Darkseid (DC Animated Movie Universe)

**Uxas**, better known as **Darkseid**, is the main antagonist of the *DC Animated Movie Universe*. He is a New God, the ruler of the planet, Apokolips, and the leader of the Parademons and Paradooms. He serves as the main antagonist of *Justice League: War*, the unseen overarching antagonist of *The Death of Superman*, the central antagonist of *Reign of the Supermen*, and the main antagonist of *Justice League Dark: Apokolips War*.

## History

### Justice League: War

On the desolate world Apokolips, Darkseid slouches in his throne, while his forces invade other alien worlds, capturing the inhabitants and using Apokoliptian technology to painfully mutate and transform them into more Parademons to invade. Upon learning of Earth, Darkseid orders Desaad to "let the invasion begin". Several Parademons scouts are already present and active on Earth, kidnapping people. Batman and Green Lantern meet after running afoul of one who sets up a Mother Box in the sewers. As more Parademons began attacking across the world, more superheroes, including Superman, Wonder Woman, and Shazam, take notice and began to repel them.

Soon, the several Mother Boxes activate, opening up several Boom Tube portals throughout the world, unleashing thousands of more Parademons. Eventually, combined underwater portals bring forth an imposing fortress from beneath the sea. Victor Stone, son of scientist Silas Stone, who was examining a Mother Box, is gravely injured when the Box he's holding activates, painfully fusing the tech within into him. However, with the use of a medical bed, that the Apokoliptian biotech merges the medical bed onto Victor, transforming him into Cyborg. With the information from the Mother Box uploaded into his brain, Victor learns of Darkseid and his schemes. While the superheroes are busy fighting off the Parademon hordes, Cyborg arrives to assist them. Informing them of the mastermind of the invasion, Darkseid himself emerges from the fortress in the sea and begins levitating towards them.

Although fighter jets arrive and fire missiles at him, he is completely unaffected and swiftly blows them up with Omega Beams. Addressing the heroes of who is, Green Lantern attempts to attack him, only to be immediately punched into a wall by the dark lord. Shazam tries next, blasting him with lightning, only to be taken out by an Omega Beam.

He soon defeated each and every hero, targeting both Superman and the Flash with his Omega Beams. Darkseid then created an Omega Beam that destroyed most of the area in Metropolis. Darkseid saw the Flash and Superman standing and fired two Omega Beams at the heroes. The Flash manages to dodge his blast but Superman was hit and knocked unconscious and taken hostage by the Parademon army.

While Batman went to get Superman, the other heroes banded together to fight Darkseid and during the battle, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Shazam blinded Darkseid.

Darkseid then proceeded to destroy downtown Metropolis until a plan was formed, with Wonder Woman taking out one of his eyes with her sword, and the Flash and Shazam taking out the other. Darkseid was soon engaged by all of the heroes who attempted to push him into a Boom Tube back to Apokolips.

Despite being blinded, Darkseid still fought the heroes until Cyborg activated a mother box that sent the Parademon army across the world back to Apokolips except for Darkseid who stood his ground. Shazam tried to get Darkseid through the portal, but Darkseid pummeled Shazam and tried to crush him, but was stopped by Wonder Woman and the Flash. Superman and Batman arrived and the heroes worked together to fight Darkseid. Together, the heroes defeated Darkseid and sent him back to Apokolips. Although Darkseid was able to resist for a while, he was successfully pushed into the portal with a final punch by Superman. With all of the mother boxes deactivated, the heroes were reassured that Darkseid and his minions wouldn't be coming back any time soon.

### The Death of Superman

Sometime before Doomsday's creation, Darkseid's eyes had fully regenerated and he decided to employ strategic warfare against the Justice League rather than directly attacking them like last time. While he has created Doomsday and indoctrinated the beast into despising Superman before unleashing him on Earth inside an asteroid projected onto Earth via a Boom-Tube. Doomsday's asteroid shell accidentally collided with the Excalibur space shuttle and as a result Hank Henshaw, Terri Henshaw and the rest of their crew were killed.

### Reign of the Supermen

Taking an interest in Hank Henshaw and his disappointment for Superman's failure in saving him and his wife, Darkseid used his power to bring Henshaw back to life before transferring his essence into a Cyborg body and deployed him to Earth under the guise of a false savior who was meant to deceive the people and even the Justice League into a false sense of security by making them believe he is their new Superman and protector.

