As we charge forward through DC K.O., we have to acknowledge a hard truth about arranging a tournament encompassing the entire DC Universe: when you have just 32 slots to fill, you’re going to have to make some cuts. Not everybody’s favorites are going to make it in. You could probably put together an event just as exciting as this one simply using characters who didn’t make it into the ring this time. We all want to be the fantasy bookers who put our favorites together. In fact, we gave you some space in the DC Community recently on Discord to share some of your favorite fighters who didn’t make the preliminaries. But we’ve got a few ideas of our own. Here are a few of the fighters who battle on in our hearts, if not on the DC K.O. stage.
 

ORION

Before we really get this started, let’s get back to the premise here. The actual purpose of this entire tournament is to determine which champion can ultimately save reality by defeating Darkseid, correct? Well, if that’s the case, we really could have saved everyone the trouble with a memo. We’ve known since the start of Jack Kirby’s Fourth World Saga that there’s one being prophesied to ultimately defeat the mighty Darkseid and that’s his son Orion, the New God of War raised by his New Genesis rival, Highfather. These days, in the ongoing New Gods comics, Orion has taken up his adoptive father’s place as leader of the New Gods. Perhaps tending to his people is the reason he’s stayed out of this, with Big Barda serving in his stead to represent the Fourth World contingent. But if he’s willing to stay out of this particular fight, then he’s certainly come a long way.
 

KID ETERNITY

The newest character on our wanted list here is a legacy in multiple senses—not just the latest in a line of Kid Eternities going back to the 1940s, but a new embodiment of the concept of legacy itself in the current JSA series. With no history, no past and no name, this mysterious stranger and latest inductee to the Justice Society roster has the unique capability of channeling the powers and abilities of what, for now, seems to be any deceased character. So far, that’s extended to lost members of the Justice Society of America, but who knows just how far that power can go? Green she may be, and perhaps not tournament ready just yet, but keep your eyes on the Kid.
 

JESSICA CRUZ

Hold up. We’ve got like three Kryptonians in this tournament and only one Green Lantern? And it’s Guy? We need a second ring in the mix here, and it’s not going to be Hal, or John, or Kyle. Our first round Corps pick is the only woman who’s managed to stare down Darkseid one-on-one before, back in Justice League Odyssey. I’m talking about the current acting leader of the Green Lantern Corps, Jessica Cruz. So why not show up again? Maybe she’s too buried in paperwork right now managing a universe-spanning peacekeeping force to make it down to the tournament. Maybe fighting Darkseid once is enough for anybody. Or actually, come to think of it, maybe Guy was the one Lantern they could spare, and Jessica just dispatched him for this to get the knucklehead out of her hair for a second. We can believe that.
 

STARFIRE

Somewhere in the past twenty years, there’s something we forgot about Starfire. Between two massively popular animated adaptations of the Teen Titans, the Princess of Tamaran has come to stand for a sweet, otherworldly naivete, a joyful innocence and an openness to love spotted with liberal use of definite articles and a predilection for condiments. And sure, all (or, well, most) of that has been part of what we’ve loved about Starfire since 1980. But what often gets lost in translation is that Princess Koriand’r of Tamaran has the heart of a warrior. Trained by the Warlord of Okaara, it was Starfire who was always the most decisive in combat among her fellow Titans, learning restraint over time in an environment which no longer demanded the law of kill or be killed. Years of survival skills in the worst circumstances imaginable before finding her friends has made her a combatant of fearsome ability, with high-level metahuman powers she can deploy, if permitted, with deadly intent. The ruthless environment of the King Omega tournament would have been the perfect opportunity for her to remind us that beneath that sweetness, there is an indomitable strength. For now, though, pass the mustard.
 

MIDNIGHTER

The man called Midnighter may not be from this world (as recently revealed in New History of the DC Universe), but why should that disqualify him? No matter how wide you cast your net, he’s one of the toughest variations on Batman you can find in any universe. With an advanced supercomputer embedded in his head that instantly tells him how any permutation of any fight he faces can possibly go, along with the reflexes to react instantly to that information, this two-fisted tussler and former member of the Authority simply cannot lose a fight if even the slimmest possibility of victory exists. We’d love to see him in a setting that would really put that processor through its paces.
 

GALAXY

You don’t know it yet, but Taylor Barzelay, the Galaxy-Crowned royal in exile of the planet Cyandii, is one of the most terrifying beings in the universe. Galaxy’s abilities to manipulate all forms of energy and the fundamental forces of physics themselves have just barely been explored so far in her appearances through stories like Hawkgirl: Once Upon a Galaxy and Bad Dream: A Dreamer Story, but with her total control over elements of your surroundings you simply take for granted, she can change the world around you to the point that a fight will be over before you throw your first punch. You’re going to find out a lot more next year, in Galaxy: As the World Falls Down.
 

PARASITE

Parasite may not be the most obvious villain to nominate for a tournament setting, but think for a minute about how his powers work. Under the right circumstances, Rudy Jones can absorb not just the energy, but the specific abilities of his opponents. With just a little bit of luck in a preliminary, Parasite’s power and versatility could compound in each round until a potential final filled with the capabilities of everyone he’s fed upon on his way to the top. At that point, you’re not just fighting Parasite, but everyone who’s fallen to him all at once. After all that, he may just order up Darkseid for dessert.
 

LADY SHIVA

To say that the wandering warrior Lady Shiva is the greatest fighter in the DC Universe is not an assessment of quality, but of purpose. The reason she exists is to represent the insurmountable—a living force of submission into humility. A fighter Batman avoids at all costs. The woman who birthed and trained his equal in prowess, Cassandra Cain. To fight with her is to relearn everything you have known about fighting. To lose to her is a foregone conclusion. We can envision only two reasons that she isn’t in this tournament. The first is that her presence here would suspend all tension from the competition, as her victory would be inevitable. The second is that, as of the ongoing Batgirl series, she’s currently presumed dead. A temporary setback, but the timing is unfortunate. She would have loved this.
 

DC K.O. #2 by Scott Snyder, Joshua Williamson, Javi Fernández, Xermánico and Alejandro Sánchez is in stores this Wednesday.

Alex Jaffe is the author of our monthly "Ask the Question" column and writes about TV, movies, comics and superhero history for DC.com. Follow him on Bluesky at @AlexJaffe and find him in the DC Official Discord server as HubCityQuestion.

NOTE: The views and opinions expressed in this feature are solely those of Alex Jaffe and do not necessarily reflect those of DC or Warner Bros. Discovery, nor should they be read as confirmation or denial of future DC plans.