Being someone who’s been looking forward to seeing a Justice League movie for years, I had a shortlist of villains that I expected to serve as the primary antagonist whenever my favorite superheroes eventually teamed up on the big screen for the first time. Obviously, the usual suspects consisted of heavy hitters like Darkseid, Brainiac and the Crime Syndicate. So, you could imagine my shock upon hearing that Zack Snyder settled on Steppenwolf.
My reason for saying that is because, while Steppenwolf is most certainly a formidable villain and was quite the nuisance in the recent Earth 2 comics, he’s essentially Darkseid’s subordinate. Thus, I found it odd that someone such as him would be chosen as the big bad.
On top of that, this past summer saw reliable sources report that Darkseid’s cameo at the end of the flick had been removed altogether, not only to play up the threat that is Steppenwolf, but to also give Justice League a finite end, no longer making it a two-parter. Truth be told, I can fully understand this creative decision from the perspective of a filmmaker, but the comic book fan in me is actually quite irked at the thought of the one true Lord of Apokolips not being a part of this continuity.
Luckily, some newly surfaced information seemingly confirms that Darkseid does exist in the DC Extended Universe, but none of us will really know if he’s in the film itself until we’ve seen it for ourselves on November 17. One thing’s certain, however: his relationship with Steppenwolf has been flipped, as reported by Geek Magazine:
“In Justice League, Batman and Wonder Woman, following Superman’s death in battling Doomsday, is intent on bringing together a team to take on Steppenwolf. This new menace is the nephew to Darkseid of Apokolips (presumably the big bad of the second JL adventure). Steppenwolf is on Earth to retrieve three Mother Boxes, one of which is now a part of Cyborg.”
In the comic books, it’s Darkseid that’s the nephew, but I’ll let this change slide because I personally think this new dynamic kind of makes more sense. Now, I know some purists out there may be less than thrilled, but there’s really no harm being done. Still, we hope to see Darkseid himself in either a Justice League sequel or in, say, Man of Steel 2. Will that happen? Time will tell, but we’ll remain hopeful.
