33 Years After The Death of Superman, DC Finally Reveals Doomsday’s Greatest Secret

The legacy of Doomsday was etched in stone the moment he succeeded in killing Superman, shocking the world in the 1993 “Death of Superman” event. Now after 33 years that story has been rewritten, revealing Doomsday was never the character fans believed, but a hero designed for his own mission… as the savior of the entire DC Universe.

This massive change to canon has been dropped just as the destruction of the DC Universe seems unavoidable, as Darkseid nears a total victory thanks to the DC K.O. event. Whether this sudden change to the origin and powers of Doomsday can save the day or not, fans will need to be sitting down to process the canon rewrite making the Kryptonian villain into the “Absolute Champion” of the universe.

Doomsday Was Created To Be Darkseid’s Equal, Not A Superman Villain

For those who haven’t kept up with the wondrous madness of DC K.O. or the year of stories which preceded it, Doomsday has returned after spending several thousands of dying, resurrecting, and evolving. Now joining the side of the heroes as an older, wiser, and far more superpowered being known as “Time Trapper.”

Witnessing Darkseid’s invasion of the main DC Universe and the slaughter of the Justice League, the ‘villain formerly known as Doomsday’ traveled back in time to warn Earth’s heroes of their coming destruction. The DC K.O. tournament was launched to select a Darkseid-level champion, but Doomsday also exposed one of DC’s biggest secrets: he was not the product of a mad Kryptonian scientist, but a weapon engineered to kill Darkseid himself.

Doomsday’s Resurrection Powers Are A Secret DC Has Kept For 30+ Years

The bombshell discovery arrived in the pages of Justice League: The Omega Act Special #1, taking readers back to Krypton long before its destruction, as Superman’s own mother Lara unearthed the wreckage of a top secret—and seemingly ceremonial, even ancient—science installation. It turns out that long before Darkseid’s name was even famous, the myths of a walking, talking embodiment of anti-life had spread across the cosmos. So the Kryptonians set to work.

In defiance of this anti-life, this “Final God,” or Omega being, the scientists engineered their own antithesis to oppose him in every way. Of course, their own creation of an “Absolute Champion” escaped containment and fled to Earth in the comic event we all know. But the true nature of their test subject, their engineered Alpha to Darkseid’s Omega, is finally explained to Doomsday in Superman #35 by Josh Williamson and Eddy Barrows.

A holographic record of Lara gathered from the Fortress of Solitude is brought to Doomsday directly, fully enlightening him as to his true power level. Up to this point, it was assumed that the un-killable test subject was designed to be a weapon, in need of the right force or champion to properly wield it. Ironically, even Doomsday was thinking too small.

Expanding on the idea of the Kryptonians creating ‘an alpha to the omega,’ Lara explains that Doomsday was not meant to be Darkseid’s equal in power or lethality, but his opposite. It is for that reason Doomsday was given the ability to be reborn, no matter how he was killed. In a drastic rewriting of Doomsday’s main ability, Lara reveals this gift was designed to be used at far greater scale: to cancel out Darkseid’s energy as a force of death and destruction. Setting the stage for a showdown nobody, and we mean nobody, ever expected to see.

Doomsday’s Secret Role As The ‘Alpha’ of The DC Universe Rewrites History

With so much information dropped onto him at once, the issue ends with Doomsday leaving to plan his next move, claiming he has “Just enough power left… for one last… life.” which leaves fans to consider the true ramifications of this massive change to DC Comic canon.

From this day forward, the clash between Superman and Doomsday will forever be a tragic misunderstanding, unknowingly pitting Krypton’s last son against the most hopeful scientific advancement his people may have ever attempted. But that is now in the past; it’s what happens next that will likely define Doomsday for the foreseeable future.

If things proceed according to the designs of his creators, then Doomsday may use his powers of rebirth and life to ascend to Darkseid’s level, and go to war. But it seems too coincidental for Superman to be ‘killed’ alongside this revelation, with Doomsday suddenly remade as a cosmic force of resurrection. Could his plan to use his power for “one last life” refer to the Man of Steel, as a means of fulfilling his mission to defeat Darkseid?

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!

5 Great Superman Moments That Defined The ‘10s