FC issue 4 question about Darkseid *SPOILERS*

[mofo]

okay
so im liking this new idea where darkside is just a normal man in a hazmat suit (i think)
BUT
is he gonna still have his towering presence over everyone? or will he just be at eye level with the common man?
i am talking about, of course, his height :tongue:

[Karl O'Neill]

Darkseid a suffering, evil bastard, He is in contant pain, everything he touches and passes will rot to pieces.

There really isn't other villains in any universe or publisher that have a patch on darkseid.

[Sean Walsh]

"Darkseid" Dan Turpin + stilts = your answer, sir. :biggrin:

[Fiji]

If they can give people tiger heads, I'm sure they can bump him up a few inches. Although Darkseid never struck me as particularly vain.

[Grundy]

And if Turpin gets super strength (and he better) he can probably get superheight.

[Samuraixsithlord]

Darkseid a suffering, evil bastard, He is in contant pain, everything he touches and passes will rot to pieces.

There really isn't other villains in any universe or publisher that have a patch on darkseid.

Another cool thing about him. He doesn't cast a shadow, because he "is" a Shadow.

I loved how Grant transformed Darkseid from a one-dimensional alien despot, to a truely evil god.

[Jake V]

When you've got omega beams, it doesn't really matter how tall you are.

[Samuraixsithlord]

When you've got omega beams, it doesn't really matter how tall you are.

has it been said he still has his Omega Beams?

I wouldn't mind him not having them, always thought they were to powerful and that he relied on them to much.

[Jake V]

has it been said he still has his Omega Beams?

I wouldn't mind him not having them, always thought they were to powerful and that he relied on them to much.

Well, he's got the Omega symbol everywhere else.

I'm assuming he's still got the beams.

[Tobias March]

Well, he's got the Omega symbol everywhere else.

I'm assuming he's still got the beams.

On the other hand he has 'fallen'. This is the evil gods shaken from the perch, rooting around in the muck of human existenced for a purchase. Maybe they aren't all that anymore.

[carabas]

On the other hand he has 'fallen'. This is the evil gods shaken from the perch, rooting around in the muck of human existenced for a purchase. Maybe they aren't all that anymore.I don't know. So far they're doing a much better job of taking over the multiverse than usual.

[Lester C.]

Is Darkseid a villian? Before Final Crisis I can't think of anything bad he's done other than pick a bunch of fights with Superman and Orion getting his ass handed to him each time.

[Tobias March]

Is Darkseid a villian? Before Final Crisis I can't think of anything bad he's done other than pick a bunch of fights with Superman and Orion getting his ass handed to him each time.

....he is all that is twisted, selfish, ignorant and abusive with power. He has enslaved his people just because he can. He is the very definition of the corruptive influence of power for power's sake.

So yes.

[Sean Walsh]

Well, he's got the Omega symbol everywhere else.

Yeah, but Omega stands for more than just the beams.

It's the final letter of the Greek alphabet.

Omega represents the end, the last, the ultimate limit.....

It's the antithesis of Alpha, which is the first and the beginning of things...

[mofo]

anyone think that this "invasion" could sort of be seen as a trojan horse attack?
in the sense that normally invasions would come from outer space and Earth has people patroling that border regularly (superman, GL corps, etc)...but this time the invasion came from within our own obsession with technology, which no one can protect us from....

[mofo]

Is Darkseid a villian? Before Final Crisis I can't think of anything bad he's done other than pick a bunch of fights with Superman and Orion getting his ass handed to him each time.

problem with alot of people writing superhero comics is that they almost always fall back on the "good guy fights villain" thing to tell their story

while i wont say GM is not doing that (since we havent seen darkseid in action yet) i hope he doesnt

also i dont think many people have noticed this, but superman is not a god, darkseid is.....so why does superman always win? :confused: brings up all sorts of religious problems

[Sean Walsh]

anyone think that this "invasion" could sort of be seen as a trojan horse attack?
in the sense that normally invasions would come from outer space and Earth has people patroling that border regularly (superman, GL corps, etc)...but this time the invasion came from within our own obsession with technology, which no one can protect us from....

Didn't they pretty much say this in #4?

They're not attacking us from outside, they're attacking because they've literally invaded our bodies and technology.......and now, thanks to the ALE, our minds.

[Captain Smith]

Darkseid and Apokolips have been rather rude to other planets and he, personally, seems to like forced mistresses. That's nasty.

Anyway, in a year or two - he'll be back on Apokolips ruling them bug dudes again and having Granny Goodness make him waffles - until the next "crisis".

[Death by Mime]

okay
so im liking this new idea where darkside is just a normal man in a hazmat suit (i think)
BUT
is he gonna still have his towering presence over everyone? or will he just be at eye level with the common man?
i am talking about, of course, his height :tongue:

Platform boots.

[mofo]

Platform boots.

*slaps head*
my god! thats so simple yet.....pure genius!

