DC K.O. (2025-) #3

by Scott Snyder, Javi Fernandez (Artist), Xermanico (Artist)

IT'S TAG-TEAM TIME! As the Omega Tournament reaches its endgame, the final eight combatants are put to the ultimate test–confronted with a decades-long stay in their own personal hell! Emotions run high as heroes falter, villains revel, and the Heart of Apokolips eyes its new King Omega. In the end, only the final four will remain…

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics

Kindle Edition

Published January 14, 2026

About the author

Scott Snyder is the Eisner and Harvey Award winning writer on DC Comics Batman, Swamp Thing, and his original series for Vertigo, American Vampire. He is also the author of the short story collection, Voodoo Heart, published by the Dial Press in 2006. The paperback version was published in the summer of 2007.

Reviews

[Machiavelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

DC K.O. #3 worked for me. This issue is all about momentum — big, cleanly staged fights, fun character pairings, and just enough character work to keep the spectacle from feeling empty. The tournament structure really clicks here, with several matchups delivering satisfying beats and clear personalities (especially in how different power sets and team dynamics clash). It’s not trying to be deep or subversive, and that’s honestly to its benefit. By the end, the Final Four setup feels earned and genuinely exciting. A strong, energetic chapter that does exactly what it needs to do.

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joker being this powerful can be annoying, but everything else has been great.

[dusty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man, this DC K.O. event is an absolute BLAST. Every issue somehow gets more fun than the last, which is honestly wild considering what happened to Batman back in issue one (I’m still shook).

This issue takes things to the next level with a full team showdown, but with a brilliant twist.. Your partner has to be someone who already lost the competition. That rule alone creates such a fascinating dynamic and makes every fight feel fresh and unpredictable!

Scott Snyder absolutely crushed it here. Guy Gardner and Hal Jordan. Wonder Woman and Big Barda. Cyborg and Connor Hawke. Zatanna and Constantine. Aquaman and Hawkman. Lex Luthor and Supergirl. SUPERMAN and SHAZAM!? These pairings are insane in the best way, and I loved how each team up was explained and justified. Especially JOKER.

This issue is packed with major surprises. Joker teaming up with what looks like The Batman Who Laughs, only for it to be revealed as Mr. Mxyzptlk and lead to the return of Emperor Joker, was a MASSIVE curveball. His chaotic energy and pure wickedness make him terrifyingly perfect for this tournament, which is honestly scary considering what’s at stake.

And just when I thought it couldn’t get crazier, Lex Luthor uses a custom mix of Kryptonite on Supergirl and turns her into a vicious monster!! That move was so smart, so calculated, and so perfectly Lex. I genuinely thought that reveal was the peak for me.. and then Superman goes and gains Shazam’s powers!!! Let me just say, that suit is absolute comic book perfection, and seeing Clark wield that level of speed, strength, and skill made it clear that this kid from Smallville will do whatever it takes to stop Lex and Joker.

This entire event keeps you on the edge of your seat, constantly guessing what’s coming next and then completely blindsiding you anyway!

Now we’re down to the final four. Superman. Lex. Joker. Wonder Woman. That lineup alone already feels iconic. But that ending reveal? Finding out they’re about to face the ABSOLUTE TRINITY and Darkseid in the body of Booster Gold had my adrenaline pumping when I finished the issue. Like come on!!

I seriously cannot wait for the next issue. I want to see what tricks everyone still has up their sleeves, who ultimately wins the tournament, and most importantly what the winners’ choices will mean for the future of the DC Universe. Here we go.

[Mocassin · Rating 2 out of 5]

J'étais très emballé par l'event jusque là mais ça devient très répétitif. Encore de la bagarre pure, à la seule différence que ça part en team-up ici, et encore un semblant de mise en avant de Superman. Même sans demander un grand scénario, on aurait pu avoir des rounds qui se différencient vraiment, avec des concepts originaux.

[Colin Post · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main issues of this event remain super strong, even if the tie-ins have been hit or miss. Fernandez’s art is incredible and brings the cosmic battle to life. He does such a good job rendering the fights so that they’re more than generic heroes punching each other. The team also clearly had fun with the team-ups, resulting in some inventive KOs.

[Craig Schorling · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a blast! This is so over the top but in all the good ways. Each champion gets to pick a partner and there are some truly epic moments. The zinger at the end has me beyond stoked. This event is so damn fun.

