Darkseid Is Dead! Long Live ____?

[Incognito]

I would like to see either Brainiac or Imperiex as the big bad or maybe Vandal Savage. Trigon could also work as DC's big bad he has been recently been pushed due to the DCAMU where both the JL and the Titans have to fight him and will show up in the end as the final boss in DCeased.

[Stanlos]

I would like to see either Brainiac or Imperiex as the big bad or maybe Vandal Savage. Trigon could also work as DC's big bad he has been recently been pushed due to the DCAMU where both the JL and the Titans have to fight him and will show up in the end as the final boss in DCeased.

Vandal Savage is awesome af. I was furious by how he was treated in the first Scott Snyder JL arc.

[Phoenixx9]

Here are just a few ideas:

Mongul is god choice because he also has his family and together, if handled correctly, they could present quite a threat!

I do not remember Greyven, but he looks awesome and powerful. What are his powers?

The Crime Syndicate (teamed along with the Crime Society) could really be powerful forces that contantly need watching and battle, but again, only if handled correctly. DC likes to let them win round 1 only to be utterly defeated in round 2.

Modred and/or Wotan: separately or together are quite powerful. The plot needs to be more than Dr Fate just openly defeats these villains. Their mystic power levels are quite high and both, especially Modred, contrive complicated plots of domination.

[lemonpeace]

Starbreaker
I just really think Starbreaker is a cool concept. the suneater to starbreaker life cycle is so fascinating to me, would love to see more of that kinda stuff.



Mythological Gods
I've always love being gods from mythology used in contemporary fiction as characters, so it would be cool seeing gods off-world as cosmic threats. I'm partial to Anansi or Ududo Okankwa, spider gods, as a narrative vehicle for Vixen so she can have a foot in the cosmic landscape.

[DrNewGod]

I would like to see either Brainiac or Imperiex as the big bad or maybe Vandal Savage. Trigon could also work as DC's big bad he has been recently been pushed due to the DCAMU where both the JL and the Titans have to fight him and will show up in the end as the final boss in DCeased.

Vandal Savage is awesome af. I was furious by how he was treated in the first Scott Snyder JL arc.

Vandal Savage was one on my list too. I could imagine him having dozens of different plots, spanning the globe, that he laid the foundations for at various points in history. You could almost start any story with him looking over current conditions and muttering to a lackey, "dust off that project from 1114 CE, it's in the files somewhere, and the times look right..."

[daBronzeBomma]

Bring back Neron:



And establish him as THE Devil of DC (i.e. like Marvel's Mephisto), with his baseline power on par with the Spectre at full power.

[K7P5V]

My Top (3) Three choices would be...

1. Atrocitus





2. Despero





3. Dr. Manhattan

[Gaius]

Circe

[lemonpeace]

1. Atrocitus

Atrocitus powered by the Butcher would be an awesome new "big bad" cosmic warlord type to file a Darkseid power vacuum. Like a compelling version of Parallax!Hal

[mathew101281]

Trigon the Terrible


The problem with most big bads are that they are more concepts then actual characters. They aren’t really developed as individuals so they seem kind of interchangeable. Darkseid is different. He has family, goals and relationships completely separate from his interactions with the very earth based Justice league.

Big world ending threats are a dime a dozen in comics, but world ending threats that are actually interesting characters to, those are actually rare.

[Ascended]

I don't know if there's really anything at DC which could truly fill the boots of Darkseid. I mean, evil warlords and cosmic devils are a dime a dozen, but the Omega God? He's on a totally different level (when handled correctly).

You need someone that's not just a universal threat, but a multiversal one. And you need a villain who's not just going to rule you, or ruin your planet, but is a threat to the very foundations of sentient life. And they also have to be a interesting character in their own right, with a mythos of their own. So, yknow, the choices are pretty limited.

Mongul doesn't have the juice to be the Big Bad. And using him in Darkseid's place wouldn't be a good look, since Mongul is just the rip-off of Thanos who is a rip-off of Darkseid. Don't get me wrong, Mongul and Warworld are legit threats and crazy dangerous, but it'd look like the DCU just traded in it's Biggest Bad for the bargain bin basement version. Mongul should be a bigger player in the DCU than he is usually treated as, but he shouldn't be the "next Darkseid."

