Doomsday

Return of Superman? No,

because originally after that he returns in three issues, Superman, Doomsday, Hunter, Prey.

Oh.

Well, he was basically hitching a ride on Doomsday, who he threw out of orbit when he was imposing as one of the Supermen, and it makes his way to Apocalypse.

He could

have stayed there.

With his loving wife that he loves is a clone.

Resulting in Davis Bloom, the man who became Doomsday.

Fate smiled on Zod and Faora's clones when they arrived on Earth.

She was one of his trusted lieutenants and his lover.

The Xenos will be dead by a weapon of their own design.

[laughs]

Doomsday.

We ha- I mean, that is the Doomsday outfit, is it not?

What happens when the world around those pillars fundamentally shifts? What happens when society, the actual people reading the comics and the fictional citizens of Metropolis, gets darker, more violent, and more cynical?

That brings us to section four of our deep dive, the crisis of relevance, fighting the cynical world, and this is arguably the most important section for understanding modern Superman because over the last four decades, Superman's greatest battles haven't been against physical monsters like Doomsday.

They have been against the creeping societal belief that his Boy Scout ideals are obsolete.

And this isn't a new problem.

But if you actually strip away the hype and look at the narrative, as the IGN list points out, the story itself is surprisingly simple.

It isn't a deep philosophical deconstruction.

A hulking, mindless, genetically engineered monster named Doomsday appears.

And that's it.

It violates your physical autonomy in a way that feels almost like body horror.

I honestly find that fundamentally scarier than number 26, Doomsday.

Doomsday is a completely different kind of terror.

Yeah.

I mean, Doomsday is the ultimate nightmare of unchecked genetic engineering, a Kryptonian monster created for the singular purpose of absolute destruction.

He is known as the Ultimate.

He's the immovable object and the unstoppable force rolled into one gray, bone-spurred package.

Doomsday is less of a character and more of a narrative event horizon.

Uh, DC's own website describes her as, "Beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, swifter than Hermes, and stronger than Hercules," and that's not just talk.

So, uh, with these blessings, uh, Diana can stand toe-to-toe with DC's heaviest hitters, including Darkseid, Doomsday, Zod, Superman, and other Cry- uh, powerful Kryptonians.

She's got a laundry list of the most powerful opponents you can imagine.

So here's something that's very relevant to the battle, uh, speaking of speedsters.

Superman is not pulling his punches.

Maxwell Lord has completely compromised Superman.

He has made Diana think that, that, that she is Doomsday, and that she just killed Lois Lane.

He attacks Diana with everything he has.