Lex Luthor

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Steppenwolf
Real name	Steppenwolf
Alias(es)	End of the Worlds General Steppenwolf
Species	New Gods
Nationality	Apokoliptian
Birthdate	Prior to 28,000 B.C.
Affiliation(s)	Darkseid Parademons
Status	Alive
Appearances
Film(s)	Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (projection) Justice League
Actors/Actresses
Portrayed by	Ciarán Hinds

"After the Unity, you will join my legion and you will know the righteousness of power. You will love me. You all will."

―Steppenwolf^[src]

Steppenwolf is a member of the ancient and powerful extraterrestrial New Gods from Apokolips, the herald and second-in-command to his nephew Darkseid, and deputy leader of Apokolips's main military force of Parademons.

Biography

Early life

Steppenwolf was born many millennia ago on the distant planet of Apokolips eventually becoming the herald and second-in-command of his warlord nephew Darkseid.

Apokoliptian Crusade

As millennia passed, Steppenwolf would proceed to carry out Darkseid's bidding by invading and taking over other worlds. In the process, he would encounter and battle members of the Green Lantern Corps resistance, and ultimately would prevail every time. On his first Earth stint, he easily took out and killed an alien Green Lantern who came to the aid of the Amazons.

First Invasion of Earth

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Steppewolf leading the 1st invasion

During the Earth invasion over 30,000 years ago, his master Darkseid ordered Steppenwolf to conquer the Earth, and he faced the united armies of Humans, Amazons and Atlanteans altogether the Olympian Gods and two Greens Lanterns sent by the Guardians of Oa for help defending earth against Steppenwolf. He used the mother boxes for transforming the earth and murdered a Green Lantern in the process, but he was defeated by Zeus and forced into retreat, leaving the mother boxes in the process and returning to Apokolips in humiliation. He was exiled shortly after. It is believed that he learned of Superman and his death when Luthor contacted him, and thus began the next invasion shortly after.

Communion of Earth

Steppenwolf making contact with Lex Luthor.

After Lex Luthor accessed Scout Ship 0344's database, he made contact with Steppenwolf on Apokolips, the New God teaching Lex of three important Mother Boxes on Earth. However, Lex was interrupted, breaking contact. On Darkseid's orders, Steppenwolf then began his journey to Earth to search for the Mother Boxes, bringing with him a vast army of Parademons.

Second Invasion of Earth

"No protectors here: no Lanterns, no Kryptonian. This world will fall — like all the others."

―Steppenwolf^[src]After battling against the unified armies of the humans, the Green Lanterns and the Amazons and after that he was banished from Earth thanks to the armies, Steppenwolf had stayed for a long time at Apokolips.

However, in the present, the world is in mourning following the death of Superman. Sensing humanity's fear, Steppenwolf and his Parademons return to Earth to resume their hunt for the Mother Boxes through kidnapping several employees of S.T.A.R. Labs, which is in possession of one of the boxes.

Having investigated the kidnappings and encountering a Parademon himself, Batman decides to move forward in recruiting his planned team of metahumans as he believes an invasion is coming.

Returning to Earth

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Steppewolf arrives at Themyscira

"Mother, a millennia in exile, searching, atlast you call me home..."

―Steppenwolf speaking to the Mother BoxSteppenwolf manages to retrieve the Mother Box from Themyscira, prompting Queen Hippolyta to warn her daughter Wonder Woman. She joins Batman's group and informs him about Steppenwolf and the Mother Boxes. The two of them fail to persuade Aquaman and Cyborg, but manage to recruit Flash into the team. Cyborg later joins the group after his father Silas Stone is among those kidnapped, and Steppenwolf attacks Atlantis to retrieve the second Mother Box.

Battling the Justice League

The team later receives intel from Commissioner James Gordon that the Parademons are traveling underground, and conclude that Steppenwolf's army is based in an abandoned facility. Although the group manages to rescue the kidnapped employees, the facility is flooded during combat, which traps the team until Aquaman rescues them, having decided to join them after Steppenwolf's attack on Atlantis. 

Superman's Rebirth

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Steppenwolf successfully retrieve the three Mother Boxes

Cyborg retrieves the last Mother Box from S.T.A.R. Labs for the group to analyze. Batman decides to use the Mother Box to resurrect Superman not only to help them fight Steppenwolf's army, but also to restore hope in humanity. Wonder Woman and Aquaman are hesitant about the idea, but Batman forms a secret contingency plan.

