Zack Snyder’s retouched Justice League is coming, and with it, a whole passel of fresh New Gods. One of them we’ve seen from the trailer is DeSaad, the pointy faced, pointy toothed guy in a hood. But who is he? Well, friends, we’re here to tell you everything you need to know about him.
But just in case you haven’t seen that ridiculous Snyder Cut trailer yet, here it is…
WHO IS DESAAD?
DeSaad was originally created as part of Jack Kirby’s huge Fourth World story. His name was a reference to the Marquis de Sade, the famous French snuff enthusiast, and befitting the name, DeSaad was chief torturer to Darkseid, the evil god at war with Highfather and New Genesis.
He was once a sweet little boy, tricked by Darkseid to believing that his pet cat had killed his pet bird. Darkseid convinced him to take revenge on the cat, so the boy who would become DeSaad buried his cat alive. When the bird flew back, DeSaad killed the bird too and hightailed it to Apokolips.
Once there, he became part of whatever passes for Darkseid’s inner circle. He is exceptionally talented at building weapons and torture devices, and generally skulks around being a cowardly monster and delighting in the pain and torment of whoever he has at hand.
He has all the powers of an “average” New God – long life, occasional super strength, resistance to damage and poison and whatnot. But nothing more. There’s nothing special about him besides his proclivity for depravity.
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Oh yeah, and at one point he was also Batman. No, seriously…
The JLA arc “Rock of Ages” had Green Lantern, Flash and Aquaman travel back from an adventure on Wonderworld, and on the way they got caught in the timestream and ended up back on Earth 15 years in the future, after Darkseid had mastered the Anti-Life Equation and conquered the planet.
DeSaad captured Batman about halfway through and spent eight years torturing him before Batman escaped and took the place of DeSaad. He was then Darkseid’s master torturer for a few months before the remnants of the Justice League came. He punches Metron in the face and hijacks the Mobius Chair so Aquaman, Flash and Green Lantern could go home, before Green Arrow fires a photon-sized Atom into Darkseid’s eye, so Atom could give Darkseid an aneurysm.
It’s really good.
With Grant Morrison’s Multiversity, the fundamental nature of DC’s cosmology shifted. Instead of being distinct beings, existing in discrete locations with parallels existing throughout the multiverse, the New Gods are singular beings who exist outside the multiverse. What people see on the various parallel Earths are facets, reflections of the master copy.
So the DeSaad trapped on Earth 2 after Darkseid’s failed invasion in the pages of the New 52 Justice League comic is fundamentally the same as the one who showed up on Earth Prime in Justice League #6. This is apparently true for all the New Gods.
With DC and WB making a big deal out of the Multiverse during Fandome, don’t be surprised see this referenced somewhere when he shows up – Darkseid Is… in all things, after all.
For more on Darkseid, DeSaad, Orion, or gorgeous himbo Lightray, or for more from Fandome stick with Den of Geek!