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The 32 Competitors In DC's K.O. Fighting To Be King Omega

The 32 competitors in DC's K.O. fighting to be King Omega and take on Darkseid

The 32 competitors in DC's upcoming K.O. battle series have been named… Power Girl, Superman, Lex Luthor, Supergirl, Black Lightning, Guy Gardner, Giganta, Captain Atom, Damian Wayne, Batman, Red Hood, Batwoman, Jay Garrick, Cheetah, Cyborg, Big Barda 3rd row: Plastic Man, Aquaman, Harley Quinn, Lobo, Conner Hawke, Star Sapphire, Vixen, Zatanna, Metamorpho, Wonder Woman, Swamp Thing, Firestorm, King Shark, Hawkman, The Demon, and Jarro.

Place your bets, ladies and gentlemen, place your bets. In his Substack newsletter, 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."

And Scott Snyder sees KO in the light of a Marvel all-the-superheroes-fight crossover event.

"So it's almost like the first time that we've gotten to do a big fight event. Marvel's done them a bunch. You have Avengers vs. X-Men, Secret Wars, Civil War. But I realized, like, we haven't actually done almost any of them. So for us, this is our knock-down, drag-out fight. But it's done in a way that isn't meant to be grim. It doesn't really hit them against each other in a way that has fault lines over deep issues. It is supposed to be something that you can enjoy. It has a very personal message, which I think will become apparent as you get closer to the end. So it's not just some kind of big escapist bubblegum thing. It's very much about what I think these superheroes are meant to stand for and represent to us, especially in difficult times. But it is coded in 10 layers of bloody candy fun. Out of control, violent candy fun. No edgelord bullshit. It is PG-13 in its own way. We'll have some red band issues, but overall, it is really supposed to get you that kid joy of Saturday morning cartoons on steroids. Who will win? That fun. Get you into stores."

And then there's the practicalities of the crossover playing out in comic book stores. This reminds me of Alan Moore's Twilight Of The Gods pitch, where he started talking about the point-of-sale marketing and role-playing game spin-offs.

 "There'll be a bracket with the 32 contestants that you can winnow down and take guesses and we'll have rewards for stores. to guess right or come closest. We'll have all kinds of incentives. We're going to even have a voting thing at New York that'll be a lot of fun that we'll announce soon that'll allow you to participate. So we want it to be something like All In that drives you into stores, that gets you going there for fun, that gets you talking with your friends, that makes you enjoy the month wait in between. We're going to have special months where we have tie-ins and all kinds of cool stuff that's already planned, but I don't want to get ahead of myself and announce stuff that I'm not supposed to yet."

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."

As to why the event comic itself is ony five issues long…

"It's very small, also. I'm not a big believer in events that go on for 12 issues. I'm sure we'll do one someday. But I know right now your wallets are tight. We want to keep it modular. We don't want you to have to interrupt a lot of your other series. You don't have to read anything but the main series if you don't want. But we will have some tie-ins in Teen Titans and in Flash. Superman is also building a lot of the architecture right now if you want to check it out. So you can check all of that stuff out if you want to get the full picture. But if you want to just read five issues in and out, you can do that too. And again, It's not going to kind of interrupt books that you're really enjoying."

And how it fits into his whole plan for DC Comics.

"But the big goal of something like KO for me, just to give you a behind the scenes peek, is A, to keep the great saga going of Darkseid, you know, to keep the big story that you guys are invested in going strong. So it's part two of, essentially, three. If All In was part one, this is part two."

