Doomsday (comics)

Doomsday (comics)
Doomsday Annual #1
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Superman: The Man of Steel #18
Created by	Dan Jurgens
In-story information
Place of origin	Krypton
Team affiliations	Secret Society of Super Villains Suicide Squad
Notable aliases	Davis Bloome, The Ultimate, The One Who Killed Superman, The Destroyer[1]
Abilities	Superstrength, Superspeed, Invulnerability, Reactive Adaptation, Evolutionary Camoflauge

Doomsday is a fictional character, a supervillain that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appears in Superman: The Man of Steel #18 (Nov. 1992), and was created by writer-artist Dan Jurgens. IGN's list of the Top 100 Comic Book Villains of All Time ranked Doomsday as #46. He is well known as the character who killed Superman.

Fictional character biography

Doomsday is best known as Superman's murderer in the 1992 storyline, "The Death of Superman". He is a nearly mindless, berserk killing machine, with no feelings apart from unfocused hatred, murderous rage, and the sheer malicious joy of destruction.

The Ultimate

Originally known as The Ultimate, he was born in prehistoric times on Krypton, long before the humanoid Kryptonian race had gained dominance over the planet about 250,000 years ago. It was a violent, hellish world where only the absolute strongest of creatures could survive.^[2][3] In a cruel experiment intended to create the perfect living being, the alien scientist Bertron decanted a humanoid infant (born in a lab in vitro) onto the surface of the planet - where he was promptly killed by the harsh environment. The baby's remains were collected and used to clone a stronger version, a process repeated time after time as a form of accelerated artificial breeding. The agony of these repeated deaths were recorded in his genes, driving the creature to hate all life. Evolving, the child later became able to survive the high temperatures and searing atmosphere, only to be quickly slain by the vicious predators that inhabited the planet. Eventually, he gained the ability to thrive on solar energy without the need for food or air, to return to life and adapt to overcome whatever had previously killed him, without the assistance of Bertron's technology. "The Ultimate" hunted and exterminated the dangerous predators of Krypton. He then killed Bertron himself, whom he had come to identify as an enemy, due to Bertron having "killed" him thousands upon thousands of times.^[2]

The Ultimate escaped Krypton via a ship that regularly came to deliver supplies to Bertron - who wanted little contact with the planet's natives - and went on a killing spree across several planets. It began 245,000 years ago on Bylan 5, where Darkseid was about to wed a princess (in order to obtain that planet's chemical deposits for Apokolips' weapons factories). Just as the Ultimate and Darkseid were to meet in combat, Darkseid was forced to flee, as the rampage of The Ultimate had caused the planet's atmosphere to become toxic and therefore the chemicals worthless to Apokolips. The Ultimate hitched a ride on an escaping shuttle, which crashed on Khundia. The warring Khundian clans united in order to build protective armor for a warrior named Kobald, who was hoped to survive long enough to force the Ultimate onto a rocket. Once the rocket was in space, the Ultimate killed Kobald and the resulting explosion sent him hurling through space.

He next crossed paths with a Green Lantern named Zharan Pel. The Ultimate took the Lantern's power ring and, sensing the power of the Guardians of the Universe, headed toward them. Hundreds of Green Lanterns, sent to stop him, were slaughtered. He continued to Oa where a single Guardian sacrificed himself in battle to defeat him. The release of energies by the Guardian caused a tear in space through which the Ultimate fell. Eventually coming to the planet Calaton, he tore that world apart for three years.^[2] With only the capital city left, the royal family combined their life forces into a single energy being, the Radiant.^[2][4] The Radiant killed the Ultimate with a huge blast of energy (laying waste to over a fifth of his planet in the process). In common Calatonian burial procedures, the Ultimate's seemingly-dead body was suited and shackled to prevent his spirit escaping into the afterlife, and he was shot into space due to his murders making him unworthy of burial on Calaton. Eventually, his metallic casket crashed on Earth, the force of the impact driving it deep underground by miles.^[2]

