(New Gods III #9) - Desaad reported to Darkseid that Orion was being trained as a warrior, and that New Genesis intended to use him against Darkseid. Darkseid was incredulous, and thought his bloodline was stronger than Highfather’s influence over his son.

(Martian Manhunter II #34) - Desaad was given a number of Martians to experiment on, and he took their boies and minds apart and then reassembled him. J’Onn J’Onnz, a Martian manhunter freed his brother Ma’Alefa’Ak, who Desaad had turned into a dark and twisted creature, but the rest, including J’Onn’s father M’Yrinn died. J’Onn summoned their spirits to battle Desaad and Darkseid’s Elite. J’Onn spent years foiling the Elite’s attempts to find the Anti-Life Equation.

(Forever People I #2) - Mantis came to Earth in hopes on conquering the planet, and put himself in a power-pod deep underground to recharge his powers. Darkseid came to Earth, woke Mantis before he achieved full power, and accused him of challenging Darkseid's rule. Darkseid wanted to find the anti-life equation on Earth, but had little interest in conquest, calling Mantis' desire puerile. He told Mantis to make up for his unauthorized trip to Earth by causing chaos in the city. Mantis wrecked havoc, and Darkseid and Desaad observed, hoping this would draw out a unique mind capable of comprehending the equation. Mantis demanded the people of Earth surrender to him, but the Infinity Man did battle with Mantis, draining his power with the infini-beam and forcing him to return to his power-pod. Darkseid told Desaad that Mantis' impulsiveness was his undoing, but Darkseid was patient enough to wait for another chance to find the equation.

(New Gods I #2) - Desaad constructed the fear machine, and eager to test it out, forced it upon some of Darkseid’s underlings. Darkseid hoped the fear machine would break the minds of people on Earth and reveal the anti-life equation. In a test run the fear machine caused the city to panic, but Orion destroyed the machine. Desaad demanded another chance to test the machine, and Darkseid called him vermin and a failure.

(Forever People I #3, 4) - When the Infinity Man disrupted one of Glorious Godfrey’s rallies to recruit Justifiers for Darkseid’s army, Darkseid appeared and used his omega beams to send Infinity Man back to his home space, returning the Forever People. Desaad subdued the Forever People, and the Justifiers took them to Desaad’s Camp of the Damned, where he was searching for a human mind that possessed the Anti-Life Equation. The Justifiers admired Desaad, while they made a mockery of life, he elevated death into an art. Godfrey told Darkseid that although he believed in the concept of Anti-Life, he thought it could only be induced in others through his type of brainwashing. Darkseid called him a precious, but shallow child, and assured him that Anti-Life existed. The Forever People woke up in the Camp of the Damned, hidden in the amusement park Happyland, where the suffering of the prisoners was disguised from oblivious patrons by a Master Scrambler, but observed by Desaad with great relish. Desaad took the Forever People’s Mother Box, and attempted to destroy it, summoning Darkseid to witness his feat. He only succeeded in making the Mother Box teleport away, but convinced himself that he had driven it to suicide. Darkseid lost interest in Desaad’s attempts to impress him, and when he offered to show Darkseid the Forever People at his mercy Darkseid reminded him that he was not interested in petty cruelty, and took his leave. Desaad set his sights on breaking the will of the Forever People and arranged for various forms of torture for them to endure. Mark Moonrider was locked in a glass cage in a tunnel of horrors, with the Master Scrambler making him appear as an animated skeleton to park patrons. Big Bear was put in a shooting gallery where patrons saw him as a robotic bear to hit for prizes. Beautiful Dreamer was kept paralyzed and put on view as Sleeping Beauty for the park guests, but the Scrambler made her see them as nightmarish monsters. Vykin was strapped to a chair and trapped in the path of a roller coaster, and Serifan was forced to watch, and kick a lever to drop the chair every time a coaster approached in order to keep his teammate alive. The Mother Box sought aid, and found the noble warrior Sonny Sumo.

