#linear men

[superman86to99]

Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey #2 (May 1994)

At last, we find out Doomsday's secret origin! And then kinda wish we didn't, because it's pretty gnarly. In fact, this might be the most disturbing character origin in all of DC Comics, including Vertigo and that "Dark Multiverse" thing they were doing a while back.

But, before getting to Doomsday, Superman has to deal with the mess he left in Apokolips last issue. Thanks to Doomsday's rampage, the Cyborg Superman has taken over the planet and plans to turn it into a new Warworld so he can take it around the universe, conquering other worlds. Yes, he wants to turn the worst planet in existence even worse.

The Cyborg has easily taken care of Darkseid's Parademons by transmitting a frequency that melts their brains. But where's Darkseid himself? He was last seen taking a good beating from Doomsday, and when Superman runs into him, he's... not in great shape.

"DARKSEID IS. TIRED."

Superman is briefly tempted to leave Darkseid to die, but he ends up dragging him to safety and using the Mother Box he borrowed last issue to heal him, because Superman gonna Superman. Just when Superman is lamenting the fact that he doesn't have enough time to go back to Earth for help, Waverider shows up... only to instantly remind Superman that he can't help, due to his sacred vow as a protector of the timestream.

Superman, however, basically tells Waverider to nut up or shut up and use his temporal powers to give him helpful information about Doomsday. Waverider finally succumbs to Superman's bullying and shows him a vision of a "distant planet" circa 250,000 years ago. The planet seems to be uninhabited except for some spiky monsters who kill anything in their sight and a group of scientists inside a reinforced dome. The leader of the scientists is an alien called Bertron who is obsessed with creating "the ultimate form of life" by any means necessary. Including, we soon find out, baby murder.

Following Bertron's orders, the scientists launch an alien baby into the hostile atmosphere and just sit by and watch while the spiky monsters tear it apart in seconds. Then, they scare the monsters away with their weapons, send someone out there to scoop up whatever's left of the baby, clone a new infant from that DNA, and repeat the whole process.

After 20 years of doing that every day, the baby has evolved to the point that it now takes minutes to be torn apart instead of seconds. Also, it's now considerably uglier.

Within 30 years, some of the scientists are starting to show reservations about working at the baby murdering factory, but the progress is undeniable. By now, the baby (more like a large bald dude) is able to survive in the hostile environment indefinitely and actually fights back against the spiky monsters... who kill him every time anyway, but still. Progress!

An indeterminate number of decades pass, and the "baby" has turned into a big, hulking creature that Bertron calls "The Ultimate." The minutes of survival have stretched into full years as the Ultimate walks across the planet hunting the spiky monsters until none are left. Bertron is ecstatic that his creation has finally become an unkillable killing machine. So... what now? Well, suffer an ironic death at its hands, of course, because it turns out Doomsday remembers the thousands of deaths Bertron put him through.

According to Waverider's narration, Doomsday might have wiped out all life in that planet if he hadn't stumbled upon Bertron's supply ship. He ended up bouncing through the universe like a murderous ping pong ball, until he reached a planet called Calaton, whose royal family had gained metahuman abilities through the amazing power of inbreeding (that's not a joke about royal families, that's in the comic!).

After years of being unable to stop Doomsday, Calaton's royals gave up their lives to form an energy being called the Radiant, who looks like Silver Surfer but powered by cousin porking (miraculously, he seems to have all his limbs). It took a week of fighting and an explosion that destroyed a fifth of Calaton, but the Radiant finally managed to kill Doomsday. Unfortunately, the Calatonians have a strange custom that says they can't destroy the bodies of planet-killing aliens and must instead dress them up in gimp suits...

...and launch them into space, which is how Doomsday ended up crashing into Earth in that capsule he finally escaped in Man of Steel #18. This concludes Waverider's presentation.

Back in the present, Darkseid wakes up from his healing nap just in time to recognize that the Cyborg has launched some missiles at Apokolips' food pens to starve the population, because that's what he'd do too. Superman doesn't feel great about teaming up with Darkseid, but he'd feel even worse if innocents died, so he slows down the missiles while Darkseid gets rid of them with his Omega Beams. Darkseid tries to Omega Beam the Cyborg away, too, but he actually survives the blast (that's two people who CAN "withstand the unsurpassed force of the Omega Beams" in as many issues).

Although the Omega Beam hurt him, the Cyborg uses surrounding machinery to repair himself and, while at it, become a giant mecha. Superman hits him with the full force of his heat vision...

...but once again, eye lasers prove ineffective against the Cyborg, since he just rebuilds himself again, even bigger this time. Darkseid, however, claims he was still recuperating from Doomsday's beating before, but he's in tip-top shape now -- and proves it by hitting Giant Mecha-Cyborg with the REAL strength of the Omega Beams, completely disintegrating him. Sorry for doubting you, eye lasers.

With the Cyborg out of the picture, Darkseid thanks Superman for his help by telling him to get off his planet and go chase Doomsday wherever he is. Deesad reveals where he teleported Doomsday to last issue: Calaton, the planet where they already beat him once, figuring they can just do it again -- but Waverider points out that it's exactly the opposite. Because of Bertron and his gang of baby killers, whenever something kills Doomsday, he evolves to surpass it... which means Superman has no chance against him, either.

