#inbred silver surfer but not the same inbred silver surfer from the previous issue

[superman86to99]

Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey #3 (June 1994)

After two issues of build-up, the moment we've been waiting for: Superman vs. Doomsday, the rematch! But first, more build-up. Last issue, Superman found out that Doomsday has been sent to Calaton, the one planet that defeated him before Superman did, and also the one planet that definitely can't defeat him again, since the baby-torturing geniuses who created Doomsday made it so he'll always evolve to overcome any opponent who beats him.

And yes, this means Superman himself should have no hope of stopping Doomsday again. However, this time Superman has something that Doomsday doesn't: Mother Box, a living computer from planet New Genesis that reshapes his clothes to prepare him for the rematch. According to Mother Box, the main reason Superman died last time he fought Doomsday is because he didn't have enough pouches. (And if he does die again, at least he'll look cool.)

Meanwhile, in Calaton, the Calatonians are trying to stop Doomsday doing the exact same thing they did thousands of years ago: putting all of their Royals in a psychic blender to create a being made out of condensed inbred superpowers, the Radiant. Unfortunately, that's all for nothing, because Doomsday has evolved to absorb Radiant's energy and easily snaps him in half. By the time Superman and Waverider (who's still tagging along) reach Calaton, Radiant is tragically fading away like a fart in the wind.

"All we are is farts in the wind..."

What's worse is that Doomsday "senses" Calaton's weaknesses and is headed straight for their central power facility, which if blown up, could destroy the entire planet. Superman has something personal against planets being blown up, so he stands in front of Doomsday and tells him he's here to stop him "permanently," despite not knowing if the big brute can even understand him.

And then, to Superman's surprise... Doomsday replies.

"I can siiiiiiiiiiiing!"

After the dramatic revelation that Doomsday is smart and actually remembers Superman from their fight in "Muhtroplisss," the monster simply turns back with a "HA!" and goes back to ignoring Supes, as if telling him "I could easily snap you in half too, so why even bother fighting." Superman uses the opening to blast Doomsday with his super-charged heat vision, mindful that getting into a close quarters slugging match with him last time was a fatal mistake.

So, Superman does his best to keep his distance during the fight, but then Doomsday reveals another surprise: he can now extend his knuckle bones to freakishly long distances in order to more easily stab flying enemies. Yes, Doomsday has evolved into Wolverine.

Oh, and the retractable bone claws also have poison in them, so as soon as Doomsday pulls Superman down, he starts getting dizzy. Thinking fast, Superman reaches into one of his many pouches and takes out an ultrasonic weapon that seems to be working pretty well on Doomsday -- until he closes his ear canals at will. Wonder if he can do that with any orifice, if needed.

Since the fight doesn't seem to be going too well for Superman, Waverider tries to help out by using his old "contact" trick on Doomsday, just to see if he can learn anything useful by looking through his eyes. This is how we learn that all this time, whenever Doomsday looks at Superman, what he really sees is... E.T.?!

Actually, that's Doomsday's creator, Bertron. But why would anyone mistake Superman for alien Mengele? Because, as Superman only just now realizes, the planet where Doomsday was made, the one that became obsessed with genetic modification due to the ruins of Bertron's lab, was Krypton. Now Superman believes that the only reason Doomsday went to Metropolis is that he felt the presence of a Kryptonian there and felt threatened, the poor thing.

As the fight resumes, Superman uses a sort of "saber made of light" that Mother Box equipped with him to attack Doomsday, but the only thing he gets out of it is a broken arm. Waverider tries to make "contact" again to shut him down from the inside, but Doomsday has even learned to kick intangible time travelers out of his body.

Doomsday throws Superman against Calaton's power batteries, causing a gigantic explosion that disintegrates Waverider and leaves Supes in even poorer shape. Doomsday himself, of course, isn't even fazed by the explosion and laughs heartily as Superman seems to run away from him, which would be understandable given the situation. He just survived the equivalent of "a million nuclear blasts," had his arm broken in two places, and found out his home planet's whole culture was built on the bones of dead babies. It's been a tough day.

However, it turns out Superman was only grabbing the time-traveling wrist band Waverider left laying around and building up distance to hit Doomsday as hard as he can. While Doomsday is disoriented, Superman puts the band on his shoulder spike and has Mother Box transport them to the only time period where he can be defeated, which turns out to be... the very last one, a.k.a. the destruction of the universe. Try to evolve your way out of this one, bitch.

Superman is perfectly willing to die there with Doomsday, but he's saved by Waverider, who wasn't dead after all, he just needed some time to put his energy form back together (guess "1994 to the end of time" was enough).