Clark Kent's body is exhumed and placed in the waters of the Kryptonian ship, and Allen provides a strong energy blast to activate the Box and resurrect Superman. Superman, however, possesses few memories, and he attacks the group after Cyborg accidentally launches a projectile at him. On the verge of being killed by Superman, Batman enacts his contingency plan: Lois Lane. Superman calms down and leaves with Lois to his family home where he reflects and tries to recover his memories.

With the last Mother Box unguarded, Steppenwolf retrieves it with ease.

The Final Battle

Without Superman to aid them, the remaining five heroes travel to a remote location in Russia, where Steppenwolf plans to unite the boxes once again and reshape the world for his lord and master. The team fights their way through the Parademons to reach Steppenwolf, although they are unable to stage a significant enough distraction for Cyborg to separate the boxes. Superman arrives and assists Flash in evacuating the city, and ultimately aids Cyborg in separating the Mother Boxes. 

Defeat

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Steppenwolf being attacked by the Parademons swarm

Following the separation, an enraged Steppenwolf enters the Apokolipian construct, where he is confronted by Superman, (who after battling both Wonder Woman and Aquaman), easily overpowers by the New God. The Kryptonian uses his ice breath to freeze Steppenwolf’s axe, which Wonder Woman shatters the weapon with her own sword.

Bleeding and thus knowing he has been defeated, he is overwhelmed with fear, thus seeing as his parademons begin to attack him. Turning on him, he fights them as he and Parademons alike, are whisked away via portal/boomtube, leaving nothing left him but only his helmet.

Personality

"Please! We have families!"
"Why does everyone keep telling me that?"

―Howard and Steppenwolf^[src]

Steppenwolf had become old and tired after millennia of invading and taking over other worlds. He seeks to be free of Apokolips' ruler, Darkseid, but Steppenwolf is neither foolish nor powerful enough to disobey his will or challenge him.

He continued to serve Darkseid as his hand and continues to invade other worlds for him, with Darkseid commanding him to invade Earth to retrieve his Mother Boxes.

Steppenwolf was/is actually an extremely ruthless, destructive, dark, cold, sinister, devious, manipulative, and most of all, powerful individual from the most diabolical kind except being just a tired or old individual. He shows no fear and no mercy towards his enemies or the people he had kidnapped to know about the locations of the Mother Boxes, so he uses any kind of violence towards those people, including toward Silas Stone, thus, it proves that he is also a malicious sadist.

Steppenwolf's best-known feature is that he is a great and savage warrior from birth. Ever since he was born, much like General Zod, Steppenwolf was trained during all of his life circle to become a great warrior, allowing him to defeat enemies easily. Showing a very large lack of sympathy, Steppenwolf uses all of his strength when facing against enemies, especially against the Justice League team. In addition, Steppenwolf, like his master and nephew, Darkseid is showing a large hatred for Superman, after all, the Kryptonians are the true ultimate enemies of the planet Apokolips.

Additionally, Steppenwolf is a tyrannical individual, ruling and commanding over the Parademons with a vastly powerful iron hand, and they are showing their loyalty by accomplishing his orders.

Another best-known feature of the Apokoliptian general is that he would never give up on his goals, doing everything he can to accomplish his missions and to make his nephew be proud of him as he had always been since he already became a warrior. That means Steppenwolf is also an ambitious and raging individual, hoping to accomplish his goals at any cost to impress his master.

Being a warrior since from birth, Steppenwolf had become just like his nephew; fearsome and a formidable individual all over the galaxy following the reason that any last of the life forms which live across the universe are fearing of his personality and of his skills, however, the only fearless individuals to face against the Apokoliptian military commander are the Amazonians, the Lanterns and the humans which managed to defeat his forces easily for the first time while Steppenwolf himself was defeated by Ares and then Zeus with Steppenwolf being unable to accept his own effortless and humiliating defeat.

The only thing that caused to his defeat during his war against the Justice League was showing for the first time, fear, because of the main reason that his weapon, the ax, was the source of his godly power, wielding it to destroy worlds for Darkseid alongside using the Parademons.

