Popverse's top stories

• New Batman writer aims to show why anyone would want to live in the worst city in the DCU
• Avengers and Doctor Who star Karen Gillan is on her way to New York Comic Con 2025 - and Popverse Superfans will have an early chance to connect
• Daredevil, Punisher, Spider-Man, Marvel Zombies, and all-new Avengers: The future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe looks like this [Marvel Matters]

And everything happening this week for Future Fest!

For DC Comics, the future looks… dark. Well, Darkseid, to be precise, with the end of 2025 and what we know about 2026 suggesting that both the DC Universe and the Absolute Universe are about to be overrun by Jack Kirby’s iconic cosmic villain and the threat he’s been slowly building in the background of DC’s comic books for the last year.

DC K.O. transforms the DCU into a slugfest with high stakes

Starting in October, DC K.O. takes the uber-arc behind DC All In to a new, and violent, place as Darkseid starts to make his move against the DC Universe, emboldened by earlier efforts as seen in recent issues of Superman and Justice League Unlimited. For fans looking to catch up on the story so far, October 1’s Justice League: The Omega Act Special is a good primer ahead of the first issue of DC K.O. on October 8. (That said, Superman #28 through #30 might still be worth picking up to understand the full scope of what Darkseid is up to in more detail.)

We’ve gone into what DC K.O. is all about in more depth over here, but the short version is that Darkseid is infecting the DC Universe with Omega Energy, a form of cosmic energy that will allow him to destroy the DCU entirely. In order to fight back, someone in the DCU needs to act as a collector and conduit of the Omega Energy… and DC K.O. is a story about the literal fight to the finish to become that someone. There’s a catch, of course: Omega Energy is a force that responds to darkness… and it might already be corrupting people in the DCU to become darker through its very existence.

The Dark Knight takes a step outside of DC K.O. to fight the future

As part of the larger DC K.O. story, Batman is receiving his own miniseries spin-off, Batman: Knightfight, in which he meets multiple alternate future Batmen… each one a former Robin who has assumed the cape and cowl, and each one is ready to fight Batman to establish who is the greatest Batman of all time. (Our money’s on Bruce Wayne. He’s got the experience, he trained the other guys, and more importantly, he’s got three different monthly comics in which he appears as Batman.)

Absolute Wonder Woman and Absolute Batman cross over and the Absolute Universe grows

DC’s Absolute line is approaching its first birthday, and is celebrating with two important milestones: its first meeting between two of its flagship characters — Absolute Wonder Woman #15 will see Batman guest star in the book — and the coming together of the villains of multiple different series (Absolute Batman, Absolute Superman, Absolute Wonder Woman, Absolute Flash, and Absolute Green Lantern) for reasons unknown in October 1’s Absolute Evil special issue… an issue that will introduce both Absolute Green Arrow and Absolute Hawkman into the mix.

With all of these characters running around in the same universe, should fans be expecting an Absolute Justice League title to launch anytime soon? And if so, what does that mean for the larger Darkseid storyline, given that the Absolute world is one where Darkseid has purposefully manipulated events to let evil flourish?

Beyond DC K.O., what’s next?

DC All In architects Scott Snyder and Joshua Williamson said at San Diego Comic Con 2025 that DC K.O. was the next chapter of the larger storyline that started with DC All In in October 2024 — but it’s not the final chapter: “This is where all of the fun starts,” Snyder said, while Williamson added that the story wasn’t ending anytime soon. Judging by the development of the line so far, it’s likely that fans should expect things to build throughout the line for the first few months after the conclusion of DC K.O., building to the next big thing by fall 2026 — but the question is, where should fans be looking…?

We have a potentially surprising answer to that beyond the traditional big tentpole titles like Justice League Unlimited and Superman: You all have been checking out the current series The New Gods, right? There’s almost no chance that the child in that series — born at the same time that Darkseid “died” and created the Absolute World — isn’t going to turn out to be important in some way or another, surely. The question is, where will the New Gods show up next, with that series coming to an end in October…

Where does the future of the DC Universe start?

For now, all we know for sure is that everything revolves around Darkseid and Omega Energy. Want to keep track of the future of DC Comics? Start with the following three comics:

• Absolute Evil #1 (October 1)
• Justice League: The Omega Act Special #1 (October 1)
• DC K.O. #1 (October 8)

Get ready for what's next with our guide to upcoming comics, how to buy comics at a comic shop, and our guide to Free Comic Book Day 2025.