#deesad

Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey #2 (May 1994)

At last, we find out Doomsday's secret origin! And then kinda wish we didn't, because it's pretty gnarly. In fact, this might be the most disturbing character origin in all of DC Comics, including Vertigo and that "Dark Multiverse" thing they were doing a while back.

But, before getting to Doomsday, Superman has to deal with the mess he left in Apokolips last issue. Thanks to Doomsday's rampage, the Cyborg Superman has taken over the planet and plans to turn it into a new Warworld so he can take it around the universe, conquering other worlds. Yes, he wants to turn the worst planet in existence even worse.

The Cyborg has easily taken care of Darkseid's Parademons by transmitting a frequency that melts their brains. But where's Darkseid himself? He was last seen taking a good beating from Doomsday, and when Superman runs into him, he's... not in great shape.

"DARKSEID IS. TIRED."

Superman is briefly tempted to leave Darkseid to die, but he ends up dragging him to safety and using the Mother Box he borrowed last issue to heal him, because Superman gonna Superman. Just when Superman is lamenting the fact that he doesn't have enough time to go back to Earth for help, Waverider shows up... only to instantly remind Superman that he can't help, due to his sacred vow as a protector of the timestream.

Superman, however, basically tells Waverider to nut up or shut up and use his temporal powers to give him helpful information about Doomsday. Waverider finally succumbs to Superman's bullying and shows him a vision of a "distant planet" circa 250,000 years ago. The planet seems to be uninhabited except for some spiky monsters who kill anything in their sight and a group of scientists inside a reinforced dome. The leader of the scientists is an alien called Bertron who is obsessed with creating "the ultimate form of life" by any means necessary. Including, we soon find out, baby murder.

Following Bertron's orders, the scientists launch an alien baby into the hostile atmosphere and just sit by and watch while the spiky monsters tear it apart in seconds. Then, they scare the monsters away with their weapons, send someone out there to scoop up whatever's left of the baby, clone a new infant from that DNA, and repeat the whole process.

After 20 years of doing that every day, the baby has evolved to the point that it now takes minutes to be torn apart instead of seconds. Also, it's now considerably uglier.

Within 30 years, some of the scientists are starting to show reservations about working at the baby murdering factory, but the progress is undeniable. By now, the baby (more like a large bald dude) is able to survive in the hostile environment indefinitely and actually fights back against the spiky monsters... who kill him every time anyway, but still. Progress!

An indeterminate number of decades pass, and the "baby" has turned into a big, hulking creature that Bertron calls "The Ultimate." The minutes of survival have stretched into full years as the Ultimate walks across the planet hunting the spiky monsters until none are left. Bertron is ecstatic that his creation has finally become an unkillable killing machine. So... what now? Well, suffer an ironic death at its hands, of course, because it turns out Doomsday remembers the thousands of deaths Bertron put him through.

According to Waverider's narration, Doomsday might have wiped out all life in that planet if he hadn't stumbled upon Bertron's supply ship. He ended up bouncing through the universe like a murderous ping pong ball, until he reached a planet called Calaton, whose royal family had gained metahuman abilities through the amazing power of inbreeding (that's not a joke about royal families, that's in the comic!).

After years of being unable to stop Doomsday, Calaton's royals gave up their lives to form an energy being called the Radiant, who looks like Silver Surfer but powered by cousin porking (miraculously, he seems to have all his limbs). It took a week of fighting and an explosion that destroyed a fifth of Calaton, but the Radiant finally managed to kill Doomsday. Unfortunately, the Calatonians have a strange custom that says they can't destroy the bodies of planet-killing aliens and must instead dress them up in gimp suits...

...and launch them into space, which is how Doomsday ended up crashing into Earth in that capsule he finally escaped in Man of Steel #18. This concludes Waverider's presentation.

