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It’s one thing to enjoy stories on the surface — who doesn’t want to see Batman beat up the bad guys, after all? — but sometimes, the subtext of the tale being told can be surprising and fascinating all in its own right. For example, Scott Snyder has revealed that the story behind the story of DC’s big Darkseid saga that started in 2024’s DC All In and is continuing with the current DC K.O. series is actually about… the comic book industry…?

“What it really is, is it's essentially a story about how comics should be dead,” Snyder explained during a speech at New York Comic Con 2025’s retailer day on Wednesday. “All the trolls and all the people out there that say ‘Comics are dying, comics are finished, comics are over’? That's Darkseid. That's kind of the skeleton key to everything we're doing, right?”

The idea of Darkseid being a comic book hating troll is a fun one to play with — trolling as the Anti-Life Equation makes more and more sense the more you think about it, let’s be honest — but the past year’s worth of DC comics have made him more than just a troll. According to Snyder, he’s now become the troll.

The DC K.O. and Absolute Batman writer explained, “Darkeid says, ‘I should have ended you all a long time ago.’ He grows, he becomes bigger. You saw that in [2024’s DC All In Special] and now a year later, he's here to attack. He says, ‘Nobody can beat me. I've become the ultimate troll. I've become so big that no one can face me.’”

That’s where DC K.O. starts — but where it goes? Snyder’s not telling… although he did offer this unexpected tidbit, saying that K.O. is “the second part of this big meta-story we're telling over the course of these few years. It goes all the way into ’27, essentially.”

Get ready for a lot more Darkseid — and a lot more trolling, to boot — over the next few years, it seems.

DC K.O. #1 is in stores now. New York Comic Con 2025 continues through Sunday, October 12.

Here's how to watch all the big panels from New York Comic Con 2025.