Doomsday is Here!
Credits: Louise Simonson (writer), Jon Bogdanove (penciler), Dennis Janke (inker), Bill Oakley (letterer), Glenn Whitmore (colorist)
Summary:
Superman follows Doomsday to Metropolis. His next attack is to fly
Doomsday into the Earth’s atmosphere. Doomsday kicks himself free, and
their fight continues into the Underworld. After Doomsday triggers an
explosion that destroys much of the community, Professor Hamilton
attempts to stop Doomsday with a gigantic laser cannon. Doomsday
recovers quickly. After Supergirl and the Metropolis PD also fail to stop Doomsday, Superman continues his fight against the creature.
Mom, Apple Pie, etc…:
Superman uses his body as a shield to protect Keith and the other
orphans after Doomsday destroys their orphanage (which just so happens
to be in the path of destruction).
Total N00B:
Dubbilex appears as a psychic manifestation to Guardian, with no
explanation of who or what he is. The three characters manning the
giant laser cannon are only identified as Mildred, Professor “Ham,” and
Bibbo. The Underworlders are apparently keeping some representatives
from Warworld captive; the story does very little to explain anything
about these concepts. Finally, Supergirl’s face turns into a pile of
mush after she’s punched by Doomsday. Her body then collapses and
morphs into a purple Play-Doh person. I’m vaguely aware that the
Supergirl of this era is supposed to be a shapeshifting blob of
protoplasm (or something), but I can’t imagine how this scene read to
the average person brought in by the intense media hype.
Review:
We’re down to only two panels per page, and while Jon Bogdanove does
an admirable job of not making the layout scheme obvious, the storyline’s padding is
becoming more noticeable by the issue. Superman is still resorting to
punch punch punching Doomsday repeatedly, and only given one tiny sliver
of imagination during the story, as he tries to fly Doomsday into
space. Unfortunately, this happens as the issue opens, and he’s
thwarted by the fourth page. So, instead of trying to develop another
creative way to stop Doomsday, Superman just goes back to futilely
punching the monster again and again until the issue is over. There is
some effort to show Superman protecting the citizens from the
destruction, and to give the supporting cast something to do, but none
of the scenes are engaging enough to stand on their own. And, as
mentioned above, they’re virtually incomprehensible to someone not
versed in the specific continuity of this era of Superman.
It’s
hard to understand why DC was so committed to making this crossover a
relentless slugfest, to the point that every chapter essentially has the
same plot. Couldn’t one chapter at least be dedicated to some other
character doing anything
else? A scientist working to find Doomsday’s weak spot, an average
citizen discovering his own heroism while helping others survive the
disaster, Superman's friends and family watching the TV footage and reflecting
on what Superman means to them…wouldn’t any diversion be a welcome
relief at this point?
Is this the issue where Doomsday splatters an Underworlder's head and there's a ZPLATCH sound effect? That always stuck in my mind as being really unpleasant.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing how much better Knightfall did the "take the main character out of commission" story line. I remember people complaining about Bane, but he blows Doomsday out of the water as a character. Knightfall also gave Batman a lot of time to interact with his supporting cast and villains, which 8 issues of just punching doesn't let Superman do at all.
this issue is the perfect example of the pitfalls to interconnected books; writers had characters they preferred to use, their own subplots and it was assumed the reader would just know. reading the books at that time, luthor and supergirl were stern's favorites, weezie had the underworlders, keith etc, and so on...
ReplyDeletei loved the recap, fold out covers that marvel used in the mid 90s to catch people up; this sort of thing should've become industry standard.