Back in the present, Darkseid wakes up from his healing nap just in time to recognize that the Cyborg has launched some missiles at Apokolips' food pens to starve the population, because that's what he'd do too. Superman doesn't feel great about teaming up with Darkseid, but he'd feel even worse if innocents died, so he slows down the missiles while Darkseid gets rid of them with his Omega Beams. Darkseid tries to Omega Beam the Cyborg away, too, but he actually survives the blast (that's two people who CAN "withstand the unsurpassed force of the Omega Beams" in as many issues).

Although the Omega Beam hurt him, the Cyborg uses surrounding machinery to repair himself and, while at it, become a giant mecha. Superman hits him with the full force of his heat vision...

...but once again, eye lasers prove ineffective against the Cyborg, since he just rebuilds himself again, even bigger this time. Darkseid, however, claims he was still recuperating from Doomsday's beating before, but he's in tip-top shape now -- and proves it by hitting Giant Mecha-Cyborg with the REAL strength of the Omega Beams, completely disintegrating him. Sorry for doubting you, eye lasers.

With the Cyborg out of the picture, Darkseid thanks Superman for his help by telling him to get off his planet and go chase Doomsday wherever he is. Deesad reveals where he teleported Doomsday to last issue: Calaton, the planet where they already beat him once, figuring they can just do it again -- but Waverider points out that it's exactly the opposite. Because of Bertron and his gang of baby killers, whenever something kills Doomsday, he evolves to surpass it... which means Superman has no chance against him, either.

Everyone present agrees that Superman is pretty much screwed, but Superman says he doesn't care... while his inner narration shows the opposite. In fact, he's terrified, but he's still going after Doomsday to stop him or re-die trying. TO BE CONCLUDED!

Beard-Watch:

It's coming back! You know a Superman story is getting intense when he hasn't had time to shave in a while.

Don Sparrow points out that Superman's "tough guy stubble" seems to come out of nowhere after Waverider's flashback sequence, but I can think of two explanations for that: A) Superman was affected by some minor chronal energy that caused him to age extra fast, at least around the face, or B) that was a long-ass flashback sequence.

Plotline-Watch:

Okay, disregard what I said last time about this miniseries being hard to place in the continuity: Superman explicitly says he's "stronger" and "better" before blasting the Cyborg with his heat vision, so this is definitely happening during the "super-charged powers" storyline. The only hitch is that this is supposed to be taking place during the period when Superman was constantly breaking things and shooting off his heat vision without meaning to, and there's nothing like that here, but that's for the best because 1) that stuff got pretty annoying and 2) minis like this work better if they're not that tied to the ongoing plotlines. No one wants to see five pages of Jimmy Olsen trying to renew his driving license in the middle of a Doomsday fight.

One reason Waverider decides to get off his ass and help out is that he remembers the time he had to watch Superman get beaten to death without doing anything, so he kinda owed it to him. That happened in The Legacy of Superman #1.

There are a couple of references to Armageddon 2001, the 1991 crossover that introduced Waverider: he mentions he was an "activist" before he became a golden being with a flaming head (he even vandalized a statue of Monarch, his original timeline's super-dictator) and when he shows Doomsday's origin to Superman, we see the same psychedelic effect shown in Armageddon whenever he'd touch a superhero to snoop into their future.

What isn't referenced is the time Superman lived in Apokolips for a while, first as an amnesiac anti-Darkseid revolutionary and then as his mind-controlled "son" (in 1987's Legends crossover), but that's understandable since all those memories were wiped from his mind at the end of that storyline.

Did Darkseid really kill the Cyborg, as Superman seems to think? Nah. We'll find out what really happened soon enough.

Waverider's narration claims that, after Doomsday left that unnamed planet where he was created, the natives found Bertron's lab and became obsessed with genetic experimentation, "sending them down the path of a unique and disastrous future." On that note, Don Sparrow says: "I love the detail on page 27, explaining that had he stayed, Doomsday would have killed the entire planet. It’s like, who cares about some random planet?" Yeah, why are they giving us so much detail about that place?! Weird.