Everyone present agrees that Superman is pretty much screwed, but Superman says he doesn't care... while his inner narration shows the opposite. In fact, he's terrified, but he's still going after Doomsday to stop him or re-die trying. TO BE CONCLUDED!

Beard-Watch:

It's coming back! You know a Superman story is getting intense when he hasn't had time to shave in a while.

Don Sparrow points out that Superman's "tough guy stubble" seems to come out of nowhere after Waverider's flashback sequence, but I can think of two explanations for that: A) Superman was affected by some minor chronal energy that caused him to age extra fast, at least around the face, or B) that was a long-ass flashback sequence.

Plotline-Watch:

Okay, disregard what I said last time about this miniseries being hard to place in the continuity: Superman explicitly says he's "stronger" and "better" before blasting the Cyborg with his heat vision, so this is definitely happening during the "super-charged powers" storyline. The only hitch is that this is supposed to be taking place during the period when Superman was constantly breaking things and shooting off his heat vision without meaning to, and there's nothing like that here, but that's for the best because 1) that stuff got pretty annoying and 2) minis like this work better if they're not that tied to the ongoing plotlines. No one wants to see five pages of Jimmy Olsen trying to renew his driving license in the middle of a Doomsday fight.

One reason Waverider decides to get off his ass and help out is that he remembers the time he had to watch Superman get beaten to death without doing anything, so he kinda owed it to him. That happened in The Legacy of Superman #1.

There are a couple of references to Armageddon 2001, the 1991 crossover that introduced Waverider: he mentions he was an "activist" before he became a golden being with a flaming head (he even vandalized a statue of Monarch, his original timeline's super-dictator) and when he shows Doomsday's origin to Superman, we see the same psychedelic effect shown in Armageddon whenever he'd touch a superhero to snoop into their future.

What isn't referenced is the time Superman lived in Apokolips for a while, first as an amnesiac anti-Darkseid revolutionary and then as his mind-controlled "son" (in 1987's Legends crossover), but that's understandable since all those memories were wiped from his mind at the end of that storyline.

Did Darkseid really kill the Cyborg, as Superman seems to think? Nah. We'll find out what really happened soon enough.

Waverider's narration claims that, after Doomsday left that unnamed planet where he was created, the natives found Bertron's lab and became obsessed with genetic experimentation, "sending them down the path of a unique and disastrous future." On that note, Don Sparrow says: "I love the detail on page 27, explaining that had he stayed, Doomsday would have killed the entire planet. It’s like, who cares about some random planet?" Yeah, why are they giving us so much detail about that place?! Weird.

Patreon-Watch:

Our latest Patreon-exclusive article was about Steel Annual #1, an Elseworlds story set during the Civil War that, coincidentally, also features dead kids as a major plot point (Superman writers were in a dark mood in 1994, huh). Read that and more by joining Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, and Gaetano Barreca at https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99!

Also join me in reading more from Don Sparrow, after the jump...

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

On one hand, the concept of each of the covers just being a step by step sequence of the two main characters streaking into battle has a certain power and simplicity. But on the other hand, there’s little to differentiate them (particularly these first two) and it can feel a bit repetitive.  Another detraction is that the computer generated background on the last issue looked like a wall of flame, but shifting the colour to green just looks like a tie-dye pattern, which doesn’t make sense for the story. Still:  Great drawings of both characters.

The first few pages are another good showcase of Jurgens’ unique very tall panel layout, and while it’s mostly exposition (helped a lot by the gradient colour background representing the timestream) there are a few interesting, if odd details about Vanishing Point.  First, what the hell is that pediment on the window of Vanishing point?  It looks a little like Legion villain Validus, but not perfectly so.  Secondly, it’s so eccentric that the time viewer Waverider looks at here is an animated piece of parchment, complete with feather quill pen.

Further along the silhouetted image of an injured Darkseid is very cool.  The colouring is a real star throughout, but I particularly like the gold rim lighting on the red metal of the Cyborg’s face.

As we see Doomsday’s origins, it’s interesting to see how Bertron ages.  He looks like a malevolent E.T.!

The image revealing Doomsday’s final form is a classic, even if he’s starkers.  They also can’t seem to keep his physiognomy straight—if he’s solid mass with no organs, why does he need a belly button?  The ink spatters indicating his killing blow of Bertron are a restrained way of showing something gory is happening.

Calaton looks a lot like the fake Krypton from Adventures of Superman #500, though there’s a lot of nice design that went into a fairly short section of the book.  It’s funny that a story featuring Hank Henshaw, himself an alternate take on Mister Fantastic, would birth the Radiant, who visually is virtually indistinguishable from The Silver Surfer, who also made his debut in Fantastic Four comics. [Max: Ha! They should have brought Inbred Silver Surfer back for the Superman/Fantastic Four crossover featuring the Cyborg...]

Explaining the containment suit and metallic block where we first find Doomsday is a nice touch. 

We talked in a previous review about how Image-comics-inspired the colouring is on this mini-series, but how badass Superman looks throughout is also vaguely reminiscent of Image titles at the time.  The cross-hatching and tough guy stubble appearing (quite suddenly—he had none before his Waverider trance!) makes Superman look pretty tough-as-nails. However later in the book as Superman flies off to confront the Cyborg, his face shows so much concentration he begins to look vaguely like Manny Pacquiao—so you know it’s gonna be a good fight!  

