Doomsday will Purple Rain

So, Doomsday is coming back. When the "Doomsday WIll Reign" teaser first broke, I rolled my eyes. Doomsday has existed for around eighteen years at this point, and yet he already feels played out. It's really a function of what Doomsday is, specifically that he doesn't have much depth. He started as an unintelligent, unstoppable force, designed (by the writers) to kill Superman. His second story gave him an origin (which, despite its terrible mangling of evolution, I don't really have many problems with), and his third story made him basically into DC's version of The Destroyer. After that, he showed up a few more times, but as far as I'm concerned the last Doomsday story that needed to be told was in "Superman" #175, where the Man of Steel finally confronted the now-intelligent monster, handily defeated him, and told him in no uncertain terms that he no longer feared him. And, of course, stories have since been told about Doomsday, none of them particularly good. So I was all ready to come into this post full of sighs and snarkiness about DC dredging up Doomsday for no good reason, rehashing old stories, and failing to let Superman have even a few months go by when his titles aren't embroiled in one crossover stunt or another.

But then I actually read the solicitations, and there's no Superman to be found. Instead, this "Reign of Doomsday" storyline seems to be starting in a "Steel" one-shot, then continuing in "Outsiders" (featuring the Eradicator), "Justice League of America" (featuring Supergirl), "Superboy," and some fifth to-be-announced title. And that actually intrigues me. Doomsday's not fighting Superman this time around, instead apparently going after the Superman Family, three of whom showed up as a result of Doomsday's first appearance (and Steel's origin is a direct result of Doomsday's attack). I wouldn't be surprised if the fifth book were "Green Lantern Corps" or a Cyborg Superman one-shot, but I also wouldn't be shocked to see "Adventure Comics" or "Legion of Super-Heroes" in that slot. Despite facing the JLA and Matrix/Supergirl early on, the vast majority of Doomsday's battles have been with Superman. It'll be quite interesting to see how the rest of the Superman family deals with Doomsday.

So interesting, in fact, that I'll be purchasing comics written by Dan Didio and James Robinson to find out.

You win this time, DC Comics.