Darkseid Is! Jim Lee Redesign to Appear in Justice League #4

Created and designed by Jack Kirby when he created the Fourth World in 1970, Darkseid is making his return to comics. He “died” in 2009 during Final Crisis, and now, he’s coming booming back. Jim Lee redesigned his look for his new appearance, but he’s still fairly close to the original concept, with a little more Omega thrown in. My only note is that they need to change the boots back.

Justice League #4 hits stands on December 21. Darkseid will be!

I think it’s just possible that Darkseid is the most potent villain they have in the DC Universe, sort of bookended by, and in a complete opposite way that The Joker is an effective villain.

Comments

  1. So kinda like the Rock of Ages version?

  2. Oh Jim…

  3. Now here’s a Jim Lee redesign I can get behind!

  4. gorgeous, can’t wait for the Darseid reveal.

  5. I kinda like it but it looks like he’s patterning him after Apocalypse (and I always thought Apocalypse was already patterned after the old Darkseid)

  6. Hey, another rubbish Jim Lee redesign! What are the odds?!

  7. The Omega…”belt” whatever looks odd, but overall, not a horribly offensive design.

  8. It’s a known fact that Darkseid has very sensitive shoulders.

  9. needs the skirt and bare legs back. that’s how much of a bad ass he is, he’s all like ” oh yeah i wear a skirt, check out my stoney thighs, what are you going to do about it” and BAM omega blast!

    with all the bitching about the redesigns ive been very much in the “get over it, they are mostly slight changes, updates more than anything, let go of your slavish devotion to the past and your nostalgia, and let things move forward” camp.

    then when i see this im all ” what! you dont mess with a kirby, thats just wrong, who the fuck is jim lee to “improve” a kirby design, fuck him. whats next a jim lee mona lisa”

    i am lame. this is not.

  10. I’ve always loved Darkseid, but hated his mini skirt look. I dig this redesign.

  11. not a fan

  12. As much as I love Kirby, I equally love not having to defend the mini-skirt anymore.

  13. Kind still feels Kirbyish with the use of clear shapes and such (I described that rubbishly-also a word). I just generally have Darkseid/Apokolips fatigue now. In the comics alot recently and that detracts from the threat- overuse kills a good villain: see Joker. And then Smallville shoehorned him in. I love Young Justice and you could tell they were headed there for a long time but that was my last vestige of hope and now they are going all out it seems. I just want another enemy to talk about

  14. I like this better now that he is wearing pants.

  15. Meh, it’s over designed. Simple is better 9 times out of 10.

    • It it’s less designed than Darkseid in the DCAU wearing the Agony Matrix

    • Also, it’s a Kirby character! Almost all of his characters are over-designed

    • Yes like The Fantastic Four, Captain America, The X-Men, The Silver Surfer, and the complicated mess that is The Incredible Hulk.

    • I had to look up the image for Darkseid wearing the Agony Matrix and assuming I’m looking at the right one, I think it’s over designed too.

      Silver Surfer is over designed in my opinion also, I’d get rid of the trunk lines.

      There is a gut feeling for me and it’s aesthetic and therefore opinion and I don’t weigh it any heavier then someone else’s opinion that I just feel when something has to much. Batman is a great example of excellent use of pouches, Cable is over done. Same with Azrael’s Batman, there’s too much on him. Symbols are the same, Superman with his S on his Chest is great, on his cape and belt it becomes overdone, repeated thousands of times over a rubberized suit is excessive.

      I think Darkseid’s appearance is a great villain for his eyes, face and stature anything that draws attention away from that is a negative anything that emphasizes it is a plus and I feel that the redesign pulls focus away from what is important.

      Of course I’m not saying I’m right, there is no right when talking aesthetics.

    • ha!

    • @ResurrectionFlan

      Most of the New Gods/Fourth World characters are pretty over-designed. It essentially became Kirby’s style.

      Oh, and lets not forget OMAC.

  16. Jim’s having fun doing what he does best.

  17. all things considered, it’s a solid redesign. he was never going to have the manskirt or the high boots, this is good.

  18. Would have preferred he kept the space-kilt but this is good too.

  19. Is that Darkseid, or just Beast Wars Megatron without his T-Rex arm?

  20. Something about the belt bothers me but I can’t put my finger on it. Overall it’s a pretty good design. I like it a whole lot more than the Superman redesign.

  21. As much as I miss the simplicity of the old look, this is badass, man. More New Gods, please.

  22. The only words that come to mind when looking at this is:

    “Go, Go Power Rangers!!”

  23. I already miss the J.G. Jones Final Crisis designs. I was really into those looks for the New Gods, and if anything disappointed me about FC it was not getting enough time with the Morrison/Jones visions of the characters.

    Here’s the thing that gets to me about all the nuDCU looks: we’re supposed to buy into the idea that Batman and the rest of the crew have stayed in the same outfits for pretty much five years? Superheroes are clotheshorses. Bruce worst of all. There is no way he’s kept that armor from day one.

  24. not thrilled with the look but to me the most important part of darkseid is the silhouette as long as that looks good all will be well 🙂

  25. Jean and t-shirt for Darkseid or I won’t get where he came from.

  26. Boy it’s gotta be a bitch to draw all of those individual cracks in the armor for 20 pages straight.

    (just noticed this)

  27. Awesome new design, but there’s no scale comparison. How tall is he? It would be fascinating and hilarious if this nuDarkseid were 4’2″.

  28. I kind of like it, but I feel he looks a bit too much like the X-men villain Apocalypse and I’ve never felt that way before.

  29. nice.

  30. a resounding ‘meh’

  31. I like how Jim Lee put himself in a position at DC were very few people can say NO to him

  32. I like it.

  33. Not better than the original. Another character that doesn’t need armor. I do appreciate the Deep-V look though

  34. This better work, or someone will get Omega Sanctioned.

  35. Hmmmm, overall not bad, but something about it just doesn’t work. Definitely could do without the Omega belt. Honestly, the Kirby design of Darkseid is so classic, that I used to say that it was near impossible for any artist to draw poorly. Still, I’ll reserve judgement on this until I’ve seen a full issue of it from different perspectives. Of course, I’m not reading Justice League, so that may take a while . . .

  36. Oh, and the old boots were cooler . . .

  37. the more i look at this the more i think he looks like the blue beetle

  38. I can live with this.

    I’m not a fan of the belt buckle. But that’s a nitpick.

    But if Lee was going for the Omega symbol in both the belt and the chest piece, someone should tell him that it’s upside down.

  39. Looks really good. Although I’d be inclined to lose the shoulder pads. They’re a bit 80s…

  40. Jack Kirby.