The Death of Superman

Main article: The Death of Superman

After freeing one arm and smashing his way out of his buried vault, the creature went on the rampage in Midwestern America, where he first encountered the Justice League. The Ultimate defeated the entire team of superheroes (note this Justice League incarnation did not include powerful members such as Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Martian Manhunter, or Zatanna) in a matter of minutes, which in turn attracted the attention of Superman.^[4] Most notable is the fact that the creature fought the whole time with literally one hand tied behind his back, yet was still able to lay waste to all opposition and much of the surrounding area. The only Justice Leaguer who could even defend herself against the creature was Maxima. Also at that time, his naming occurred when League member Booster Gold stated how the rampage resembled "the arrival of Doomsday". The comment then subsequently reached the broadcast media and thereafter led to the creature's accepted name, The Ultimate was dubbed "Doomsday" from that time forward. Five Leaguers, including Superman, combined their energy powers in an attempt to take Doomsday down, but succeeded only in destroying the last of his ancient burial cables, allowing him to use both hands.

During his rampage, Doomsday took interest in billboards and television spots advertising violent wrestling competitions held in Metropolis, which appealed to his bloodlust and thus enticed the otherwise mindless creature to head towards the city. By counterattacking, Superman quickly found that his opponent's power was a match for his own, and so he realized that if Doomsday actually reached Metropolis, the resulting battle could conceivably destroy the city and kill millions of innocent people. Simultaneously, Doomsday developed a strong desire to murder Superman in particular. That desire was later explained in the Hunter/Prey miniseries: from the agony of continually dying during his creation process, Doomsday developed in his genes the ability to sense anyone Kryptonian, plus an overriding instinct to treat any such beings as an automatic threat.

In the space of only a few issues of the Superman comic book series, Doomsday battled Superman in a titanic struggle, leading the hero to conclude that the creature would only continue to attack relentlessly and endlessly, with no fear or compassion. Matters came to a head in Superman (vol. 2) #75, wherein both Doomsday and Superman beat each other to death in front of the Daily Planet building in Metropolis.^[4]

In the aftermath of Superman's apparent death, four super-beings appeared in his wake, two of them declaring themselves to be the "real" Superman. One of these four, a half-man/half-machine who greatly resembled Superman with cybernetic implants where he had sustained the greatest amount of damage from Doomsday's blows took custody of Doomsday's apparently lifeless body. After strapping the creature to an asteroid with an electronic device attached, the Cyborg flung Doomsday into deep space, on a trajectory supposedly certain to never intersect any other planet. The issue ended with a frame of a reawakened and laughing Doomsday, still chained to the asteroid but otherwise alive.

Round 2: Hunter/Prey

Eventually, after passing through a wormhole, Doomsday's asteroid was accidentally found by a deep-space scavenger ship. Upon closer examination of the peculiar-looking drifting rock, the ship's crew retrieved the object hoping to find something of value. The scavenger vessel happened to be on a route to Apokolips, the home of the powerful tyrant Darkseid. Doomsday was fully rested and, after slaughtering the crew of the salvage ship, found himself landing on the harsh world. This was to be the setup for a final showdown between Doomsday and Superman, who had been uneasy about the possibility of Doomsday's resurrection. With the help of his JLA contacts, Superman procured a Mother Box, a thinking computer, after Darkseid's servant Desaad contacted Earth about a problem on Apokolips. Unknown to Superman, Doomsday had faced and beaten Darkseid in single combat, even after withstanding the full effect of Darkseid's fabled Omega Beams and was laying waste to Apokolips. Unfortunately, before Superman could deal with Doomsday, Desaad opened a boom tube to Calaton—the first world where Doomsday was successfully defeated—and sent Doomsday through, to what he believed was his defeat at the hands of the Radiant. However, Doomsday was able to adapt and overcome any opponent because of the process by which he was created, so, although the Radiant had defeated him once, he would not be able to defeat him again. Likewise, even though Superman had killed Doomsday once before, he was unable to do so again. Superman, while knowing this - having been filled in on Doomsday's history by the time-manipulating Waverider —was obsessed with stopping Doomsday and followed him to Calaton. He fought Doomsday again with the help of the Mother Box, but, despite it providing him with extra weapons such as an ultrasonic gun and an energy sword, Superman met with defeat. He was forced to use one of Waverider's time travel devices to leave Doomsday stranded at the End of Time, where Doomsday met the one force he could not overcome: entropy.

The Doomsday Wars

Doomsday returned yet again in the miniseries The Doomsday Wars. In this series, Prin Vnok, an underling of Brainiac uses his technology to travel to the End of Time to retrieve Doomsday in order to combine the beast's massive power with Brainiac's formidable intellect after his original body was badly injured in his last fight with Superman (this was later revealed to have taken place due to the timeline's reconstruction following the events of 'Zero Hour'; the reconstruction of time meant that Brainiac was able to change the events of Doomsday's defeat). However, unable to erase Doomsday's consciousness with drugs as he reacted too fast for the process to work, and with his strength of will too strong for Brainiac to permanently overwhelm him on his own, Brainiac instead opted to use a human host to genetically engineer a Doomsday clone without the mind while temporarily lodging in the original's head until he would be forced out. He chose to use Pete Ross and Lana Lang's newborn baby, born eight weeks premature and transported by Superman to a hospital. Brainiac intercepted Superman during the attempt and stole the baby to hurt his long-time foe, correctly deducing that it was the child of someone close to Superman. In the end, Superman thwarted Brainiac's plot by driving him out of Doomsday's body via the use of a telepathy-blocking 'psi-blocker'. He then lured Doomsday to the moon, where he placed Doomsday in a kind of stasis with four Justice League teleporters; perpetually transporting between those four booths, Doomsday would never be more than 25% integrated, and thus unable to 'think' of a plan to escape.

Our Worlds at War

Following these events, Doomsday was released by Lex Luthor's Suicide Squad to battle Imperiex, a threat that was judged to be even greater than Doomsday himself.^[4] Once freed, Doomsday slaughtered the Squad, and then went on to battle Imperiex's numerous probes (his mind having been altered by Manchester Black to regard them as the threat he normally perceived Superman to be), which had thus far managed to seriously injure or kill most of Earth's heroes. Doomsday tore through numerous probes with seemingly little effort, while aided by Superman—the only time the two enemies would come close to teaming up—before finally confronting Imperiex himself. Imperiex proved too much for Doomsday; he blasted him, reducing the creature to a glowing skeleton.

Sentience

Superman (vol. 2) #175 commemorated the 100th issue since the death of Superman in battle with Doomsday by staging a rematch. It is shown that Doomsday's skeleton was retrieved and his flesh regrown by Lex Luthor (by using Superman's Kryptonian DNA), who handed Doomsday over to Darkseid to repay Earth's war debt to Apokolips. By this time, Doomsday had evolved intelligence and sentience. Luthor arranged for the Joker to set Doomsday loose in Washington D.C. to demonstrate that he was "in good working condition." It also happened to be the anniversary of the day that Superman had died while stopping Doomsday. Despite being weakened by kryptonite exposure when Luthor attempted to exploit Doomsday's Kryptonian origins, Superman's heart was restarted by Black Lightning and he reached Doomsday just as the monster was struggling with the Martian Manhunter. Learning from J'onn that Doomsday wanted to kill Luthor because he blamed Luthor for his 'death' in the Imperiex War, Superman would soon fight Doomsday again and this time humbly defeat the creature by knocking him out and proving to himself and the world that Doomsday would never be Superman's equal anymore:

“

You're different now. You can think for yourself. So think about this. Before, you were a mindless thing. Nothing could hurt you. You couldn't feel pain, much less understand it. But once you have felt it— it changes you—forever. And you'll begin to understand something new. Fear. I've lived with it all my life. You don't want to die again, do you? The agony of what's happened to you affects your speed—your strength... and that little bit of doubt—that you cannot win today—grows. You understand now, don't you? You will never hurt me again. You will never kill me again. Never again!

”

Darkseid attempted to replicate Doomsday, producing an army of Doomsday "clones". Darkseid was not able to duplicate perfectly the creature in all its raw power and they were defeated by a combination of heat vision and Batman's explosive batarangs during an attack on Paradise Island while Darkseid kidnapped the newly-arrived Kara Zor-El/Supergirl.^[5]

When Superman travelled to Apokolips to reclaim the life of Steel, Darkseid's wife Mortalla ordered his troops to release Doomsday in an attempt to help Darkseid. Doomsday's short freedom was quickly halted by Steel in the Entropy Aegis, an armor with incredible power that had been built out of the remains of an Imperiex probe.^[6] Doomsday disappeared and was seen wandering the harsh lands of Apokolips.

