Superman: Doomsday

Death and Return of Superman 2016 Edition #5

by Dan Jurgens, Jerry Ordway

HE IS RELENTLESS. HE IS UNSTOPPABLE. HE IS DOOMSDAY.

Superman travels to the nightmare world of Apokolips for a confrontation with Doomsday, the creature who cost the Man of Steel his life. With the help of the mysterious, time-traveling Waverider, Superman at last discovers the shocking truth of his greatest enemy's origin. And just when he thinks the terror is finally over, the murderous juggernaut returns to Earth even more powerful than ever!

DAN JURGENS (SUPERMAN: LOIS & CLARK), JERRY ORDWAY (ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN) and others pen the sequel to the Earth shattering epic of the Death and Return of Superman by exploring the ramifications of Doomsday's return. Collects DOOMSDAY ANNUAL #1, SUPERMAN: THE DOOMSDAY WARS #1-3, and SUPERMAN/DOOMSDAY: HUNTER/PREY #1-3!

Genres: Comics, Superman, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

344 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1998

About the author

Dan Jurgens is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for his work on the DC comic book storyline "The Death of Superman" and for creating characters such as Doomsday, Hank Henshaw, and Booster Gold. Jurgens had a lengthy run on the Superman comic books including The Adventures of Superman, Superman vol. 2 and Action Comics. At Marvel, Jurgens worked on series such as Captain America, The Sensational Spider-Man and was the writer on Thor for six years. He also had a brief run as writer and artist on Solar for Valiant Comics in 1995.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Collecting the post Death of Superman battles with Doomsday, it just shows how much of a one note character Doomsday is. These are some really poorly written Dan Jurgens books.

Superman / Doomsday: Hunter / Prey - 3 stars
Superman has a dream about Doomsday and decides to go into space to find him. Coincidentally, the asteroid Doomsday is strapped to has been found by a spaceship headed to Apokolips and Doomsday gets free. Doomsday and Cyborg Superman beat up Darkseid and Superman shows up to save the day. We find out Doomsday's origin story. Doomsday get transported off Apokolips and Superman recruits Waverider to help him take out Doomsday. There they get rid of Doomsday what should have been permanently.

Doomsday Annual - 0 stars
A real piece of garbage. Just a cash grab of past stories of Doomsday destroying worlds and then hopping a ship off planet in each one.

Superman: The Doomsday Wars - 1 star
Doomsday comes back with Braniac controlling him. There's this whole convoluted plot where Superman is transporting Lana Lang's baby while fighting Doomsday. It's beyond dumb. And of course, Braniac's future tech is able to save Lana's baby. At one point Doomsday jumps in a fighter jet in midair and flies it. Doomsday wouldn't even fit in the cockpit, let alone have the dexterity to operate the controls. Oh and there's a long drawn out flash back of Clark not being able to save Pa's herd of cattle from freezing to death when he was a teenager. Then we are bludgeoned over the head with the life lesson learned from said flashback. I shudder when I think about reading this garbage.

[Rory Toohey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, a story that began with a bunch of punching ends with a bunch of punching. Oh well.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would consider this a sort of epilogue to the Death and Return of Superman story arc since it fills in some gaps in that arc and extends the story into some new places. Questions are answered that I would have expected to have answered long before this, but better late than never. There's also some comic book bs here, but not to the point of putting me off the story. A fitting terminus for one of DC's major stories, which still has relevance to its universe today.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superman: Doomsday

The unthinkable has happened. Doomsday, whose dead body was consigned to the depths of space following the death of Superman, has been rescued by Darkseid. On Apokalips, Superman discovers the origin of the deadly monster and goes to destroy Doomsday once and for all.

The graphics and plot are consistently good and the books serves as a nice epilogue to 'The Death of Superman'. However, in revealing the history of this great menace, the writers have softened the overall impact of this killing machine and diminished the horror of the character.

[Ivy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 🌟

Superman goes to find and stop Doomsday again.

[Gilly Singh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars is a kind rating. This volume feels like a cobbling together of various shorter one off stories which were cash-ins after the previous success of the Death of Superman and Return of Superman story arc. The artwork is generally as terrible as the story telling.