Patreon-Watch:

Our latest Patreon-exclusive article was about Steel Annual #1, an Elseworlds story set during the Civil War that, coincidentally, also features dead kids as a major plot point (Superman writers were in a dark mood in 1994, huh). Read that and more by joining Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, and Gaetano Barreca at https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99!

Also join me in reading more from Don Sparrow, after the jump...

Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey #3 (June 1994)

After two issues of build-up, the moment we've been waiting for: Superman vs. Doomsday, the rematch! But first, more build-up. Last issue, Superman found out that Doomsday has been sent to Calaton, the one planet that defeated him before Superman did, and also the one planet that definitely can't defeat him again, since the baby-torturing geniuses who created Doomsday made it so he'll always evolve to overcome any opponent who beats him.

And yes, this means Superman himself should have no hope of stopping Doomsday again. However, this time Superman has something that Doomsday doesn't: Mother Box, a living computer from planet New Genesis that reshapes his clothes to prepare him for the rematch. According to Mother Box, the main reason Superman died last time he fought Doomsday is because he didn't have enough pouches. (And if he does die again, at least he'll look cool.)

Meanwhile, in Calaton, the Calatonians are trying to stop Doomsday doing the exact same thing they did thousands of years ago: putting all of their Royals in a psychic blender to create a being made out of condensed inbred superpowers, the Radiant. Unfortunately, that's all for nothing, because Doomsday has evolved to absorb Radiant's energy and easily snaps him in half. By the time Superman and Waverider (who's still tagging along) reach Calaton, Radiant is tragically fading away like a fart in the wind.

"All we are is farts in the wind..."

What's worse is that Doomsday "senses" Calaton's weaknesses and is headed straight for their central power facility, which if blown up, could destroy the entire planet. Superman has something personal against planets being blown up, so he stands in front of Doomsday and tells him he's here to stop him "permanently," despite not knowing if the big brute can even understand him.

And then, to Superman's surprise... Doomsday replies.

"I can siiiiiiiiiiiing!"

After the dramatic revelation that Doomsday is smart and actually remembers Superman from their fight in "Muhtroplisss," the monster simply turns back with a "HA!" and goes back to ignoring Supes, as if telling him "I could easily snap you in half too, so why even bother fighting." Superman uses the opening to blast Doomsday with his super-charged heat vision, mindful that getting into a close quarters slugging match with him last time was a fatal mistake.

So, Superman does his best to keep his distance during the fight, but then Doomsday reveals another surprise: he can now extend his knuckle bones to freakishly long distances in order to more easily stab flying enemies. Yes, Doomsday has evolved into Wolverine.

Oh, and the retractable bone claws also have poison in them, so as soon as Doomsday pulls Superman down, he starts getting dizzy. Thinking fast, Superman reaches into one of his many pouches and takes out an ultrasonic weapon that seems to be working pretty well on Doomsday -- until he closes his ear canals at will. Wonder if he can do that with any orifice, if needed.

Since the fight doesn't seem to be going too well for Superman, Waverider tries to help out by using his old "contact" trick on Doomsday, just to see if he can learn anything useful by looking through his eyes. This is how we learn that all this time, whenever Doomsday looks at Superman, what he really sees is... E.T.?!

Actually, that's Doomsday's creator, Bertron. But why would anyone mistake Superman for alien Mengele? Because, as Superman only just now realizes, the planet where Doomsday was made, the one that became obsessed with genetic modification due to the ruins of Bertron's lab, was Krypton. Now Superman believes that the only reason Doomsday went to Metropolis is that he felt the presence of a Kryptonian there and felt threatened, the poor thing.

As the fight resumes, Superman uses a sort of "saber made of light" that Mother Box equipped with him to attack Doomsday, but the only thing he gets out of it is a broken arm. Waverider tries to make "contact" again to shut him down from the inside, but Doomsday has even learned to kick intangible time travelers out of his body.

