#superdoom

Superdoom, the Last Knight of Tomorrow: a version of Superman from an alternate universe where Clark, Lois and Jimmy invented the sentient idea Superman while in college (Grant Morrison wrote this, can you tell?), only to be forced to sell it to a corporation that turned it into something extremely marketable. Not a lot of villains have an in-universe line of underpants, but Superdoom certainly does!

I actually don't like Doomsday as a character. I think he's fine but way too overused and overrated. He's just a plot device of "he's there to kill superman and he's unstoppable". I'm sorry for any Doomsday fan out there.

SEHAT - SUPERDOOM

Roland - Phase II AF-2 enclosure cast

Superdoom replied

Morrison took the proverbial gloves off and savagely (metaphorically) beat the shit out of WB and DC over their handling of Superman with this guy.

Metatextuality he's a criticism of the direction Morrison saw DC and WB wanting to take Superman in, a "troubled anti-hero" whose goal is selling merchandise and destroying the competition. Powers that be in the executive suites have long viewed Superman as a "problem" and made many attempts at "fixing" him in a way that would increase his appeal. Superman was invented on Earth 45 by three youngsters (that world's versions of Clark, Lois, and Jimmy). Originally he was a beautiful idea that they built as an expression of their desire to save the world, but they couldn't give him permanence on their own. So they sold him to Overcorp, which promptly cut off their control over the concept and turned him into Superdoom, a corporate mascot. Parallels to Siegel and Shuster's treatment at the hands of DC are obvious and I'm sure intentional.

Fascinating how Superdoom predates the multiple evil Supermen takes of the 2010s, but manages to criticize and deconstruct the mindset that gave rise to them nonetheless. He's Superman revamped, given a new tacticool outfit that's crafted for mass market appeal, and no boring character traits, just the iconography and the power. Built for those who insist the Injustice Superman is the best because "that's what Superman would REALLY be like", or the DCEU fans who worship a Superman who has nothing but the power levels and iconography, this is their Superman's final form. For those familiar with Morrison's obsession regarding The Bomb, Superdoom is a showcase in how even Superman can be corrupted by the same self-destructive human nature that gave rise to atomic warfare, taking ideas and converting them into weapons. Once he was meant to save everyone, now he's a Bomb (literally turning into a bomb and detonating in his final Action Comics appearance under Morrison) used to oppress, exploit, and kill.

Most interesting to me personally is the way Morrison used Superdoom to criticize the way corporations employ superheroes to expand their control over the population. Total about face from how Morrison used to view superheroes as ideas capable of uplifting and liberating us, here Morrison shows a population essentially enslaved to Overcorp after allowing this corporate character and his logo to define their lives. Surely I don't need to point out how companies such as Disney and WB are striving to do just that with their real world monopoly over superheroes? Look at how our current status quo is utterly obsessed with superheroes, they dominate all aspects and mediums of pop culture, yet the values superheroes profess certainly haven't translated into a better world have they? Instead we only watch the corporations that own them reap greater and greater rewards, while frequently the writers and artists who toiled to elevate them get either scraps or nothing at all.