Justice League: Doomsday?

[TELLE]

What's interesting and annoying about the current crop of Bruce Timm Justice League and Superman cartoons is the obvious care for a classic version of Superman that is always ruined by the introduction of one of these ugly 80s/90s villains  --essentially murderous monsters with crappy costumes.

[Defender]

Doomsday was an. . .interesting experiment, on paper anyway. Let's create a superpowerful monster bioengineered from Krypton's past that was the Anti-Superman; ignorant savagery with no real mind behind it, simply a destructive force for the sake of destruction. But to my way of thinking they botched the oppurtunity to create a memorable monster for Superman by allowing Doomsday to kill Kal-El, albeit temporarily. Doomsday should have illustrated Superman's humanity and unwillingness to kill; a simple run to the Fortress to get the Phantom Zone projector and poof, the ultimate killing machine can fume and scowl for all eternity as a bodiless wraith. Of course, that wouldn't have sold comics and everyone would've been outraged by the flagrant use of logic and thinking in a time when brute force, guns, and shoulderpads ruled over all.  :roll:

 -Def.

[TELLE]

The whole thing had been done umpteen times during the Silver Age whenever Supes faced off against some monster from Krypton.  Not that I was bored with it.

[Defender]

Yeah, you never really get a good Giant Monster From Space story in Superman anymore do you? It's always gotta be about the Angst now.

 -Def.

[Kuuga]

Yeah, see thats just it. Superman fighting monsters is cool. The hero battiling ohter worldly beasts is as old as time and it still works.

If Doomsday had simply presented as that and not the thing that can totally killz0r the hero (at least until editorial is done dragging the storyline out to milk the shock value and to avoid the apparently oh-so difficult task of writing Superman in his own books) then it would have been fine.

I basically fine Doomsday annoying for the same reason I fine Bane, Venom, and Cell annoying.  Good monster designs, but way too much hype.

As for Doomsday being in JL, the way Doomsday just literally drops into that story is odd.  The fact that he's showing up again just sorta feels like Bruce Timm just giving in to all the Post Crisis fanboys who've been bugging the crap out of him about Doomsday since before the debut of STAS.

[Defender]

Well, they can't pester him for a 'Death of Superman' episode since they already covered the issue (brilliantly I might add) in 'Hereafter'. So I guess this upcoming Doomsday appearance will essentially be Bruce Timm putting the final nail in DD's coffin, settling once and for all that Superman can never be truly defeated by a snarling, ignoramus brute.

 -Def.

[The Starchild]

So here's a thought:

Could a "Doomsday" story and/or villain have been written in the Weisenger era?  If so, how would it have been different?  I would assume that Superman would have easily defeated DD using his wits.  DD probably would have been a much more tragic character and much more eloquent.  Perhaps Superman would even have felt sorry for him because of his gruesome apperance.  I'm trying to picture how he would have looked drawn by Curt Swan...

[Richard S! Preston]

In my opinion, Doomsday was best left dead when Supes first offed him. Continually bringing him back was the worst decision a DC writer ever made with Superman, until Loeb decided to bring back General Zod. out of all the villains there are. I actually rather liked Loeb, until I found out what he'd done to Supes (not to mention Steel. Why Jeph, why? :cry: )