The tournament is in full swing. Heroes have fallen. Darkseid is near. The 32 champions have been chosen, and now they must compete to earn the Heart of Apokolips. The first challenge? Battling across a deadly arena to acquire new weapons of war. Superman has his doubts that the Justice League is doing the right thing, but there are others who have no problem killing to get what they want. DC K.O. #2 is written by Scott Snyder and Joshua Williamson, drawn by Javi Fernandez and Xermanico, colored by Alejandro Sanchez and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.
Clearly, we put too much money on Power Girl.
After throwing everyone for a loop in issue #1 by knocking Batman out of the fight and replacing him with Joker, DC K.O. #2 sees a field of 32 competitors winnowed to 16 as they scour the battlefield for weapons that will help them be crowned King Omega and take on Darkseid.
Darkseid, meanwhile, revealed he’s been hiding in Booster Gold, who appeared to work with the other time beings to hold the time barrier that was keeping the ruler of Apokolips at bay. Uh-oh.
The 16 remaining competitors, as revealed at the comic’s end, are Joker, the Demon, Jay Garrick, Superman, Hawkman, Lobo, Zatanna, Guy Gardner, Lex Luthor, Harley Quinn, Red Hood, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Captain Atom, Swamp Thing and Cyborg.
From this Sweet 16, an Elite Eight must rise. And possibly also fight Absolute Batman and the creepy doll from The Conjuring.
Nine CXF staffers filled out brackets at the start of the tournament, with nothing on the line but bragging rights and the expectation that narrative swerves would render all of them moot at some point.
Now that half the field has been eliminated, we check back in on those brackets to see who’s busted, and who’s still in the fight.
Adam’s bracket – BUSTED
Adam says: “As CXF’s resident DC know-nothing, I humbly concede I had no idea what I was doing to begin with.”
Anna’s bracket
Armaan’s bracket – BUSTED
Armaan says: “So that was a mess. Don’t get me wrong, the chaos was fun – this does present as a dumb, silly but ultimately fun event, but I think this issue highlights how much nobody cares about any of it making sense. Promotionally, we were presented with a bracket – something that naturally led us to assume we’d be having one-on-one matches leading up to a grand finale. This is not the case – our first major battle is an all-out free-for-all in which logic is pretty much unecessary. Why is Bane’s Venom given the same narrative weight as every single power ring there is? Why does it even effect Lobo, who’s already on a Superman level of strength? And most importantly, why is Power Girl – the person I believe could win this entire thing – only on page for two panels, and both of those showing her being controlled by Starro? It’s a sham! A sham! None of this makes any sense!
“But by all the dark gods a black-ring wielding Luthor can summon, it all looks stunning.”
Austin’s bracket – BUSTED
Dan’s bracket
Dan says: “Barda deserved better. It’s looking more like this is Superman’s tournament to win, but it’s too late to change my answer.”
Rasmus’ bracket
Scott’s bracket
Sean’s bracket
Tony’s bracket
Dan Grote is the editor and publisher of ComicsXF, having won the site by ritual combat. By day, he’s a newspaper editor, and by night, he’s … also an editor. He co-hosts The ComicsXF Interview Podcast with Matt Lazorwitz. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, two kids and two miniature dachshunds, and his third, fictional son, Peter Paul Winston Wisdom. Follow him @danielpgrote.bsky.social.