(New Gods I #11) - Darkseid observed Orion and Kalibak’s cataclysmic battle on Earth from Apokolips and acknowledged that he didn’t want to see either of his sons die. Desaad taunted him, and Darkseid gave him the warning blast of an omega beam, revealing that he knew it was Desaad who killed Kalibak’s mother Suli. The battle raged in Kalibak’s favor because Desaad was pumping power into him, both to see Kalibak triumph and to use his machine to experience first-hand the agony of Orion’s death, which he found exquisite. Darkseid responded by obliterating him with an omega beam. The battle swung back in Orion’s favor, and the Black Racer claimed Kalibak.

(New Gods II #6) - Darkseid yearned for his old allies, and used the machines that ran the new automated Apokolips to resurrect Desaad, Kalibak, Steppenwolf and Mantis, but they were mere shells acting on instinct, their true personalities dwelt in the Source.

(New Gods III #6) - Darkseid wanted to lure Orion into killing Eve, but his plans fell apart when the Dreggs, the undead Old Gods, invaded Apokolips after Kalibak attacked a stray one. Desaad took the opportunity to torture Eve against Darkseid’s orders, but Lightray and Orion saved her. In Darkseid’s conflict with the Dreggs his.Omega-Beams struck Orion, Lightray and Eve, sending them all off-planet. The Dreggs lost interest in Darkseid and disappeared back to their subterranean lairs. Darkseid failed to see his future in their current state, gods brought low by unyielding warfare.

(New Gods III #7, 8, 10-12) - On the streets of Apokolips Orion was disgusted with the toil of the Hunger Dogs, and the statues dedicated to Darkseid as lord of his people. Orion smashed one of the monuments, and Darkseid had Desaad dispatch Kalibak to reclaim his prodigal son so he could bring him to the dark side. After a quick, furious battle Kalibak was defeated. Darkseid punished Kalibak with his omega-beams for his failure, and Desaad proposed they execute Kalibak. Darkseid gave Kalibak another mission, to retrieve Harvey Lockman and his fragment of the anti-life equation from Earth. Darkseid sent Tyrus and his hound Tracker to retrieve Orion, but they too failed. Orion passed himself off as a recruit for Darkseid’s army to get close to Darkseid. Desaad surveyed the new troops and used his torture machines to break their spirits so he could feed off their misery. He found that Orion would not break, and the feedback caused Desaad to lapse into a psycho-coma. Desaad was wheeled before Darkseid, who knew Desaad should have stopped indulging in the hollow pleasures of pain long ago. Darkseid said he was worthless when his fiendish mind wasn’t working, and sent him away. When he finally awoke he found Kalibak directing Orion to his mother Tiggra in Section Zero. She refused to be rescued, telling him she’d be a prisoner no matter where she went because of what she knew and had seen. She also affirmed for Orion that he was just like his father, and he left Section Zero in disgust. Kalibak’s plan was complete, he’d taught Orion the same lesson he’d learned a long time ago, that he truly was his father’s son. Desaad threatened to report Kalibak, and Kalibak strangled him, long overdue revenge for poisoning his mother Suli. Darkseid saw the murder and Kalibak told him all he ever wanted was his love. Darkseid disintegrated him with an omega-beam, and reflected that now he’d have to resurrect Desaad and his son again.

(New Gods III #15) - Darkseid resurrected Desaad, and promised it was the last time he would do so. Desaad started impersonating Darkseid and engaging various metahumans on Earth, including Superman, Hawkman and Dr. Fate. Darkseid chastised him, and reminded Desaad that as hard as he tried he could never be like Darkseid. Darkseid punished him be destroying his emotion detector, but Desaad had a miniaturized version hidden away. He used it to observe the serial killer Poet and fed off the anguish of his victims. Orion confronted the Poet and Desaad pumped up the Poet with Apokaliptian power in an effort to save him, but Orion triumphed.

(New Gods III #16) - Desaad alerted Darkseid to the emergence of a power-source on Apokolips, a shattered sword of the Old Gods. After begging for Darkseid to favor him again, Darkseid gave a speech about the importance of power. He assigned Infernus to retrieve the sword, but Fastbak managed to keep the sword from him.