Imperiex could arguably fill Darkseid's boots. And Our Worlds @ War left some interesting ideas behind should Imperiex return (mainly the fact that the "flaw" Imperiex spent creation trying to fix was the echo of his own death and the stink of his own atomized corpse), so I wouldn't be against Imperiex getting to be the next Big Bad but.....as a character he doesn't really offer a lot. You'd have to put a *lot* of work into him to get him into a place where he's an interesting character on his own merits and more than just a "all hands on deck" problem.

Starro feels like its got potential to me, for a different kind of Big Bad threat. It offers a "similar but different" threat to sentient life as Darkseid, and you can do some really fun stuff with the creature while also building it's threat level up by having it take over different species/planets/technology. But I dunno if I'd say it's a "Darkseid" level threat to the entire multiverse that can barely be contained.

Neron was one of my first ideas, but why use that guy when you can use Trigon, who has a much deeper history and a wider mythology to work with? But I feel like you'd largely just be recycling Darkseid stories; Trigon rules from his place of power while his d-bag kids fight among themselves for his favor and occasionally invade earth. You've even got the "black sheep" child who's a hero instead of a monster. Again, Trigon (and Neron) should be bigger players than they are, but I dunno if they're Darkseid level players, or if them replacing Darkseid would be all that satisfying.

Honestly, I really like the idea of Dr. Manhattan. He's got the raw power to be a huge Darkseid level threat but his motivations are totally different and his goals are too. Reality itself is still under threat but I like that Manhattan would come at it from a place of cold, scientific logic and curiosity, and not an ego-driven quest for personal power. Lots of pedigree, being a Watchmen character. Could make for some really different narratives that retain the kind of cosmically high stakes we expect from Apokolips. However, I feel like the Watchmen is a franchise of diminishing returns; the more they get used the less people care. And it'd take a subtle touch to handle Manhattan this way, without ruining the nuance and depth of his character. Hell, Doomsday Clock might be the most sophisticated thing Johns ever wrote and he *barely* managed to refrain from making Manhattan a simple, two dimensional bad guy.

There's also the Anti-Monitor. He's got the best resume of all DC's villains; nobody else can claim to have wiped out a infinite number of parallel realities.

Parallax-Hal could have maybe thrown his hat into the ring too, twenty years ago. I think that could have been pretty damn good as far as Biggest Bads go; hard to get a better (worse?) villain than a former hero and Hal had the raw power as well as the knowledge to be pretty damn scary, but still tug on the heartstrings.

There's also Nekron, but I feel like you can only fight so many zombie hordes intent on exterminating all life before you run out of new ways to tell the story.

[PCN24454]

Why does DC even need a franchise-wide Big Bad? Why can't they just be based on whatever story is being told?

[charliehustle415]

Brainiac.


He can literally infect the entire universe, he can make himself into a nano-virus that can infect living beings as well as all tech.

I think if writers wanted him to be a dispassionate killer of the universe it can be done really well.

Imagine Brainiac slowly taking down the Bat-Family by infecting their tech, killing them off one by one by making it look like tech failure.

He can take down the Legion in the future with their tech, the Justice League with their satellite and teleporting tech, I think there is so much potential.

He can also escape into The Bleed and travel to other universes

[Stanlos]

Why does DC even need a franchise-wide Big Bad? Why can't they just be based on whatever story is being told?

This. Stories should be good and not center on frelling door knobs or space oceans.

[DrNewGod]

You need someone that's not just a universal threat, but a multiversal one. And you need a villain who's not just going to rule you, or ruin your planet, but is a threat to the very foundations of sentient life. And they also have to be a interesting character in their own right, with a mythos of their own. So, yknow, the choices are pretty limited.

I'm not so sure if The Big Bad needs be an Omega threat. He doesn't have to be able to punch out Superman if he can manipulate Bizzaro into doing it for him. He needn't end all life, if his scheme will render all but his lackeys sterile. There's no need to exterminate the Guardians if he can con Task Force X's masters into viewing all GLs as an invading horde requiring a blanket Sanction On Sight order.

Something different from an evil deity might be refreshing.