The image of the Cyborg shaking like a ragdoll upon the impact of the Omega beams is a great, electric effect.  The single panel the most similar to Image comics must be on page 43 where Superman’s eyes glow red before blasting the Cyborg’s rebuilt body away.  While the “eyes glow red because he’s mad” effect is done to death today, when this was published, it was rare enough to be pretty exciting.  Darkseid’s march, and dialogue is pretty awesome as he takes care of the threat of the Cyborg Superman.  In that way, this is an odd issue—Superman has almost no effect on the outcome.  It’s Waverider who fills Superman in on Doomsday’s origins, and it’s Darkseid who destroys the missiles, AND dispatches the Cyborg Superman.  I suppose none of that would be possible without Superman’s mercy, helping Darkseid heal, but Superman mostly stands around watching the action in this issue.  Lastly, Waverider on page 46 looks a lot like Arnold Schwarzenegger, and it’s fun to think of his thick Austrian accent trying to make its way around all the timestream techno-jargon Waverider spouts. [Max: "Get to da Vanishing Point!"]

SPEEDING BULLETS:

Wait, did the Cyborg just flat out kill Desaad?  I guess not, but it was a cool line. [Max: He's alive by the end of the issue, but wasn't there a story that revealed Darkseid is constantly killing and recreating Deesad? Maybe he did that off-panel.]

Do you agree with Superman’s hectoring Waverider about giving him information from his unique knowledge of the timestream?  Superman would have some trouble with the old Prime Directive if he were in Starfleet.

Kinda nuts that the female scientist waited THIRTY YEARS to voice her objection to killing an infant all day every day!  There’s a lot of unanswered questions about these scientists.  What are they paid?  Do they get time off? [Max: I always got the impression that these scientists were aliens too, but this time I noticed Bertron says "this world of yours" to them... So I guess they're meant to be [SPOILERS] Kryptonians, from a habitable part of the planet? Their clothes do match the wardrobe in the early parts of World of Krypton, especially that one lady's earrings. Knowing their race, they probably did it just for the love of science... and launching babies.]

I find myself interested in “the beasts” that Doomsday combats while he’s developing.  We’ve never seen them before, or since in any stories set on… that particular planet. [Max: Same here. I like their cartoonish look, too. DC Nation should have done some Roadrunner-type shorts featuring Baby Doomsday escaping the spiky monsters and dying in some wacky new way every week!]

Page 23 they kind of bury the lede, just casually mentioning that if killed, Doomsday revives, evolved past whatever killed it.  That’s a pretty insane power level.

Bertron getting murdered by his creation was actually a pretty good metaphor for Krypton’s scientific community—coldly experimenting for science’s sake, with no thought to the consequence they may face in the future.  More on that in the next issue.

What kind of food do the food pens hold?  Like grain and stuff? [Max: Didn't a Darkseid-themed cereal box show up as a variant cover recently? Yep, found it. It's probably that.]

Everyone--hero and villain--all telling Superman he will for sure lose to Doomsday has to be a knock to his confidence!

#superman #dan jurgens #brett breeding #doomsday #waverider #linear men #apokolips #darkseid #deesad #hank henshaw #krypton #superman/doomsday: hunter/prey #silver surfer but powered by cousin porking #get to da vanishing point

[fancyfade]

I see they're explaining how Steel lived finally (Besides you know, Apokaliptan technology)

Superman: the man of steel #118

IDK if I just missed it earlier, but I knew superman asked Black Racer to let Steel live but I didn't know if he actually succeeded in convincing him.

anyway, black racer when superman asks him to let steel live

#superman #clark kent #liri lee #hunter #linear men #black racer #dc comics #fade reads dc comics #superman: man of steel #our worlds at war #john henry irons #steel

[mariesk]

if you read nothing else of mine please read this

#i’m not kidding #it means so much to me #martin odegaard #arsenal fc #men’s football rpf #archive of our own #mason mount #royalty au #new chapter #non linear narrative be warned

[radioactive-earthshine]

So speedsters using their powers are crumbling reality... this is a plot point from Star Trek TNG when they tried to say that traveling faster than a certain warp speed had damaging impact on space/time.

#not a fan of this plot sorry and i hate the whole plot of the linear men #time cops never appeal to me in the slightest #sorry

[baezdylan]

how are you so burnt when you're barely on fire?

The Eleventh Hour | Amy's Choice | The Pandorica Opens

#amy pond #doctor who #amy pond 🌻 #dw the most show ever #have 0 energy to elaborate on this because i need SLEEP but here it is anyway lmao #mine 🧫 #amy's choice the episode that you are #-> episode that gives me nightmares. HER FRIENDS CALL HER ALASKA. or smth. it's not important #Hard-Hearted Barbara Allen :( #she LOVES THE WORLD!!!!! we're punishing her for that? nice. #she is the in-between space... #like space-time!!!!! she is non-linear!!!!! non-narrative!!!!!!! #11 i thought you were a scientist :/// she's like space-time... like the tardis... why don't you get it... #otp: amy + the tardis #because this is about that too. hence blue + orange. #(burning cold!) #I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M SAYING BUT!!!!! the second picture is (on one hand) about cinematography being cruel to her #she is cold! oh how dare she torture these good men! (throwing up.) #but on the other hand... it's the tardis showing her sympathy... if you're blue let me share your sadness... tardis blue... #AND AS SOON AS AMY'S GONE! THE TARDIS PROTESTS!!!!! no blue no orange no one to complement #not to be insane on main (you're used to it) but the REAL love story of 11's era is amy + tardis. you wouldn't get it #NEITHER of them makes sense. 'bigger on the inside?????' + 'the girl who didn't make sense' @dr. you have a type. (how could he resist hm)

