Batman v Superman: 10 Things To Know About Doomsday

The second official trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice revealed the involvement of the iconic Superman villain Doomsday for the first time. Those who’ve followed DC Comics, their animated, live-action or video game adaptations for some time are most likely familiar with the beast and bits and pieces of its story. With superheroes movies becoming the talk of the town nowadays, the genre is raking in a lot of new potential fans who might be on the lookout for quick info before they view a movie.

For those of you new to the DC Universe or fans who just want to brush up on their lore, we’ve put together a collection of ten Doomsday facts. There are more than a few adaptations of the character, including a Superman clone in the animated film Superman: Doomsday and the part-human, part-Kryptonian monster in the Smallville TV series, each with a slightly or wildly different origin story. We’ve restricted the following to facts from the comics.

Spoiler Alert: It’s unknown at this point how the story of Dawn of Justice will play out, but we can’t guarantee there won’t be any similarities between what you read here and what happens in the movie. If you’re new to the DC Universe and would rather not spoil any potential surprises, you might want to steer clear of the content below.

1. Origin Story: Who or What Is Doomsday?

As per the Doomsday’s DC Comics origin story, the iconic villain is the product of a test tube experiment carried out on prehistoric Krypton by an alien scientist called Bertron, long before the humanoid Krytponian species that Superman hails from became the most dominant on the planet.

The scientist’s aim was to create the perfect living being, and to that end, he took a humanoid infant and left him out in the then harsh environment of Krypton till he passed away, using the deceased baby’s tissue to create an evolved clone. He repeated this process several times, causing the infant to evolve with each reincarnation until finally, Doomsday was born. As is common with origin stories of this kind, the monster ended up killing its creator.

Kind of makes you feel sorry for the guy.

2. Doomsday’s Original Name

Doomsday’s original name was “The Ultimate”, given to him by his creator, the aforementioned alien scientist of unknown species, Bertron.

3. How He Came to Be Called “Doomsday”

During his first appearance on Earth and subsequent battle with the Justice League, Booster Gold compares the destruction caused by the monster to the carnage of “Doomsday”. The comment is picked up by news media, after which the beast comes to be known as Doomsday.

4. Mindless Killing Machine Born From Hate

The twisted experiment that forced the humanoid infant to evolve into Doomsday also imbued in him a deep hatred for all living things, turning him into a unstoppable, mindless killing machine.

5. Powers & Abilities

Doomsday has super-strength that can rival that of Dark Seid – he knocked the lord of Apokolips unconscious in a fist fight once and broke Superman’s arm without breaking a sweat. He can match Superman’s super-speed, leap through miles at a time, survive in outer space, and has even been able to withstand the full force of Dark Seid’s Omega Effect.

The villain has an accelerated healing factor that can close up wounds in moments and virtually bring him back to life with a resistance developed to whatever nearly killed him.

Doomsday is also known to spontaneously evolve to develop superpowers that counter those of his opponents or exploit their weaknesses, such as extending his claws to intercept Superman mid-flight or breathing fire to incapacitate the Martian Manhunter. Sounds stupid, we know.

6. Anatomy

During the course of the experiments that created him, Doomsday evolved to live off solar energy. He doesn’t need to eat or sleep and has no vital organs barring a brain and eyes. Those nasty spikes protruding out of his skin? That’s his skeleton.

7. Green Lantern Killer

Doomsday once sought out the Guardians of the Universe and killed hundreds of Green Lanterns! He was ultimately defeated by a Guardian at Oa, who sacrificed his life to send the monster flying through a rip in space.

8. Teaming Up with Superman

Doomsday unwittingly teamed up with Superman on one occasion to defeat Imperiax, a being of pure energy whose purpose is to destroy and recreate the universe with the aim to perfect it. The team-up didn’t go all that well for the beast, as Imperiax reduced him to smoldering pile of bones.

9. Lex Luthor’s Doomsday Reincarnation

After being decimated in a battle with Imperiax, Doomsday was reincarnated by Lex Luthor through use of his remains and Superman’s DNA. This new Doomsday was sentient and could breathe fire, but was much weaker than his older self and is easily defeated by Superman.

10. Superman’s Doomsday Infection (The New 52)

During a decisive battle between Superman and Doomsday in The New 52, Sups ends up having to kill the beast and inhale his disintegrating remains inside his body to prevent him from ever being reincarnated, after which he begins developing excessive aggression and a physical appearance akin to the monster.

Remember that the character in the film might end up having little in common with its DC Comics counterpart. His appearance certainly does, and has as yet received an underwhelming response from the web, with fans comparing the face to that of the cave troll from the Mines of Moria sequence in the first Lord of the Rings film, to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the latest live-action adaptation of the franchise and to Abomination from The Incredible Hulk movie.