[Mat001]

problem with alot of people writing superhero comics is that they almost always fall back on the "good guy fights villain" thing to tell their story

while i wont say GM is not doing that (since we havent seen darkseid in action yet) i hope he doesnt

also i dont think many people have noticed this, but superman is not a god, darkseid is.....so why does superman always win? :confused: brings up all sorts of religious problems

Well, there's two things here.

1. Grant Morrison is addressing this with "Final Crisis" and the birth of the Fifth World.

2. Superman won because many believed, especially from 1998 through 2007, that Superman should win in a fight with Darkseid simply because he's Superman. Especially in the old Pre-Crisis stories where he beat guys like Hercules, Samson and Atlas. See All-Star Superman for Morrison's take on that.

[Jody Garland]

It's interesting to note that in Darkseid's first appearence in Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen 30 years ago, he beat Superman in a fight. I think it was Infinity Man that bailed him out?

At any rate, Superman besting Darkseid is a creation of the past few years. Morrison addressed this before FC hit by saying that the New Gods from years before had merely been the shadows of the actual gods. That's the Platonic definition of Shadow, as what we can see of something's unknowable true form. (If I remember my Philoshophy class right.)

Now, he'd be going up against the true form of the God of Evil, or Violence, or Discipline, or Torture, Deviant Technology or Science. It'd be like trying to kill the ocean.

[Magneto Rocks]

okay
so im liking this new idea where darkside is just a normal man in a hazmat suit (i think)
BUT
is he gonna still have his towering presence over everyone? or will he just be at eye level with the common man?
i am talking about, of course, his height :tongue:

Actually, I'm surprised no-one's mentioned this yet (Or else I missed it...) but in Kirby, Darkseid was pretty much the same height as a normal man- he just grew larger when people decidied that they wished Darkseid to get into fist fights- something else he NEVER did under Kirby. I doubt Darkseid really cares about his height, to be honest, since if you're close enough to see what height he is, you're either his mindless slave, or soon to be.

[mofo]

Actually, I'm surprised no-one's mentioned this yet (Or else I missed it...) but in Kirby, Darkseid was pretty much the same height as a normal man- he just grew larger when people decidied that they wished Darkseid to get into fist fights- something else he NEVER did under Kirby. I doubt Darkseid really cares about his height, to be honest, since if you're close enough to see what height he is, you're either his mindless slave, or soon to be.

oh i didnt know that....and good point at the end
i thihnk im going to love the fifth world

[Anthony Z]

Well, he's got the Omega symbol everywhere else.

I'm assuming he's still got the beams.

Just on this. I don't think he has Omega Beams anymore. In Seven Soldiers: Mister Miracle he used, if my memory serves me, the Omega Sanction, which basically destroys a person's existence in a much nastier and more godly way than eye beams ever did.

[berk]

The Omega Effect is one of many elements of the Darkseid character as created and written by Kirby that were never really understood by later writers. If you look at what actually happens in the Kirby stories, the Omega Effect wasn't at all the generic sort of superhero destructo-rays most people seem to think of it as. In fact Darkseid has to correct DeSaad, who is also labouring under this misconception, in the story where he uses it against the Forever People. Darkseid: "They do exist - but not here, not now. You see - as master of the Omega Effect I can manipulate it in many intriguing ways."

And what happens when he uses it on them? They aren't destroyed, but each is sent back in time to a distinct era and place, each of which is marked by primitive displays of violence or greed, and from which High-Father eventually retrieves them with his 'Alpha Bullets'. High-Father: "As Omega ends all things, let Alpha begin them anew!"

All except for Sonny Sumo, that is, who stays in Medieval Japan, a place and time that is apparently "right" for him in some sense (I still think this whole episode might play a role in Final Crisis somehow or other).

Anyway, I see the Omega Effect then as something less straightforward than the simple weapon of destruction it's been treated as by other writers. Although Omega and Alpha could be seen as a symbolic death and rebirth, the point is that it is symbolic and not literal. The entire process seems to have more to do with an idea of transition from one state to another; in this particular story, the Forever People go from happy-go-lucky youths on a great adventure to serious participants in a cosmic war - the whole reason Darkseid uses the Effect on them in the first place is because, in his own words, "The pups have angered me, DeSaad. Put me on the defensive. In what more proper way can I pay respect to such daring?" So a kind of transition to adulthood is taking place,

Whether that particular interpretation feels plausible to you or not, I think it's at least clear that the Omega Effect was never meant to be just a fancy version of Superman's heat rays or various other superpowers of that kind. Something more is going on there, something less straightforward - an idea nicely symbolised by the non-rectilinear visual image of the "Finder Beams" as they curve weirdly all over the place to pin down the victim. That something ties into the nature of the Darkseid character. He doesn't want to destroy you, he wants to subdue you, corrupt you, make you see a side of yourself you've never wanted to acknowledge, and finally submit to that side of your self - the side of you that is him.