This event seems to be doomed
You know, when I first heard about the announcement of Superman: Doomed, I still managed to delude myself into thinking that there would be something redeemable about the series. Sure I was skeptical, but having Greg Pak on board, who has written an amazing superman even in the short time period he was given, actually gave me a bit of hope that the series had something do it other than the idea that OH GOLLY, DOOMSDAY CAN'T BE STOPPED! so I gave it a chance. And let me make it clear, I regret that decision.
Look lets not kid ourselves here, we all know what's going to go down in this issue(or series in general), it's just to f*cking obvious. (Spoilers in the following sentence) Superman kills doomsday, but funnily enough, I did not mind it here. Why you ask? because the writers set the situation up in a way that everything is blown out of proportion. Doomsday is basically a walking death machine, literally. Not only is he strong as hell, but the fact that he walks means someone will instantly die within 10 seconds. I'm not kidding, he can suck out the life force out of you or something along thous lines. The concept itself isn't that bad, and given the ridiculous circumstances of the situation, superman would be a complete jackass if he didn't kill doomsday at this point. But what is completely baffling is that they managed to screw up a legitimately good concept. It's like DC has forgotten what subtlety means any more. Doomsday is already tearing havoc everywhere and there is honestly very little build up to clarks ultimate decision to end it all. They have numerous ti-ins as well a completely separate mini-event so maybe it's not completely unreasonable for me to think that they'd at least take some time with the decision? Sadly, it's not like the writers created circumstances to actually let superman think things through. It's either THIS or THAT, which is a damn shame. Was that the point though? Was it supposed to be this quick? Was this one of thous action speaks louder than words scenarios? I have no clue, I honestly don't.
Moreover, as mentioned before they try to cram a lot of material into this one issue and it really falls flat on it's face. The lois/lana sub plot is okay at best but the dialogue seems really off and kinda out of character for Lana(can't say much about Lois). It's not that she seemed like a different character but with everything going on they couldn't flesh her out, which again, makes the whole thing feel very, very rushed. Then you have Lex luthor popping out of nowhere with a half-arsed plan on how superman just has to leave earth in order to save everyone, because, you know, he's the biggest source of energy on planet earth, which is something Doomsday is after. This would be fine if..oh I don't know, earth didn't have 100 other super-powered beings who could just as easily become doomsdays target for consumption. Ugh. I still maintain that superman isn't a bad person for offing doomsday, because at this point it was basically like killing a wild bear on a rampage rather than killing an actual being with a conscious. But what is absolutely hilarious that they provide superman with a perfect opening to allow him to take this battle somewhere else. This isn't like the situation with Zod where superman couldn't take him into space, because Zod would have just come back, considering he wanted to hurt people(Also it helps that Zod can ACTUALLY f*cking fly). Here, Supes basically incapacitates Doomsday for a short period of time, and instead of taking his opportunity to gather up his strength and take the monster deeper into space while he had the chance, he goes back to smallville (wha?). Did he think that the near unstoppable being was dead?just like that? And why was he satisfied with himself? At least show that he's upset about it!( Not to worry though, Pak takes care of that) And why the f*ck would he go to Smallville of all places? Couldn't he make sure that the being who most scientists deemed to powerful even for someone like superman, was dead?Did he want to put people in danger? It doesn't make sense, and if it doesn't make sense, it's bad.
An last but not least, now I have to find something positive in the issue and talk about it long enough to make me doubt how sh*t the whole thing is. Despite the fact that the dialogue is mostly crap, there were segments, specifically for superman which I really enjoyed. The scene where he asks for advice is extremely well written and actually made me a bit sad about supermans position. The art was great too, Doomsday looked like an absolute beast and I honestly think this is one of the best design I've ever seen for him. The art is definitely a treat. What further restored my hope was greg paks action comics issue which ties into the events that take place here. There we actually got to look at what superman is going through, and how his whole morality is going to be put to the test. and yes, the issues is so sh*t that I have to talk about other installments to make me forget how f*cked the situation is.
I don't think I have to mention my verdict, because if you've come this far then I think it's pretty obvious. Lets just hope the ti-ins and further issues rectify some of the mistakes made here.
