COMICS

Superman with a serious case of redeye there.

DC KO

Fight Club

★★★☆☆

▶ RELEASED OUT NOW!

▶ Publisher DC Comics

▶ Writers Scott Snyder, Joshua Williamson

▶ Artists Javi Fernández, Xermánico

ISSUES 1-3 Superhero event comics and crossovers can often feel like blatant opportunities to shoehorn in as many characters as possible to have a gigantic punch-up. DC’s latest event proves to be about as shameless an opportunity as it gets, as multiple DC heroes and villains are pulled into a contest of champions where there can be only one victor.

DC KO actually links back to a long-running story thread that is connected to the apparent death of the villainous Darkseid, but the hyper-involved setup is only slightly relevant here – all that matters is that Earth is now at risk of being taken over by Darkseid. The only way to prevent this from happening is to gain control of the mysterious Heart of Apokolips by becoming the “King Omega”, and this can only happen via a series of brutal no-holds-barred fights until one survivor is left standing to claim their reward.

As usual, this consists of a core miniseries and a bewildering number of crossover issues, and the first three chapters of this five-issue miniseries do a fairly impressive job of threading some genuine character drama into all the over-the-top action and endless punching.

Superman with a serious case of red-eye there.