Darkseid: Encyclopedia II - Darkseid - Destiny

Darkseid - Destiny

As with gods in other mythologies, Darkseid is incredibly powerful, but cannot escape his ultimate destiny. It has been fortold that Darkseid will meet his final defeat at the hands of his son Orion, in a cataclysmic battle in the fiery pits of Apokolips. Presumably this outcome would occur at the climax of the New Gods series, but the title's unforseen cancellation instead brought Darkseid's story arc to an unceremonious end, and both he and Orion were brought into the mainstream DC universe, while Kirby moved on to other projects.

While this changeover kept Darkseid alive as a character, some fans feel it is to his detriment. No writers appear willing to write the ultimate resolution to the character, either out of respect for Kirby or because they are not about to kill off one of DC's most popular villains. As well, the idea of reversing or annulling the prophesy has been turned down, also out of respect to Kirby. At the present time Darkseid and Orion will not have their final battle in the forseeable future, and thus both characters, while still active, are in a story arc "limbo", and the closest his character has yet come to death is an off screen disappearance in the DCAU, although this is both unlikely to be permanent, and is outside of standard DCU continuity.

In the post apocalyptic miniseries, Kingdom Come Orion has now deposed Darkseid, fulfiling the prophecy, and is ruler of Apokalips. However, the changes that he wished to make (democracy, freedom) were quickly stopped, making him bitter and cynical. Superman is disappointed in Orion's progress and says his new demeanor is more like Darkseid than ever.

In an ironic twist concerning Darkseid's fate, Grant Morrison wrote a story during his run on JLA that featured Darkseid's death at the hands of Orion. However, it took place on Earth with Orion blowing up the entire planet to kill Darkseid, who was in a vegetative state becuse of the Atom. This Earth, an alternate future, was wiped out of existence moments later when Aquaman, the Flash (Wally West), and Green Lantern (Kyle Rayner) of the present Earth went back to the present to stop Superman from destroying an artifact which preceded the Earth's takeover by Darkseid.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Destiny", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki