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When it came time to build DC K.O., the next big DC Universe event, Scott Snyder and the editorial team looked to their competitors for inspiration.

“We were talking about it a year and a half ago, and it was like, what have we not done that would be really fun for [the middle act of the Darkseid saga],” Scott Snyder says during an interview with Casually Comics. “And it was like, well, we always do fight comics. And it was like, do we though? And then we looked, and Marvel has done Avengers vs. X-Men, and Secret Wars, and Civil War, but we actually don’t do them. We haven’t done one. So then it was like, why not do Superman vs Wonder Woman vs everybody vs Batman vs whatever?”

“It was originally called WWW, Who Would Win. That was DC Who Would Win, but then they thought it was too much like World War III or whatever. It was just sort of DC K.O., and K.O. stands for King Omega. And King Omega is what Darkseid has become, and what the heroes are trying to become here.”

'Who Would Win' also sounds like a Marvel Comics-style event question, such as Civil War's 'Who's Side Are You On?' marketing and Secret Invasion's 'Who Do You Trust?'.

Snyder went on to say that DC K.O. is only the middle chapter of an epic saga being told with Darkseid, and it’s nothing compared to the third act, which we should see around 2027.

“We wanted to do something that would be the heroes' first real encounter with [Darkseid], that would show them how impossible it will be to beat him, and set the stakes of this third beat, which will come in [2027].”

“But for now, what we wanted to do as a midpoint was something big and celebratory and fun. Kind of a big 'thank you' to everybody for supporting DC and supporting all these books so aggressively over the course of the last year. It was always planned as a midpoint that we wanted to be like this jet fuel for the line.”

“I really want the event to do well so it creates fuel for the stuff we’re doing on the other side, because I think the better we do, the more risks we can take creatively. The more things we can try. By the time we get to that third story point, the big finale of it in [2027], if you guys are with us through this and support this part, that part’s going to be insane. It’s going to be nuts.”

DC K.O. kicks off in October with DC K.O. #1 by Scott Snyder and Javi Fernández.

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.