[g0tmilkx3]

Idk why ppl think the writers of the bear are dumb and don’t have a storyboard but these writers are fucking fantastic and I trust them to give us an amazing szn 3 shipping aside they always give us the best writing and god the directing is otherworldly they need to be paid™️ their worth bc I wouldn’t survive a pushback or worse a cancellation 🧿

#yes we all hate how Claire was written BUT hear me out #Claire is supposed to be surface and plain #she’s supposed to easily lift out of the story #they’re using her to show us how carmy literally cannot handle a relationship at allll #him popping off at syd when she let the fishes die is a prime example #side note: they need to stop letting them men yell at my girl like that and talk crazy to her #I need the upmost respect in szn 3 #anyways back to my point #yeah this isn’t a fanfic and it won’t pan out like one at all so give that dream up #I’m not saying that to say there would be no romance I’m saying that to say it’s not gonna be linear #if sydcarmy does happen which I think it will in one way shape or form #I think they’ll write their relationship very languid #I think it’d be one of those things that we don’t expect until it happens #but ya the writers are brilliant and I need y’all to study film or something so it’s easier to understand shows like this #bc so much is said in frames and music #wide shots and closeups too #every detail means something and it’s meticulous #uncle jimmy gave us an entire run down of what would happen with carmy and Claire in his baseball story #did we just ignore that lol

[yioh]

the whole csm discourse on twitter is so dumbbbbb oh my god😭

#like fujimoto writes interesting women … why is that so controversial HXKXHDJDN #i feel like ppl are so used to hating male shounen writers that they can’t stand when a good writer gets complimented 😭 #he’s not the father of girlhood or whatever like that’s a p dumb title anyways but the way he writes asa’s character and depicts her #specific girlhood is so cool !! that should be celebrated if anything smh #tbh i kinda wish there would stop being a war between whether shoujo or shounen is better or male or female writers are better #bec both are dynamic and have great and terrible characters + writing #shoujo has a lot of flaws as do female authors but they are different to flaws of shounen and male authors #not to mention men can write for shoujo and women can write for shounen too #shoujo struggles w misogyny too !!!!! #i think it’s more of a societal problem imo #this is a v interesting topic of debate tho i’m sure im missing a lot of nuances but #in the end i think fujimoto is doing a great job and we shouldn’t discredit his successes by saying it’s the bare minimum? #there’s not a linear scale for writing women where 0 is bad and 5 is minimum and 10 is amazing #fujimoto depicts varied women (some written well some not) and his cast of women is so dynamic and interesting and so human !!! i think that #this is something we should see more of! it’s not the bare minimum for me because his characters like quanxi and kobeni and power are so #fulfilling to me #anyone can write amazing and terrible stories regardless of their gender #like their gender definitely influences the type of character they write but i think authors should be seen as a collective instead of #judged upon depending on what gender they are? #many thoughts lol

[ufonaut]

I can look into any being's past or future. Their lives, loves and triumphs... I am voyeur to it all. All save my own. My past will never be. And my future is... infinity.

Waverider/Matthew Ryder in Superman (1987) #73

(Dan Jurgens)

#superman 1987 #matthew ryder #waverider #clark kent #superman #the linear men #dan jurgens #dc #dc comics #dcedit #comicedit #comicsedit #u can reblog #THE WAY DAN WAS COMPLETELY CRAZY FOR THIS OKAY THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #NEED TO BUY THIS AND EAT IT WITH A FORK AND KNIFE

[stormxpadme]

New smut oneshot online here.

In which Angelica, Peter and Bobby should be doing Christmas shopping but decide to do something more fun instead.

#x men #everything after x2 didn't happen sue me #x men original timeline movies #stormys fanfics #shawn ashmore #lily cole #tobey maguire #spider man #peter parker #angelica jones #iceman #editing #xmenart #creative use of organic webs oops #many thanks to tinker bell in the smut army server for inspiration #spider man and his amazing friends #new chapter has the number 12 #because keeping these oneshots in a linear order #and because no one reads them anyway lol #no one not including the loyal souls who keep me afloat #you know who you are

[peejsocks]

bam also makes me feel bittersweet, i think that goes with a lot of jackass though

oh absolutely!! constantly have to remind myself who these guys actually are

with bam is just tougher because we have yet to see him pull through

#and recovery is not linear im just saying #nptnewr #the men i ramble about on tumblr are real people? it does shock me from time to time

[voidbeings-a]

[ TOUCH ]:   while touching veda’s waist, johnny’s hand briefly dips beneath the hem of her shirt, skimming briefly across the bare skin of her waist.

