DC Says Doomsday Is A Hero Actually…What?

You know what I was saying yesterday about Doomsday being overused and weakened as a threat because of it? Well, just after finishing that article I found one on ScreenRant that proves my point.

I’ve often said that the retcon is the most dangerous weapon in storytelling. It can completely change how you view those older stories going back because of the “new information” tied to those events. Add to that Doomsday’s origin story. In the miniseries Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey, which I’ve reviewed because I own the trade, we learn that Doomsday was created by a scientist obsessed with creating the ultimate lifeform. To achieve that goal they’d clone a baby monster, toss it to the unforgiving wilderness, collect the remains, and repeat the process until they had an unkillable monster…who then killed them. Waverider showed all this to Superman, but for some reason the scientist in charge didn’t look like he came from Krypton…and yet he was Kryptonian. Supposedly this explained why Doomsday went after Superman specifically. You know, if you ignore everything else he attacked when he arrived on Earth and the alien worlds in that miniseries, including Apocalypse. Darkseid even allowed Superman to use a Mother Box to defeat the monster once and for all.

Well, now it turns out he had reason to worry. According to modern DC writers, Darkseid was destined to become the most powerful being in the multiverse, the “King Omega”, and an Alpha was supposed to be chosen to fight him or something. I haven’t been following the DC KO event because DC heroes fighting each other isn’t what I go to DC for and one of the reasons why Marvel was my number two until I parted ways with both main universes. So how Doomsday is the Time Trapper is already confusing to me…and now he’s also the “absolute champion”, the Alpha that’s supposed to save the multiverse. To repeat from the article title…what?

Okay, here’s what I do know thanks to the linked to article and going to that site I get the Malibu Ultraverse comics for review from to at least have some idea of what I’m talking about. I do know that the DC KO event is tied to the “Absolute Power” event, which led to Darkseid disappearing and somehow creating the Absolute Universe I care so little about. Apparently now we’re learning that this was prophesied, and now Darkseid’s forces are taking over history by going backwards into it like they ripped off Kang The Conqueror’s playbook. (The comics, not whatever nonsense Marvel Studios was planning.) This of course ties in Booster Gold and DC villain the Time Trapper…who is Doomsday now because I don’t know. Again, I wasn’t there for it and there’s only so much research I have time for if I want this out before deadline.

To understand this retcon, we need to look at two comics at particular. Justice League: The Omega Act starts it off on Krypton before it got blown up. A young Lara is investigating some ruins with her friend Ursa. At this point in the reboot-heavy mess that is the DC timeline (good luck to Mark Waid figuring this one out for that official history guide he’s putting together) Krypton has seceded from the galaxy and space travel is illegal. This is the reason now used for why the Council rejected Jor-El’s plan and his findings about the need to get off the planet before it goes boom. (Which apparently was caused by one Kryptonian-hating being because the retcon bombs are raining these days.) They find ruins that I think are supposed to be the same lab where they were creating Doomsday, but I thought that was on another planet, not Krypton. At any rate they see various technology of other worlds left behind, a bunch of monsters (the same ones that kept tearing the clone babies apart), and information about creating the “ultimate weapon”. I’ve combined a few scenes below, one where they find the information, and one where Lara has time to translate the information better.

I’m missing the caption box from the next page as Time Trapper Doomsday meets with Superman and the rest of the Justice League. Apparently the translation is “absolute champion”. I hope DC isn’t going to work that word “absolute” to death like they have with “crisis”. I don’t know ancient Kryptonian but that seems like an important distinction. Cut to Superman #61 (because numbering in comics no longer make sense–the site I used refers to it as Volume 6). As Booster tries to convince Trapperday to reveal he’s the Timeless Child or whatever, Lois is talking to the AI of daddy Jor-El. She has a negative history with alternate universe Jor-El as part of aging up Jon Kent the Super Son, but it’s just an AI and there is no information about King Omega or Darkseid or anything because of the ban on space stuff Krypton had. Except AI Lara is in there as well because she was a historian and has seen the lab where Doomsday was made.

The issue ends with Superboy Prime and Sunboy accidentally giving Lois back her Superwoman powers or something because Darkseid controls the Legion Of Superheroes now or…I said I wasn’t following this event. The important part is Doomsday is the Alpha to challenge King Omega Darkseid, though he needs Superman’s help (and what about the rest of the League who are also there?). So you see, Doomsday wasn’t really evil. He was the victim of numerous torturous deaths to combat an evil of prophecy. That scientist and his team weren’t villains for tossing those babies out to die, they were trying to save all of reality because heaven forbid a modern superhero comic has a story that has something less than all of reality at stake anymore. How many bank robbers are getting away with it while Superman saves the multiverse for the eight time this week? Killing babies in horrific ways was a heroic act, folks.

Hunter/Prey should have been the last use of Doomsday, and even that’s debatable. When he showed up in the comics running through the Justice League like action figures and fought Superman to a mutual death, which was the only reason he existed, he was a threat, a nightmare given form, a bloodthirsty force of destruction that just existed to destroy and kill. He was such a threat that we didn’t ask where he came from. He came, he broke his restraints, and he ran over everybody like a pint-sized Godzilla. He was awesome in an evil way.

After killing Superman he really didn’t serve a narrative purpose, but Hank Henshaw, the new villain that came out of this story, tossed him into space to ensure he could be used again. I don’t think Doomsday needed Kryptonians in his origin. He just killed everything because everything was there and he was mad about it. I’m not against an origin story, and it worked as good as anything, but like the Terminator franchise they just couldn’t stop. A villain who evolved everytime he was defeated? There might be potential there, but that wasn’t part of his story before because he didn’t have or need one. He was Doomsday. That was enough. Instead he popped up a few times, became a virus or something, and is now Time Trapper, a Legion Of Superheroes foe who now has two histories with Kal-El because some versions of Superboy (Superman when he was a boy version) were part of the Legion. Trying to give a sympathetic backstory was weird enough. Trying to make him the secret hero of the DC universe all this time feels like an unnecessary retcon, an excuse to continue using the character. It weakens him as a character because it drains away part of the menace that made him worthy enough to kill Superman despite not being one of his foes at the time. Now look at him.

He’s a shadow of his former self, emaciated and not very threatening. This is the guy who once forced Superman to kill himself like that other John Henry (the one who didn’t become Steel) to beat him? I’m not impressed. I’m not saying there isn’t a good story here because I don’t care. It just feels like a waste of one of the biggest villains in DC history. He just got overused and now he’s less than he was. I don’t think he could stop Superman now, and I’m supposed to believe that overpowered Darkseid is supposed to be afraid of this guy?