Saturday 31 January 2009

Superman, His Villains and a Red Son

Warning! Various spoilers ahead!

After noticing a new villain in Smallville, I went on to check it out. A dark, shadowy figure with what appears to be thorns around it. Soon, I found out that it was Doomsday. Wikipedia is really an excellent source for information. I am not a super fan of Superman but this is one superhero that I grew up with. He is also still relevant in current times, albeit a little less popular compared to Batman.

Anyways, back to Doomsday. According to Wikipedia, it is a creature that was designed (through excruciating means) solely for destruction. In Smallville season 8, it has a human form that is in love with Chloe. Slowly, but surely, it is turning into the creature that is something like the one pictured here. :|

Doomsday is famous in the comics for having 'killed' Superman. It is a monster that adapts and will not be harmed by the same means a second time.

While checking out Doomsday, I clicked on links to Superman's various other villains such as Brainiac (whom takes on many revisions throughout and also features in Smallville) and Darkseid.

Besides the interesting villains, there are also a few sides to DC's Superman. The current Superman we know is really the original one all the way from the first comic book featuring him. What I did not know was that there is also another Superman, from Earth-Two, in an alternate universe. A slight variation and also decades older than the one we know.

DC also came out with the Elseworlds concept where the familiar characters that we know live different lives in different worlds. This is not an alternate universe thing but instead is a totally different take. I initially thought there might be an evil Superman in Superman: Red Son but I was wrong. This Russian Superman is still a good one. Right now, I am reading up on another Elseworlds storyline - the spaceship carrying little Kal-El crashes in Gotham and he is adopted by the Waynes...

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