Superman's Funeral Had A Very Strange Guest - And It Is Baffling Reddit
Though technically only one thing — not Kryptonite — can truly kill Superman, the hulking alien Doomsday manages to take the Man of Steel's life in "The Death of Superman." The '90s DC Comics storyline took the pop culture world by storm, with Superman's supposed demise appearing definite for a time. In fact, to drive that point home, DC released a now-iconic image featuring numerous names from the DC Universe at Kal-El's funeral. While most of the individuals in the crowd are fitting for the occasion, one inclusion has confused DC fans for years. Even now, it has Reddit absolutely baffled.
Darkseid, one of the DC Universe's biggest villains, one of Superman's greatest foes, and DC's arguable embodiment of evil, is present on the poster, and Redditors can't figure out why. "Kinda weird to see Darkseid, Lobo, and Deathstroke in somber attendance," pointed out u/flying87 in a thread about the image, with u/MarcReyes questioning why he's there in the first place. The closest thing to an answer anyone could come up with is that he was simply there to pay respects to one of his worthiest adversaries. "Hey, just because he's your enemy didn't mean you don't respect him," u/SkollFenrirson wrote. A similar discussion unfolded on DC Fandom, with a similar conclusion coming to light.
A concrete answer for Darkseid's presence at Superman's funeral has yet to be revealed by an official DC source. Throughout the years, he hasn't made it explicitly clear that he has any respect for Superman, let alone enough to justify stopping by his funeral. On the other hand, he has openly given another Justice League member some credit.
Despite attending his funeral, Darkseid doesn't respect Superman as much as another Justice Leaguer
Even though he seems to be paying his respects to Superman as he's carried away in a casket, Darkseid has shown time and time again to have little love for the Man of Steel. Superman represents everything Darkseid despises, including hope, compassion, and kindness, hence why they've clashed so many times in various forms of media. At the same time, there's one Justice League member who could die and maybe, just maybe, it would make sense for Darkseid to appear at their funeral: the character DC lied to you about, Batman.
Unlike Superman, the Dark Knight has been shown to have earned Darkseid's respect, at least to a small extent. For instance, in the pages of "Superman/Batman" #12, Gotham's protector clashes with the ruler of Apokalips, He threatens to destroy the planet itself if Darkseid doesn't free Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, from his control, prompting Darkseid to tell him, "Had the Kryptonian or the Amazon taken this gamble, they would have lost...But you. A human. You kill your own kind to win battles. It is...an admirable quality." Unfortunately, it took the Caped Crusader displaying one of humanity's worst tendencies to make a positive impression on one of the New Gods.
The DC Universe is full of villains way scarier than Darkseid, but there's no denying how imposing, ruthless, and downright cruel he is. The fact that he supposedly visited Superman's funeral, for some reason, and admitted to admiring Batman's viciousness speaks volumes about him and the two heroes.