With his newfound intelligence, Doomsday managed to escape Apokolips and return to Earth. Upon his arrival, Doomsday encountered a series of emotions previously alien to him — love, compassion, and kindness. Exploring the full abilities of these new emotions, Doomsday made his way to Metropolis once more, though not in the destructive manner he had before. Upon his arrival in Metropolis, Doomsday found Superman at the brink of death at the hands of Gog and intervenes to help Superman in an ultimately futile fight against Gog's army. In a new future, Doomsday was remembered as one of Earth's greatest heroes, who continued Superman's legacy by leading an army under his name against the army of Gog. This new timeline ended when it was revealed that Superman was still alive, trapped and tortured with kryptonite for two centuries by Gog. Ultimately, Superman manages to convince Gog of the error of his ways. Gog offers to correct the past by returning Doomsday to an earlier point in the timeline, but in the process Doomsday would lose his intelligence and humanity. Returned to the present, an unconscious Doomsday is transported away by a younger version of Gog to an unknown location for an unknown purpose.

Infinite Crisis

During Infinite Crisis, Doomsday was freed from captivity in a cavern near the center of the Earth by Doctor Psycho and Warp. He was then mind-controlled by Doctor Psycho and used as the "spear-carrier" of a supervillain assault on Metropolis.^[7] Just as he came into full view in front of Green Arrow, he was stopped by Kal-El and Kal-L, who made quick work of the villain as, for the first time since the first Crisis, the two Supermen acted as a team.^[8]

New Krypton

Main article: Superman: New Krypton

Doomsday returns in the final page of Superman (vol. 1) #681, crashing in Metropolis shortly after the representatives of Kandor meet with the President. Doomsday was then apparently killed on Earth's moon when Superman, Supergirl, and many of Kandor's inhabitants pummeled him to death in Action Comics #871, crushing the monster's skull.

After the fight, Doomsday's mangled corpse ends up in the hands of General Sam Lane, who is currently in charge of a mysterious government agency determined to halt the Kryptonian "invasion" of Earth. It has been hinted at that General Lane sent Doomsday after the Kandorians in the first place, and that the creature is only one of the "weapons" at Lane's disposal. General Lane puts Lex Luthor to work on apparently "improving" Doomsday who, by the end of New Krypton has still not awoken from his most recent death.

During the fight, Zor-El, Superman's uncle, tells him that Doomsday was created by Kryptonians on ancient Krypton through "forced evolution." As a result, the creature hates all Kryptonians.

Reign of Doomsday

Main article: Reign of Doomsday

Doomsday has since returned to carve a new path of destruction throughout the DC Universe. His journey starts in the Steel one-shot and continues into Outsiders #37, Justice League of America #55, Superman/Batman Annual #5, Superboy #6 and then into the milestone Action Comics #900.^[9][10] Doomsday, exhibiting an increased, broadened power set which seemed to adapt to each of his opponents, attacked, defeated and abducted Steel, the Cyborg Superman, the Eradicator, Supergirl and Superboy, before taking them to a cloaked satellite at the former location of New Krypton. Superman discovers that this was all part of a plot by Lex Luthor, which has now become obsolete; after locating the satellite, Superman attempts to free his allies, only for them all to discover the apparently still-inert body of Doomsday, as well as three separate clones or copies - each with a different powerset.^[11] Attempting to flee from the clones with Doomsday, the Superman Family discover that their ship is now on course for Earth with the potential to trigger an extinction-level-event if it strikes, only for their attempt to divert the ship being interrupted by a being called 'Doomslayer', resembling a cyborg version of Doomsday, who effortlessly tears Eradicator apart and proclaims that Earth must die for the future.^[12]

Doomslayer believes the original Doomsday to be an infection, so it plans to destroy Earth, as it considers Earth to be ground zero for Doomsday's "infection". Superman and his friends escape the ship with the original Doomsday and stop the ship from crashing on Earth, pushing it into Metropolis's bay. Afterward, Doomslayer attacks the city with the Doomsday clones.^[13] The clones spread across the world, wreaking havoc, while Doomslayer's second plan is to get the Doomsdays to reach the Earth's core so that he can expand the universe inside the ship's tower and destroy the planet from within. In S.T.A.R. Labs, Superman's allies use the original Doomsday's body to try to find a way to stop the Doomsday clones. Doomsday awakens, but Eradicator (Who was thought to be killed by Doomslayer) was in control. As Eradicator and the heroes' attack the Doomsday clones, he warns that Doomsday's mind is beginning to awaken.^[14] In the final battle, Superman makes contact with the ship's artificial intelligence before it reaches Earth's core, hoping to have the tower teleport away. Meanwhile, the Doomsday clones were defeated by Earth's heroes and sent back into the pit the tower is located in. Eradicator then arrives and defends Superman from Doomslayer. He quickly throws Superman out of the tower and allows himself to be trapped with Doomslayer before the tower teleports away.^[15]