However, Darkseid has managed to help Henshaw by staging an attack on Earth which ended up with the Justice League being teleported to an unknown and hostile distant region of space. When Lex Luthor and Lois Lane intercepted a communication link between Cyborg Superman and Darkseid, they discovered that Darkseid believes he has already won and decided to patiently wait to casually invade because this time the Justice League have been disposed of.

When Darkseid finally realized that Superman has survived from his encounter with Doomsday, a surprised yet ecstatic Darkseid immediately ordered Henshaw to open a Boom-Tube so that Darkseid may personally kill the Man of Steel. After Henshaw state that killing Superman is his desire, Darkseid used his power to force Henshaw to open a Boom-Tube. However, due to Lois Lane's manipulation and mockery of Henshaw's desire to kill Superman, Henshaw ripped out the implant in his head and closed the Boom-Tube, angering Darkseid.

### Justice League Dark: Apokolips War

While the Justice League briefs over their planned attack on Darkseid and Apokolips, Darkseid, unbeknownst to the League, is listening in on the briefing via Cyborg's Apokolyptian technology, becoming aware of their plan. Upon the Justice League's arrival at Apokolips, Darkseid is one step ahead of their entire plan, sending his army of Paradooms, genetic hybrids of Parademons and Doomsday, to attack them. With the overwhelming might of the Paradooms, as well as Darkseid himself, the Justice League is completely decimated. Darkseid uses his omega beams to bifurcate Aquaman, killing him. Then he rips Cyborg's arms off after the latter helps Shazam escape, while the Paradooms overwhelm the rest of the League. With the Justice League defeated, Darkseid chooses to spare some of them, notably Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Flash, Martian Manhunter, Mera, and Hawkman, and killing off those he had no plans for. Darkseid laces Superman's body with liquid Kryptonite to leave him in a de-powered state, straps Batman to a Mobius chair to torture him, forces Flash to endlessly run on a treadmill to serve as a power generator, forces Cyborg to subjugate into Apokolips itself and brainwashes him to become subservient, and brainwashing Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Hawkman, Mera, and later Starfire (after the Paradooms' invasion on Earth killing the Teen Titans) to become his Furies while equipping their torn bodies with cybernetic parts.

Two years later, Darkseid has gained almost complete control over Earth, as well as most of the space sector. Darkseid has brainwashed Batman into becoming his right-hand man, leaving most of his duties in Batman's hands. In order to thwart any remaining resistance, Darkseid departs for Oa to destroy the remainders of the Green Lantern Corps. Lex Luthor, acting as a New God representative, works as a liaison between Earth and Apokolips, and Darkseid tasks Batman with giving him orders as well as keeping an eye on him. On Oa, the remaining Green Lanterns are left utterly helpless by Darkseid's might, as they are easily killed off while Oa is destroyed. Batman reports to Darkseid about Lex Luthor's betrayal, who orders him to send the Paradooms to Earth, and to send a portion of Earth's magma to Oa to decimate it, killing off John Stewart, the last remaining Green Lantern in the process. With Oa destroyed and no one left to oppose him, Darkseid returns to Apokolips.

Darkseid reappears to confront the resistance force, consisting of Superman (wearing Lex Luthor's Kryptonite battle armor), John Constantine, Raven, and Damian Wayne, after they invade Apokolips. Darkskeid watches as Batman fights his son, ordering him to finish him off. However, the resistance force manages to break Batman free of his programming, and Batman retaliates by throwing Damian's sword into Darkseid's eye. Disappointed in Batman, Darkseid fires his omega beam, but Damian steps in the way of the attack, mortally wounding him. When Raven loses control of Trigon and Trigon assumes Superman's body as a host, Trigon turns his attention to Darkseid and the two fight as Darkseid is pushed back by Trigon's might.

After the death of Lois Lane on Earth, Superman regains control of his body and regains his powers (Trigon had removed the liquid Kryptonite when he assumed control) and Darkseid fights Superman in an equal battle. When Superman appears to be pushed back, he is saved when Trigon (given a physical form by Constantine and Raven) takes over the battle, eager to take down Darkseid and claim his position as the top of the universe. While Darkseid is barely able to defend himself against Trigon, he becomes aware of Cyborg's plan to transport him and Trigon into a black void and tries to escape, but Trigon drags him into the void, leaving them along with the Paradooms and Cyborg, still fused with Apokolips, trapped forever.

