Things You Didn't Know About Doomsday

The second trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is chock full of spoilers that have left some fans hungry for more and others wondering what secrets could possibly be left in the movie. And while the trailer mostly focuses on the sparring between the two heroes, the ending has a big surprise in that it reveals that Lex Luthor isn't the only villain in the film: there's also one of Superman's greatest foes, Doomsday. If you're not a comics fan, you may not be aware of just who Doomsday is. This should get you up to speed with what the character was before the movie.

Doomsday's big claim to fame is that he killed Superman. It was a big deal when it happened back in 1992 that made international headlines in the real world. Doomsday is given virtually no backstory, he simply appears, half-restrained by an unknown person or people, and he lays waste to everything in his path including the Man of Steel. The fight rages from the middle of nowhere to the heart of Metropolis and culminates in both titans beating each other to death in front of the Daily Planet.

When we finally do get some Doomsday backstory, it's a hell of a thing. Originally he's called the Ultimate, created by a scientist from another world on prehistoric Krypton, hundreds of thousands of years before Superman's race evolved. The Ultimate is sent to the harsh surface of Krypton, a deadly world full of extreme conditions and terrible creatures and promptly dies. The scientist then collects the remains and clones the Ultimate again. Over and over he's killed by the horrors of ancient Krypton and then cloned and sent back, the pain of his deaths a part of his genetic memory, each new life adapting, growing stronger and more hate-filled until he dominates all life on the planet and can survive all of its harsh conditions. The Ultimate becomes so powerful he kills his own creator and escapes Krypton on a supply ship, making his way across the universe and leaving chaos in his wake.

Whole worlds fall victim to the Ultimate before he finds his way to Earth, not to mention scores of Green Lanterns who try to destroy him and fail. He even almost goes head to head with ultimate DC supervillain Darkseid at one point in his past, but Darkseid flees after the world they would have been fighting over is destroyed. It isn't until the Ultimate comes to a world called Calaton which he stomps into the ground for three years until only the capital city remains, that he finally meets his match. The royal family on Calaton combine their powers to create a new being, the Radiant, who's able to destroy the Ultimate. But not for good. They bind his body in restraints and fire his metal casket into space until he ultimately crashes on Earth.

When Doomsday first crashes to Earth, his casket goes deep into the crust of the planet and he fights his way out, still restrained from his time on Calaton. When he finally breaks free, one arm is still tied behind his back. Despite this, he manages to take on the entire Justice League including a Green Lantern named Guy Gardner, Booster Gold, Maxima, the Blue Beetle, Fire, Ice, and a character actually named "Bloodwynd" (the '90s were weird). Doomsday hits Booster Gold so hard he nearly knocks him into orbit. Superman, late to the party, catches Booster in time for the defeated hero to say "it's like Doomsday is here" and thus the Ultimate gets a new name. The worst part of the team's efforts to take on Doomsday are that, rather than damage or even slow him down, they succeed in only helping him shed his restraints so that he can become even more dangerous.

Thanks to the bizarre way in which Doomsday was created, Superman is at a disadvantage from the very beginning when it comes to fighting the nearly unstoppable beast. Doomsday's time on ancient Krypton instilled in him at a genetic level a desire to destroy anything Kryptonian. He's therefore able to not only sense that Superman is an enemy, but more than any of the other heroes that fight against him, he's an enemy that absolutely has to be destroyed. Superman has little hope of getting out of the fight alive. And he doesn't. Except...

Though Superman and Doomsday seem to destroy each other, and Superman is given a full funeral and is replaced by four new, different Supermen, the real Superman simply isn't so easy to take out. After his "death," comics readers received a story called "The Reign of the Supermen," featuring a cloned teenage version of Superman, a cyborg, a man in a steel suit, and the Last Son of Krypton (a being who seems to be a much more angry and deadly version Superman). As the story progresses, it's revealed that the Last Son is a reformed former enemy of Superman's called the Eradicator. The Eradicator had stolen Superman's body and placed it in a regeneration chamber in the Fortress of Solitude. The real Superman, weak, but alive, returns shortly thereafter.

After Doomsday falls, the cyborg Superman takes custody of Doomsday's body and straps it to an asteroid. He's then hurled into space, on a trajectory that would keep him away from any planets. And naturally, this ends with a glimpse of Doomsday, still very much alive, laughing maniacally as he hurtles through space. Doomsday has since gone on to cause all kinds of trouble, including a few more run-ins with Superman. But none of those incidents have seemed as big a deal as that original throwdown. Now that we know Doomsday is one of the foes Superman and Batman are going to have to take on in their new movie, don't be surprised if the big guy goes down—but not permanently—in the end. Of course, given that the trailer seems to imply he's made in a lab by Lex Luthor from the dead body of General Zod, maybe none of Doomsday's comic book history will be relevant and this will be an all new fight. Either way, Batman is going to want to stand behind Superman when the fists start flying.