What makes Darkseid so much better then most cosmic level villains?

[Lightning Rider]

Seems like the combination of subtlety, supreme power, and eerie omnipresence are the big factors.

Darkseid is.

[Sutekh]

I'd say it's because he was created with a cast of characters and a story. He's not just an "event villain" who needs to be stopped / destroyed. He has a life and a status quo. He has relationships and a supporting cast as well as family dynamics that can be explored in stories over the years. He's totally evil, but as long as the Anti-Life Equation eludes him, he doesn't need to be "dealt with" and can be left alone and be a recurring villain with smaller machinations and not relegated to universe-ending schemes.

This. He's not 'just' a big scary villain, he's also got a ton of prominent henchpeeps, who can come into play in all sorts of ways, from aggressive tanky fighters (like Kalibak and Steppenwolf and those lovely ladies), to more lower-tier masterminds like G. Gorden and Granny. It's a build up, with plenty of appetizers, from more popular recent folk like Steppenwolf, to older (sometimes cornier) fare like the Deep Six, it's not like, 'Bam! Here's Mongul!' or 'Watch out, it's Starro!'

Lower tier characters, like in the Young Justice cartoon, can have entire adventure storylines built around the machinations of one of these henchfolk, even if they're not ready for the big D himself, and due to the sheer versatility of his coterie, all sorts of characters and adventure locales can get involved / swept up in it. Want a storyline in Atlantis? Bam, there's those Deep Six I just mentioned. I'm not saying that Starro or Mongul or the Anti-Monitor couldn't get involved in Atlantean shenanigans, but Darkseid seems practically designed to be usable almost anywhere, behind plots big and small, making him, at least peripherally, useful for characters at street levels, like the Birds of Prey (oh, no, homeless peeps are disappearing, there's a loose para-demon 'recruiting' the homeless to take back to a hive beneath the city and convert them into new para-demons!) to big cosmic throwdowns with the Green Lantern Corps or Justice League's biggest powerhouses.

[DrNewGod]

I'd say it's because he was created with a cast of characters and a story. He's not just an "event villain" who needs to be stopped / destroyed. He has a life and a status quo. He has relationships and a supporting cast as well as family dynamics that can be explored in stories over the years. He's totally evil, but as long as the Anti-Life Equation eludes him, he doesn't need to be "dealt with" and can be left alone and be a recurring villain with smaller machinations and not relegated to universe-ending schemes.

This. He's not 'just' a big scary villain, he's also got a ton of prominent henchpeeps, who can come into play in all sorts of ways, from aggressive tanky fighters (like Kalibak and Steppenwolf and those lovely ladies), to more lower-tier masterminds like G. Gorden and Granny. It's a build up, with plenty of appetizers, from more popular recent folk like Steppenwolf, to older (sometimes cornier) fare like the Deep Six, it's not like, 'Bam! Here's Mongul!' or 'Watch out, it's Starro!'

Lower tier characters, like in the Young Justice cartoon, can have entire adventure storylines built around the machinations of one of these henchfolk, even if they're not ready for the big D himself, and due to the sheer versatility of his coterie, all sorts of characters and adventure locales can get involved / swept up in it...

That's a good point, Darkseid can be sending Steppenwolf to snuff out your sun, or he might be pulling Morgan Edge's strings to have Intergang infiltrate your neighborhood. Both in service to some grander plan.

[Vordan]

He represents multiple ideas that showcase how harmful they are. Darkseid is the fascist who wants to eliminate anyone he sees as undesirable. He’s the tyrant who wants to eliminate the very concept of free will. He’s the warmonger who makes war on everything and everyone. He’s the bad dad who sold off Orion and abuses Kalibak and Mister Miracle. He’s evil on a micro level and that makes his macro level plans all the more horrifying.

He’s got a fully fleshed out mythology to play with. He has his servants and his foes. He has a planet made in his image. He has his “Holy Grail” to seek, the Anti-Life Equation.

And finally Darkseid is powerful. He’s jobbed it’s true, but nowadays DC seems a little more committed to establishing him as something it requires the entire League to take on. He killed reality when he manifested here in his true form. He enslaved Wonder Woman into a Fury. He forced Batman to use a gun. Even Superman was going for the kill in Final Crisis. He’s the “one exception” for a lot of heroes.

In contrast a lot of the other villains are pretty banal. The hell does the Anti-Monitor want? He was just pure evil in CoIE. He just wanted to kill people in Darkseid War. He’s just evil in a way that doesn’t really have a lot to say. Starro is a villain who I wish was more respected and used better. He should be the Lovecraftian for but sadly most DC writers don’t seem to want to use him.