Story one gives us a "final fight" between Superman and Doomsday and, whilst the good guy wins in the end, the victory is not v satisfactory at all. It feels like a shame after some of the high points of the earlier story arc.

Story two is the retelling of several episodes in the life of Doomsday. Its set to the background of survivors of Doomsday's time on earth trying to come to terms with their losses.

Doomsday, in a sense, doesn't really return or get defeated in the third story included here. Nor is it a prequel. It is just a throwaway adventure staring Brainiac, the only redeeming feature of which is that it includes the best art work of this collected volume.

As a whole, this could be missed and I would only ever recommend it to completists.

[Stavros Blackmore · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fookin ride! Hank Henshaw, Brainiac and Darkseid in one TPB??? How could this go wrong? Great stories and we finally get the origins of Doomsday, which contributes to making him a bit more than the one-dimensional villain we knew up until reading this. Great storylines, the dialogue is of course '90s-ish but it didn't bother me at all, which tells a lot about how breathtaking and action-packed this book was!

Definitely recommended!

[John Yelverton · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was nice to see the origins of Doomsday. That being said, it was also not nice to see the origins of Doomsday. Putting a face on a monster humanizes the monster. Why can't he just simply be this evil thing, like the Joker?

[Heath Fodor · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a Superman collection from the 90s. Lots of blood. Seeing decapitations in a Superman comic was odd and pretty gross. I kind of hated this book. It was created by Dan Jurgens post-The Death of Superman. It just made this period of comics more unreadable to me.

[Timmavajjula Venkata karthik · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you wondered what inspired the look of doomsday in Batman V Superman, this is the comic you want to pick up. Doomsday was never a single entity. It was an algorithm to create the perfect being.

The artwork is stunning and it’s a great story to read.

[Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this deserves more of a two and half star rating to be honest. Everything was going pretty good I liked the first section, Hunter/Prey which explained what Doomsday actually was and how he came to be - a concept I don't think for one minute DC writers had the first idea of when they started the whole misguided "Death of Superman" saga, by the way. Jurgens did a good job w/that, lot's of action and sci-fi space saga which always get me. Then the mid part, the Doomsday Annual was okay, a series of short stories showing the evil that Doomsday did during history, was a bit of filler if you ask me, DC still trying to cash in on the Doomsday sales boom, but was okay, the stories were short and snappy and read fast. The last part was pure absolute tired boiler plate dreck though and unfortunately it took up about the last 100 pages of the book. Awful. I didn't even read the verbose self-indulgent self-serious hog wash of the last few pages. It's a freakin' comic book man, lighten up Jurgens!
I still love Superman but reading some of these 'very important' story lines I wonder what the hell am I doing w/my life! Ha, ha, now onto some more comix!

[Greg Callahan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better action and art than the first four volumes, certainly less dated. Overall, it's entertaining and moderately enjoyable, but I couldn't stand the depiction of Superman when teaming up with Waverider. Supes was so mean, despite knowing the terrible consequences that could come from interfering with the timeline. I get he's frustrated by their inability to help, but I just feel like the Superman I've always enjoyed reading understood and respected the capability of others to give aid. It's not that the Linear Men don't want to help, but that in helping they could devastate the timeline. And yet Supes acted like a petty child denied a ride to the zoo. Just felt dumb and unlike Superman. Everything else, though, was more enjoyable than expected.

[Sean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Doomsday is obviously a big deal in the world of Superman but he shouldn't be used too much as it lessens his impact. That's the case here as three stories are collected and only one is decent. The Hunter/Prey story is solid. We get to learn about Doomsday's origin somewhat and what happened after his "death". While dated, it was a good read. Dan Jurgens had fun showing how brutal his can be. The Doomsday annual was an incredible bore. The Doomsday Wars book was odd and pointless. It was also an ill-fitting title. The overuse of another Superman villain was present here as well. The art was good in both limited series. Overall, a good book for completists but not enthralling.

[Sebastian Lauterbach · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume is essential, if you want to know why Doomsday appeared on Earth and what happened to him after the events of 'Death and Return of Superman'.

