Zack Snyder’s DC Extended Universe movies pioneer a number of powerful beings from outer space that are known as the NewGods. These immigrants are governed over by Darkseid, and include his underlings such as Steppenwolf and De Saad, as well as those that would resist him. Snyder never got to fully explore this more planetary back of the DC Universe, but the comics help to expand on the New Gods and their capacity in the universe.

Snyder provides the first view of the New Gods in Batman’s prophetic perception in Batman v . Superman, before they make center stage in Justice League. Much of the material involving the New Gods was cut from the theatrical form of Justice League, but the Snyder Cut affords a fuller glimpse of the immigrant race. Snyder’s a blueprint for Justice League 2 and 3 too heavily boasted Darkseid, but it now seems unlikely that these movies will end up. The New Gods were first created by legendary artist Jack Kirby after he jump-start from Marvel to DC in 1970. In Kirby’s Fourth World saga, the New Gods come from two planets, the idyllic New Genesis and dystopian Apokolips. While the original comics is still not commercially successful to the fullest extent DC hoped, the characters have appeared many times throughout the years and interacted with the more well-known DC heroes, especially Darkseid, who has become a universe-spanning villain akin to Marvel’s Thanos.

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The New Gods are initially set to ace in their own DC movie, directed by Ava DuVernay and written by Tom King, but this project was also canceled. Located on how long DuVernay’s New Gods was in development, it may have been originally intended to tie into Snyder’s continuity and had to change inventive guidance. As it stands, the Snyder Cut provides the most detailed view into who the New Gods are in the DC Extended Universe.

The Snyder Cut exposes Darkseid to be the archvillain of the DCEU. The lord of Apokolips, he aims to conquer the entire multiverse working the Anti-Life Equation. Darkseid first tries to conquer Earth 5000 times before the present day, but he is turned back by an alliance of Atlanteans, Amazons, humans, and even the Green Lantern Corps. In this battle, the New Gods are defeated by the Old Gods, traditional anatomies like Zeus, Ares, and Artemis.

Darkseid is called to return to Earth millennia last-minute due to Superman’s death at the end of Batman v. Superman, which awakens the Mother Boxes he had left behind. He tells Steppenwolf to pave the way for his arrival on Earth, but even after his minion’s failure, he is ready to conquer Earth, the only planet that had successfully repulsed him before. This conflict would have played out over Justice League 2 and 3. The views of Darkseid in duel during Wonder Woman’s “history lesson” show that he has superhuman strength, rushed, and toughness, and is able to fire red intensity radiations from his eyes.

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DeSaad shows at Darkseid’s side as his most loyal advisor and collaborator. He is known to have lived for thousands of years and was one of the priests trying to command the Mother Boxes in the first combat for Earth. In Snyder’s original five-movie Justice League arc, DeSaad would have likely represented a larger part in the patch, leading Darkseid’s armies of parademons and other New Gods. In the comics, DeSaad is Darkseid’s chief torturer, specified after the abominable French scribe Marquis deSade. He has also appeared on-screen alongside Darkseid on Smallville.

Granny Goodness has more of a cameo appearance in Justice League as another one of Darkseid’s generals. Despite her figure, Goodness is a villain known in the original comics for flowing one of Apokalips’ remorseless orphanages. She last-minute becomes part of Darkseid’s elite Female Furies radicals alongside Big Barda. Located on what has been discovered about Snyder’s Justice League schedules, Granny Goodness likely would have appeared in the final movie occupying Earth, and was also involved in the “Knightmare” timeline that Batman glimpses.

Steppenwolf dishes as the primary rogue of Justice League, and as Darkseid’s “Herald.” Originally Darkseid’s uncle, Steppenwolf became one of his top generals. However, at some top in the past Steppenwolf deluded Darkseid to his galactic adversaries, who made a neglected push to claim Darkseid’s throne. For his sellout, Steppenwolf was exiled and given the task of conquering 150, 000 lives before he could return to Darkseid’s side. At the start of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, DeSaad explains that Steppenwolf still has 50, 000 worlds to go – meaning that he has already ravaged 100, 000 planets before coming to Earth.

The power and expression of Steppenwolf changed radically between the theatrical and director’s trimmed of Justice League. The Snyder Cut specifies Steppenwolf greater incitement by explaining his backstory and throws him spiked armor instead of his bony look in the theatrical version. Earlier cinemas in the DCEU were originally meant to introduce Steppenwolf and build up to Justice League, in particular Suicide Squad, where Steppenwolf was meant to be seeing Enchantress, but this was later changed as DC execs turned against Snyder’s direction for the franchise.

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In either version, Steppenwolf is extremely powerful, necessary the full efforts of the Justice League to impart him down. He seeks to bring together the Mother Boxes to discover the Anti-Life Equation, thus proving his worth to Darkseid by doing what Darkseid himself has not been able. In the end, Superman’s resurrection gratuities the scale in favor of humanity, but not before Steppenwolf comes perilously close to victory.

The “history lesson” flashback also depicts Apokoliptian priests labor alongside Darkseid during the initial intrusion of Earth. Three priests require each Mother Box and aim to create the Unity to change Earth’s surface into a barren desert like Apokolips. However, they were foiled in their plans by Zeus and the other Old Gods. DeSaad was a member of this group. As they hail from Apokolips, they are also members of the race of New Gods but were likely not as potent as Steppenwolf, let alone Darkseid.

The New Gods which appear in Zack Snyder’s account of the DCEU simply scratch the surface of rich countries and routinely strange given of Kirby’s Fourth World comics. The now-canceled DuVernay New Gods, or future films involving these characters, could involve their heroic equivalents such as Highfather, Mister Miracle, and Big Barda. For now, love will have to content themselves with these intriguing characters’ appearances in the existing movies.

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