DOOMSDAY!

Doomsday. The end of the world.

It all began in a field several hundred miles outside of Metropolis, on a warm sunny afternoon. A low rumbling could be heard, growing louder and louder. Finally the source of this noise was revealed: a large, hulking behemoth, wrapped in green fabric and cables. This huge monster did not speak but instead began a murderous and seemingly random rampage.

The Justice League were the first to go up against this monster, who was quickly able to beat them all senseless. Superman arrived and found himself up against a being of such strength and mindless rage as he had never encountered before. This was Doomsday, and Superman's battle with it would prove to be his most difficult.

The monster Doomsday made its way towards the city of Metropolis, cutting a swath of destruction in its wake. Superman followed, and there, on the streets of the City of Tomorrow, right in front of the Daily Planet, the two fought a pitched battle. Onlookers were amazed and frightened to see the Man of Steel hurt, bruised, bleeding, and seemingly unable to subdue Doomsday. Windows shattered with the force of their blows, and the streets and buildings were torn to rubble. Then, finally, horribly, it happened. Although the Man of Steel was able to finally subdue and destroy the beast, the toll on his own body was too much. As the monster Doomsday fell to the ground, lifeless, so too did Superman.

Doomsday's body was taken to Cadmus Laboratories for study, but one of the four Supermen who arrived in the wake of the true Superman's death arrived and removed the carcass into outer space. There the pretender Superman strapped the dead Doomsday to an asteroid and threw it deep into space. It floated there, lost among the stars, for a considerable time before a passing space freighter took note of the asteroid's mineral content. The freighter pulled the asteroid into her loading dock before realizing what was attached to it. The crew rushed to jettison the monster, but it was too late. Horribly, inexplicably, Doomsday came to life and slaughtered the ship's crew.

The ship was running supplies to Apokolips, home of the galactic despot Darkseid, and the automatic pilot brought Doomsday to that dark and terrible world. There the monster fought Darkseid, and was about to destroy him when Superman arrived, having received a distress call from Apokolips. But before Superman could engage the monster in battle, a minion of Darkseid's opened a Boom Tube and transported Doomsday away. Superman wanted to follow, to destroy Doomsday before he could hurt any more innocents, but Waverider of the Linear Men advised against it, warning that Superman could not triumph again. When Superman demanded an explanation, Waverider reluctantly gave it.

Doomsday's story began many millenia ago, on a distant world, under harsh conditions. A scientist named Bertron was conducting an experiment to create the ultimate life form. His team took an infant life form and inserted it unprotected into the harsh, poisonous atmosphere of the planet. It died almost instantly, but Bertron had the remains brought back inside, and from them cloned a new baby. This was then reinserted into the wild, where it died instantly. But again the body was recovered, and a new life created from the old.

Again and again Bertron and his team sent the baby outside, and again and again they cloned it anew from its remains. As the years went by, Bertron's creation, which he called The Ultimate, grew stronger and stronger. Thanks to Bertron's genetic manipulations, The Ultimate became an unstoppable killing machine. Whenever it encountered a life form that could dubdue it, and was killed, The Ultimate came back to life stronger than before, impervious to death in the same fashion. It adapted itself to the poisonous atmosphere of the planet, and then set about wiping out the planet's vicious native creatures. Then, it came after Bertron, remembered by The Ultimate as the person responsible for its previous deaths.

The Ultimate might have stayed on that desolate world forever, except that it found a supply ship that had been delivering supplies to Bertron's team. The Ultimate stowed away aboard this ship and began an intergalactic reign of terror, bringing death and destruction wherever it went. It finally met its match on the planet Calaton, against a being made of pure energy. The rulers of that world bound the body and sent it into deep space. It flew to Earth and crashed there, where the monster remained harmless until it escaped and killed Superman.

Armed with the knowledge of Doomsday's regenerative abilities, Superman followed the monster through space, challenging it again. With Waverider's help, Superman brought Doomsday to the end of time, the only place that Doomsday could be killed once and for all (because, at the end of time, there was no way for it to come back to life).

That wasn't the end, though. Braniac travelled to the end of time and retrieved Doomsday, then set about transferring itself into the ultimate killing machine. In Doomsday's body, Braniac challenged Superman, who tricked him into leaping into a teleporter on the moon. Although Braniac escaped at the last moment, downloading itself into an upgraded program, Braniac 2.5, Doomsday's body was trapped, forever suspended between four teleporters, never fully formed in any one at any time.

Doomsday stayed in that virtual nonexistence until Imperiex attacked the Earth. President Luthor gave the order that Doomsday be freed from his prison and sent against Imperiex. Doomsday fought many of the Imperiex probes, destroying them, but was finally vaporized by the might of Imperiex Prime.

Doomsday's body was retrieved and brought to a storage facility hundreds of feet below the Pentagon. The Joker infiltrated the facility and freed Doomsday, who went after President Luthor, remembering him as responsible for sending it against Imperiex. Superman arrived, and the two fought a pitched battle that raged across the nation's capital, from the White House to the Capitol Building to the Lincoln Memorial. There, under the stony gaze of the 16th President, Doomsday fell.

Is this story finally, once and for all, over? Who knows? Doomsday does have the ability to come back to life stronger than before, which is what makes it such an insidious foe. And Darkseid has now taken the monster's body back to Apokolips. Only time will tell what will come of this.