This book answers questions, I would have liked rather answered in that Omnibus.

It covers two main arcs and I did like both of them, although they did feel a little rushed. But a nice array of characters is included in both stories.

All in all, this is almost essential after 'Death and Return of Superman', but since I sold that omnibus, I'm going to sell this trade as well.

[Ahdom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really pleased with how the Doomsday arc ended. This last comic has some great twists and turns and some incredible action scenes! There are parts I thought were lazy writing, but it was still really a great story. It was a faster and more interesting read than most of the volume entries, save for the original Death of Superman volume. This was a fun series to get through and now I know the whole story, which was a pretty big DC event.

[Clint the Cool Guy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really Good

This makes nice bookends for the death of Superman series. Has both the origin of Doomsday and two sequels. One thing I didn't like was for the origin of Doomsday, the author either doesn't understand how evolution works or doesn't care. The way evolution is shown to work in this story is not at all how it actually works. But that quibble aside, the story is great. Very enjoyable.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am an unabashed Superman fan, and this one is great. Superman's battle with the invincible Doomsday continues, sprawling across worlds in an endless struggle between the Apollonian and the Dionysian. Law vs. Chaos. Light vs. Darkness. Hope vs. Despair. It is a Manichean contest between the forces of love, and the forces of hate. Long live Superman!

[Hugo Emanuel · Rating 3 out of 5]

As like with most of Jurgen's writing, who is the writer for most of these stories, its simplistic super-hero fare, with not much of note, but nonetheless engaging.

As a coninuation of the story of Doomsday, it has its interest, but feels slightly like a throwaway volume of lesser stories connected to the Death of Superman saga.

5/10

[Graham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unnecessary elaboration on Doomsday providing him with an origin. Doomsday works best being a one off villain since there really isn't anything there. The final three issue miniseries in this collection is especially forgettable, and the usually very dependable Dan Jurgens does a serious rush job on the art.

[Rob Hicinbothem · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why I love this comic book

This comic was amazing the story the art was all top notch I have no complaints. The back story worked for the originally mindless killing machine was a stroke of genius!!! The final battle between Superman and Doomsday I feel had more behind it than the first fight between the to because this time there was history between them.

[Dominic Sedillo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Superman with luscious long hair is one of my favorite eras of the Man of Steel.

Doomsday does some cool stuff in this follow up to the Death of Superman arc, but could never really follow up to killing him. I mean, how do you follow that up?

I had a good time and was reminded how bold the ‘90s were in comics.

[Dave Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume presents Superman's second and third rounds of combat with the behemoth that caused his death. Doomsday's origins are revealed. These stories convincingly portray how Superman can face genuine threats and moral quandaries despite his many powers.

[Brent Corey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Woof. I understand why this was included in the Death of Superman collection but boy howdy did I not need or care for the origin of Doomsday or the subsequent watered down fights here. This is a real stinker and can be skipped in this series.

[Richard Dominguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent read, including Doomsday Annual #1, Superman/Doomsday: Hunter Pray 1-3 and Superman: The Doomsday Wars 1-3.
Great reading with some of the best illustrations I have seen in a while. The final story Doomsday Wars well worth the price of admission.

[Bud Winn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great! Brings back memories from childhood

[Nicolas Ferrer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Doomsday fue fabricado en Krypton, se pegan mucho y lo dejan en el limbo, vuelve, se pegan mucho y lo vuelven a dejar en el limbo. No mucho más q eso.

[Rich Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very episodic and not as good as the others in the series, still interesting

[Martinvolumen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excelente tomo, compila diferentes historias que debelan mucha información sobre Doomsday del que no sabiamos practicamente nada en Death of Superman, entretenida y muy agil la lectura

[Damián · Rating 3 out of 5]

Digna continuación que explora la historia de Doomsday (Hunter/Prey). El tomo también trae Doomsday Wars, no del todo bien escrita pero pasable.

Guion: 6.5
Dibujo: 7

[Jonathan Compton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Superman at its best. I really enjoyed what they did with Doomsday. Definitely read if you like Superman.