Powers and abilities

Doomsday was created through the cloning of an infant and having him killed over and over again by one of the most dangerous species of the universe and in one of the harshest habitats in existence, prehistoric Krypton. As such, the infant evolves and returns to life, becoming resistant or immune to whatever killed him before. After the Radiant killed him the first time they fought, Doomsday grew immune to the former's energy-projection, and even managed to withstand Darkseid's full Omega-Effect.^[16] The amount of damage dealt to Doomsday determines the length of time it would take to fully recover. During his outwardly undamaged death at Superman's hands, he only needed some days to recover, but when Imperiex reduced him to a skeleton, it would take months. His entombment in a Calatonian burial suit and metal vault lasted thousands of centuries: after being killed by the Radiant and subsequently undergoing the impact of the casket on Earth, his body was sealed underground in total darkness. Deprived of solar energy to nourish his Kryptonian anatomy, he could only revive extremely slowly and naturally.

Doomsday can also develop/evolve resistance from ordinary injuries. Superman once used a sound gun to greatly discomfort him, but Doomsday's auditory canals closed up, making him impervious to Superman's weapon.^[16] Waverider once paralyzed Doomsday with chronal energy, but the second attempt backfired.^[16] In essence, Doomsday gradually turns more invulnerable if not injured beyond his ability to recover, which is so far undefined. Doomsday has also developed weapons and abilities that counters the powers of an opponent. He managed to cancel out the pure-energy Radiant by slamming into him; to greatly extend his claws and develop a poison to strike Superman in flight and reel him in;^[16] or breathe flames against the fire-sensitive Martian Manhunter, and apparently neutralize his defensive phase-shifting power.^[17] Doomsday's skeleton protrudes through his skin in razor-sharp spurs which provide protection to his few vital organs (brain, eyes, nervous system), and act as clawlike weapons on his hands, elbows, and knees.

Doomsday possesses extreme superhuman strength that, variable as it is, at one point enabled him to effortlessly stand his ground against the entire Justice League, including Superman and Orion.^[18] He was able to break Superman's left arm with limited effort, as well as outmatch and beat Darkseid unconscious in combat.^[16] However, his strength has limits: the immensely strong Calatonian alloy cables, in which he was entombed, continued to partially restrain during his initial rampage on Earth. It was never stated how long he had struggled to free his left hand before his escape.

Doomsday is immensely resistant to heat, cold, and conventional damage, allowing him to survive on the most inhospitable worlds, or in the vacuum of space. His durability was able to withstand Darkseid's full-powered "Omega Effect" without any shown damage.^[16]

Doomsday possesses seemingly inexhaustible stamina, and was not noticeably slowed down from fighting Superman for an entire day. His speed and agility are vastly disproportionate to his bulky stature, and he has been able to match Superman in this regard, once even managing to grab the Flash while the hero was in motion. He cannot fly, but rather travels by leaping miles at a time. Superman took advantage of this in their first battle by trying to keep him airborne by flying into the sky.

Doomsday has a highly accelerated healing factor that allows him to quickly regenerate from most damage. When his side was cut by Superman with a plasma sword, it closed within moments. As a result of his engineering, Doomsday does not need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep, and his body is almost solid mass with few vulnerable organs.^[16]

Doomsday is now genetically part-Kryptonian due to his genes having been spliced with Kal-El's; however, with the exception of his flame-breath, he has displayed no additional abilities. In fact, he was shown weaker than previously when he was singlehandedly beaten by Superman. This was rationalized as due to intelligence that he developed, causing him to fear the death that awaited him if he lost, but does not explain how a simple minor concussion could incapacitate his healing factor for the time he remained unconscious.^[17] However, he apparently lost his intelligence when sent back in time, reverting him to his original state of fearlessness.^{[citation needed]}

Once he gained some of Superman's Kryptonian DNA, he became susceptible to Kryptonite. Unlike Superman, it causes him pain, but cannot kill him.^{[citation needed]} This was done to render him controllable.

