Reviewer: Jesse Baker
Written by: Paul Levitz and Keith Giffen
Penciled by: Keith Giffen, Pat Broderick, Curt Swan
Publisher: DC Comics
“Go! Go conquer the universe for me! For the God in whose image you have carved your own world as a monument! Go, for your MASTER … FOR DARKSEID!!!!!†Darkseid
Every once in a while a mystery-fueled storyline appears in a comic that takes upon a life of its own and becomes part of the genre’s collective history when the mystery’s secret is revealed. One of the famous comic mysteries that ended with an epic pay-off would be “The Great Darkness Saga†and the identity of the All-Powerful Dark Master. A mysterious figure who is accidentally awoken by Shadow Lass and Mon-El while the two are exploring a recently discovered planet, he is cloaked in darkness itself and possesses an army of undead minions, cloned from the most powerful alien species in the Universe and includes a Kryptonian, a Guardians of the Universe, and a clone of the New God Orion. His quest is simply, to steal the power of every single magic wielder in the known galaxy; a scheme so grandiose that it seems impossible to stop.
What is this grand scheme? Gain complete and total mental control over the ENTIRE population of Daxam, home to a species that possesses the same powers and abilities as Superman, and use them as his own private army to take control of the Universe. How confidant is the Dark Master of his scheme? Confident enough that he instructs the entire population of Daxam to use their power to destroy their entire planet and then reshape it’s lifeless rock-like planet into a sculpture of the Dark Master’s head. Thus revealing his identity to the Universe that was about to fall at his feet.
And who is this Dark Master? Who is it that could concoct such an epic plot for Universal domination? Who could beat Mon-El, the strongest super-hero in the 30th Century into a coma? Who could produce enough fear that he could terrify the sentient computer, evil Computo? Or single-handedly defeat the evil Chaos Sorcerer Mordru the Mystic with a single blast?
“The conclusion is inescapable my friend. We face Darkseid. He is evil incarnate and if the legends are accurate, he has the power of a Godâ€
-Brainiac 5
His name was Darkseid. A member of Jack Kirby’s ill-fated New Gods series from the early 1970s, Darkseid had become just another limbo-stranded DC Comics character in 1982. But Paul Levitz, writer of the Legion of Super-Heroes, saw potential in the character and proceeded to write a storyline pitting the character against the most powerful team in the DC Universe, the Legion of Super-Heroes in a storyline that immediately became a classic and helped make Darkseid one of the most popular DC characters ever.
Reprinted in this Trade Paperback is the back-up story from Legion of Super-Heroes Volume 2 #287, Legion of Super-Heroes Volume 2 #290-#294, and as a special bonus, Legion of Super-Heroes Annual #3, which serves as part one of a two-part epilogue to the Great Darkness Saga where Darkseid kidnaps one of Lightning Lad and Saturn Girl’s children from Saturn Girl’s womb while the rest of the team goes on a rescue mission to save Shadow Lass (AKA Umbra in the current Legion series) from the Dark Circle in a forgettable tale. Darkseid doesn’t appear until the final two pages of the story and proceeds to produce one of comics’ most nonsensical retcons as he transforms the child into long-time Legion foe Validus and sends the monster child back in time to fight the Legion. The conclusion to this epilogue (which was published two years after the fact in Legion of Super-Heroes Volume 3 Annual #2) is surprisingly missing, which makes the inclusion of Volume 2’s annual nonsensical to say the least.