(New Gods III #19, 20) - Necromina and her zombie army arrived on Apokolips with the captured Orio, who was handed over to Desaad for torture. Orion was feigning defeat to get close to Darkseid, and when Desaad hooked him to a torture machine he escaped. Desaad and Darkseid sensed the approach of Darkseid’s father Yuga Khan. When Desaad asked if he was concerned Darkseid snapped at him and feigned bravado. Khan arrived on Apokolips, and for the first time in his life Darkseid was afraid. Much to his displeasure Desaad was thrilled with the unfamiliar sensation of his fear. Khan imprisoned Darkseid and took over Apokolips. Desaad pledged his loyalty to him, telling him his service to Darkseid had been a lie, and he swore he always knew Khan would return. Khan reminded him that he’d killed his wife Heggra, and Desaad pleaded that Darkseid forced him, and that he wasn’t responsible for his actions. His begging fell on deaf ears, and Khan disintegrated him.

(New Gods III #23) - Darkseid and the resurrected Desaad found that Ellis Ames, a man with a terminal disease, possessed a piece of the anti-life equation. Darkseid sent his warrior Agogg after him, but when he was captured he killed himself rather than let Darkseid have the equation.

(New Gods III #24, 25) - Darkseid became aware of Maya, the daughter of Beautiful Dreamer and Big Bear, and knew she could be a source of great strength, but when he callously refused to return Desaad’s emotionalizer his flunky decided to claim her for his own devices. The Forever People and Orion were trying to convince Nortech Industries C.E.O. E. Donald Rodman to stop polluting the environment, and Desaad used this distraction to dominate the mind of a nuclear tech, having him release the radiation of a reactor, resulting in hundreds of deaths. Rodman blamed the New Gods, and after they briefly contained the radiation they all volunteered to shut down the reactor, but Orion made it clear he was the one who had the best chance of success and the least to lose. Before Rodman could give him the security codes to shut it down Desaad’s pawn Tyrus assassinated him. Desaad appeared to them and promised to stop the reactor, for a price, possession of Maya. The Forever People turned him down flat, though Dreamer was tempted to sacrifice her daughter to save the world from the untold pain Desaad would cause if he didn’t have his way. The Forever People suspected that the Infinity Man might be alive so long as they lived, so they summoned him, and together with Orion, he made his way to the reactor, where they found the Black Racer waiting for them. As his spirit passed on Rodman gave Black Racer the safety codes and begged him to shut down the reactor, to honor the peace loving man he once was. Disaster was averted, but Desaad promised he wasn’t done.

(New Gods III #26) - Desaad, again acting under the false guise of Darkseid’s authority, told Tyrus to bring Rodman’s nephew Randy to Apokolips, because he possessed a piece of the anti-life equation.  Darkseid was monitoring him, and although he knew Desaad was treacherous he was incredulous, and knew Desaad was signing his own death warrant. Orion and Lightray saved the boy, and Tyrus had a change of heart, switching allegiances to New Genesis.

(New Gods III #27, 28) - Darkseid became aware of Earthwoman Anne Flaherty, who possessed part of the anti-lie equation, and sent his ruthless soldier Dispatcher to retrieve her, warning him he’d be disintegrated if he failed. Highfather sent Orion and Lightray to stop him, but by the time they reached her she was dead, killed by drunk driver John Elliot. Back on Apokolips Dispatcher pleaded with Desaad, who used a viewscreen to watch New Genesis to see if there was any way Dispatcher could make amends for his failure. Lightray felt Anne’s death was unfair, and was prepared to defy the laws of New Genesis to use Darkseid’s Mortis Mark to bring her back. Dispatcher determined to let Lightray resurrect her and bring her to Darkseid. He told Desaad he owed him one, but the way Desaad saw it, he owed him his life, because he could easily tell Darkseid of his failure. Dispatcher was unsuccessful, and died in a battle with Orion.