Static Thoughts - The Doomsday Sanction

So, Batman v. Superman’s latest trailer has revealed the major plot point that Doomsday, the monster who killed Superman, will be the film’s ultimate boss.  For my part this isn’t that surprising a reveal, I’ve been hearing rumors Doomsday would pop up in the film for awhile now.  At the same time, it’s pretty clear the execs running the DC/WB branch are the same ones who helmed things back in the ‘90s when The Death of Superman was the biggest moneymaker in the world for them so it fits they’d try and fit their new Superman movie to that template somehow, they did the same thing with Batman in Dark Knight Rises. 

What is surprising a lot of fans is the major shift to Doomsday’s origin in the film, now seemingly a mutation or GMO created out of the corpse of General Zod.  That’s a nifty idea and an easy solution to how incredibly convoluted and byzantine Doomsday’s comic book origin is, which is why this isn’t a look at the character’s history or even his biggest storylines.  I’ll probably talk about comic book Doomsday somewhere down the line but for right now I’m zeroing in on the first time Doomsday’s origin was altered to be the genetically modified superior Kryptonian: in Justice League Unlimited.

In case you’ve never heard of it, Justice League Unlimited was the excellent capstone on the DC animated universe that started with Bruce Timm’s Batman animated series in 1992.  The series was technically a sequel to the 2001 Justice League animated series only with a wider brief, new show runner Dwayne McDuffie, and more ambitious approach to narrative.  Where Justice League focused on 2-part stories revolving around the original 7 Justice League members (only with Hawkgirl instead of Aquaman,) Justice League Unlimited told a combination of one-off and season long arcs surrounding every hero in the DC universe.  That was actually the stated goal and the premise of the show; after a failed alien invasion the Justice League has stepped up its game by recruiting every superhero they can find and building themselves an orbiting space laser “just in case.” 

In case the idea of a super powered army floating over everyone’s heads with a death ray sounds a little sketchy don’t worry; that’s kind of the point.  In season 2, the show kicked off one of the most adult and well-written animated story arcs with the Cadmus Saga, revolving around a covert government operation in the business of making anti-Justice League weapons.  Led by Amanda Waller, the Cadmus Saga was a challenging and well-written story mainly thanks to the ambiguity about who was really in the right here and while not THE best episode in the run ‘Doomsday Sanction’ is certainly one of its high points. 

The episode revolves around Doomsday, as the name suggests, who had actually appeared previously on the Justice League show.  That appearance wasn’t much more than a placeholder role as he was only there to provide a menace and his origins had been left pretty much unaddressed.  Here, we finally see his history as a Cadmus experiment to modify Kryptonian DNA to genetically engineer the superior monster and then condition him to hate Superman.  This is part of that ambiguity I mentioned, all of Cadmus’ actions and methods are incredibly suspect and often cross the line into blatantly amoral but at the same time their function is incredibly limited. 

The Justice League’s counter-story for the episode involves evacuating the people of an island nation from a volcano about to erupt, a situation tailor made to invite comparison between the league’s altruism and Cadmus’ cold and unethical methodology.  The thing is, cold and unethical is exactly what Cadmus needs to be, they aren’t here to rescue kittens or put out fires, they’re here for one purpose: in case the heroes ever turn bad. 

A lot of that is outlined very well in the episode’s opening scene, a tense duel of words between Amanda Waller and Batman, whose identity she’s already deduced.  Of the many excellent women to play Amanda Waller I don’t think any have come close to CCH Pounder’s excellent portrayal of her on Justice League Unlimited.  Pounder finds the perfect balance of detachment and cleverness with a kind of human anger that makes Waller more than just an “evil government” character.  When she says her work is to defend America from the very real threat of the Justice League there isn’t an ounce of doubt in her conviction, just the underlying sense that the league’s greatest crime has been making humanity feel weak. 

The main plot of the episode involves Doomsday escaping captivity at Cadmus labs and heading to the volcano nation to try and kill Superman, who was involved helping with the evacuation.  For an episode predicated entirely on “the return of Doomsday, the thing that kills Superman and nothing else” there’s actually not a lot of Superman v. Doomsday in the episode’s running time.  They fight certainly, in fact they fight inside the heart of an active volcano because this show is incredibly metal when it wants to be, but the two slugging it out isn’t really the episode’s emphasis. 

The bigger story is more centered around the clash of values and techniques between Cadmus and the Justice League, especially when General Eiling, Cadmus’ military attaché, tries to resolve the situation by launching a kryptonite nuke at the volcano.  That kind of no nonsense, acceptable losses thinking is endemic to Cadmus overall despite being the very attitude they’re so afraid the Justice League will take.  On the league’s side, Batman ends up involved trying to stop the missile, putting his own life in jeopardy to try and save his friends and the civilians they’re protecting. 

From the outset, the episode seems tailor made to showcase why the League is great and Cadmus is every bit as deadly and evil as Batman said they were at the start of the episode.  Where things take a serious turn is in the third act where our heroes are legitimately pushed to the edge and becomes clear why Cadmus is acting the way it is.  Superman, having been severely beaten by Doomsday as he stalled for time to allow his teammates to evacuate the island, tries to end the fight in one last desperate move by attempting to lobotomize Doomsday. 

It’s not paid a lot of lip service when it happens but the show never really lets you forget that when his back was to the wall and it looked like Doomsday might be able to kill him Superman was willing to try and lobotomize an opponent, something he’s never been willing to do before.  The episode’s final moments echo this creepy loss of restraint, with the league taking Doomsday for judgment in a secret council chamber before locking him in the phantom zone.  The only leaguer who raises any concern over the idea of lobotomizing and imprisoning someone with no trial or chance of release is Batman, ironically, to which the league’s only response is “he left us no choice.”

I mentioned earlier that what made Cadmus so hostile and willing to go to any length to stop the Justice League was that the league made them feel weak, Doomsday is that same fear personified in the league.  That, more than anything, is why I think Doomsday Sanction is the best use of his character, because on his own Doomsday is not interesting.  Even as a big monster menace he’s really not that engaging, where Doomsday gets interesting is how people respond to him, especially superheroes. 

Doomsday is one of the only characters in the entire DC canon who can make people like Superman feel weak, helpless, powerless, that’s the context through which he becomes compelling because in that respect he doesn’t need to kill Superman to destroy him.  When people feel weak they get angry and they do cruel and amoral things because that makes them feel strong, makes them feel in control.  That’s the effect Doomsday has on the league, that’s why the real threat of the episode isn’t him but the fact they were willing to rationalize everything they did to stop him.  In order to stop Cadmus’ ultimate weapon they were willing to become the very amoral monsters Cadmus was afraid the league always was, the same monsters as Cadmus themselves.  


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