Justice League Dark: Apokolips War

Following his two failed attempts at taking over Earth,[N 1] Darkseid and his armies have conquered countless worlds. In response, the Justice League travel to Apokolips to bring the fight to him while the Teen Titans remain on Earth as its defense. Unknown to the League, Darkseid spies on their plan of attack through Cyborg due to the connection he still has with the Mother Box, and upon arrival to Apokolips, the League is attacked by Paradooms – genetic hybrids of Parademons and Doomsday – which prove to be extremely invulnerable and thus results in the heroes either being killed or enslaved by Darkseid while his forces descend on Earth and subdue the Titans, slaughtering a majority of them.

Two years later, Darkseid has successfully conquered Earth. Lex Luthor has become a New God representative and reports to Batman, now Darkseid's lieutenant due to being brainwashed via the Mobius Chair, on the progress of the three "Reaper" devices that are mining Earth's core. Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Mera, Hawkman, and Starfire work as Darkseid's newly converted mechanical Furies as he continues conquering planets. The surviving heroes on Earth blame Clark Kent (who lost his powers by an injection of liquid Kryptonite in his chest) for their failure. Meanwhile, Raven suffers from the strain of confining her father Trigon, who is constantly attempting to escape from his magical prison, and the loss of her team.[N 2] After Clark rescues her from her latest suicide attempt, they recruit Etrigan the Demon, who has been morose ever since the death of Jason Blood, and John Constantine, who blames himself for letting his lover Zatanna die when he inexplicably fled during the battle at Apokolips, to find Batman's son Damian Wayne. Constantine locates Damian, now the leader of the League of Assassins, and he, along with Lady Shiva, reluctantly join the heroes. Damian also reveals that he revived his adoptive brother and fellow teammate Dick Grayson, who was killed during the attack on Earth, via the Lazarus Pits, though he lost his sanity in the process, because of which he was kept locked up.

On Stryker's Island, Clark's wife Lois Lane has recruited the Suicide Squad, now led by Harley Quinn following Amanda Waller's death,[N 3]. She plans to use them to help her infiltrate the LexCorp building while Darkseid is conquering Oa and use its boom tube to return to Apokolips. Meanwhile, two other teams of heroes (Shazam, Steel, Superboy, and Batwoman, Batgirl, Black Orchid, Batwing) stage attacks on two of the three Reapers to lure the Paradooms to Earth. When this proves inadequate, Constantine enlists the help of Swamp Thing to attack the third and final Reaper. Kent's group along with the Suicide Squad breach LexCorp and eventually confront Luthor who reveals he was the mole helping Lois. He brings forth an arsenal of kryptonite-based weapons for the group to use and a powered armor suit for Kent. The group split into two with Clark's team (including Constantine, Etrigan, Damian, and Raven) going to Apokolips while Lois' team (including Luthor, Harley Quinn, Black Manta, Bane, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark) stays behind to protect the boom tube.

Darkseid kills the last of the Green Lanterns and the Guardians on Oa before Batman alerts him of Luthor's betrayal. Darkseid sends his Furies ahead to Apokolips to deal with the intrusion team then diverts some of the Earth's magma to destroy Oa and the Central Power Battery. Back on Apokolips, Etrigan delights in the challenge of fighting Wonder Woman but eventually loses and is slain. At the last moment Constantine is able to free Wonder Woman of her brainwashing using her Lasso of Truth. She stays behind to liberate the other Furies from Darkseid's control while Constantine's group rescue the Flash, who has been imprisoned and forced to eternally run on a treadmill powering the planet, and Cyborg, whose body has been dismantled and repurposed as the planet's power source. Cyborg is able to disable the brainwashing on the remaining Furies but they are soon confronted by Batman and Darkseid. Darkseid orders Batman to kill Damian, however, he falters before dealing the final blow. The situation reminds Batman of his parents' deaths at the hand of Joe Chill enabling him to break free from Darkseid's control. Darkseid attempts to kill Batman with his omega beams but Damian jumps to his father's defense and is killed instead. Damian's death causes Raven to lose control over Trigon, who frees himself from captivity. Constantine offers himself as a host for Trigon so they can fight Darkseid but Trigon possesses Clark instead (purging the liquid kryptonite from his body) and kills Constantine before fighting Darkseid.