• JUSTICE LEAGUE THE OMEGA ACT SPECIAL #1 (ONE SHOT)
  (W) Joshua Williamson (A) Yasmine Putri (CA) Jorge Fornes
  IT'S ALL BEEN LEADING TO THIS! A special oversize prologue to DC's biggest event of the year. Everything since DC All In Special #1 has been building to this moment! Time Trapper is on the run from Darkseid's Legion. Racing through time to learn how to stop Darkseid's conquest, he witnesses how the future is already lost and the only hope of survival lies with the Justice League! The Time Trapper has a plan to save the DCU, but it means making an impossible offer to the League… $5.99 10/1/2025
• DC K.O. #1 (OF 4)
  (W) Scott Snyder (A/CA) Javier Fernandez
  DC'S MAJOR 2025 EVENT IS HERE! SCOTT SNYDER AND JAVIER FERNANDEZ WELCOME YOU TO THE SLUGFEST OF THE CENTURY! The Heart of Apokolips has transformed Earth into a hellscape in preparation for the return of Darkseid! The end of the DC Universe is here! The Justice League's only chance to defeat Darkseid is to enter a deadly tournament, an epic and over-the-top battle royale that will surprise you! 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? Who is willing to do what it takes to win it all, even if it means taking down their friends and family? You want to get nuts? Let's get nuts! $5.99 10/8/2025
• TITANS #28
  (W) John Layman (A/CA) Pete Woods
  THE TITANS RACE TO EVACUATE EARTH! Spinning out of the world-shaking events of DC K.O.! Before the heart of Apokolips terraforms the planet into a hellscape, the Titans lead the evacuation of the Earth! While the team splits up to save as many people as possible, old friends and new allies join the fray to save humanity from extinction. The next major Titans storyline starts here! $3.99 10/15/2025
• JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #12
  (W) Mark Waid (A/CA) Dan Mora
  THE TERRIFIC TEN ARE ON A DO-OR-DIE MISSION! As the tournament begins and the transformation of Earth GROWS MORE DIRE, a strange signal is detected at the heart of darkness at the core of the planet–a Terrifictech device?! Michael Holt must put together an elite Justice League squad of the most powerful time-displaced heroes from We Are Yesterday to unravel the mystery–and this mission is a oneway ticket. Get ready for a mission to hell and back in this epic tie-in to the DC K.O. event! $3.99 10/22/2025
• SUPERMAN #31
  (W) Joshua Williamson (A/CA) Dan Mora
  SUPERMAN…MAN OF APOKOLIPS?! Superman and his allies have been thrown into a dangerous game to capture the Heart of Apokolips at the center of Earth. But what is the Heart of Apokolips? And how are its origins tied to Krypton?! And why doesn't Darkseid's Legion want Superman to find out?! $4.99 10/22/2025
• FLASH #26
  (W) Mark Waid, Christopher Cantwell (A) Vasco Georgiev (CA) Dan Mora
  WALLY AND IMPULSE RACE THROUGH TIME–WITH MARK WAID AND CHRISTOPHER CANTWELL! As the chaos around the DC Universe erupts during DC K.O., Impulse has an idea how to fix it: Impulsepoint–a terrible move that could wipe out everything unless the Flash can catch up with him as they race through time! $3.99 10/22/2025
• DC K.O. KNIGHTFIGHT #1 (OF 4)
  (W) Joshua Williamson (A/CA) Dan Mora
  SUPERSTARS JOSHUA WILLIAMSON AND DAN MORA TEST BATMAN LIKE NEVER BEFORE! Experience Batman's epic journey during the explosive DC K.O. event! The Dark Knight is forced to take a different path in the tournament for the Heart of Apokolips–one that has turned Gotham into a deadly arena where Batman must battle against the Batmen of the future! Who are these Batmen? Stay tuned to find out! Get ready for the greatest fight of Batman's life in this over-the-top crossover miniseries! $3.99 11/5/2025
• TITANS #29
  (W) John Layman (A/CA) Pete Woods
  THE TITANS STAND BETWEEN HUMANITY AND APOKOLIPS! The Towers have lifted, and Earth's evacuation is complete! As the Titans take to the stars to save humanity from the oncoming apocalypse, trouble can't help but follow them! Our heroes are scattered across the galaxy–and across dimensions–each discovering that new worlds mean new dangers, something Starfire knows all too well as she ends up cornered by an Apokoliptian blockade! $3.99 11/19/2025
• DC K.O. #2 (OF 4)
  (W) Scott Snyder (A/CA) Javier Fernandez
  LET THE GAMES BEGIN! The tournament is in full swing. Heroes have fallen. Darkseid is near. The 32 champions have been chosen, and now they must compete to earn the Heart of Apokolips. The first challenge? Battling across a deadly arena to acquire new weapons of war. The greatest powers of the DC Universe are up for grabs, and whoever holds them will advance to the next level. Superman has his doubts that the Justice League is doing the right thing, but there are others who have no problem killing to get what they want… $5.99 11/26/2025
• SUPERMAN #32
  (W) Joshua Williamson (A) Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira (CA) Dan Mora
  LEX LUTHOR ENTERS THE FRAY! Lex Luthor is back! But how did he get into the deadly tournament? Can Superman and Lex work together to learn about the Heart of Apokolips and how to stop it? And who protects Metropolis as it transforms into a raging firepit? $4.99 11/26/2025
• JUSTICE LEAGUE UNLIMITED #13
  (W) Mark Waid (A/CA) Dan Mora
  THE TERRIFIC TEN ON A DO-OR-DIE MISSION! The Earth opens up to swallow the JLU! Parademons swarm the Watchtower! The Time Trapper lies near-dead at Metamorpho's feet? Any one of these things is catastrophic, but all three simultaneously? Can Armageddon be far behind $3.99 11/26/2025
• FLASH #27
  (W) Mark Waid, Christopher Cantwell (A) Vasco Georgiev (CA) Dan Mora
  THE SPEEDSTER CHASE THROUGH TIME CONTINUES! After Impulse's shocking decision, the Flash races through the time stream before Impulse's irrational actions can potentially doom the DC Universe. But someone is just a step behind the speedsters, while the Flash and Impulse run right into a shocking reunion! $3.99 11/26/2025

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