[zachariah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Snyder you’re done when I say you’re done

[Holland McNamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's no way the people love Joker this much.
There IS a way people love Lex Luthor this much.

[Cristhian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Emperor Joker?
Superman using Vegitto’s Pothala?

Welp. 5/5

[Roland Baldwin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is wild

[Axx · Rating 4 out of 5]

“That’s what I call five-d chess $&@#!”

[Cybernex007 · Rating 4 out of 5]

You can just tell this was so much fun to right, just an absolutely fun time. The end of the world stakes are obviously pretty meaningless but it’s fun to see this series play out and see the craziness they can cook up with it. Now I have to be honest, a lot of the potential built up in the fight month specials just got thrown out the window, which is a shame, but I’m still having a good time. As the fight month rounds come to an end, our 8 remaining fighters are given a glimpse into the world they could build with the power of darkseid if they are to win. Of course we follow this series from Superman’s perspective with the heart of Apokolips as the narrator, so we see his perfect world where everyone is happy and living with everything they could possibly need in a shining civilization…and then it is immediately ripped away. Clark stands up like he was just jostled from a good dream to find Lex watching him as cyborg, Wonder Woman, joker, Guy Gardner, Zatanna, and Aquaman join them. They are what is left and now it’s time for the third round. Following Darkseid’s rise to power, he would occasionally ally himself with unexpected beings…so round three is a team up round. But not amongst themselves, instead they get to choose from the fallen champions. BUT, one of them has a lot more omega energy than the rest and gets to choose a parter from all realms of reality…and unfortunately that person is Joker. They are given a small amount of time to choose before they are swept up into the next round and put against each other, the choices are as follows:

Guy Gardner chose Hal Jordan to face off against Superman and Shazam. Two lanterns vs Superman and Billy to offset the weakness to magic, nice choice and gives Billy a retry, which is nice.

Lex Luthor chose…SUPERGIRL?! HUH?! Why?! And they are going up against Aquaman and Hawkman, as Aquaman found great honor fighting alongside him. Masters of Sea and Air!

Wonder Woman chose big Barda which just seems like an exceptional choice and cyborg chose Connor hawke. Both teams here have someone fighting for redemption and both have their own strategies.

And finally Zatanna chose another magic user I didn’t even realize was there, John Constantine. And joker chose a mystery companion.

The teams are all placed on different platforms in the middle of a world made of magma as they get acquainted and start the fights. As you can imagine…supergirl tuned on Alex IMMEDIATELY! How could he possibly think she would fight for him, and she immediately chose to side with Aquaman and Hawkman to take him down quickly. Now cyborg approached his with a real good strategy. Connor is one of the deadliest fighters in the world, and with cyborg being able to enhance him with nano tech it just powers him up even more. But going even further, cyborg was able to tap into Connor’s mind to pull a copy of his fighting techniques so that they both share the exact same fighting skills to become a stellar matchup. Unfortunately for that great strategy…they are still going up against Wonder Woman and big Barda…they never stood a chance, lol.

But the question on everyone’s mind…who did joker pick? As Zatanna and Constantine stand opposite to him, his partner suddenly comes in, another person who loves to laugh, none other than the BATMAN WHO LAUGHS!! HAHAHAHA, you have GOT to be kidding me. SNYDER!!! The magic users immediately jump into action to deploy magic chains around both of them before they can make a move, but Constantine immediately realizes something is off…he doesn’t detect any dark multiverse matter. The jig is already up, joker didn’t bring the batman who laughs, he just wanted to play a good trick. So he has his partner drop the facade to reveal who he truly is, and with the snap of his fingers and a flash of light suddenly MXYZPTLK ENTERS THE FIGHT and combines with joker to become EMPEROR JOKER!! NOOOOOO!!! I have to admit that is WAY better than batman who laughs, lol, and honestly surprised joker didn’t pull this move on Jason during their fight, but he did save it for a good moment. Unfortunately for as powerful the magic users are, they are no chance agains the 5th dimensional energy. The constructs emperor joker makes even secrete neuro toxin which infects the pair the signature joker style. Constantine is the first to succumb to the effects and Zatanna is unable to cure him before joker turns her backwards magic on her and forces her to look into the madness. Such a shame too as there was some great buildup there with Zatanna using her anger to go further in this fight. On paper, I know people are going to hate looking at that bracket and seeing Zatanna loosing, but this was pretty fun, I’m ngl. As the fight ends and joker wins, he lived up to his side of the bargain and sends MXY back home, PHEW.

