DC's K.O. Competitor Fighters Line-Up For First Round

[superfangirl1]

So we will have…

Superman Vs Giganta
Captain Atom Vs Power Girl
Guy Gardner Vs Firestorm
Jay Garrick Vs Cheetah
Aquaman Vs King Shark
Conner Hawke Vs Hawkman
Lex Luthor Vs Black Lightning
The Demon Vs Supergirl
Wonder Woman Vs Starro/Jarro
Lobo Vs Plastic Man
Swamp Thing Vs Vixen
Cyborg Vs Batwoman
Batman Vs Star Sapphire
Red Hood Vs Damian Wayne
Zatanna Vs Big Barda
Harley Quinn Vs Metamorpho

"The World's Greatest Heroes fight to become the champion to enter the ring against Darkseid, but there's a catch…the closer you get to the Heart of Apokolips, the more it corrupts you, changes you into something dangerous. Which DC character has what it takes to make it to the end?"




"Scott Snyder has talked up the upcoming DC K.O. event. and has told us that, no, it doesn't stand for knockout…

"DC K.O., it stands for King Omega, although that's not announced yet. Darkseid has become a King Omega in the DC universe right now, or the King Omega, which is the entire totality of Omega energy over in the Absolute Universe. And he's coming over to attack. And so what the heroes have to do is figure out a way to beat him. And so this is going to be our five-issue big DC All In Saga event for this year."

He talked about King Omega in the DC SDCC Ashcan, but there's more to come.

"It's essentially about these heroes realizing that there's no way to stop Darkseid. He's coming and he's become something far more insidious than he's ever been before. He's still Darkseid, he's still all about control and absorbing everything so that it is of him, so that he is the only ruler, the only mind that can dictate everything to all reality. But he almost exists outside of space and time, he's become so incredibly powerful. I was talking to Deniz Camp and part of the fun of the series at this point is that Darkseid is omnipresent. So it's almost like all the kinds of fears that you have that make you want to cede control to somebody else, that make you want to give up and feel like, "I'm going to stop trying." That's Darkseid in every atom and every cell."

As well as how this all ties into the Absolute Universe.

"Anyway, so the heroes realize that the only way to stop Darkseid is to become as powerful as him. And Omega energy in the DC mythology is essentially the energy of conquest. It's the energy of destruction, of ending things, of controlling things. Omega obviously is alphabetically the end. So it's the idea of the final absorption into things. And so what they have to do is gather as much Omega energy as possible and drive it into one person so that that one person can become a celestial being as powerful as Darkseid. And at the core of the earth, a heart of apocalypse is already forming. This is the device that Darkseid uses in the Absolute Universe, which you learn in issue one, to gather all of the Omega energy unto himself and become the only god, the only celestial being. And so they decide that if they can go get this thing or get close to it and use it to funnel all Omega energy into one of them, then they can become as powerful as Darkseid and take him down and restore things to the way they're supposed to be. Because Darkseid's already taken over all of the future."

And it looks like the K.O. event has a new staging ground, created by the Darkseid home planet of Apokalips.

"So the event, as they get towards the heart of Apokolips, it tries to defend itself and creates a tournament, five levels, to see who is worthy of it. And so the only way to become worthy is to defeat other champions, to take down all of the other heroes, anyone else that's in this competition, and to do it in a way that shows no compassion, no mercy. Because if you start to help each other, if you start to try and be soft, then it won't create enough Omega energy and you won't be worthy. So it is a knockdown, drag out, fun battle royale to see who will be the standing champion at the end of the DC universe to be able to defeat Darkseid and bring everything back the way it's supposed to be."

As well as the already announced Batman spinoff Knightfight.;..