The heroes attempting to stop the Reapers back on Earth are soon overwhelmed by the Paradooms and slaughtered. At LexCorp, the stay-behind team fights a losing battle against hordes of Paradooms. Trapped, they initiate a self-destruct program and Lois is able to transmit one final message to Clark before perishing in the explosion. Watching Lois' sacrifice allows Superman to throw off Trigon's control and expel the latter from his body. Darkseid is able to trap Trigon's essence before a repowered Superman begins to battle Darkseid in retaliation for Lois's death. Meanwhile, Constantine is briefly reunited with Zatanna in Heaven. She reveals that part of Batman's contingency plan (if things went badly) was for her to use a compulsion spell to make Constantine flee the battle. Simultaneously, Zatanna and Raven revive Constantine and Damian respectively, with Raven confessing her love for Damian. Cyborg reveals his plan to teleport the Paradooms from Earth back to Apokolips and boomtube the entire planet into a void but Darkseid must be distracted for it to work. Constantine and Raven combine their magic to give Trigon his physical form back so he can relieve Superman and fight Darkseid while the heroes safely return to Earth. Cyborg commences his plan, opening a boom tube back to Earth for the heroes (including Wonder Woman and the other formerly brainwashed Furies) before thrusting Apokolips into oblivion, killing himself, Darkseid, and Trigon in the process.

Despite the heroes' pyrrhic victory, the Reapers' damage is already done; one-third of the Earth's core has been successfully mined by the machines, putting its orbit in danger of freezing or heating enough that the planet's surface will become uninhabitable. Constantine convinces a reluctant Flash to create another Flashpoint (after learning that he created the first[N 4] while freeing him on Apokolips) to undo the destruction despite the fact that the world will not be the same as it was before. Flash runs back in time and creates another Flashpoint. Damian and Raven share their first and last kiss, while the Justice League observes a wide bright light from beyond the horizon covering the whole world as the timeline resets, leaving their fates unknown.

In addition, Billy Batson / Shazam, Arthur Curry / Aquaman, J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter, Hal Jordan / Green Lantern, Mera, Katar Hol / Hawkman, Dick Grayson / Nightwing, Princess Koriand'r / Starfire, Roy Harper / Speedy, Karen Beecher / Bumblebee, Garfield Logan / Beast Boy, Jaime Reyes / Blue Beetle, Donna Troy / Wonder Girl, Conner Kent / Superboy, Wallace West / Kid Flash, Black Orchid, Kate Kane / Batwoman, Luke Fox / Batwing, Barbara Gordon / Batgirl, Thomas Wayne, Martha Wayne, Joe Chill, John Henry Irons / Steel, Barbara Ann Minerva / Cheetah, Doris Zeul / Giganta, Mark Mardon / Weather Wizard, Toymaster, David Hyde / Black Manta, Bane, the Guardians of the Universe, and members of the Green Lantern Corps (Arisia Rrab, Arkkis Chummuck, Chaselon, Galius Zed, Green Man, Guy Gardner, Kilowog, Palaqua, and Salaak) all have non-speaking roles and cameos, being left as minor characters.

The film was first announced on July 20, 2019 at San Diego Comic Con.[4] In February 2020, the voice cast for the film was announced with several voice actors from previous DC Animated Movie Universe films all reprising their respective roles.[5]

The film was released on digital platforms on May 5, 2020 and release on 4K/Blu-ray/DVD on May 19, 2020, respectively.[6] The release will feature a showcase animated short based on Adam Strange.[7]

In spite of Justice League Dark: Apokolips War being confirmed as the last film in the DCAMU,[2] screenwriter Ernie Altbacker teased the possibility of a new project related to that continuity. He stated that "the way we ended it... it's really like a tough balancing act: It ends something on a bittersweet yet hopeful note, and I'll just say, people who are saying, "Oh man, we're not going to get anymore of these!" ...you're not losing something, you're gaining something new..."[11]

• DC page
• Justice League Dark: Apokolips War at IMDb