Waverider returns Superman back to the present, where Mother Box uses the last of her power to restore Superman's classic costume and give him a shave while at it. With Doomsday finally gone for good (right?), Superman thanks Waverider for actually putting his ass on the line for once and goes back to Lois, reflecting on how he found the strength to face his greatest fear through her. So, in the end, the secret weapon that allowed him to defeat Doomsday was love. And time travel. And a living computer who died shaving him.

Plotline-Watch:

We'll see Doomsday again in his very own annual in 1995, followed by a weird arc in John Byrne's Wonder Woman in 1996, before his actual return in 1998's The Doomsday Wars miniseries.

The Cyborg Superman will be back sooner than that, since we find out in this issue that Darkseid didn't really kill him, he merely condensed his life force into a small orb.

Don Sparrow says: "It’s an interesting notion that Doomsday might have been intentionally marching toward Metropolis, but it doesn’t fully make sense to me. If Doomsday was really after the only Kryptonian, he wouldn’t have walked in a straight line to Metropolis, he’d have gone after Superman directly, wouldn’t he? And there were numerous times when Superman had to catch up to Doomsday who was walking right past him during that battle. Unless we fill in the blanks, and suggest that Superman’s aura was present in Metropolis? I’d honestly rather that Doomsday was marching to Metropolis because he saw Superman as a threat, rather than because he saw an idiotic wrestling promotion on TV." Sorry, but I'll continue believing the original, non-retconned explanation: that Doomsday went to Metropolis because got all riled up watching wrasslin.

While Mother Box is redesigning Superman's costume, he mentions that this was "originally Kryptonian recovery gear" (you know, the black suit with the silver S-shield) until Supergirl transformed it into its current form, back in Superman #82. I appreciate the continuity note, and I wonder if we can eventually establish how long Superman wore this twice-reshaped costume, which is slightly darker than the ones his mom made... maybe until he burned it down in "The Death of Clark Kent"?

I'm trying to imagine the conversation when Superman returned the lifeless Mother Box to Oberon: "*sob* At least she died doing something honorable..." "Yes, feel my face! It's so smooth!"

This issue does a pretty good job at selling entropy, the universe-eating stuff (or non-stuff) at the end of time, as something deadly and inescapable. It sure would be terrible if it somehow ended up in the present. Don: "Dan Jurgens’ aggressive concept of entropy sounds a lot like the unbeatable Swarm from Superman #68, which set me up for failure in High School physics classes, let me tell you."

Patreon-Watch:

Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, Gaetano Barreca, and Dave Shevlin got to read all of the above a week early, since for once I finished a post before Don (it took Don getting sick for that miracle to happen). Join them for sneak peeks and Patreon-only posts about non-continuity comics at: https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99

And now, the whole world gets to read Don Sparrow's section, after the jump!

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

We reach the crescendo of the progressive covers, with Superman coming to blows with Doomsday on the front and back covers.  You know it’s serious because Superman’s punch has actually chipped off a piece of bone, but lucky Doomsday’s got bones to spare.

I felt like the art fell off a little on this issue, as some of the inks looked a little unsubstantial compared to the previous two issues, but I’ll get into specifics in a little bit.  Our first image is a splash page—the panels in this issue are all generally pretty big, with more than four being a rarity—and this is a good one—the rim lighting really adds a three-dimensionality to Superman’s figure making him look more defined than just a mass of bulk.  The colouring has generally been a highlight in this series, though this panel is a little let down with some sloppy shadows on Superman’s forehead that make him look bruised, I think unintentionally. 

The next page features a great image of Superman, again helped by rim lighting.  Jurgens can tend to draw Superman with too round a nose at times (I think most artists tend to default to making heroes look like themselves, the artists, and Jurgens has a roundish, button nose), but here his features are sharp and handsome.

Very soon we get our first look at Superman’s battle armour, courtesy of a literal Deus ex Machina, the Mother Box.  I have since learned that this look is much maligned among fandom (particularly once it became a toy) but reading this at age 14, I loved it, especially as a way to explain how Superman might even things up a little more against the preposterously overpowered Doomsday.  [Max: Same here! I had, and loved, that freaking toy.] It’s a unique look—very sword and sorcery, with the buckles and longer cape.  I might have thought the look would have more apparent Apokolyptan or Kryptonian elements given the origins of Mother Box and Superman, but I still have a lot of affection for this costume.  It’s interesting that the story seems to head off some of the criticism in advance, with Waverider hanging a lantern on the fact that the weapons “seem incompatible with {Superman’s} nature”.

I do like the simplicity of the Radiant’s look, and the art team does a good job of illustrating the crackle of his energy throughout. It feels a little like they’re trying to avoid having to draw Doomsday’s face too frequently in this issue, as he keeps appearing in shadow.  It’s most glaring in his fight with the Radiant where there are near-identical gritted teeth expressions on sequential pages.  The image of the fading energy being laying dying is a great depiction of translucence. 