for so long, they could not touch one another. could not exist physically with one another. then, the ultimate sacrifice   ( loved him. lost him. )   /   living with the weight and certainty that they would never meet again. that his sacrifice would have been in vain   ( she was destined to die, anyway, living in a body that’s no longer hers ).   and then, agonies she could never describe. having her genetic code rewritten by some far - out ripperdoc. a madman, in a sense. a lifetime without him, each day feeling just as long. she never tells him any of that.

strange, the disconnect. they can forge a bond in many ways they couldn’t before, but   ...   he cannot see every thought, feel every emotion, or experience every memory. veda is a closed book in a sense, or has evolved into a language he cannot speak. it must be this burning desire for closeness that johnny feels from v, what catapults him into motion. some subconscious understanding they must still have.

they are here, staring at the skyline of new york city. vibrant lights, towering structures, visible even across the distance of the wastelands. another night city, but bigger   ( she believes, last time she heard any statistics, twelve million souls reside in those far off lights ).   more crime, more people, more violence. veda feels johnny shift behind her, closing the already small gap of space between their bodies. like a generator, he is warm   ——   his embrace is welcome and comforting, she leans into it. dark head of hair rests back against his shoulder, but suddenly there is lightning !  a shock of electricity against her skin as his hand   ( innocently, or not )   skates beneath her shirt. flirts with the low hemline of her pants and the most sensitive part of her belly. sharply, v inhales a breath that shudders through her entire body. she rocks back on her heels into his solid figure. he knows what he’s doing. before she can muster a coherent thought, she has his wrist in her grip, and urges the edges of his fingertips down below her beltline.

❛❛   f𝘶uᵤck, johnny.   ❜❜          a groan, huffed past her lips. jaw tilts upwards, as if begging for him to wrap his hand around her throat   ...   if he dances away now, she’ll be——   thinking about it. breathless, for sure. all night. maybe even dream about him, if he’s lucky. biting the inside of her cheek is the only thing stopping her from uttering: don’t stop. he started it. he can lead.

#misaentropy #misaentropy / johnny silverhand . #✱ 𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐑 ➔ veda ''v'' kaldas . #( no linear timeline writing we jump around threads like men )

[superman86to99]

Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey #1 (April 1994)

DOOMSDAY IS COMING... BACK! Superman has been having nightmares about Doomsday, which is the natural psychological reaction when someone kills you. In his dreams, Doomsday has already wrecked the entire Justice League (again) and goes after Superman, who turns into a scared little boy in the middle of the fight. Just when Doomsday is about to knock lil' Clark's head off...

...he wakes up. It's the same dream every night. So, Superman decides to do the healthy thing when something is scaring you to that point. No, not visit a therapist -- finding and killing it.

But where is Doomsday these days, anyway? The last time anyone saw him, he was floating through space after the evil Cyborg Superman tied his body to an asteroid and tossed him there. As it happens, just when Superman is thinking about finding Doomsday, a cargo spaceship headed for Apokolips runs across that asteroid and takes it in, thinking they might be able to sell it to Darkseid as a big paperweight or something. By the time the ship lands in Apokolips, everyone inside is dead -- and soon, so is everyone in its general vicinity. As Doomsday tears through Apokolips' residents, one seems to recognize him and calls him "the Armageddon Creature," which for some reason makes me think of Steve Buscemi.

Even Darkseid seems freaked out by Doomsday. He sends his elite guard to slow him down with their fancy exo-armors, which "can stop anything"... except, it soon becomes clear, Doomsday's fists. When Doomsday kills one of the guards, a little gizmo on his back starts glowing and something jumps into the guard's armor -- it's the Cyborg Superman, whose consciousness had been hiding there since Superman Superman destroyed his previous body!

So now they have two maniacs destroying poor old Apokolips (what did they ever do to deserve this?!). Desaad wants to call the Darkstars or L.E.G.I.O.N. or some other cosmic police force for help, but Darkseid would rather evacuate the entire planet than do that.

Meanwhile, after talking it over with Lois (who isn't exactly thrilled about her fiancé going after a creature that has already killed him once), Superman realizes who can help him find Doomsday: the Linear Men, the protectors of the time-stream, since they can find anything, anywhere, anytime. He stands outside young Matthew Ryder's home, causing the adult, time-traveling Ryder to materialize and ask Superman why he remembers a famous superhero loitering in his back yard one night. Superman asks the Linear Men to give him all the info they have on Doomsday, but Matthew hits him with the "sanctity of the time-stream" stuff again.

However, Matthew's more hot-headed (pun intended) alternate reality version, Waverider, manages to give Superman a "subtle" clue about Doomsday's current location:

Back in Apocalypse Apokolips, Darkseid decides to step in personally and hit Doomsday with his legendary Omega Beams. No one can withstand the unsurpassed force of the--! Oh, wait, no, Doomsday did, pretty easily. And then beat the living crap out of Darkseid. After seeing that, Desaad is like "screw this," disobeys his master's orders, and calls the Justice League headquarters... just as Superman has stepped in to ask for help in finding Doomsday. Desaad ends their intergalactic Zoom call, but this makes Superman put two and two together and decipher Waverider's hint.

Now aware that Doomsday is in Apokolips (but still not knowing if he's alive or dead), Superman borrows a Mother Box from the JL's Oberon and teleports there, only to immediately run into the Cyborg breaking shit up. Superman is ready to fight him, but the Cyborg hits him with something more devastating than any blast: a live video feed of Doomsday, alive and kicking. Well, punching.

