Doomsday (comics)
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Doomsday is the name of a fictional supervillain in the Superman comic book series best known for fighting and killing Superman.
Character history
The Ultimate
Doomsday was artificially created in the distant past on an unknown planet by Kryptonian scientists helped by a mysterious alien named Bertron, who wished to create the ultimate lifeform. To do so, Bertron and his team sent a baby onto the surface of the planet, where it would be killed by the harsh environment or the vicious creatures inhabiting it. Each time, whatever of the lifeform's remains that survived were harvested and used again, to create a better, stronger version than the previous. In short, the mad scientist was using the method of cloning to accelerate the evolution of the being he was creating. Through decades of this process, the being which would eventually become Doomsday was forced to endure the agony of death, thousands upon thousands of times; the memory of these countless deaths was recorded in his genes and drove it to hate all life. Eventually, Doomsday gained the ability to evolve against what killed him in his prior life without the need of Bertron's technology. Bertron himself met his death at the hands of his own creation.The Death of Superman
Doomsday!
In his first encounter with the Justice League, Doomsday defeated the entire team of superheroes in a matter of minutes, laying waste to the entire surrounding area, and finally attracting the attention of Superman (because he never spoke, he never called himself "Doomsday." The name "Doomsday" was coined by Booster Gold, one of the members of the Justice League, who said that the monster's rampage resembled "the arrival of Doomsday," meaning the end of the world.) During his violent rampages, Doomsday took interest in billboards and television spots advertising violent wrestling competitions held in Metropolis, inspiring the seemingly mindless creature to head towards the city. Superman quickly found that Doomsday's awesome power was somewhat a match for his own and 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; this was later explained by Doomsday sensing that Superman was Kryptonian, and, due to the agony of his continuous deaths during his creation, Doomsday regarded anything Kryptonian as an automatic threat.Death in Metropolis
In the space of only a few issues of the Superman comic book series, Superman and Doomsday engaged in a titanic battle that made Superman realize that Doomsday would continue to attack relentlessly, endlessly, with no defeat or surrender in sight. It culminated in Superman #75, where in a heroic act of self-sacrifice, Superman fought Doomsday to the bitter end, until the two combatants struck a simultaneous, fatal blow that left both of them lifeless in front of the Daily Planet building in Metropolis.In the aftermath of Superman's apparent death, no fewer than four super-beings appeared in his wake, three of them declaring themselves to be the "real" Superman. One of these four, a half-man/half-machine cyborg (who would later become a dangerous villain called simply "The Cyborg") took the apparently lifeless body of Doomsday and, after strapping it to an asteroid, flung it into deep space, on a trajectory that would supposedly ensure that it would never land on any planet. The issue closes with an image of an awakened and laughing Doomsday, still strapped to the asteroid, but otherwise in good condition.
Round Two: Hunter/Prey
Eventually, after passing through a wormhole accidentally caused by an over-powered Superman, Doomsday's body was found by a deep-space scavenger ship that happened to be en route to Apokolips, the home of the evil Darkseid. Doomsday fully revived and, after slaughtering the crew of the salvage ship, found himself on the harsh world of Apokolips. This was to be the setup for a final showdown between Doomsday and Superman (similarly resurrected, in the meantime), who had been uneasy about the possibility of Doomsday's resurrection. Unfortunately, Darkseid's servant DeSaad opened a boom tube to Calaton -- the first world where Doomsday was successfully defeated -- and sent Doomsday through to what DeSaad believed was his defeat at the hands of the The Radiant. Doomsday is essentially able to adapt and overcome any opponent because of the process by which he was created (he was always stronger than he had been prior to his last death). 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 would be unable to do so again. Superman refused to heed this warning and allow Calaton to be destroyed. He fought Doomsday again with the help of a Mother Box, a thinking computer, but, despite Mother Box 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 bring Doomsday to the one place where nothing can survive: the end of time.
The Doomsday Wars
Doomsday returned yet again in the miniseries The Doomsday Wars. In this series, 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 (this was later revealed to have taken place due to the timeline's reconstruction following the events of 'Zero Hour', when the former Green Lantern Hal Jordan broke down creation and the heroes were forced to trigger their own Big Bang to stop him). Doomsday's will proved too strong to override completely with psionics, and he reacted too quickly for any chemical process to eliminate his simple mind, so Brainiac attempted to use a human host to genetically engineer a Doomsday body without the mind. He chooses to use Pete Ross and Lana Lang's newborn baby, born eight weeks premature and being transported by Superman to the best Natal Intensive Care Unit in the country. 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 JLA 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. Once freed, Doomsday slaughtered the Squad, and then went on to battle Imperiex's numerous probes (his mind having been altered 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 before finally confronting Imperiex himself. Imperiex proved too much for Doomsday, and blasted him, reducing Doomsday to a skeleton. Eventually, Doomsday's body was retrieved and his flesh regrown by Lex Luthor, who handed Doomsday over to Darkseid to repay Earth's war debt to Apokolips. By this time, Doomsday had evolved intelligence. Darkseid attempted to replicate Doomsday, producing an army of Doomsday "clones." Fortunately, Darkseid was not able to duplicate perfectly the creature in all its raw power, possibly as a result of the creature's complex DNA.When Superman travelled to Apokolips to reclaim the life of John Henry Irons, the man known as 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 John Henry Irons in the Entropy Aegis, an armor with incredible power. Doomsday disappeared and was seen wandering the harsh lands of Apokolips.
Sentience
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 one of his enemies. Using his new emotions, Doomsday shocked both Superman and his opponent, Gog by helping Superman fight against Gog's army (this, however, was not the first time that they worked together; that was in the Imperiex War when they joined to fight Imperiex. It is however, the first time Doomsday willingly worked with Superman.) This unfortunately was not enough to save Superman, who died at the hands of Gog and caused the future to diverge. In this 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 timeline ended when an old and weary Gog offered Doomsday the chance to return to the past and save Superman - albeit at the cost of becoming a monster again. Back in the present, an unconscious Doomsday was transported away by a younger version of Gog to an unknown location for an unknown purpose.Battle of Metropolis
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. He was stopped by Kal-El and Kal-L.
All-Star Superman
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 ressurected 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 person, but all of their test subjects ultimately burned out. Marked with "Do Not Open Until Doomsday", Jimmy Olsen drinks the formula and transforms into a hulking, gray skinned figure with bony protrusions - the equivilant of Doomsday. 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 Doomsday in this universe, or the familiar Doomsday even exists.
Powers and Abilities
Doomsday was created and evolved through cloning an infant and having it killed over and over again by one of the most dangerous species of the universe and in one of the harshest habitats in existence. As such, he returns to life every time he dies and becomes resistant or immune to what killed him before. An example of this was how Doomsday was immune to the Radiant's energy after being killed by the Radiant the first time they fought. The amount of damage dealt to him determines the length of time it would take to fully recover. If Doomsday was barely killed with minimal damage, his recovery could be as little as a few months. If Doomsday was extensively damaged (like when Imperiex reduced him to a skeleton) it could take even thousands of years without assistance.Doomsday can also develop/evolve resistances to whatever injures or harms him which was demonstrated in the Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey series. Superman used a sound gun to paralyze Doomsday, but Doomsday's auditory canals simply closed up making him impervious to Superman's weapon. Waverider paralyzed Doomsday once with chronal energy, but the second attempt backlashed on Waverider. In essence, Doomsday can become as invulnerable as he needs to be.
Doomsday can also develop weapons/evolutions to counter an opponent such as the case when he cancelled out a being of pure energy (i.e. Radiant) by generating an aura of energy and slamming into him, extending his claws to strike while Superman was in flight and reel him in while slowly poisoning him in the aforementioned Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey or breathe flames against the Martian Manhunter in Superman #175.
As a result of these evolutions, Doomsday is covered by bony protrusions all through out his body that serves as added protection for what little vital organs he has (brain, eyes, heart, nervous system) and as weapons (in the form of claws, fangs, and elbow/knee spurs).
Doomsday also has a highly accelerated healing factor that allows him to heal and regenerate from most damage almost instantly. Similar to Superman's Kryptonian DNA, Doomsday absorbs and processes solar radiation and can store it for thousands of years. As a result of his engineering, Doomsday does not need to eat, drink, breathe, or sleep and his body is almost solid mass.
Doomsday's physical abilities rival those of Superman. Doomsday possesses vast superhuman strength, the limits of which are unknown. At the same time in the Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey mini series, he was able to break Superman's left arm even though at that time, Superman was experiencing a massive energy surge which was making him stronger and more invulnerable. His other abilities include extreme resistance to heat, cold, and injury allowing him to survive on the most inhospitable worlds as well as survive in the vacuum of space. Doomsday possesses almost inexhaustable endurance and stamina. Superman once remarked on Doomsday, "We've been fighting all day and Doomsday doesn't seem to have slowed down". Most surprising is his reflexes and speed for his size. In a matter of seconds, Doomsday mananged to render most of the Justice League incapable of fighting and Booster Gold stated "This guy's faster than Flash!". 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.
Doomsday in Other Media
In the animated series Justice League, the Justice Lords (a tyrannical version of the Justice League from a parallel universe) fought a (possibly weaker) more intelligent version of Doomsday (voiced by Michael Jai White). The situation was resolved by that version of Superman firing his heat vision into the villain's head, lobotomizing him. Later, it was revealed that Project Cadmus had created this Doomsday as an imperfect clone of Superman, programmed to hate the Man of Steel. His brain eventually regenerated, and he resumed his quest to kill Superman after killing his releaser, Dr. Achilles Milo, offscreen. As in the comics, this version of Doomsday seems to have a biology that adapts to any opponent given time, so any attack used to defeat him works only once: when he re-appeared after his laser-lobotomy, he had grown a heavy bone plate in his skull, making it impossible to lobotomize him again. He was finally banished to the Phantom Zone as a last resort. It's also possibly mentioned that the impacting blow Doomsday gave on Tyrannical Superman would've killed the Superman of that timeline if it was not interfered with or would have perished as Superman would never lobotomize a foe.
Doomsday was also a boss in the "Death and Return of Superman" video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Genesis.
External links
- - DC Database Project
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