Young Justice: Outsiders dove further into New Gods lore. After confirming a popular theory regarding a tyrannical Apokoliptian New God, there’s a lot to discuss regarding Darkseid’s compulsion with the anti-life equation.
To refrain from click-baiting, we’ll never understand why Darkseid wants to figure out the anti-life equation so that he can control all of humanity. We understand he has convoluted intergalactic views and motives, and he’s canonically either looking to control everyone and everything, otherwise he’ll destroy it.
We just don’t understand why he actually wants to go through the trouble of controlling the multiverse, seeing as his conquest is the furthest from relatable since Sauron’s weird obsession with turning everyone into dinosaurs. Even though Sauron is in a different comic dimension, transforming all of humanity into an army of prehistoric birds is still more relatable that Darkseid’s plot for universal domination. Aside from trying to decode the New God’s psyche, let’s talk about Darkseid’s deal with the anti-life equation and humanity in general. (After all, we want to be prepared for his reign on Young Justice: Outsiders).
Thirst for power
Can we insert maniacal laughter to describe Darkseid? While we attempt to figure out how to even translate that to text, we can give you a brief synopsis of Apokolips’ deity. Trigon might have the monopoly on the personification of evil, but Darkseid is basically walking hatred, coated with an Apokoliptian husk. After all, he wants to take away and control every sentient being’s free will.
Aside from trying to enslave the entire universe, he has a long-standing manipulative angle to his dictatorship. Wielding his power plays and status as the ruler of Apokolips, Darkseid has used his tyranny to do a lot more than just search for the anti-life equation and try to conquer literally everything. From turning Death’s form into a weapon of sorts to crusading across the many multiverses to gathering a horde of soldiers without using the equation, Darkseid is a versatile villain in the most terrifying ways.
By now, most every comic fan knows that Darkseid is obsessed with power. He doesn’t want to control every living creature. He wants to rule everything in the broadest sense of the word. He’s definitely goal-driven, and like any over-arching villain who’s set on gaining power in any context, the New God is devoted to his mission, which makes us anxious for the Outsiders. After all, we know that Darkseid’s cameo in Young Justice won’t likely be a one-off event.
Beyond his unquenchable thirst for power and conquest, the New God has a hefty arsenal of abilities apart from his New God physiology and immortality:
- Super strength and endurance: After all, he has to stay in power somehow.
- Omega effect and energy: It’s basically an interdimensional sensor that allows him to keep an eye on beings in other dimensions. However, this also lets him travel between different dimensions, time, and space. (It also always him to manifest his own personal boomtube.) His omega energy also allows him to blast omega beams from his eyes and send geo-shockwaves to any terrain at the wave of his hands.
- Resurrection and regeneration: Like Halo, Darkseid can regrow limbs, heal wounds, and completely resurrect himself from the dead.
- Power-sapping: He can feed on power from his home planet to help him heal himself or bolster his strength.
- Telekinesis: This should speak for itself.
- Telepathy: As should this.
Darkseid hones other abilities, like his malleable size and overall manipulation. However, he obviously favors the anti-life equation.