RC: And now we come to another "god issue" that sometimes angers people: Darkseid, Doomsday and Superman in Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey. Darkseid really seemed to get bludgeoned by Doomsday, like he had no chance against Doomsday. In the Doomsday: Year Oneannual, however, it seemed like Darkseid would have had somewhat of an equality with Doomsday. Was it your intention to show Doomsday as, like, orders above Darkseid inHunter/Prey?
DAN JURGENS: It’s funny, but somebody emailed me about this not too long ago.
RC: I saw that email on the Web.
DAN JURGENS: The idea that we were trying to portray is the natural immunity that Doomsday would develop toward whoever he was fighting. In such case, it becomes very hard for Darkseid to defeat him.
My answer to that question in general is that . . . you take Doomsday, you take Darkseid, you put them in a pit and have them fight it out to death. If you do that ten times, you’re looking at a five-five or six-four split.
RC: Some people got the impression from Hunter/Prey that Darkseid could never win against Doomsday.
DAN JURGENS: I think that on that one given time [in Hunter/Prey] . . . yes, but I also think that Darkseid is a smart guy. (Laughs).
RC: What if you threw Darkseid in that pit with no preparation or anything like that?
DAN JURGENS: Because of brute power and the natural immunity that Doomsday genetically develops, Doomsday has the advantage. But my theory is that the next time they fight, Darkseid knows that he’s been defeated and takes countermeasures.
RC: So, in your opinion, if Darkseid fought Doomsday without employing technology and strategy, Doomsday would win every time?
DAN JURGENS: Yes. Right.
RC: All right . . . another Darkseid/Superman question: If Superman got hit with the Omega Effect like Doomsday did in Hunter/Prey, would he have survived it like Doomsday did?DAN JURGENS: Yes. Yeah. I’ve always had the pretty profound conviction that if Superman got hit by the Omega Effect, that he would survive.
RC: Do you believe, then, that Darkseid is far less powerful than Superman-that it is Darkseid’s political machinations and his dangerous mind that makes him a threat to Superman, not his power?
DAN JURGENS: Exactly.
RC: But you did write in the preface to the Hunter/Prey trade paperback that Doomsday defeating Superman is one thing . . . but Doomsday defeating Darkseid takes Doomsday to awhole other level.
DAN JURGENS: We needed Doomsday to defeat Darkseid for people to understand that Doomsday was a multi-dimensional threat.
RC: Then was is that Doomsday defeating Apokolips took Doomsday to a whole other level?
DAN JURGENS: Well, I say it’s more like that. You know, if you go back to the Kirby Darkseid stories, Darkseid was never set up to be the all-powerful type of being. To me, Highfatherwas always set up to be the more powerful, omnipotent sort of being than was Darkseid. Darkseid had power in that he was able to control people around him. People were terrified of him.
I always say with guys like Darkseid and Lex Luthor . . . how come everybody fears these guys? They never do anythingbad. You know, you go back to the Kirby stories and everybody talked about how bad Darkseid was and see that, yeah, Apokolips was always a terrible place to live, but . . . gee, I don’t know if we ever saw him do terrible, evil, awful things on a frequent basis. And so I think Darkseid, because he wields the tremendous army and power of Apokolips . . . he is powerful, in a galactic sense.
RC: So in your opinion, in terms of sheer power, it’s clear that Superman and Doomsday are both above Darkseid?
DAN JURGENS: Right.
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