Board Thread:Episodic and Issue Discussion/@comment-1038387-20190118171753/@comment-5188108-20190119181230

Vandal Savage was happily going about, spreading his metagene through the population, making efforts to guide humanity to reach it's full potential by balancing survival of the population vs the need for obstacles for humanity to overcome and evolve, allowing humanity to reach its full potential, to allow them to conquer the galaxy and then deeat Darkseid.

Then the League comes along and Vandal thinks their presence protecting humanity tips the balance too far to one side. He can't deal with the League on his own, so recruits some like-minded, powerful individuals to aid his cause (who may or may not know the full story behind Savage's plans). He calls them the Light, reusing a name from centuries past. Together they come up with a plan that not only counters the League's influence, but actually uses the League to massively accelerate humanity's development by attracting scientifically advanced aliens (the Reach) to Earth to study and weaponise the meta-gene, before expelling said aliens, and allowing Darkseid to begin/scale up his conquest of the galaxy using meta-human weapons.

As to why Darkseid and Savage would reach such an agreement - both are incredibly arrogant, we're talking quite literal god complexes here. Certainly Darkseid would never seriously consider the idea that humanity (or anyone) could ultimately defeat him, no matter how powerful and useful they may become in his war against the rest of the galaxy. And ultimately what alternative did Savage have?

Though I'm sure both have plans to betray the other, and equally sure both expect the other to betray them. As for the who, when, and how, we'll have to wait and see.