaotic nature of this story. The third part of this issue where the heroes are in a race to get through the barrier at the Heart of Apokolips showcases that sentiment to the T. The panel layout during this part was also really creative as it mirrored the board game that the Clark, Diana, and Bruce were playing at the beginning of the issue.
At the end of the day, it’s all just a game.Another pleasant surprise was that Xermánico contributed to some of the illustrations as well. I have been really enjoying his work on Jeremy Adams’ Green Lantern run, so I’m glad to see he’s getting bigger opportunities to showcase his talents. I also wanted to highlight Hassan Otsmane-Elahadu’s lettering. There were multiple instances where I noticed the lettering during different characters’ dialogue, and it just added to the intensity in certain sequences.
One of these competitors aren’t as they seem…Recommended if…
- You’ve been all in on the “All In” era.
- You are a March Madness fan.
- You want to read an outlandish but fun comic.
Overall
DC K.O. #1 did what it was suppose to do. It got all these heroes and villains together in a bombastic way and created a scenario where they have to fight each other to determine who fights Darkseid and becomes “King Omega.” While it was a fun ride and the artwork was really good, the story was a little convoluted and new readers might get lost. But with that said, I have faith that Scott Snyder and the rest of the creative team will produce an event that’s worth the hype. I’m intrigued in what happens next.
Score: 7.5/10
DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purpose of review.
English (US) · 