We have a few more instances of reused panels as Doomsday recognizes Superman from their battle on Earth—that’s the same drawing of Doomsday from the first issue, when young Clark faces “the killer” in his dream.  The image of Superman’s eyes lighting up with heat vision is a good one, and though I’m not a terribly big admirer of Alan Moore (comic book heresy, thy name is Don Sparrow) I’m always reminded of “For the Man who has Everything” from Superman Annual #11 when someone says “burn”.  

The images that follow definitely look like he’s hurting Doomsday (and it gives them still more excuses to not draw Doomsday’s face) and also addresses some of the criticism of the original Doomsday storyline, namely that Superman fought him like he only had a single power—super-strength—never putting flight, super-speed, heat vision or arctic breath into use.  It’s after this that things start to get silly, with Doomsday speed-evolving to develop harpoon knuckles to draw Superman into him.  It’s such a strange thing, and I’m still confused how it works.  They’re bone but flexible like cables? 

Superman yanking Doomsday’s claws out of his shoulder like uprooting a weed certain looks painful.  We get another look at that Doomsday face from issue #1 again as Waverider mind-melds with the monster—the rules here are a little confusing—I don’t know why Waverider’s powers work here, but then failed when he tried to overload Doomsday’s nervous system, unless it’s a further example of Doomsday’s speed evolving. [Max: It's evolution, baby!]

Some of that lighter inking comes into play as Superman learns more about Doomsday’s origins—normally a heavy line, Breeding’s inks here look thinner and scratchier, more like Joe Rubinstein, who was inking the main book at the time. The big double page splash of Superman taking it to Doomsday is a real highlight, even if it’s followed by still more recycled art of young Clark.

The idea of Superman with an honest-to-goodness light sabre is dumb on the surface, but maaaan, did this blow my mind when I was a kid.  The image of Superman sawing into Doomsday’s side is a great use of light and colouring, and Doomsday reconstituting himself like the T-1000 from Terminator 2 is a great visual, even if it further confuses me as to the nature of Doomsday.  Like, how does an organless gray blob have bones that Superman could kick off?  And why did it hurt him?  

Doomsday gorilla pressing Superman is a great visual, and his whispering Lois in what feels like his last moment is emotionally impactful.  The disorienting effect of the end of time is well done.  The shredding of Doomsday’s form is particularly interesting, though having Mother Box kill Doomsday for him really does feel like a cop-out on some level, BUT, they’d essentially painted themselves into a corner with Doomsday, by making him essentially too powerful to really use in a story.

SPEEDING BULLETS:

Gotta love Desaad as hype man for Darkseid.  Also, in a previous issue I noted how much Desaad reminds me of Wormtongue from the Lord of the Rings series, and here we have Darkseid making the connection (perhaps inadvertently) explicit, mentioning both his tongue and calling Desaad a worm in the same word bubble.

I like Superman’s attempt at guilting Darkseid for leaving the fight against Doomsday, like it’s gonna work—he’s a villain, who barely survived his first encounter with Doomsday (actually, I guess it’s his first encounter in COMBAT as we will later see that a younger Darkseid met Doomsday even before Superman did)  so I don’t think shaming Darkseid is going to do much.

Also Superman is not very far away when Darkseid reveals to Desaad that his omega beams distilled Hank Henshaw’s consciousness into a little sphere—superhearing sinks ships, or something like that, Darkseid. [Max: I like the idea of Superman thinking "I'm just gonna pretend I didn't hear, got enough to deal with already."]

It’s a weird detail that this isn’t the same Radiant that Doomsday fought, even though Radiant takes claim for the victory.  They specify that he’s a new being made from the royals of this day and age, but if that’s the case, this Radiant might have had a better shot at beating Doomsday, since they never fought before, even with the same power set.  It would have been more narratively expedient just to have it be the same energy being, I think. 

As far as plans go, “full intensity energy” seems like an obvious one.  How long did it take the original Radiant to come up with that one?  “Oh dang—mild intensity energy didn’t work.  I guess I’ll try medium intensity energy…” [Max: It's possible radiant wasn't very bright. He's a product of inbreeding, after all...]

Speaking of obvious, Waverider is a bit of a Captain Obvious throughout…”Radiant is dying.” “Radiant is dead.”, etc.

Know what would be a good strategy, Superman?  Attacking while Doomsday is frozen in his time flashback!

Between this and the upcoming Zero Hour, Waverider has his share of (spoilers) fake deaths.

[Max: Don't know if I'd call the one on Zero Hour fake, but we can revisit this when the time comes. Pun intended.]

#superman #dan jurgens #brett breeding #doomsday #darkseid #deesad #waverider #apokolips #hank henshaw #superman/doomsday: hunter/prey #hank henshaw as a little ball #inbred silver surfer but not the same inbred silver surfer from the previous issue