During his confrontation with Steel, Doomsday spontaneously developed the power of flight, and the ability to cover his body with metallic armor, capable of resisting even Steel's paralysing nanites.^[19] In a later confrontation with the Outsiders as he sought to confront the Eradicator, he demonstrated the ability to absorb energy from Looker and Halo's attacks and send it back to them in a massive burst.^[20] During his battle with the Cyborg-Superman, the Cyborg tears through portions of Doomsday's body, which are quickly replaced with cyborg parts of his own.^[21] However, it has since been revealed that these Doomsdays were actually clones of the original, each specifically designed to take out Steel, Henshaw and Superboy, putting them at a disadvantage when pitted against the other Supermen.^[22]

Other versions

In the non-continuity book All-Star Superman, Grant Morrison's modern take on the Silver Age includes the D.N.A. P.R.O.J.E.C.T. which was resurrected by a scientist named Leo Quintum. Under Quintum, the P.R.O.J.E.C.T. is dedicated to "the engineering of new human forms" including Bizarro worker drones, giants who can travel through space under their own power, and microscopic "nanonauts" unlocking the mysteries of the sub-atomic world. The P.R.O.J.E.C.T.'s ultimate goal is to create a replacement Superman, in case something happens to the original. In All-Star Superman #4, it is revealed that the P.R.O.J.E.C.T. created a formula to bestow Superman-level strength and durability on a normal human, but all of their test subjects ultimately burned out. Jimmy Olsen shoots himself with a syringe gun containing a formula marked "Do Not Open Until Doomsday", and transforms into a hulking, gray skinned figure with bony protrusions. Jimmy succeeds in stopping a black kryptonite-afflicted Superman and transforms back to normal before the formula kills him. It's not discussed as to whether Superman fought an original Doomsday in this universe, however Jimmy did know that it was based on Doomsday so this universe must have somehow had dealings with it.

• During the "Lifeline" storyline that ran in Wonder Woman, an imperfect duplicate of Doomsday was created by an artificial intelligence based on the son of scientist Doctor Julian Lazarus,^[23] but was destroyed when Wonder Woman's allies were able to feed the clone so much power that its bones covered it and it reverted to a statue-like state that she could shatter with relative ease^[24]
• In an attempt to understand death, Mister Mxyzptlk created a temporary copy of Doomsday—which he called "Bada-Bing-Bada-Boomsday"—in Superman: The Man of Steel #75, although he erased it once again after it temporarily killed him.
• In the Tangent Universe, Doomsday is a member of the Doom Patrol.
• In the Young Justice crossover story "World Without Young Justice", the past of all of the team members are changed. Superboy is now one of two clone attempts after Superman's death. His nemesis is a teenage version of Doomsday known as Doomsboy.
• In Action Comics #856, a Bizarro No. 1 created a Bizarro Doomsday.
• In the Superboy story "Hypertension"^{[volume & issue needed]}, Black Zero has a collection of dozens of Doomsdays from alternate realities.
• In Superman: Red Son, Doomsday in one of the many rogues created by Dr. Luthor.
• A Doomsday-like creature codenamed "All-American Boy", was introduced in Superman/Batman storyline "The Search for Kryptonite ". All-American Boy was an experiment to use Kryptonite to bond cell scrapings taken from Doomsday to a human host (Joshua Walker).^[25] Walker, a local Smallville hero turned soldier, under mind control battles Superman, devastating Smallville, Kansas in the process. Batman locates Josh's parents, who convince him to stop, and he regains conscience. Project leader Amanda Waller is forced to pay towards repairing Smallville in return for her dealings in the AAB project to remain secret.^[26]
• In the Superman/Batman storyline "Mash-Up", elements of Doomsday are combined with parts of Deathstroke, creating the villain Doomstroke.^[27]
• In the alternate timeline of the Flashpoint event, Doomsday was part of the military's Project Six. After being discovered lying dormant in an underground vault, Project Six's DNA was used by the government Sam Lane to create supersoldiers. The volunteer supersoldier was Neil Sinclair.^[28] Later, Project Six, controlled by General Nathaniel Adam via a mental interface, was sent to attack Booster Gold who was believed to be an Atlantean threat.^[29] During the battle, Adam's control was destroyed by a Metahuman woman named Alexandra Gianopoulos, which caused Project Six's true personality to surface.^[30] Project Six attacks and nearly beats Booster Gold to death. Project Six then begins to rampage, killing innocent people, but after recovering Booster Bold put Project Six's helmet back on, giving General Adam back control. However, the General then turned on Booster, commanding Project Six to capture him.^[31] When General Adam attempted to have Booster Gold subjected to mind-crippling interrogation, Booster Gold shot down a girder, knocking the control helmet off him. At the same time, an image of "Project Superman" appeared on a computer screen. The two events caused Project Six's true personality to resurface again. As Project Six rampaged, badly beating Booster Gold, Alexandra put on the control helmet, forcing him to rip open his own chest, killing himself.^[32]