Doomsday throws Superman against Calaton's power batteries, causing a gigantic explosion that disintegrates Waverider and leaves Supes in even poorer shape. Doomsday himself, of course, isn't even fazed by the explosion and laughs heartily as Superman seems to run away from him, which would be understandable given the situation. He just survived the equivalent of "a million nuclear blasts," had his arm broken in two places, and found out his home planet's whole culture was built on the bones of dead babies. It's been a tough day.

However, it turns out Superman was only grabbing the time-traveling wrist band Waverider left laying around and building up distance to hit Doomsday as hard as he can. While Doomsday is disoriented, Superman puts the band on his shoulder spike and has Mother Box transport them to the only time period where he can be defeated, which turns out to be... the very last one, a.k.a. the destruction of the universe. Try to evolve your way out of this one, bitch.

Superman is perfectly willing to die there with Doomsday, but he's saved by Waverider, who wasn't dead after all, he just needed some time to put his energy form back together (guess "1994 to the end of time" was enough).

Waverider returns Superman back to the present, where Mother Box uses the last of her power to restore Superman's classic costume and give him a shave while at it. With Doomsday finally gone for good (right?), Superman thanks Waverider for actually putting his ass on the line for once and goes back to Lois, reflecting on how he found the strength to face his greatest fear through her. So, in the end, the secret weapon that allowed him to defeat Doomsday was love. And time travel. And a living computer who died shaving him.

Plotline-Watch:

We'll see Doomsday again in his very own annual in 1995, followed by a weird arc in John Byrne's Wonder Woman in 1996, before his actual return in 1998's The Doomsday Wars miniseries.

The Cyborg Superman will be back sooner than that, since we find out in this issue that Darkseid didn't really kill him, he merely condensed his life force into a small orb.

Don Sparrow says: "It’s an interesting notion that Doomsday might have been intentionally marching toward Metropolis, but it doesn’t fully make sense to me. If Doomsday was really after the only Kryptonian, he wouldn’t have walked in a straight line to Metropolis, he’d have gone after Superman directly, wouldn’t he? And there were numerous times when Superman had to catch up to Doomsday who was walking right past him during that battle. Unless we fill in the blanks, and suggest that Superman’s aura was present in Metropolis? I’d honestly rather that Doomsday was marching to Metropolis because he saw Superman as a threat, rather than because he saw an idiotic wrestling promotion on TV." Sorry, but I'll continue believing the original, non-retconned explanation: that Doomsday went to Metropolis because got all riled up watching wrasslin.

While Mother Box is redesigning Superman's costume, he mentions that this was "originally Kryptonian recovery gear" (you know, the black suit with the silver S-shield) until Supergirl transformed it into its current form, back in Superman #82. I appreciate the continuity note, and I wonder if we can eventually establish how long Superman wore this twice-reshaped costume, which is slightly darker than the ones his mom made... maybe until he burned it down in "The Death of Clark Kent"?

I'm trying to imagine the conversation when Superman returned the lifeless Mother Box to Oberon: "*sob* At least she died doing something honorable..." "Yes, feel my face! It's so smooth!"

This issue does a pretty good job at selling entropy, the universe-eating stuff (or non-stuff) at the end of time, as something deadly and inescapable. It sure would be terrible if it somehow ended up in the present. Don: "Dan Jurgens’ aggressive concept of entropy sounds a lot like the unbeatable Swarm from Superman #68, which set me up for failure in High School physics classes, let me tell you."

Patreon-Watch:

Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, Gaetano Barreca, and Dave Shevlin got to read all of the above a week early, since for once I finished a post before Don (it took Don getting sick for that miracle to happen). Join them for sneak peeks and Patreon-only posts about non-continuity comics at: https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99

And now, the whole world gets to read Don Sparrow's section, after the jump!