Killroy
1161- Killroy's father Steppenwolf is killed by Izaya the Inheritor. He becomes the new bodyguard of his aunt, the Queen Heggra. Her biggest threat is Darkseid, her son and Killroy's cousin.
1164 - Killroy advises against Heggra poisoning Darkseid's lover Suli, knowing he would never rest until he gets revenge.
1166 - Killroy and Darkseid are stranded on an alien planet, stalked by Doomsday. Darkseid defeats their attacker and launches it into space, earning Killroy's loyalty.
1167 - Killroy joins Darkseid's coup, betraying Heggra. He is given control of the armies of Apokolips & begins an endless war against New Genesis.
1752 - Killroy's endless war is halted by Apokolips's non-aggression pact with New Genesis, leaving him near-mad for battle.
8 years ago - Killroy goes to earth to invalidate the non-aggression pact by killing Scott Free before Doctor Bedlam can recover him. Desaad keeps his sabotage secret, forcing him to do his bidding.
4 years ago - Killroy leads the Parademon wave invasion of Earth. He is knocked unconscious by Wally West.
This is one of those characters where we're getting a little bit creative. Killroy is absolutely a character from DC, but only in one very particular issue that is, at best, maybe a little canon-adjacent. We wouldn't usually use him, except that there is something of a gap in the regular continuity of the Fourth World that we felt we needed to resolve. There might actually already be a functional explanation for this, but we haven't FOUND it, and frankly we like this better!
Killroy's StoryTo begin with, Killroy is the son of Steppenwolf. He appears in one issue leading a group of other young denizens of Apokolips to capture Superman... all to win the approval of the Female Furies. This takes place in the crossover issue Superman & Savage Dragon, a comic that makes no attempt to explain why Savage Dragon is able to assist the Metropolis Police, so I don't know if you can really call it canon, but nonetheless it does establish that Steppenwolf has a son named Killroy, even if we're not using anything from this character other than that concept.
Meanwhile, Steppenwolf himself is definitely one of the most regularly appearing of Darkseid's lieutenants, so much so that he's actually the main villain of the unfortunate Justice League movie. Doing a timeline of the Fourth World absolutely needs you to regularly reference this character, but there is one problem with this; Steppenwolf was killed in a flashback in the original New Gods series, and his death should be foundational to this story. |
We haven't found a specific reason Steppenwolf seems to have just come back? Most of the New Gods series only depict him in flashbacks, but a major exception would be in the comics adapting Kirby's updated take on the Fourth World from the Super Powers toy line and Challenge of the Super Friends cartoon. Jack's redesign included a very cool ax-wielding version of Steppenwolf.
So what are we doing? We REALLY want the death of Steppenwolf to stick as a huge part of the history of the New Gods, so we're going to keep it in place, but we're going to imagine a new character, Killroy, using the cool spikey ax design. This character will take Steppenwolf's place in the remainder of the timeline. We'll get to make him a big part of Darkseid's original coup, the leader of Apokolips armies, and one of the threats to come to Earth and threaten Scott Free. He's a very prolific character, building out our timeline in a way that doesn't contradict one of the most important moments in the history of the New Gods. |