Countdown Review - Darkseid: Unto Man Shall Come...A Great Disaster

Kicking off the first of many Countdown reviews, which spotlight each individual storyline throughout the book, is Darkseid: Unto Man Shall Come...A Great Disaster. Darkseid has been making cameos throughout all of Countdown and has been making more and more appearances as the series progressed. Find out what he's been up to and what I think after the jump.

Darkseid: Unto Man Shall Come...A Great Disaster

Darkseid has been a key figure throughout Countdown's first half. While not directly involved in any one thing, he is seen numerously with a mysterious game board, which usually features pieces such as Black Adam, Donna Troy, Green Arrow, Flash, Holly Robinson, Jason Todd, OMAC, Duela Dent, Jimmy Olsen and more. As of yet, there has been no purpose to the board, but Darkseid usually displays a near cosmic awareness of events around him as he maneuvers pieces on his board corresponding to events happening concurrently elsewhere in an issue, such as when Duela Dent is killed in the first issue.

After taking a fairly long 'break' between appearances, Darkseid, again, showed up around the death of New Gods Lightray and Sleez in Countdown #41, this time with a concubine surprised at the tender feelings of melancholy in the mighty Darkseid amidst the huge army of parademons all around them. Despite killing her shortly afterwards, it was a rather interesting revelation of emotion on Darkseid's behalf.

During this exchange, the New God, Forager, can be seen spying on Darkseid. She had sought to find any clues to the mystery surrounding the deaths of the New Gods. Lamenting there is nothing to be found on Apokolips but depravity; she departs for Earth, where she went on to meet Jimmy Olsen.

Several issues later, in Countdown #38, Darkseid is seen, again, displaying his cosmic awareness over the deaths of the New Gods, Deep Six. His game board can be seen again as he tosses the pieces representing Deep Six aside. Jason Todd's game piece can be seen in the lower corner as Darkseid's monologue reveals everyone is but a bit player in a game that will lead to his dominion over the entire Multiverse.

The most recent issue, Countdown #27, gave another brief glimpse of Darkseid as he moved the Karate Kid piece on his game board while the monitor in the background displayed Buddy Blank, Karate Kid and the rest of his group as they ventured into Bludhaven.

Kirk Says: This is the storyline to watch. While it wasn't overly prevalent in the first half, expect major developments as Darkseid has been spotted everywhere recently, from Countdown to Mystery to Death of the New Gods. With his awareness of all the events currently happening in Countdown and his much more frequent appearances as of late, Darkseid appears to be set up to be the big bad of Final Crisis or a major factor in the Great Disaster, at the very least.

Verdict - Average. Darkseid's appearances were few and far between and he has not done much up to this point. While cool to see him whenever he appeared, it's almost hard to consider the Darkseid plot a story based on how little we saw of it. The prognosis is good for the second half, though, as this story should really heat up and the various plots should all start intertwining with Darkseid's.

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