Things go about the same for cyborg and Connor facing off against the literal gods. They are able to deliver some really good close combat, but then Diana ordered Barda to punch her as hard as possible, channeling the energy from Barda’s punch into Diana’s gauntlets to send out a powerful blast that takes cyborg and Connor out of the fight. But Diana didn’t just recruit Barda for her strength. Barda is from Apokolips and in the time they have left, Diana wants to know everything about the heart of Apokolips!

One thing that has been really inconsistent are the items the fighters brought in with them, do they still have them do they not? Who knows, but one person still does…none other than Hal Jordan who fully planned his item around taking Superman down. So as the two face off, Hal causally whips out and throws a BLACK MERCY PLANT on Superman to throw him into a vision of a perfect world and take him out of the game! But you know the saying about getting fooled, and Clark has faced this plant before. This time he is met with the world he could create if he wins, time is it only fixed in the preset and future…but also the past and he has been reunited with his Kryptonian parents. But what also fills his head are moments with Lois before the fighting, back to the board game night before hell as she found Clark hiding out a but in the kitchen. But with her reassurance and words to get out there and be Superman, he is able to break the bonds from the black mercy and join Shazam once again to take the two lanterns on! He knows what they plan to do next, and also knows the reason why he chose Billy, other than giving him a second chance. The lanterns are about to make Kryptonite with their rings to take him down, and old trick but quite effective. But Superman has an ask of Billy, a power he has to help others. Billy understands and as the words of the wizard Shazam leave his mouth, suddenly the power of the wizard has been transferred over to Superman!! Just like how Billy gave powers to his family, he just shazamed Superman!! Magic and krypton in one powerful being and the lanterns don’t stand a chance. But Clark can’t help but wonder if this place is taking hold of him, is the darkness getting to him as it did Captain atom?

During this fight we also got glimpses over to Lex. As you can expect there was a reason he chose supergirl, and that’s because of the custom Kryptonite he keeps in his suit. So as he gives her a very large blast of a custom red, black, and silver Kryptonite. She suddenly shifts into a being of pure blind rage that can now be directed at Hawkman and Aquaman to crush them into the ground and literally laser them apart! Absolutely brutal and a pretty good play from Lex.

And with that the fights have come to an end, Clark meets eyes with Lex as they both finish and he sees something he isn’t used to from Lex…admiration. And now it is immediately time to get into round four with the four left. Joker, Lex, Superman, and Wonder Woman are shifted to the penultimate arena, a world that belongs to darkseid. But the hellscape they arrive on is not Apokolips as close to it as it may seem. No, where they end up is Earth itself, taken over by Darkseid. And now they have to face Earth’s champions, none other than the omega corrupted duplicates of absolute Wonder Woman, Superman, and batman!! HA! Joker should have some fun with that.

[AviChaim Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

The mainline DC K.O. books have been very enjoyable so far, and this issue continues that trend. In fact, it might be the standout of the series to date. It genuinely feels like we have not had an event of this caliber in quite some time. Snyder gives each character room to stand on their own, stays true to their established voices, and clearly has a lot of fun with it. I loved the many winks and nods to the larger DC universe, especially those that longtime readers will immediately appreciate. The DBZ reference was a fantastic surprise, and I fully geeked out when it happened. While Cyborg’s and Zatanna’s selections may not have been my first choices, they made sense within the context of their characters. The art is outstanding, and I was completely hooked from the very first page. I cannot recommend this series or this issue enough, and I am beyond excited to keep reading. I am absolutely stoked for the next issue.
Grade: A

[RubiGiráldez RubiGiráldez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entrega que ya remata el cierto interés en el desarrollo de los versus variados de este Torneo orquestado por el corazón de Apokolips. Los finalistas representan diversas formas de futuros más o menos benévolos o distópicos, y la oportunidad de reclamar un compañero de batalla para esta ronda ofrece alguna nimia sorpresa (a ver, Lex... No había un Bizarro disponible???) pero en conjunto es algo que tampoco anima que se "descubra" que todo deriva en el inevitable enfrentamiento entre la Trinidad canon y la Absolute. Entre medias, el Joker hace una coda a su infame ciclo argumental del Emperador Joker y hasta una mofa bastante buena a esa curiosa contraparte del Multiverso Oscuro de Metal. Pero, vaya... que Zatanna empiece a superar el encoñamiento con John Constantine porque... madre mía. Más posibilidades si Madame Xanadu le leyese la carta astral a Mister Mxyzptlk.

