Steppenwolf
1066 - Steppenwolf and the New Gods come into being on a higher plane of existence on the twin planets of Apokolips and New Genesis after Ragnarök, the fall of Asgard. Steppenwolf is the god of the hunt, brother to Heggra, the goddess of malice.
1157 - Steppenwolf's sister Heggra becomes the sole ruler of Apokolips when her husband Yuga Khan is absorbed into the source wall. Steppenwolf begins to travel to New Genesis to indulge his lust for hunting and killing.
1161- Steppenwolf brings Darkseid on a hunt to New Genesis, and kills Avia, the wife of Izaya the Inheritor, who battles and kills Steppenwolf to avenge his wife.
The New Gods play a pretty big role in modern DC, specifically because they have such compelling villains. Because of their high profile, I don't actually believe that most casual comic readers, even if they know who characters like Darkseid and Glorious Godfrey are, are familiar with the history of the characters as depicted in these original stories. This is particularly relevant with Steppenwolf. He might have made appearances in more modern comics as well as some extremely high-profile media, but all of this skips over the most important element of the actual character, that this character died in one of the most relevant moments of the New Gods history.
Steppenwolf's Comic HistorySteppenwolf appears for the first time in New Gods #7, the flashback issue that tells the origin of the conflict between Apokolips and New Genesis. Steppenwolf is shown hunting on New Genesis with his nephew Darkseid, where he kills Avia, the wife of Izaya the Inheritor. Darkseid uses an invention of Desaads to make it LOOK like he's also killed Izaya, but he is in fact left alive to later make war on Apokolips, which of course is Darkseid's ultimate goal.
Later we see a young Izaya do battle with Steppenwolf, and in an epic battle Izaya gets his revenge, killing Steppenwolf.. an event that would eventually lead to his setting down his weapons. It's an incredibly important moment in the history of New Gods, and would be depicted in other flashbacks in practically every new series depicting their story. Eventually, in the New 52, Steppenwolf would start to appear again, still alive among the current New Gods. This of course undoes the hugely important history between these characters that lead to his death, but the New 52 doesn't really adhere to existing continuity anyway. |
Our Steppenwolf StoryThis is nowhere as high profile as the return of Jason Todd, but I would argue that this is a very similar moment in DC Continuity. Steppenwolf is absolutely a regularly appearing character in most modern takes of the New Gods, and most readers familiar with this corner of DC expect to see him in it. At the same time, the death of this character is HUGE. It's one of the most important things to ever happen in the history of the Fourth World, and I would argue that, just like Jason Todd, Steppenwolf's death is far too important to the story at play to even consider undoing it.
So we've actually done something with Steppenwolf very similar to what we did with Jason; we've kept his death canon and altered another character to take their place in continuity. In this case, we took a briefly-referenced son of Steppenwolf, Killroy, and gave him the visual design of the animated Steppenwolf so he can take over the original character's story utility, leaving our Steppenwolf free to fulfill his original narrative purpose; to be smashed to death by Izaya. |