And then he hits Superman with a blast. While the Cyborg is distracted torturing Superman, Desaad uses the opportunity to open up a Boom Tube near Doomsday to teleport him away (which they probably should have done in the first place, huh). Superman flies off to stop it, but he's too slow: Doomsday has been sent to some other planet... perhaps Earth?! TO BE CONTINUED!

Creator-Watch:

This marks the glorious return of inker Brett Breeding, who we hadn't seen since the end of "Reign of the Supermen" because he was focusing on this miniseries. This time, he's actually providing finished art to Dan Jurgens' layouts, and the result is probably his finest work yet. We've all missed Breeding in the regular books (no disrespect to Josef Rubinstein), but that makes this mini feel extra special and like a prestige event worthy of that cardboard cover and the extra three bucks. More art gushing in Don Sparrow's section below!

Plotline-Watch:

No idea if this is intentional or not, but the final page, with Superman failing to catch Doomsday's Boom Tube and wondering if he stopped himself out of fear, reminds me of the classic final pages of Jack Kirby's Forever People #1 (1971), when he intentionally stops in the middle of a Boom Tube trip. Not many comics end with an emotionally devastated Superman kneeling between some rocks in front of an orange background after just barely not making a Boom Tube trip.

Superman mentions to Lois that one of the reasons he wants to find Doomsday's body is because he remembers how obsessed people in ancient Krypton became with genetic engineering (as seen in the World of Krypton miniseries), and he worries someone might recreate him or make an army of Doomsdays. That's a pretty clever way of delivering information that will become relevant when we find out Doomsday's origin, next issue.

ELROY SIGHTING! Of course that little jerk wouldn't wanna miss an issue where his rival for Lois' affection has serious chances of suffering a violent death...

Don Sparrow says: "A small nod to the 'Emerald Twilight' storyline happening in Green Lantern, as Superman mentions he can no longer ask Green Lanterns for help in outer space." Find out why at the @greenlantern94to04 blog, which just reached Green Lantern #50! (I'm hoping to have that blog catch up to this one by the time we hit Zero Hour at least, so we can crossover.)

Another important observation from Don: "Superman’s a boxers guy now, which is a switch from the tight-whiteys he wore in the now-famous Superman #50. No, I don’t feel like I’m wasting my life, why do you ask? (Weigh in with your comment—do you think Superman is a boxer guy, or briefs? NOT about whether I’m wasting my life.)" I'm gonna go with briefs on the outside, boxers on the inside. He's a man of two worlds!

As he leaves the Ryder residence, Superman tells Matthew's confused dad to "teach your son to do what's right -- while you still have time." Am I the only one who thinks the even more confused little Matthew got a belting after that?

At the JL HQ, Maxima offers to come along to Apokolips to have her own rematch with Doomsday, but Superman says no because he wants to face his fears alone. I feel kinda bad for her, but she must be pretty used to Superman turning her down by now.

I like this little car parked outside Darkseid's palace. Did a cabbie get so lost that he ended up there? Did he still charge $6,50?

Not even the Linear Men could figure out where exactly this miniseries fits in the continuity. This obviously takes place after Action #694 (February 1994), the issue where we last saw Doomsday floating in space, and before the Zero Hour event (September 1994), due to certain events involving Matthew and Waverider. Thing is, that Action issue takes place during the long storyline when Superman is losing control of his powers, which doesn't seem to be a problem in this miniseries. That storyline ends in Action #699, which is also the first part of the "Battle for Metropolis" storyline, which leads directly to Metropolis becoming a big pile of rubble in Action #700. Metropolis seems fine in this mini, so this must be taking place during Superman's power woes, but something about him being stronger than usual during such an important rematch doesn't seem right to me. Let's all just blame this on Zero Hour messing with the time-stream.

Patreon-Watch:

Our patrons Aaron, Chris “Ace” Hendrix, britneyspearsatemyshorts, Patrick D. Ryall, Bheki Latha, Mark Syp, Ryan Bush, Raphael Fischer, Kit, Sam, Bol, and Gaetano Barreca got to read half of this post back in November, because Don got a bit ahead of himself, and now they get to read half of our upcoming post on Man of Steel #28, because it happened again! Take advantage of our absentmindedness by joining us at https://www.patreon.com/superman86to99

Speaking of Don, he's got way more to say about this issue, so keep reading...

Art-Watch (by @donsparrow):

Some context behind the art on this issue:  While I was essentially a DC-only kid in the early 90s, you simply couldn’t ignore the revolution happening at Image Comics.  I still maintain that those early Image books weren’t popular only, or even mainly because of the creators, and certainly not because of the stories—I think what set them apart were the incredible production values.  (The fact that there isn’t that much appetite for trade paperbacks of early Spawn or Savage Dragon issues bears this out.) The paper quality and digital colouring that Image Comics offered blew the doors off of what DC was publishing regularly.  And it wasn’t that DC was incapable of using the same techniques, or paper supply—indeed the astonishingly illustrated Batman movie adaptation from 5 years earlier showed they could.  So while I found Image comics to have enviable art, but no stories to my taste, I couldn’t help but wish that my beloved Superman comics could look as nice as the Image comics on the newsstands.  That’s one part of what made these issues so exciting.  Of course, a rematch with Superman and Doomsday was another attraction, and as if we needed a third reason, this mini-series reunited Jurgens and Breeding, who weren’t the usual team on the superbooks at the time. 

