Steppenwolf is an ancient and powerful extraterrestrial New God from Apokolips[2], the herald and second-in-command to his nephew Darkseid,[3] and deputy leader of Apokolips's main military force of Parademons.[4]
Steppenwolf was born many millennia ago on the distant planet of Apokolips[2] eventually becoming the herald and second-in-command of his warlord nephew Darkseid.[3]
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 against some Green Lantern Corps resistance, but ultimately would prevail every time.
First Invasion of Earth
30,000 years ago, his master Darkseid ordered Steppenwolf to invade and conquest 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, and was exiled 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[2], the New God teaching Lex of three important Mother Boxes on Earth. However, Lex was interrupted, breaking contact[5]. On Darkseid's orders[3], Steppenwolf then began his journey to Earth to search for the Mother Boxes, bringing with him a vast army of Parademons.[4]
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.
Steppenwolf faces Wonder Woman
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
Steppenwolf 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
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
Following the separation, an enraged Steppenwolf enters the Apokolipian mothership, where he is confronted by Superman, who easily overpowers the New God. The Kryptonian uses his ice breath to freeze Steppenwolf’s ax, which Wonder Woman to shatter the weapon with her own sword.
Overcome with fear and overpowered, Steppenwolf is attacked by his own Parademons, before they are all taken away to Apokolips through an open portal. It is, however, currently unknown if Steppenwolf died or was merely transported to Apokolips with the Parademons.
Personality
"Please! We have families!" "Why does everyone keep telling me that?"
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.[2]
He continues 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.[6]
Steppenwolf 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 him easily for the first time.
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.
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, Doomsday, and the Olympian Gods, while Zeus, resurrected 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 has a tremendous level of superhuman strength, surpassing that of Wonder Woman, rivaled only by that of most Olympian Gods, but is himself surpassed by the likes of Zeus and Superman. Hence, he was able to overpower the Amazon and Atlantean forces, slayed an unidentified Green Lantern, overpowered Mera 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[7]. He was also able to tear Cyborg's biomechatronic leg off without much effort. Indeed, he was even temporarily able to hold his own against Zeus (but was ultimately forced into retreat), though a resurrected Superman defeated and beat him to the ground fairly quickly.
Super Leaps: Steppenwolf's incredible strength extends to his legs, making him able to jump immense vertical and horizontal distances.
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. His speed was no match for that of resurrected Superman, however.
Super Reflexes: Steppenwolf was able to easily catch a missile being fired at him, as well as keep up with and hold his own against Wonder Woman and Aquaman simultaneously, even managing to back-hand the faster Flash on one occasion. However, he was outmaneuvered fairly quickly by resurrected Superman.
Nigh-Invulnerability: Steppenwolf is incredibly durable, nearly invulnerable, as he was unfazed after numerous attacks from the Amazon forces, was only irritated by Mera's hydrokinetic attacks, was only slightly affected by direct blasts from Cyborg's arm cannon (though it caused him momentary burning pain), withstood many mighty blows from Wonder Woman and Aquaman simultaneously, and even few from from resurrected Superman himself. Though appearing to be invincible and unstoppable at first, Steppenwolf's durability still had its limits, as Superman (due to being stronger than ever before upon his resurrection) was able to hurt him with a single blow, even making Steppenwolf slightly bleed, while Aquaman's trident was able to cut his skin, due to its magical nature.
Expert Leader: Steppenwolf, due to him being Darkseid's herald and second-in-command on Apokolips,[2] 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. Indeed, Steppenwolf's tremendous combat skills allowed him to more than hold his own against and even dominate the combined might of Wonder Woman and Aquaman, and was only defeated when resurrected Superman got involved.
Combined Forces of Powerful Beings: Steppenwolf, while extremely powerful, was ultimately defeated and driven off of Earth 30 millennia ago by the combined might of Amazon, Atlantean, and human armies. However, when arriving on the planet once more and seeing no Superman and no Green Lanterns there to defend it, Steppenwolf was confident in his ability to destroy the Justice League and subjugate the planet at last. Indeed, even Aquaman initially doubted the League's ability to even survive a battle against Steppenwolf.
Beings of Equal Power: Steppenwolf, while extremely powerful and seemingly unstoppable, was defeated and forced into retreat by the more powerful Zeus, and later was fairly quickly overpowered by the more powerful Superman, when the latter arrived arrived to help the Justice League. Superman was able to break through his invulnerability, and even made Steppenwolf bleed from a single punch. After having his Electro axe destroyed and taking a serious beating from the Justice League (mainly from Superman), he was essentially powerless, which allowed his Parademon army to overpower carry Steppenwolf back through a boom tube.
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.
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. 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.
