Welcome once again to
Baddies That Need Movie Love! I've reached a bit of a milestone here, bringing you my 10th article in the series and to celebrate, I am highlighting a villain that many of you have requested and suggested, but I wanted to save him for a "special occasion" of sorts. One of the biggest complaints that people have regarding
Superman Returns was the lack of action and fight scenes (which will hopefully be remedied with Zack Snyder's
Man of Steel next year) and a solution to that problem would be to add a more physical villain, rather than Lex Luthor. Enter Darkseid.
Darkseid's rise to power on Apokolips was a violent one, one that involved family betrayal and the loss of loved ones, which led to his animosity towards good, hardeneing his heart, matching his rough exterior. When his Brother, Drax, attempted to harness the Omega Force for his own, Darkseid, known as Uxas, killed his brother and took the Omega Force, which changed this appearance to the rock-like surface we see today. At this time, he changed his name to Darkseid. He ultimately fell for a scientist, Suli, and had a son together. When Suli was killed, at the request of Darkseid's mother, Darkseid took vengeance against his mother and had her killed, making him the supreme ruler of Apokolips.
Seeing other Gods as a threat, Darkseid layed seige upon Themyscira, the home of the Amazons and Princess Diana, a/k/a Wonder Woman, in order to discover the location of the Olympian Gods. Refusing to aid in this venture, the Amazons were forced to defend themselves against Darkseid and his parademon army. Nearly half of the Amazonian populations was erradicated at this time. Wonder Woman gained her revenge when she placed a piece of her soul into Darkseid, weakening him and causing him to lose a bit of his dark edge.
Darkseid's ultimate goal is to rid the universe of free will and to reshape it in his own image. To start this, he sought to unravel the Anti-Life Equation, which gives its owner complete control over the thoughts and emotions of all living things in the universe. This, and other ventures, has lead to Darkseid clashing with many superheroes in the DC Universe, but it his epic battles with Superman that has gained him popularity. Few heroes have been able to take on the likes of Darkseid as Superman and this has led to some of the greatest battles to ever grace the pages of DC Comics pages.
As I mentioned earlier, when we think of Superman, we think of battles raging int he streets of Metropolis and we haven;t seen that since
Superman II hit the screens several decades ago. Adding a character like Darkseid to the equation would not only solve this problem, but would make for a Superman film of epic proportions. The potential for ground-breaking (pun intended) fight sequences would be astronomical. If you look at Marvel's
The Incredibel Hulk from a few years ago, many consider the ending fight scene in that film to be among the top amongst comic book films. If you were to take a scene like that and toss in the "alien" abilities of Superman and Darkseid, you can just imagine what the end result would be.
When I originally started this article, I wanted to find an actor that is lesser known, just to mix things up a bit. One of which was Steve Harris, who is most known for his roles on
The Practice a few years ago. I still think he'd be a decent choice, but he just wasn't "doing it for me," so to speak. I kept going back to a suggestion and fan-favorite. Michael Ironside has had a solid career that has spanned nearly 40 years, but he has never been a "leading man," save for a few films. Despite this fact Ironside has made a name for himself as a solid and dependable actor. You can always expect him to own every role he takes on. Having said that, with a character like Darkseid, I don't think you can get away with putting a man in a rubber-suit and call it good. What I'd like to see is the of motion-cap for the facial features and CGI for the rest of the body. This way, you could still maintiain the humanoid aspect of the character, yet give him the size that he deserves.
Be sure to check out the past installments of
"Baddies that Need Movie Love:"
Mr. Sinister
Ultron
Kingpin
Black Tom Cassidy
Omega Red
Brainiac
The Shade
Harley Quinn
Ventriliquist & Scarface