Spotlight on Doomsday

Doomsday was originally created in the comics in 1992 as an instrument to kill Superman in the well publicized Death of Superman story. Over the years he has been given a backstory which varies from source to source, but usually involves genetic engineering and the notion that killing Doomsday results in him coming back to life stronger than before.

Outside of comics, Doomsday first appeared in the Justice League animated series episode "A Better World," in 2003. In the episode, parallel world Justice Lord Superman disposed of the beast by lobotomizing him with heat vision.

Doomsday's brain healed and he finally got to fight the real Superman. in the Justice League Unlimited episode "The Doomsday Sanction," in 2005. In this continuity, Doomsday turned out to be a government weapon made using Superman DNA as a possible counter weapon to a rogue Justice League. Superman tried the heat vision trick again, but this time it didn't work and he ended up beating Doomsday by throwing him in a volcano. Doomsday was then banished to the Phantom Zone.

Doomsday could be spotted hanging out in the Zone in the Legion of Superheroes episode "Phantoms."

In 2007, Doomsday appeared in the DC direct to DVD movie Superman: Doomsday, an adaptation of the Death of Superman novel.

As in the original story, Superman was able to beat the killing machine, but it cost him his life... almost.

The eighth season of Smallville (2008-2009) seeking a villain to fill the gap left by the departing Lex Luthor character reimagined Doomsday as a having an alter ego, paramedic Davis Bloom.

In Smallville, Doomsday was genetically engineered on Krypton by General Zod. He hitched a ride to Earth in Clark's space ship with a mission to kill Kal-El and to become Earth's Ultimate Destroyer.

When I heard they were bringing Doomsday into Smallville, I was skeptical. Continuity issues aside (by now you can only really look at Smallville as an elseworlds reality), the dude doesn't really scream TV budget, and the alter ego thing sounded hokey. But the truth is, Doomsday has been the best aspect of the season, even surpassing the full-time status of Green Arrow. They have kept the reveals to a minimum which cuts on the cheese factor, and have made Doomsday a real threat. I guess I shouldn't be too surprised, Smallville's takes on villains including Lex, Brainiac, and Bizarro were all outstanding and even Mxyzptlk, Zod, and Toyman have been respectable (Maxima was a tad lame).


With a rumored death of a main character in the finale (that is NOT Chloe, nor does its seem plausible to be Jimmy or Lois), and combined with the talk of Clark needing to be forged by his greatest challenge in last night's episode Eternal, I can't help but wonder if Smallville is about to give us its take on the Death of Superman...