After all that, we start with the cover, and the simplicity would certainly make it jump off the stands.  Jurgens was always the most posteriffic Superman artist, where the action poses would make a great pinup, but without sacrificing story.  This cover is a great example of that, with a determined Superman flying into battle on a computer-generated background of flames on the front cover, with Doomsday stomping into action on the back cover.  Even the title pages boast some great production values, as the brushed steel photoshop texture and rounded gradients on the rivets make for a much more photo-realistic finish than usual. 

Issues like this one are tricky, because it’s tempting for me to comment on every darn page, because the art is so consistently at a high level.  So, in the interests of keeping this post from becoming a novel (yes, I know I went overboard in the Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special issue!), I’ll just highlight the very best of the best.

The slow buildup of the early pages are very well done, as the peaceful dreamlike setting of Clark’s childhood farmhouse give way to the adult nightmare of Doomsday.  The full page splash on page 4 is perhaps the defining image of Doomsday (one we saw repeated in modern times, as it was swiped last year in the aforementioned 30th Anniversary issue).

I like seeing the Superman-era Justice League (even if it’s among the wreckage), though my copy has a colouring error on Blue Beetle’s costume).  

The outer space scenes, of the doomed space freighter crew have a scary, claustrophobic feel, and I can definitely remember my heart racing seeing Doomsday awake (even though we knew he was a long time ago).  The design on this ship is reminiscent of the semi-canonical Superman/Aliens mini-series that’ll come out in about a year’s time.

As any loyal reader knows, I love good Lois art, so seeing Lois in her pajamas is a treat when handled by this art team.  Later in the issue we get a Darkseid that rivals John Byrne himself for my favourite depiction of the lord of Apokolips.

We are also introduced to the new look Cyborg Superman (Jurgens tried hard to establish his name as simply “The Cyborg” but it never really took—even with Vic Stone not in the comics of the time, I think DC fans always thought of “Cyborg” as a good guy) which is one of my favourite looks for him.  I think I may slightly prefer the look he had in mid-2000s Green Lantern comics overall, but even they took the red and black look established here.  It’s a small panel, but I remember copying and re-copying the little shot of a very handsome Superman flying toward the camera on page 26.  The subtle gradients in the colouring really add a lot. 

Back to Apokolips, the simple silhouette of Darkseid using his omega beams is a stunner, especially with the sizzle effect at the edge of the beams.

Not sure I pictured Darkseid having red blood, as we do (dark gray maybe?  Black?) but the image of someone as imposing as Darkseid yelping in pain is definitely one that will linger.  For pure cartooniness, I love the panel of Desaad’s shock at seeing Darkseid KO’d.  After seeing the Lord of the Rings films, I always pictured Brad Dourif as Desaad, but at this time (and certainly seeing this panel) I think Marty Short would have made a great one. 

I appreciate the Justice League being involved, even tangentially, given their involvement in the first Doomsday battle.  Though Maxima’s costume is technically more demure than when Superman was in the league (in mourning for Superman she updated her look in Justice League America #71) as she’s covered chin to toes, she somehow seems more naked than ever in these pages.    

There are a couple reused panels in this comic, which stand out—page 40 reuses the famed Doomsday portrait mentioned earlier and that same page inserts a shot of the Cyborg’s eyes that is clipped from page 43.  Not the end of the world, but noticeable to me.   As Superman emerges from the Boom Tube, I like the blue-tinged lighting on his costume, some good colouring there.

Lastly, the body language as Superman passes by the closed Boom Tube that transported Doomsday elsewhere is well observed. 

SPEEDING BULLETS:

This mini-series also highlighted an unfortunate trend of the early-to-mid 90s—that anything really big rarely happened in the regular titles, but was relegated to special—and enormously more expensive—special issues or mini-series.  Despite this story being seismic in importance, it was mostly ignored by the events in the tightly-linked Superman titles at the time.  Which to me felt like a missed sales opportunity, certainly the rematch between Superman and Doomsday would have bolstered sales line-wide, had they done it in the regular books.  But having a new-reader friendly self-contained story, by a single writing and art team AND a high price point won out in the end.  This was also true in the Batman titles, where pivotal characters like Azrael and Bane were introduced in prestige format one shots or mini-series rather than the monthly titles.

Maybe another reason this story was confined to a mini-series—it’s quite gory in some places, perhaps too much so for a code book?

Back in the 90s, they’d always play it coy about whether Superman and Lois have a sexual relationship, but as in the past, they do give hints to support one reading or the other. On the one hand, they keep separate apartments, but on the other, they do have potentially meaningful captions like “hours later” that may contain multitudes.

I gotta say, I was sorta surprised and impressed that DeSaad didn’t immediately make a power play in order to rule Apokolips himself.  Though, he likely knew that no matter what he’d need someone as powerful as Darkseid (or Orion, or Mr. Miracle) to combat Doomsday.

I do get a kick that even under duress, DeSaad still officiously signs off with a “DeSaad out!”, Seacrest style.