[Jadyn❀ · Rating 4 out of 5]

*3.5* This issue felt pretty uneven. To some degree, it felt like some characters sprouted never-before-seen abilities to win (or not). I’m not saying these abilities are implausible, just convenient. No cool power-up given to about half the teams. This event has been so easy for Lex & Joker and so hard for Zatanna, and for what? The only pairs I’m truly satisfied with from this issue are Diana & Barda and Clark & Billy. Still an enjoyable issue though, especially when approached from the perspective of expecting Superman to be the star of the story. I can’t even be all that mad that some of the other events here feel like background noise to what’s going on with Clark. The Clark story is pretty good. Next month is the long-teased Absolute universe crossover, so we’ll see how that goes.

[Antonio Escobar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m sooooooooooo hype for DC KO #4!!!

Seeing the heroes/villains fight it off is so damn cool. Man I was nerding out - felt moments of awe and excitement!

it’s a genuinely great work of art. The art work is PEAK. The narrative and where it’s heading, I feel a major plot twist will come in the future

All ima say is expect the unexpected

Everything about this series is just *SUPER CHEF KISS* 👌👌👌

10 stars ⭐️

[Nolan McNulty · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually love DC KO so much. The tag team round was really cool to see, ESPECIALLY what happened on Superman and Shazam’s team. Joker’s partner of choice was really cool as well. I swear though, KO is basically just an opportunity for DC to show off all of their characters but let everyone know that Superman is still top dawg because Superman aura farms in every issue😭. Really excited for KO 4 and to see how the Absolute universe characters play into this event.

[Abel Allwein · Rating 4 out of 5]

**4.5

This issue was bonkers!

THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS?!?!!
SUPERMANSHAZAM?!?!?!!!

And am I to infer that the reason all the absolute timelines of our beloved characters are happening is because of Darkseid and this tournament? Like not just that the champions are going to fight them next issue, but that the canonical reason for the absolute storylines is because the “real” versions of these characters are in a giant tournament?? Cause that’s actually sick af, if so!!

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confused

Some of the wins just felt unearned and out of left field. They’ve built up characters only to see them get pummeled so easily for no reason. This one was disappointing to say the least.

[Rhett Marak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greatness was stolen from me. Don’t tease the Batman who laughs and take him away. That moment was my favourite of the series so far and it was taken from me.
Some battles definitely felt rushed but still entertaining.

[Lizzy DeMarco · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final four are revealed and as I have said all along, predictable.
**Spoiler Alert**
Superman vs. Lex
Wonder Woman vs. Joker

I still want to see Wonder Woman take it all, but after this issue I am pretty sure it'll be Superman. However a Lex vs. Joker finale might surprise us all too.

[Joseph Andress · Rating 4 out of 5]

This event continues to be a whirlwind of surprises and twists. The creativity on display is remarkable, fully taking advantage of the sandbox nature of this story. I'm hoping for big things out of #4, considering the big reveal at the end.

[alejandro galvez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn!

This is getting bonkers! Absolutely love this series. What a show Scott Snyder has put on. Now this is how you do an event! Its almost over and will be sad to see this series go. I wish Snyder would stay but alas, all good things come to an end.

[emilly · Rating 2 out of 5]

uhmmm what was this?

[Ushnav Shroff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun!

[Joseph Baker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whaaaaat

[Raymond Paquette · Rating 4 out of 5]

The plot armor that allowed the Joker to take advance should be taken down by the Absolute Universe. Other than that, the story was chaotic.

[Gabriel Dickens · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fucking bonkers.

[AJ Easterday · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just so incredibly fun! Thank you, Scott Snyder, for having Diana and Barda team up. It was everything I needed out of this.

[Mark Cubillos · Rating 5 out of 5]

The tag-team portion of the tournament is here. The final four have are established. Fun issue.