Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice kept one side of the monstrous Doomsday ambiguous, but the TV series Superman & Lois provided a clear answer. Doomsday is famous as the beast who kills the Man of Steel in the Death of Superman comics story. Doomsday has also been adapted outside of the comics in many different forms.
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Both 2016’s Batman v Superman and the CW’s Superman & Lois utilize Doomsday in their own ways, with both even reworking the character’s origin story in a surprisingly similar manner. However, while Batman v Superman keeps the idea of Doomsday’s memory and sentience an unanswered question, Superman & Lois answers that very question in its final season.
Batman v Superman‘s Doomsday Was Created From General Zod (But Does He Remember Anything?)
Batman v Superman brought Doomsday to life on the big screen as an “Ancient Kryptonian Deformity” created by Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg). Using the genesis chamber of the Kryptonian scout ship that crash landed in Metropolis in Man of Steel, Lex combines his DNA with the corpse of General Zod (Michael Shannon), with Doomsday being the resulting creation. When the Superman vs. Doomsday brawl begins, the two land right in front of the statue of Superman in Hero’s Park, and Doomsday’s reaction to seeing it gives a very subtle hint to who and what he has become, and once was.
Doomsday looks up at the Superman statue with a seemingly perplexed look on his face, before glancing back to Superman himself, with the two then resuming their battle. While it is a brief, non-verbal exchange between the two Kryptonians, Batman v Superman also leaves the meaning of it open to interpretation. It’s as if Snyder is directly asking how much of Zod’s sentience remains active in Doomsday’s mind after the transformation, but with Snyder also deliberately leaving it a question for the audience to decide.
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Superman & Lois‘ Doomsday Is Created From Bizarro (& He Regains His Memory)
Superman & Lois establishes Tyler Hoechlin‘s Bizarro Superman as the Kryptonian who becomes Doomsday. After Bizarro’s ostensible death in Season 2, Lex Luthor (Michael Cudlitz) revives him in Season 3, and transforms him into Doomsday by repeatedly killing and resurrecting him. This causes Bizarro to mutate into the monstrous creature that slays Superman in their battle that ends Season 3 and begins Season 4.
Subsequently, Lois Lane (Elizabeth Tulloch) manages to seemingly calm Doomsday by reminding him of his life as the Superman of his Earth and the family he once had. Later, during Superman’s final battle with Doomsday in the series finale, he prepares to throw Doomsday into the sun (the yellow sun capable of incinerating Bizarro Superman due to his origin in another universe). However, Doomsday finally remembers who he once was and holds his hand up to stop Superman’s incoming punch. Without any dialogue, it is clear that Doomsday is horrified at the monster he has become and the pain he is forced to endure, stretching out his arms and wordlessly asking Superman to end his suffering. The Man of Steel gives him his requested mercy killing.
Batman v Superman & Superman & Lois Approach Doomsday From Two Great Angles
Both Batman v Superman and Superman & Lois use the same basic retcon to Doomsday’s comic book origin story, making him a Kryptonian Superman villain who dies and is resurrected by Lex Luthor in the form of the rampaging Kryptonian monster. At the same time, both also clearly see an opportunity to play with the idea of what such a revival does to the memory of a deceased person brought back to life. In Batman v Superman, Snyder seems to be suggesting that Doomsday’s metamorphosis might have left him too far gone to fully bring back General Zod, leaving him with a shadow of the memory of who he was, but no more.
Superman & Lois works on the other side of the coin with its version of Doomsday, showing Bizarro’s transformation greatly warping his mind, but not to the point of his sentience or memory being irretrievable. Once Bizarro becomes Doomsday, he’s a much more loyal attack dog for Lex than Batman v Superman‘s far more feral version, but one who shows gradual signs of remembering who he was. The fact that Superman & Lois holds off so long on Doomsday regaining his memory and control of his mind seems to point to the show’s creators looking at resurrection from death as impacting memory to a similar extent as Snyder’s films did, but also with the caveat that a person’s essence can always eventually be retrieved, even after they’ve been morphed into a literal monster.
Ultimately, Batman v Superman and Superman & Lois have distinct takes on both Doomsday’s origin story and the death and return of Superman. While both use the same core premise of how Doomsday is created, they also take radically different approach on what does for Doomsday’s mind and memory as a revived Kryptonian. Batman v Superman chooses to leave it a question mark, while Superman & Lois provides a clear answer.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and all four seasons of Superman & Lois are streaming on Max.