[achilles]

He was voiced by Michael Ironside.

This. Give the guy a prize, he wins the thread! Honestly, if there was nothing else to Darkseid but Ironside voicing him, he'd still be great.

[Sutekh]

One of my favorite Darkseid moments is from the X-Men/Teen Titans crossover back in the day. At the end (spoilers!) the Phoenix entity turns on Darkseid and roars after him for revenge for how he's used it. This is an entity which, over in the Marvel universe, blew up a star once to feed on the energies of it's explosion, and now it's unleashing it's full fury on Darkseid. And he's standing, head slightly tilted, arms crossed behind his back, utterly calm, as if thinking, 'Well, this should be interesting...'

I loved that. He's a god. He predates humanity, as a species. He doesn't fear anything, certainly not mortal things like death or pain or destruction, since he's past such things, and even if they did somehow touch him, *it would be something new to experience,* and there are all too few such things in this universe, for someone as old and jaded as Darkseid.

[AdamFTF]

This. Give the guy a prize, he wins the thread! Honestly, if there was nothing else to Darkseid but Ironside voicing him, he'd still be great.

I don't know. He was a pretty big deal when he was voiced by Frank Welker too.

[achilles]

I don't know. He was a pretty big deal when he was voiced by Frank Welker too.

Ironside for the win.

[AdamFTF]

Ironside for the win.

Apparently not a Super Friends fan. Darkseid was the main villain of that show for the last two seasons. So, the tendency of using Darkseid as a go-to cosmic villain for the entire DCU goes back to the '80s.

[DrNewGod]

Apparently not a Super Friends fan. Darkseid was the main villain of that show for the last two seasons. So, the tendency of using Darkseid as a go-to cosmic villain for the entire DCU goes back to the '80s.

TBF, that was a pretty weak interpretation of Darkseid, especially with the creepy fixation on Wonder Woman. Darkseid desires nothing but power and dominion.

[Nite-Wing]

Thanos isn't top dog in Marvel's cosmology but he has so much personality that it seems like he is
Not that I want to draw that comparison but Darkseid is not a plot device that exists to be beat by the heroes

[Sutekh]

Thanos isn't top dog in Marvel's cosmology but he has so much personality that it seems like he is
Not that I want to draw that comparison but Darkseid is not a plot device that exists to be beat by the heroes

Since both were Kirby creations, I don't see it as a Marvel vs. DC thing. One (Darkseid) simply has more 'stuff' built up around him than the other, and that makes him more 'useful' from a narrative standpoint. Thanos has, unfortunately, gotten trapped in a loop, with writers telling the same story over and over with him, which has gotten old, IMO.

Which reminds me of another favorite Darkseid moment, again, from an inter-company crossover, where he appears in JLA/Avengers holding the Infinity Gauntlet. The heroes look on in dread, and he says, 'Interesting. But it's powerless in this dimension, and therefore worthless.' And he casually discards it. Heh. Thanos' entire raison d'etre, and Darkseid is like 'meh.'

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

Since both were Kirby creations, I don't see it as a Marvel vs. DC thing. One (Darkseid) simply has more 'stuff' built up around him than the other, and that makes him more 'useful' from a narrative standpoint. Thanos has, unfortunately, gotten trapped in a loop, with writers telling the same story over and over with him, which has gotten old, IMO.

Which reminds me of another favorite Darkseid moment, again, from an inter-company crossover, where he appears in JLA/Avengers holding the Infinity Gauntlet. The heroes look on in dread, and he says, 'Interesting. But it's powerless in this dimension, and therefore worthless.' And he casually discards it. Heh. Thanos' entire raison d'etre, and Darkseid is like 'meh.'

Uh, Thanos wasn’t created by Jack Kirby. Jim Starlin created him.

[Sutekh]

Uh, Thanos wasn’t created by Jack Kirby. Jim Starlin created him.

Ha, my bad, for some reason I thought of them as just being like the Eternals and the New Gods, two parallel creations at different companies, but now I have to go look up and make sure that Kirby actually created the Eternals and I'm not completely high...

[DrNewGod]

Ha, my bad, for some reason I thought of them as just being like the Eternals and the New Gods, two parallel creations at different companies, but now I have to go look up and make sure that Kirby actually created the Eternals and I'm not completely high...

He did. New Gods first