| "Reign of Doomsday" | |
|---|---|
The princpal characters of the Reign of Doomsday crossover. Art by Kenneth Rocafart. |
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| Publisher | DC Comics |
| Publication date | January 2011 |
| Genre |
Crossover |
| Creative team | |
| Writer(s) | Steve Lyons Dan Didio James Robinson Jeff Lemire Paul Cornell |
| Penciller(s) | Ed Benes Philip Tan Brett Booth Miguel Sepulveda Marco Rudy Kenneth Rocafort Axel Giménez |
"Reign of Doomsday" is a 2011 comic book crossover storyline published by DC Comics that will run through the Superman family of books. The crossover involves Doomsday hunting down Steel, Superboy, Eradicator and Cyborg Superman, the four main characters introduced in the wake of the controversial The Death of Superman storyline in 1992.[1] Though the current iteration of the character was not present in the original The Death of Superman storyline, Supergirl will appear in the crossover as well due to being part of the Justice League.[2] The storyline itself draws its title from Reign of the Supermen, the immediate follow-up to The Death of Superman.
Contents |
The crossover began in January 2011 in the Steel one-shot published as part of the DC Icons line. The crossover is set to continue in March in Outsiders 37, where Doomsday will face Eradicator, Justice League of America #55 and Superman/Batman Annual #5, both of which involve him facing Supergirl and Cyborg Superman, Superboy #6, where he will face Superboy, and Action Comics #900-904, where he will face Superman. The storyline will conclude in #904, which will also be the final issue of Action Comics, since the book will be relaunched in to match DC Comics's move to reboot every major comic book and start from scratch. This effectively makes Reign of Doomsday the final story arc to run in the first volume of Action Comics.
The storyline begins in the Steel one-shot, where the titular protagonist attempts to fight off Doomsday after the creature arrives in Metropolis. With Superman nowhere to be found due to the events of the Grounded storyline, Steel is left to fight the creature by himself. Though he puts up a valiant fight, Doomsday is able to effortlessly overcome each of his attacks. Eventually realizing that Doomsday has come for him for some specific purpose, Steel makes one last attempt to stop the creature before being beaten into submission. Doomsday then takes Steel's seemingly lifeless form and departs from the scene, leaving his niece Natasha to sob over her uncle's hammer and tattered cape.[3]
Following this, Doomsday attacks the Outsiders in Markovia, intent on finding Eradicator. During the fight, Doomsday displays a frightening new ability; the power to absorb energy from Looker and Halo and then redirect it as a massive blast. After defeating all of Eradicator's teammates, Doomsday impales him with a blade generated from his forearm and then flees the battlefield with his body.[4]
Doomsday later appears in the ruins of New Krypton, where he attacks the Alpha Lantern Boodikka and several members of the Justice League, who were surveying the remains of the destroyed planet. With help from Starman and Saint Walker, the League members are able to hold off Doomsday long enough for Batman and Supergirl to teleport the injured Boodikka to the JLA Watchtower. As Batman and Supergirl attempt to help Boodikka recover, Doomsday arrives to continue his attack. Just as the battle is about to continue, the Cyborg Superman emerges from Boodikka's body and reveals that Doomsday has come for him.[5]
During the ensuing battle, Cyborg Superman violently flies through Doomsday, apparently killing him by causing his body to explode. However, Doomsday somehow assimilites Cyborg Superman's nanotechnology into his own body, and rebuilds himself as a new creature dubbed Cyborg Doomsday. Supergirl and Cyborg Superman attempt to stop the creature, but Cyborg Superman turns on Supergirl at the last second and tries to shoot her, stating that it would be a disgrace for her to defeat the creature that so easily trounced him. With Supergirl momentarily distracted, Cyborg Doomsday knocks her unconscious and then violently eviscerates Cyborg Superman before teleporting away with both of them. Horrified, Batman orders Saint Walker to use his power ring to track down Cyborg Doomsday, but the ring is unable to locate him. As Saint Walker muses that the creature must be using some sort of cloaking device, Cyborg Doomsday is shown returning to the remains of New Krypton with his two unconscious captives.[6]
Doomsday subsequently attacks Superboy while the young hero is returning home from Titans Tower, literally appearing from out of nowhere hundreds of feet in the air. While the two fight, Superboy notes that Doomsday is significantly stronger than he was when they last met, and that he now appears to possess the ability of flight. Badly injured, Superboy attempts to fight off the creature, only to be overwhelmed when Doomsday somehow begins to mimic Superboy's trademark tactile telekinesis, which allows him to attack the youth from long distances. After beating Superboy into submission, Doomsday grabs him and teleports back to the ruins of New Krypton, where he enters a large alien spacecraft with his prisoner.[7]
Returning to Metropolis, Superman discovers that this was all part of a plot by Lex Luthor (who had previously been given Doomsday's corpse by Sam Lane) to distract him from Luthor's ultimate goal of finding a Black Lantern power ring. With Luthor defeated, Superman finds his allies trapped in a pocket dimension within a satellite. Superman attempts to free his allies, only for them all to discover the apparently still-inert body of Doomsday, as well as three separate clones or copies - each with a different powerset designed to specifically make them capable of eliminating the Superman they were sent after.[8]