Media

Television

Doomsday as depicted in Justice League and Justice League Unlimited.

• Doomsday appears in the Justice League animated series voiced by Michael Jai White. In his first appearance, Doomsday crashes to Earth inside what appears to be a molten red meteorite and fights the Justice Lords (a tyrannical version of the Justice League from a parallel universe), and is lobotomized by the alternate-universe Superman's heat vision.^[33] Due to censorship issues, the writers were not allowed to show Justice Lord Superman killing Doomsday.

• In the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Doomsday Sanction," it is revealed that in this series, Doomsday is actually an imperfect clone of Superman (similar to Bizarro), genetically engineered by Project Cadmus and indoctrinated into hating Superman. When he became too difficult to control, they abandoned the project and launched Doomsday into space. His strength, however, had been underestimated and before even leaving the planet's orbit he was able to damage his rocket-propelled prison cell enough so that it crashed back to Earth(its remains being the "meteorite" seen in his earlier appearance). Doomsday's brain has regenerated, and Dr. Achilles Milo (a Project Cadmus member, enraged after being disgraced and fired by the current project runners), releases Doomsday to kill Amanda Waller, explaining that his hate of Superman was manufactured. However, Doomsday instead kills Milo and goes to fight Superman. Like his comics counterpart, his skull has adapted a heavy bone-plate to prevent the same trick from working twice (perhaps a subtle reference to how in the comics, Doomsday can't be killed twice using the same method). Doomsday is disabled when Superman throws him into an active volcano, encasing him in lava. The Justice League then sentences him to life imprisonment in the Phantom Zone since he's too dangerous to imprison anywhere else.^[34] This plan was successful, and he never returned to threaten life again.

• Doomsday also appeared in a cameo in the Legion of Super Heroes animated series episode "Phantoms," where he is shown as a phantom prisoner within the Phantom Zone, along with many other Phantom Zone villains.

Dario Delacio as Doomsday in the Smallville episode "Doomsday".

• Doomsday appears on Smallville as the main antagonist for the show's eighth season,^[35] played by Sam Witwer in human form and Dario Delacio in his true Doomsday form. This version of Doomsday has a human looking alter ego called "Davis Bloome," who mutates into the recognizable monster form and blacks out for the periods when Doomsday is active. It is revealed that Davis was created by General Zod and his wife Faora from the DNA of the strongest creatures they could find on Krypton. This version is portrayed as a Tragic Villain rather than a completely uncontrollable monster.^[36] When Clark reveals his secret to the world, Davis realises Clark is the Kryptonian he has been sent to kill. Clark then goes back in time and alters history so Davis never learns his secret.^[37] In the season finale, Chloe splits Davis and Doomsday using black kryptonite and Clark is able to trap Doomsday deep below the Earth while Davis is killed.^[38]

Film

• Doomsday appears in the 2007 animated direct-to-video film, Superman: Doomsday. His origin is simplified, with Kryptonian records reporting him as an improperly programmed Doomsday biomechanical supersoldier, a literal weapon of mass destruction or doomsday device, one which cannot determine friend from foe, destroying everyone and everything in sight "because it must". After going on a killing spree, it is engaged in battle by Superman throughout Metropolis. Doomsday is finally defeated when a severely wounded Superman flies him into outer space and brings them back, slamming him into the pavement, killing him. The blast also results in the mortal wounding of Superman, though Superman's condition is discovered to be merely a death-like reduced metabolic healing state. Unlike the comics, there is nothing to indicate Doomsday returns from the dead. Like his first appearance in the comics, he does not speak and only roars.

