Doomsday (comics)

Doomsday is the name of a fictional supervillain in the Superman comic book series, published by DC Comics.

Doomsday was created in 1992 by writer/artist Dan Jurgens for a story arc in the Superman series of comic books that was entitled "The Death of Superman." In this series, Doomsday was an ultra-powerful destructive villain who engaged in a seemingly endless, mindless rampage across the face of the United States. He had been buried underground for an unknown period of time at the beginning of the story arc, until he tunnelled his way out and into the light of day. He immediately began attacking anything and everything within range, with the mindless ferocity of a monster, never speaking, and apparently enjoying the wanton destruction and mayhem he was causing.

In his first encounter with the Justice League, Doomsday defeated the entire team of superheros 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 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.) Superman quickly found that Doomsday's awesome power was easily a match for his own, and he realized that if Doomsday reached the city of Metropolis, the resulting battle could conceivably destroy the city and kill millions of innocent people.

In the space of only a few issues of the Superman comic book series, Superman and Doomsday engaged in a titanic, no-holds-barred battle that made Superman realize that Doomsday would continue to attack relentless, unending, with no defeat or surrender in sight. In a selfless, heroic act of self-sacrifice, Superman fought Doomsday to the bitter end, until in the end the two combatants struck a simultaneous, fatal blow that left both combatants lifeless. This occured in Superman issue number 75, entitled "The Death of Superman."

In the aftermath of Superman's apparent death, no less than four super-beings appeared in his wake, all 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 flung it into deep space, on a trajectory that would supposedly ensure that it would never land on any planet.

However, Doomsday's body was found by a deep-space scavenger ship that happened to be enroute to Apokolips, the home of the evil Darkseid. During this trip it was learned that Doomsday was not really dead. He revived and, after slaughtering the crew of the salvage ship, found himself on the harsh world of Apokolips. This was the setup for a final showdown between Doomsday and Superman, as Superman had also returned from the dead by this time.

In later writings concerning the character of Doomsday (especially the introduction to the graphic novel Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey), Jurgens stated that he had an idea for a huge two-page drawing of the city of Metropolis, with half of the city having been reduced to ruin by a titanic superhero battle. Jurgens then created the character of Doomsday to provide Superman with a super-powered foe to fight, and end up destroying half the city.

In the animated television series, Justice League, the evil version of the League, The Justice Lords, fight Doomsday. The situation was resolved by that version of Superman firing his heat vision into the villain's head, lobotomizing his brain.