It’s grim, but the expression on the face of the dead inspector is unintentionally hilarious to me.  Almost like it begs for one more word bubble. [Max: Don's gonna hit us with a "Totally Rad!" isn't he?]

[Max: ...I stand corrected.]

#superman #dan jurgens #brett breeding #doomsday #justice league #maxima #oberon #darkseid #desaad #linear men #matthew ryder #waverider #elroy #hank henshaw #superman/doomsday: hunter/prey #guy who parked in apokolips somehow #desaad out #steve buscemi should play bertron

[fancyfade]

reading zero hour is reminding me where waverider was in the superman comics i was reading... he showed up briefly to get kidnapped by? join? I forgot. the linear men.

they are mad at him for destroying a timeline to defeat a dictator.

#dc comics #fade reads dc comics #showcase 94 #zero hour #waverider #linear men

[erotetica]

Vaire in constant Ainu osanwe with Manwe and Varda bc they see/hear everywhere. This is what she takes down in her weaving.

In contact w/ Namo, not privy to his foresight but to his role as undertaker. Manwe and Varda’s senses don’t extend to the Halls, bc when you’re dead you leave Arda and aren’t anywhere. So the only record of how earthy events really impact Children’s souls is in her tapestry. The tapestry not as empirical record of observable events, but as record of Everything, from any being’s POV.

Vaire, basically, through investigative journalism and intuition, knowing as much about Doom and the make-up of Arda as Namo. Through her own discovery, without the gift of foresight.

& Vaire pondering Ea itself, not just Arda. Which Namo is too afraid to do. She doesn’t have the might for creation that the principal Valar do, but she knows more than any of them. In this way, she is more than the mightiest of them. Melkor never bothered to understand the world beyond what he needed to know to drive it like a car.

Vaire, who made Time, set the rails for natural law to run on. She built the gd road.

If he was wise enough to see his real rival he wouldn’t be destroying lamps or Trees. He’s not unmaking anything that matters.

#thinking abt it. thinking abt her #ungoliant could have told him but she didn’t :) #I still think they’re sisters. #oh it’s not for latent sibling love that she kept her silence tho but the thing #where ‘evil’ ainur get less powerful/more grounded in the physical #means she can’t eat the linear-ness of time #tolkien #valar #headcanon #this is re: the Vaire sequel of the Namo fic which still percolates #so 2 b clear abt the melkor thing: he’s pulling the wrong thread (geddit. weaving.) #his canon actions don’t undo the universe into his ideal entropic…thing #bc they can’t. #this is all at a vast cosmic perspective. #there is still the thesis of: luthien changed the gd fabric of the universe bc she said pwease #like…the universe is predetermined. until the Children say nah. then it moves #esp with mortals #by the fourth age dominion of men etc the Course of Arda is like a ping pong arcade game #mortals leave the circles of the world when they die. and they carry that wildcard chaos with them all their lives too #what I mean by ping pong 4th age isn’t like what luthien did #which gave Namo a different cable package #he can still see from her>to dagor dagorath or w/e #but his perspective on the universe changes #his perspective on what the creation work the valar did/the role their work plays in the music/the nature of the universe. the valar are #as powerless as men/men are as powerful as the Powers etc etc #ping pong ie by their choices the secondborn make Ea mutable #Eru’s 1st theme is elves the 2nd is humans 3rd is mutability. bc the world is the Children’s the valar are just living in it:) #anyway if you stare at Vaire’s tapestry for a long time you see the subtext which is: I know what the Themes are. melkor. you idiot. #‘bro stop struggling you’re not a mammal that fatally oxygenates in 80 years you can’t change shit’

[dykefaggotry]

the thing abt being trans is that we truly and genuinely need to stop dividing ourselves based on assigned gender at birth. it's really not helping anyone and saying "oh transmasc people aren't allowed to talk about x because they don't experience transphobia the same" or "oh transfems aren't allowed to talk about y because they didn't grow up with a uterus" is not helping anyone. it's really not. our experiences are far more similar than they are different and yelling at people for discussing their experiences as a trans person of any agab is not getting us anywhere. cishet society doesn't care what direction you're trans in, they literally just care that we're disobeying the "natural" order. it's why they also hate gay people. can we please stop fighting about who has it worse and just Get Along lmfao

#some trans women have it worse than some trans men some trans men have it worse than some trans women #oppression isn't linear and when things intersect like race and social experience you can't do black and white statements #it's really on an individual basis and we have so much more in common than we like to pretend #esp realizing this as I move through the world medically transitioned but still gnc #the world doesnt care if I have a dick or vagina they just care that im doing smth Wrong

[radioactive-earthshine]

Legionnaires Annual #3

If there is ANY trope in any media that I loathe it's time travel police so seeing the Linear Men dragged is always a delight and they need to be made public enemy #1 more often.

Jenni has up until now been under the staunch directive that preserving the timeline is objective #1, even in their own time they have policy which prevents wilful tampering with events. But having gone to the 100th century where Earth was destroyed and the U.P. completely dissolved which lead to a dystopian future, she's starting to question that policy. She's starting to wonder what she can do to prevent that horrible from unfolding.

#orla reads losh #sorry if yall stan the linear men but acab #jenni ognats