• An army of Doomsday clones sent by Darkseid appear in Superman/Batman: Apocalypse, attacking Themyscira. However, these clones are significantly weaker than the original, and after a lengthy battle, they are halted by Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and her Amazon army, before being annihilated in mass by a blast from Superman's heat vision. After the battle, the heroes realize the clones were only used to distract them as Darkseid seeks and kidnaps Kara Zor-El.

Video games

• Doomsday appears in The Death and Return of Superman video game adaptation of the major comic book storyline of the same name, he appears as the second boss in the game.
• A Doomsday clone appears in Justice League Heroes voiced by Charles Gideon Davis. Brainiac unleashes him into the Justice League Satellite where he knocks out Martian Manhunter.
• Doomsday is set to appear in DC Universe Online, voiced by Benjamin Jansen.

See also

• List of Superman enemies
• Doctor Doomsday

References

1. ^ Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/prey
2. ^ ^{a b c d e} Jurgens, Dan (p)Breeding, Brett (i)'Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey' 2: 14-31 (1994), DC Comics
3. ^ Jurgens, Dan (p)Breeding, Brett (i)'Superman/Doomsday Hunter/Prey' 3: 25 (1994), DC Comics
4. ^ ^{a b c d} Greenberger, Robert (2008). "Doomsday". In Dougall, Alastair. The DC Comics Encyclopedia. New York: Dorling Kindersley. p. 108. ISBN 0-7566-4119-5. OCLC 213309017. 
5. ^ Superman/Batman #10 (2004)
6. ^ Superman VS Darkseid: Apokolips Now! (2003)
7. ^ Villains United Infinite Crisis Special (June 2006)
8. ^ Infinite Crisis #6 (May 2006)
9. ^ http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/01/04/dcu-in-2011-what-does-doomsday-want/
10. ^ http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/01/20/six-things-you-need-to-know-about-action-comics-issue-900/
11. ^ Action Comics #900 (April 2011)
12. ^ Action Comics #901 (May 2011)
13. ^ Action Comics #902 (June 2011)
14. ^ Action Comics #903 (July 2011)
15. ^ Action Comics #904 (August 2011)
16. ^ ^{a b c d e f g} Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey
17. ^ ^{a b} Superman (vol. 2) #175
18. ^ The Doomsday Wars
19. ^ Reign of Doomsday: Steel '1
20. ^ Outsiders #37
21. ^ Superman/Batman Annual #5
22. ^ Action Comics #900
23. ^ Wonder Woman vol. 2 #104
24. ^ Wonder Woman vol.2 #106
25. ^ Superman/Batman #47
26. ^ Superman/Batman #48
27. ^ Superman/Batman #60
28. ^ Flashpoint: Project Superman #1 (June 2011)
29. ^ Booster Gold vol. 2 #44 (May 2011)
30. ^ Booster Gold vol. 2 #45 (June 2011)
31. ^ Booster Gold vol. 2 #46 (July 2011)
32. ^ Booster Gold (vol. 2) #47 (August 2011)
33. ^ "Justice Lords Superman vs. Doomsday full fight on YouTube". Youtube.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnF9Nacj-as. Retrieved 2011-01-16. 
34. ^ "JLU Superman vs. Doomsday full fight on YouTube". Youtube.com. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GoX98qxJX4. Retrieved 2011-01-16. 
35. ^ Eric Goldman (2008-05-02). "Doom in Smallville's Future". IGN.com. IGN Entertainment. http://tv.ign.com/articles/871/871205p1.html. Retrieved 2008-05-02. "In season eight, Clark faced his ultimate challenge with the appearance of the legendary, unstoppable destroyer Doomsday, who appears on "Smallville" for the first time" 
36. ^ "Bloodline". Caroline Dries (writer) and Michael Rohl (director). Smallville. The CW. November 6, 2008. No. 8, season 8.
37. ^ "Infamous". Caroline Dries (writer) & Glen Winter (director). Smallville. The CW. March 12, 2009. No. 15, season 8.
38. ^ "Doomsday". Brian Peterson, Kelly Souders (writers) & James Marshall (director). Smallville. The CW. May 14, 2009. No. 22, season 8.

External links

• Superman: Doomsday Official Website for Superman Doomsday DVD
• Superman: Doomsday Official MySpace profile for Superman Doomsday movie
• DCDP: Doomsday - DC Database Project