"But Knightfight, you have Batman versus the Batman versions of all of the former or a lot of the former Robins to see who would be better. It's almost like Batman's journey through Hell. It's amazing. It's written by Josh Williamson with a little help by me and obviously the incredible Dan Mora on art. We have Fight Month coming in December where you're going to have matches between some of the great contestants, the champions. And again, that's going to be a blast. I'm writing one of those. It's just meant to be pure comic book joy with a lot of heart. As you get deeper in, you'll see it's a personal Superman story about what I think about Superman and why he's such a great character. So I can't wait for you to see it. I know I've been talking about it a lot, but we're really excited about it."

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/scoop-who-each-of-the-32-competitors-in-dcs-k-o-will-be-fighting/

Comments

[cainofdreaming]

Did Giganta kick the editorial's puppy or something?

[shakalooloo]

Always. She never gets the respect she deserves! She clocks in at the same Jobber Centre as Rhino.

[cainofdreaming]

I mean. getting paired up with Superman in a fighting tournament is kind of getting respect. It's just a foregone conclusion. Total misfight, unless she comes in wearing a Kryptonite leotard.

[shakalooloo]

It depends if her backstory involves magic on the day, I guess. Has the New 52 science origin been de-retconned back?

[thanekos]

I like the " King Omega " idea, but it's " to defeat Darkseid you must become like Darkseid ", which - it's fine enough in a mechanical sense, but in a philosophical one, not so much.

(I think the only previous treatment of the general idea was Kingdom Come's " Orion killed Darkseid, and then he took over Apokolips and pretty much became Darkseid II. ")

[shakalooloo]

No-one has high hopes for the plot required for a fighting tournament story, and yet this one still manages to be overly complicated and stupid-dumb even by those standards.

[alan2099]

Wonder Woman has to fight Starro by herself? Doesn't Starro usually take entire teams to beat?

[shakalooloo]

Only if it's got minions, right? With no-one else to control, it's a bit more fair, I reckon.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

So, Batman v Superman for the finals, yeah?

[blueprintstyles]

I see Batman getting beaten in the semi-finals to ramp up tension. My Shonen senses tell me this.

[beyondthefringe]

Looking at those brackets...
It would be boring and cliche for the Final Four to be Superman vs Lex Luthor, Batman vs Wonder Woman, leading to a Superman vs Batman final round, with Superman taking home the victory.

However, Cheetah vs the Demon and Starro vs Metamorpho, with a final found of Cheetah vs Starro and Starro taking home the gold would be fucking amazing and blow everyone's minds.

I dunno, if I was writing this... and thinking logically with an eye towards surprising the reader and embracing the theme of ruthlessness, I'd throw some curve balls. My final four would be... Captain Atom vs Aquaman, Wonder Woman vs Barda, leading to Captain Atom vs Barda and Barda taking it home because Barda's been awesome in Birds of Prey.

But... *shrug* it's anyone's guess, really. It's Scott Snyder and he says it's a Superman story, so the big question is, do you "come back" from winning this thing or is the winner Transformed Forever (tm) because it so, we might see a surprising upset by a lesser-used character who needs a revamp.

[thezmage]

To be honest having Giganta beat Superman as a surprise twist is almost more cliche than having Supes win the whole thing would be

Batman is almost certainly beating Star Sapphire because I just can’t see anybody passing up the possibility of Batman fighting whoever wins the Robin battle.

[superfangirl1]

You have good guesses. As it has been spoiled that Lex (wearing a war suit) and Superman will battle each other somewhere in the tournament brackets

[shakalooloo]

Going by that chart, the earliest this can only happen in the semi-finals. Unless this is a panel from the first issue before the tournament starts (and that's unlikely given the weird energy effects) , this is a horrible spoiler to be dropped.

Plus, it's rather a dull direction to take the story. Wow, Superman fights Lex Luthor, ain't nobody seen that before!

[mastermahan]

Sounds like a fresh new match-up.

[blueprintstyles]

As a pro wrestling fan and a Fighting manga fan, this has the potential to be my most favourite event in years!

[bruinsfan]

I have to admit, I'm interested in seeing the Lobo vs. Plastic Man round.

[cainofdreaming]

Two basically indestructible characters. This could take a while.