Superman/Doomsday

Anybody pick this up? I got to say I was a little disappointed. This just barely resembled the original story, and Adam Baldwin sucked as Superman. So emotionless.

 

Crap. Sorry to admit that I paid to rent it.

 

The original story was a fraud anyway. Let me give you a hint, DC/WB is not going to kill off Superman. They never were, and they never will.

The whole "death of Superman" storyline is legendary in the comic industry for producing one big record-setting sales boom, then an equally-big backlash a few weeks later when they snuck Supes out of the graveyard and back into his normal routine, and readers were left holding worthless "death" issues when it became very clear he wasn't really dead.

Even by the not-always-lofty standards of the comics genre, Doomsday was an exceptionally stupid villain -- just a big rock-covered slug whose entire vocabulary consisted of "khhhh-illlll sssssuuppprrrrmaannnn." At least as far as I remember, there was never any real explanation of why he came and "killed" Superman.

I know a year or so later, they came back and added a whole new back story which explained he had been created/manipulated by Darkseid or Luthor, I don't remember and I don't care. Like millions of others, I had quit buying the books by then anyway.

 

To be fair, Superman did die (unless the issue I read declaring that fact was retconned in one of the several new Crisis storyilnes). But the whole resurrection storyline was wacky. But he was indeed dead. I think what was ballsy about that run was that he was out of the comics for nearly a year. It was like a season of 24 without Jack Bauer.

The followups, like "Superman/Doomsday:Hunter/Prey," was shit. It gave Doomsday a stupid origin as a genetic freak developed on Krypton, so that's the only reason he kept thrashing Superman.

 

Downloaded it. The movie had the standard Bruce Timm look, but it took out the familiar voices and replaced them, I think rather randomly. I mean really was George Newbern really holding out for more money?
So why do it?
I don't think it was particularly well done and I would be one pissed off parent if I had bought it for kids. It does have a PG rating and it was clearly made for fan boys and not kids. But if fan boys were the target, why change so much from the original?
Just dumb, dumb, dumb.
I have higher hopes for the next two DC is doing, but I suspect I'll be disappointed.
In supreme geeky confidence, I think the Justice League cartoon handled Doomsday much better and I wish they had used that as the jumping off point.

 

That Death of Superman/Funeral For a Friend/Reign of the Supermen storyline spawned a bad era in comics, one that made me quit cold turkey after collecting my whole short life.

Knightfall (Oh NO! Batman is in a wheelchair! Oh, wait, he's back. Yay) was a joke. DC was into creating characters just so they could kick the crap out of their biggest stars.

Then Marvel took Wolverine's adamantium away. Done by Magneto, who inexplicably never did that before in numerous battles.

Ugh. Thrashing main characters and putting them in the hospital for a few issues is not a substitute for character development and interesting stories. But to be fair, it's better than the whole "Oh NO! Cyclops and the White Queen are having a 'Psychic Affair!!!!' How will Jean react?!?!?!?!?!" storyline. That's one that clearly was thought up by someone's 12-year-old son.

 

Yeah, they can't have the Joker kill (or cripple) Batman, and they can't have Luthor do it to Superman, because both those guys have been trying to kill the heroes for 65 years now, what makes today their lucky day that they finally get it done?

So they resort to deux ex machinas, these new concocted villains spun out of nowhere, to suddenly become the most fearsome foe they've ever faced, and achieve the victory of at least momentarily defeating them, until the next "SuperUltimateCrisis of InfinitelyUniversal Universes" comes along in six months to completely wipe the continuity off the books and start everything over from scratch. I leaf through the books sometimes on the newsstands, but as soon as I see they're off on another idiotic "event," I toss them back on the stacks.

 

So what you're saying is those who perpetuated this shit need to suffer Starman Justice?

 

Yeah. I'll give them a crisis on infinite earths.