There are plenty of recurring villains in DC's comic book history. Though some are established as consistent villains as fans delight in seeing them consistently lose to the heroes of their respective universes, some of these are not recurring because they are hard to beat.
But sometimes being hard to beat is a good thing. Such is true with the villain of Darkseid, who has been able to lock horns with the likes of Batman and Superman so often simply because he's been crafty enough to beat them occasionally over the years.
10 When He Became Darkseid
Thanks to Justice League #23.1, Greg Pak and Paulo Siqueira were able to give Darkseid the origin story that he always deserved, but not received until this issue was released. It was in this origin story that readers discovered that Darkseid wasn't always Darkseid.
Once upon a time ago, the future Lord of Apokolips was a farmer named Uxas. Conniving as always, Uxas manipulated a war between the Old Gods, watching them kill each other one by one until he was able to obtain inconceivable amounts of power from them. With his perfect plan fallen in place, he felt he was deserving of a more godly moniker: dubbing himself Darkseid.
9 Beating Up Zeus
Speaking of wars and Old Gods, now would be as good a time as any to bring up the aftermath of the Darkseid War, after which Darkseid was reduced to the size of an infant. When he made his grand return in James Robinson, Carlo Pagulayan, and Stephen Segovia's Wonder Woman #37, he had nearly grown back to an adult's size by consuming Zeus' children. Gross.
Understandably, Zeus would be itching for a fight, but even without needing to be at full strength, Darkseid manages to take out Zeus and absorb his life energy, using it to recharge himself to maximum power and size again.
8 Detaching Firestorm
As diehard fans of the character should know by now, Firestorm is composed of two separate people: Professor Stein and Jason Rusch. This has always been a key aspect of the character, but apparently, not an aspect that Darkseid was very fond of.
This would explain why he went out of his way to separate - or, perhaps more appropriately, literally rips in half - the two upon their meeting in Firestorm: The Nuclear Man #35, written by Dwayne McDuffie with art by Pop Mhan & Steve Bird.
7 Using Superman As His Pawn
For almost as long as Darkseid has existed in comics lore, his greatest and most challenging adversary was (and probably always will be) Superman. However, in Superman: The Dark Side (an Elseworlds story penned by John Francis Moore and drawn by Kieron Dwyer), the tables turn when the two wind up on the same side.
It's an alternate universe where baby Kal-El doesn't crashland on Earth, but on Apokolips where he was raised and trained by Darkseid. It's not so much a "win" by Darkseid as it isn't a plot manifested by his design, but rather a case of dumb luck that works out in his favor by making one of the galaxy's strongest aliens into his pupil.
6 Using Superman As His Pawn (Again)
The two-part "Legacy" series finale of Superman: The Animated Series has its own parallels to Superman: The Dark Side that lends itself to almost exactly the same storyline, except this time, this actually is a part of a nefarious plot designed by Darkseid.
He brainwashed Superman to think that he was an alien born on Apokolips and with his allegiances suddenly in Darkseid's favor, Superman helps him finally take over the galaxy. Eventually, Superman does regain his memory and overthrows Darkseid, but by the story's end, so much damage is done that the planet Earth can't even trust Superman anymore. Even in defeat, Darkseid won.
5 Kidnapping Superman
"Legacy" was far from the last time that Darkseid would get the upper hand over his archrival in the DC Animated Universe. He would do so again some years later in two-part season two opener of Justice League, called "Twilight."
Between these two episodes, Darkseid collaborates with Brainiac to not only kidnap Superman, but they nearly drain the Man of Steel's life force completely when they start extracting every ounce of Superman's DNA from his body. If not for a last-second rescue from the League, Darkseid may have killed him.
4 Destroying The World And Batman
Fast forward to the third season of Justice League Unlimited (an expanded spinoff of Justice League with twice as many heroes on the roster). Specifically, fast forward to the "Destroyer" episode of the show where Darkseid made his way down unleashing his Parademons on an unsuspecting world.
Batman tries to stop Darkseid himself but is terribly injured in the process. Superman does the same but isn't much help either. The League becomes desperate enough that they need the help of Lex Luthor to convince Darkseid to leave the planet.
3 Defeating The Source
The Source is neither a character (technically speaking at least) nor is it a living, breathing body in the flesh. Rather, The Source is an omnipotent embodiment of creation. The literal source for all that exists.
Similar to God herself, much like how The Source giveth life, The Source must take it away. Writer/artist Jim Starlin's The Death of the New Gods sees The Source killing off the New Gods one by one with plans to create the Fifth World in their place. Last on The Source's hit list is Darkseid, but he manages to outsmart The Source by absorbing all of its power for himself.
2 Giving DC Heroes One Final Crisis
Darkseid's finest hour would consequently result in DC's Final Crisis, written by Grant Morrison and drawn by J. G. Jones and Marco Rudy. In it, Darkseid was able to conquer the Anti-Life Equation and, in doing so, conquers the planet, along with the entire universe surrounding it. This moment is better highlighted as, "The Day Evil Won."
Perhaps a bigger accomplishment than ruling over the world, fans remember this story best for Darkseid managing to kill off one of DC's most prominent heroes: Batman. Sure, it soon turns out that Batman isn't killed off but rather sent back in time, but still, the chaos which Darkseid creates in this storyline has a huge impact on the DC Universe moving forward.
1 Turning Earth Into Apokolips II
However, before there was ever a Final Crisis, Darkseid rocked the Justice League to its core, all while plummeting the Earth to its knees in Grant Morrison and Howard Porter's Rock of Ages.
This is when Darkseid first discovers the Anti-Life Equation and uses it to destroy the Justice League and enslave the human race. It takes a trio of time-tossed heroes to go back in time to avert this crisis from ever happening, but without time travel, the heroes have no answer for Darkseid in their present. He's won and there's no going back for that version of the present.