Powers and Abilities

• Powers
• Abilities
• Weaknesses
• Equipment

• New God Physiology: As a New God, Steppenwolf is a phenomenally powerful divine being, to the point that he has conquered many planets with his army, and it took the combined might of Amazon, Atlantean, and human armies to drive Steppenwolf and his forces off of Earth during the first Apokoliptan invasion. The only known beings to at least rival his might are the combined might of several Green Lanterns, Wonder Woman, and the Olympian Gods, while Zeus, Ares, Doomsday, Superman and Darkseid are known to surpass him.
  • Immortality: Steppenwolf is still alive in the 21st century, despite being over 30 millennia old.
  • Super Strength: Steppenwolf, when wielding his electro ax, has a tremendous level of superhuman strength, surpassing that of Aquaman and Cyborg, rivaled only by that of most Olympian Gods and Wonder Woman but is himself surpassed by the likes of Zeus, Ares and Superman. Hence, he was able to overpower the Amazon and Atlantean forces, slayed an unidentified Green Lantern, overpowered Mera's water spells, and propelled Aquaman into a pillar, underwater, at great speed, thereby collapsing the Atlantean structure by smashing into Aquaman, and later to gain the upper hand in a fight with the combined might of Wonder Woman and Aquaman when wielding his electro ax . He was also able to tear Cyborg's biomechatronic limbs.
    • Super Leaps: Steppenwolf's incredible strength extends to his legs, making him able to jump immense vertical and horizontal distances. He can literally leap for miles, in just a single leap.
  • Super Speed: Steppenwolf can move at considerable superhuman speeds, going toe-to-toe with Wonder Woman and Aquaman's speed during their final fight, even outmaneuvering them on several occasions, despite his muscular physique and heavy armor.
    • Super Reflexes: Steppenwolf was able to easily catch a missile being fired at him.
  • Nigh-Invulnerability: Steppenwolf is incredibly durable, combined with his armor which makes him nearly invulnerable, as he was unfazed after numerous attacks. He was only irritated by Mera's hydrokinetic attacks, and was only slightly affected by direct blasts from Cyborg's arm cannon (though it caused him momentary burning pain). Steppenwolf could withstand to a great extent, the combined assaults of Superman, Wonder Woman and Aquaman. However, Superman was able to hurt Steppenwolf with a single blow, making the latter bleed.

Expert Leader: Steppenwolf, due to him being Darkseid's herald and second-in-command on Apokolips, as well as having millennia of experience invading and taking over other worlds, is an extremely skilled leader, able to successfully command a vast Parademon army in both of his attempted first invasion of Earth, with Steppenwolf's forces only being defeated when Earth amassed Amazon, Atlantean and human armies into a united force powerful enough to send him into retreat.

Master Combatant: Steppenwolf is an extremely skilled, fierce, and formidable combatant (particularly with his fearsome Electro axe), with centuries of combat experience.

Fear: Despite being fearsome himself and initially fearless, Steppenwolf first showed signs of fear after getting overpowered by Superman, having his axe destroyed, losing to the Justice League, and failing to invade Earth. As a result of his fear, this caused his own Parademon army to turn on and attack him. When he was without fear, perhaps as stated by Wonder Woman, his other major weakness may be his over-estimation of himself. He was incapable of defeating Wonder Woman even with the help of his Parademons just as he was defeated by first Ares and then Zeus. Thus, ultimately he succumbed to defeat and attack from his own army. His status is unknown exactly after his final battle with Superman and the League.

Electro axe (Formerly): Steppenwolf's primary offensive weapon, which the New God uses to blast and obliterate much of the area surrounding him at a given time. It also notably amplified the strength of Steppenwolf to the point where he could go toe-to-toe with Wonder Woman. The ax's red-hued energy is also capable of infecting humans, turning their skin a pale grey, while lengthening and sharpening their teeth, seemingly transforming them into the zombified Parademon soldiers of Apokolips. In addition, the ax is seemingly indestructible, as it can go up against Wonder Woman's weaponry. However, it was ultimately destroyed after being frozen by Superman's Arctic breath, which made it become brittle, thus allowing Wonder Woman to shatter it with her sword.

Relationships

Family Darkseid – nephew and superior Allies Parademons – subordinates turned enemies Lex Luthor – informant

Enemies Olympian Gods Zeus † - defeater Artemis † Ares † - defeater Green Lantern Corps Unidentified Green Lantern † - victim Themyscira Hippolyta Atlantis Mera Justice League Superman - defeater Batman Wonder Woman Aquaman Cyborg Flash

Trivia

• Aside from the unseen Darkseid, Steppenwolf is one of two main antagonists of the DC Extended Universe to survive, other being Lex Luthor.
• In the Snyder's cut of Justice League, Steppenwolf indeed returns to Apokolips with the Parademons. However, he is confronted by his nephew, who is infuriated after realizing that Steppenwolf was defeated by Superman and his teammates, uses his powers to kill Steppenwolf.
• His appearance is based on his appearance in New 52 comics.