Superman, Superboy, Supergirl, Steel, the Eradicator and the Cyborg Superman encounter the three Doomsdays that Lex Luthor sent against the Supermen. The Cyborg tries to fight them, but Superman rips his central node off, knowing that they would not survive a confrontation with the Doomsdays. Superman and his allies escape, taking the original Doomsday with them. Supergirl is impressed by Superman's kindness towards Doomsday, even if Doomsday killed him. As the heroes advance through the ship, Steel notices that Doomsday is beginning to regain his brain activity. Suddenly, they are attacked by the Doomsdays. In U.S.A.F. Space Command, Colorado, the military detects an object falling to Earth at an impressive speed. If it hits, it will cause an extinction event. The President makes a call, requesting Superman's help in the upcoming disaster. The heroes get to an observation area and rearrange the internal structure to reach Earth. However, they are met by a new enemy, the Doomslayer. The Eradicator, against Superman's suggestion, fights the Doomslayer. However, the Doomslayer destroys the Eradicator.[9]
The Doomslayer reveals its plan to the heroes: the Doomslayer believes Doomsday to be an infection, so it plans to destroy Earth as it considers Earth to be ground zero for Doomsday's "infection." The Doomslayer also expresses remorse for killing the Eradicator, but suddenly attacks Doomsday with its laser vision. Superman defends Doomsday, saying that while Doomsday maybe a mass murderer, the fact that the Doomslayer achieved sentice shows that Doomsday has the potential for redemption. But the Doomslayer refuses to listen and attacks the heroes. However, the heroes escape the ship with the original Doomsday. To stop the ship from crashing on Earth, Superman and his allies try to push the ship back into space. However, the Doomslayer reverses the ship's engines to increase the ship's falling speed, giving the ship enough power to destroy a continent. Superman advises Superboy, Supergirl and Steel to escape while he slows the ship down, intending to sacrifice himself. Superboy, Supergirl and Steel reluctantly agree. The ship falls in Metropolis's bay and creates a massive tidal wave. However, Superboy's tactile-telekinesis, Supergirl's cold breath and Steel's gravitron source dissipate the tidal wave, saving Metropolis. Superman crawls out of the sea, wounded but alive. Suddenly, the Doomslayer attacks the city with the four Doomsday clones.[10]
The Doomsday clones spread across the world, wreaking havoc. Supergirl fights attacks Cyborg Doomsday in a nuclear lab, Steel fights Superboy Doomsday in Moscow, and Superboy fights Steel Doomsday in Haiti. In S.T.A.R. Labs, Superman, Lois and Dr. Kimiyo Hoshi use the original Doomsday's body to try and find a way to stop the Doomsday clones. Suddenly, Doomsday awakens, but the Eradicator speaks through him. The Eradicator that, as a being of pure information, he leapt into the technology Luthor used to clone Doomsday so that he could control the original Doomsday. Also, the Eradicator says that he can help Superman against the Doomsdays. Meanwhile, the Doomslayer directs the Doomsday clones from his tower. His plan is to get the Doomsdays reach Earth's core so that he can expand the universe inside the tower and destroy the planet from within. Superman uses an accelerator to reach the Doomslayer's tower before its defenses detect him. Meanwhile, Earth's heroes begin fighting the Doomsdays. Reaching the Doomslayer's tower, Superman flies through a tunnel that leads to the ship's core. To stop him from foiling his plan, the Doomslayers powers up the ship's informational engines. Meanwhile, the Eradicator defeats Steel Doomsday, but he begins to feel that Doomsday's mind is beginning to regain control of the body. To continue the battle, Zatanna teleports the heroes to Moscow. In the ship's core, Superman finds information about the Doomsday Supergirl threw into a tunnel. The Doomsday spent years trapped inside the tunnel, conscious and fueled by rage. The heroes reach Moscow and continue their attack. Meanwhile, the Doomslayer blasts Superman with the ship's informational engines.[11]
The blast from the ship's informational engines does not destroy Superman, instead it converts him into data and transfers him into the ship's informational engines, where he meets the ship's artificial intelligence. The AI reveals that the ship is actually a sentient creature from another universe that got injured during a journey. When it was healing itself, Luthor attacked it and modified it to suit his needs. When Supergirl threw the Doomsday clone through the creature's tunnels, it was infused with the creature's knowledge, becoming the Doomslayer. Superman tells the creature that it can help, so the creature shows its internal schematics, teaching Superman how to repair it. When Superman learns everything he needs, the creature returns him to solid form. The Eradicator, meanwhile, defeats Superboy Doomsday in Moscow, and Zatanna teleports him to the ship and the heroes to Kansas, where they help Supergirl defeat Cyborg Doomsday. With the clones defeated, the heroes throw them down into the pit the tower is located in, since the tower will also teleport things that are close to it. In the tower's bridge, Superman manages to activate a sequence that will teleport the tower to its home before it reaches Earth's core. Suddenly, the Doomslayer attacks him but the Eradicator appears to help Superman. Although Doomslayer protests that "murderer and victim" cannot work together, Superman grimly notes that the Doomslayer is repeating Luthor's mistake of believing that life must have simple solutions, reflecting grimly that the current alliance is because life is complicated. Although the Doomslayer is defeated, the Eradicator, knowing that Doomsday will soon regain control, tells Superman that it was an honor fighting alongside him before throwing out of the tower, seconds before it teleports away into another dimension. Later, Clark and Lois eat dinner in a restaurant. There, Clark admits to Lois about the Eradicator's sacrifice and that Luthor found out about his double life, but it didn't change anything. He also says that maybe he should reveal his secret identity, but Lois says that is not necessary, since the people trust Superman no matter what happens. Clark and Lois then return home.[12]
In addition to the Steel one-shot, the crossover includes issues of Justice League of America, Outsiders, Superman/Batman, Superboy and Action Comics.[13][14]
From May the storyline is being retitled, The Reign of the Doomsdays