There are hundreds of villains in the DC Universe, but few are as evil and destructive as darkseid, Darkseid has tried to conquer the Earth several times over, and he’s clashed with Superman manytimes. But despite being the personification of evil in the DC Universe, he’s also saved Metropolis better than Superman ever could.
Darkseid has been a significant problem for the entire DC Universe for almost as long as he has existed. His quest for the anti-life equation has brought Darkseid all over the universe and brought him into conflict with all kinds of heroes, usually Superman. Since Darkseid is often made out to be the personification of evil in the DC Universe, he has never shown any compassion or mercy to anyone, and he will destroy anything in his way in search of the Anti-Life equation, which is why it was all the more shocking that Darkseid saved Metropolis in a way not even Superman could.
Darkseid Is The Hero Metropolis Needs
Darkseid being the savior of Metropolis, while being completely unexpected, makes sense in context. This was during the Our Worlds at War event, which spanned over all the Superman-related books at the time. This war dealt with the people of the universe coming together to fight Imperiex-Prime, who is the literal embodiment of entropy. Since Earth is the focal point of the universe, if Earth was destroyed, the DC universe would be too in a cascade effect. This meant Earth would be the staging ground for the defense against Imperiex-Prime, which is why Darkseid had every Single Citizen of Metropolis evacuated, which readers got to see in Man of Steel #115 by Mark Schultz and Doug Mahnke.
Darkseid deciding to save the people of Metropolis from the coming battle, while noble in its execution, was mostly for selfish reasons. Darkseid knew that the final battle against Imperiex-Prime was going to happen on Earth, and if Earth’s greatest were too busy trying to save civilians instead of fighting Imperiex, then the war was never going to be won. So while Darkseid’s reasons for doing it were entirely practical, the fact remains that Darkseid managed to save the people of Metropolis in a way Superman can’t, since Darkseid teleported every Single Citizen of Metropolis out of harm’s way. Superman really isn’t able to do this, since he can’t move the citizens out of Metropolis, he just has to move them around whatever destruction is befalling the city at the time.
Superman is undoubtedly one of the greatest heroes in the DC Universe, and he has saved that universe time and time again, but there’s something to be said for Darkseid’s The practical response of simply moving everyone to where there is no longer any danger.