COMIC BOOKS: The Darkseid War

Apr. 10—After finally seeing Darkseid on screen in a live-action movie with Zack Snyder's "Justice League," the time seemed right to find a comic featuring the ruler of Apokolips.

For a quick starter, Darkseid is DC Comics' answer to Marvel's Thanos — though in fairness, DC had Darkseid first. Darkseid and the characters surrounding him from the "Fourth World" were all created by comics legend Jack Kirby.

Kirby was a co-creator of Captain America during the World War II era and the chief co-creator with Stan Lee of the Marvel Universe characters of the 1960s such as the Fantastic Four, Hulk, Thor, etc. In the 1970s, Kirby left Marvel for DC where he created new pantheons of characters introduced to the worlds of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and the Justice League.

Darkseid eventually became one of the chief bad guys in the DC Universe and was expected to be the leading villain in the DC movies until the original theatrical release of "Justice League" failed to make the box office expected.

The four-hour-long revamp finally makes Darkseid not just an off-camera presence but at least a supporting focal point. Had the JL movies continued, Darkseid was expected to have a more dominant role similar to Thanos in the Avengers movies.

But even with the re-release of "Justice League" that likely won't happen any time soon.

So ... the comics.

"The Darkseid War" is one recent mega-event at DC that also isn't really fully focused on the bad guy. "Darkseid War" is not a strong contender as an introduction to the character. It relies more heavily on the regular DC Justice League characters as well as other characters from the "Fourth World" series. And a new bad guy.

Though called "The Darkseid War," Darkseid plays a pivotal but really small role in the majority of this story. It's really more focused on what happens when Justice League characters such as Superman, Batman, etc., are endowed with the god-like powers of some of the "Fourth World" characters.

For readers already familiar with Darkseid, an interesting read. For those who are not as familiar, "War" won't shine much more light on the character.