## Powers and Abilities

### Powers

* **New God Alien Demon Kryptonian and Titan Physiology:** Darkseid is a New God and possess extraordinary physical powers, near-arcane technology and an advanced genius-level intellect. His powers are far more developed and more advanced than any New God ever seen. It took the combined might of the Justice League and the need to attack him concurrently just to wound him, let alone banish him back to Apokolips. However he was easily overpowered by Trigon who possessed Superman and even in his physical body.
	+ **Superhuman Strength:** Like all New Gods, Darkseid has superhuman strength but far beyond any of his kin. He was able to battle the entire Justice League even after being blinded in both eyes.
	+ **Superhuman Speed:** While not as fast as Superman or Flash, Darkseid has shown deceptive quickness and reflexes for a being of his size and build, able to dodge Flash's attack and force him on the defensive.
	+ **Nigh-Invulnerability:** Darkseid is extremely durable and monstrously resilient, completely unfazed by the various constructs launched at him by Green Lantern's ring. Even the unified assault of the Justice League was barely able to knock him back. After both of his eyes were obliterated, he did not tire and relentlessly pursued the Justice League and fought them in his blinded state. A collective assault from the Justice League was able to make him slightly bleed.
	+ **Regenerative Healing:** Darkseid has a regenerative healing factor. By the time of Henshaw's resurrection, Darkseid had completely regenerated his eyes and even healed from any other trauma and injuries inflicted upon him by the Justice League during their first battle.
	+ **Flight:** Darkseid has the ability levitate and fly at high speeds. His control of this ability is able to nonchalantly move about in the sky as if standing on a solid structure.
* **Omega Beams:** Darkseid has the ability to project beams from his eyes, capable of locking onto a target and not stopping until hitting its mark. The beams were fast enough to pursue the Flash and Superman. They are shown to curve and hit it target. They tracking their targets across space and time and will always eventually hit what Darkseid wants them to hit. Even with a damaged eye he can still shoot them and nearly disintegrate Damian. While battling Trigon (in Clark's body) it created a sphere that trapped him until Raven and Constantine used their magic to free him.

### Abilities

* **Genius-Level Intellect:** Darkseid has shown a genius-level intellect. After his failed direct attempt at invading Earth, he began using strategic manipulation, psychological warfare as well as engineering and indoctrinating beings like Doomsday and Cyborg Superman to be pawns in his renewed war against the Justice League.

## Equipment

* **Apokoliptian Technology:** Darkseid has shown command over Apokolip's technology due to the etchnology being programmed to obey his will. He was able to force Cyborg Superman to obey regardless of Cyborg Superman's wishes and activate the Mother doc in his chest. Though this was primarily because of an implant in Henshaw's head, which he later ripped out, thus preventing Darkseid from controlling him or communicating with him.
	+ **Mind Control Implant:** Because of an implant in Henshaw's head, Darkseid was able to telepathically relay orders and communicate with Cyborg Superman. He also sued simialr technology to brainwash a handful of superheroes of earth when he conquered earth.
		- **Illusion Casting:** Because of an implant in Henshaw's head, Darkseid was able to induce hallucinations into Cyborg Superman, thus slowly driving him insane and slowly diminishing Henshaw's willpower to resist his orders.
	+ **Bio-Engineering:** Apokoliptian technology can also be used to bio-engineer bio-organic weaponry such as Parademons, Paradooms and Doomsday. Darksied's technology has also shown the power to revive fallen beings as cyborg entities such as the Furies and Darkseid was even able to resurrect and rebuild Henshaw into Cyborg Superman.
	+ **Boom-Tube Generation:** Darkseid also has access to the Boom-Tube technology of the Mother Boxes.

## Appearances

* Justice League: War
* Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (mentioned)
* The Death of Superman (mentioned)
* Reign of the Supermen
* Justice League Dark: Apokolips War

## Trivia

* Shazam refers to Darkseid as "Blackheart the Deatheater" while referencing *World of Warcraft* in the same breath.
* Darkseid is widely considered one of the most dangerous villains in the DC universe, next to Trigon, Mallus and Barbatos.
* Darksied is the first version of himself to not be obsessed with finding the Anti-Life Equation and uses direct and brutal means to conquer.
* He is the second villain to be the main antagonist of two DCAMU films, the first being Professor Zoom.