Darkseid’s Brutal New Axe Arm Has a Dark Origin Fans Are Only Beginning to Understand

Warning: Contains Spoilers for DC All In Special #1!Everybody knows that Darkseid is the main antagonist of the DC Universe. But after years and years of near-conquest only for the Justice League to defeat him, Darkseid looks like he’s ready to stop playing around. Donning a new, grim costume, Darkseid is keen on beginning a bloodbath – starting with his own body.

In DC’s All-In initiative, two parallel worlds will collide with two different Justice Leagues – but only one Darkseid, though he looks different from before. In the recently released preview pages by Wes Craig and Mike Spicer from DC All In Special #1, Darkseid is pitted against every conceivable League hero, with a startling new change as he’s swapped his arm for an ax.

In the fires of the hellish planet Apokolips, Darkseid appears to make a sacrifice in order to win his last battle with the Justice League. He chops off his own hand and decides to make a weapon out of his body in one of the darkest changes to his character yet.

Darkseid Goes to a New Dark Low to Defeat the Justice League

Darkseid Will Go to Any Lengths to Win

“Darkseid Is” goes the saying. He is one of the most steadfast villains, rarely changing the atmosphere of his planet or even his methods for universal destruction. But this self-mutilation shows the very lengths Darkseid will go to break the entire DC Universe. As he tries to bring the whole of the DC Universe under the rule of Anti-Life, he first brings it to himself in a gruesome and bloody act that brings a smile to his haunting face.

Though the preview is unlettered, fans can presume much of what is happening from Craig’s art alone. Darkseid makes himself a weapon as he enacts a sacrifice to the fires of Apokolips, and he then uses the very source of his self-mutilation as his replacement limb. The Justice League isn’t ready for this new Darkseid with an ax-arm. He hasn’t come to dominate the DCU but instead to completely annihilate it. Just an ax for a hand won’t do it, however, because as powerful as he is with such an item – which will likely be magic of some kind – it’s the subtext behind his plans that spell doom for the DCU.

Darkseid Is the Dark God of the DCU

Variant Cover by Rafa Sandoval

Darkseid is also the antagonist of the New Gods; he serves as their Satanic foil, a kind of Hades in his fiery realm, while the other Gods live on a blessed Olympus. In this regard, the sacrilege of his hand mutilation comes to a new light, as he reverses the ancient systems of giving the best parts of a sacrifice to the gods, instead sacrificing himself to himself in a dark ritual, showing just how twisted this Justice League villain is.

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And that’s just thematically – there seem to be much larger implications of this “axing.” Last seen returned to Apokolips at the end of Dark Crisis on Infinite Earths by All In Special co-creators Joshua Willaimson and Daniel Sampere, Darkseid has been sitting, waiting, and plotting while the heroes of DC deal with the Absolute Power event by Mark Waid and Dan Mora. It seems that Darkseid has a dark plan that involves bloodletting – if this universe will only ever bow to Superman, then he needs his own Universe. A Darkseid Universe.

Does Darkseid’s Death Sacrifice Spawn a Whole New Universe?

Variant Cover by Wes Craig

In the solicitation for Justice League Unlimited #1 by Waid and Mora, Darkseid’s death has been teased, but with this act of the ax, it seems the dictator of Apokolips is getting a head start on his own death. Behind him, he leaves a power vacuum and two universes rumbling in his wake. Whoever Darkseid’s replacement will be, they must be as gruesomely dark as Darkseid is in this final moment when he reaches his prime. Regardless, his energy will radiate outwards, creating the newly minted Darkseid Energy, as revealed by Williamson and Scott Snyder in the YouTube video announcing All In and the Absolute Universe.

Seeing as how Superman Energy has been a major player since Doomsday Clock, it only makes sense that DC’s anticipated Absolute Universe, which is a more chaotic and dangerous universe for the Justice League, would be created from an aspect of Darkseid. It’s possible that, in the act of destruction, as with the contradictions of Anti-Life, the bloodied hand of Darkseid has created the Absolute Universe.

It appears that the Absolute Universe stands opposed to Superman’s universe, filled with Darkseid energy, and ready to clash in an event never before seen. Darkseid’s bloody hand now becomes less an act of destruction and more a twisted, bloodied act of creation.

The Death of Darkseid is Imminent – and It Doesn’t Look Good for DC

Variant Cover by John Giang

Darkseid’s coming death is a sacrifice for a greater plan. Just what that plan is, comic fans can only guess. But it starts right here, with the transference of a hand into a sharpened ax as Darkseid cleaves two universes apart. Darkseid has become the very symbol of Anti-Life as he brings death into his own body to prepare for war. He intends to wipe the Justice League from history, and now, he just might have the means to do it with the emergence of a new Absolute Universe.

DC All In Special #1 is available October 2nd, 2024 from DC Comics!

Source: DC Comics