A question about two Supermen (Kal-El vs. Kal-L) vs. Doomsday in INFINITE CRISIS

[Buried Alien]

During the Battle of Metropolis at the end of INFINITE CRISIS, two Supermen, Kal-El of Post-COIE Earth and Kal-L of Pre-COIE Earth-Two, easily leveled Doomsday together. The two Supermen did what one Superman couldn't: put down Doomsday with minimal damage to themselves.

What accounted for the huge difference, though?

1). Two Supermen were just that much better than one Superman.

2). Kal-El had grown much stronger since his first encounter with Doomsday..

3). Kal-L brought Pre-COIE Kryptonian strength to the battle, which was more than Doomsday could handle.

Which of these were factors, and which one the biggest factor?

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[Johnny Thunders!]

I'm not sure? I always felt that Golden Age Superman was, before Kryptonite and Mxyzptlk, the most indestructible Superman. Landlords, Munitions experts, thugs, Kal L is just used to running through the other guy. Maybe they wanted to point out how insanely powerful Superboy Prime had become?

[Terok Nor]

Yeah, in retrospect, Superboy Prime was the big bad of the entire event so this was probably subtle foreshadowing of how imposing a foe he'll be.

Kal-L WAS the guy who ultimately finished off the Anti-Monitor, so you count discount him either.

[Terok Nor]

superman%u00252Bhas%u00252Bhad%u00252Benough.jpg

Never Forget

ANTI-MONITOR (THE CREATION OF SPACE-TIME - 1986)

Mourn ya till I join ya.

[stephens2177]

By that time kal l and kal el had pretty much the exact same power levels,they even fought a lil in a superman issue at the time.

[exile001]

Bad writing, or at least a lack of understanding of Doomsday and it's power set.

At that point, Doomsday was unbeatable by any Kryptonian (or anyone with a relative power level) one on one. It's how Doomsday's evolution ability worked and was explained very clearly in Hunter/Prey.

Doomsday died and evolved beyond that threat so, as Infinite Crisis proved the two Supermen were quite evenly matched, the two should absolutely not have been able to do that. It would have taken considerably more than them to take it out.

That said, I can't entirely remember if 'New Earth' was created before or after that battle, otherwise Johns could argue that the NE changes were responsible. Either way, it didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time. Why de-power a character whose entire gimmick is that it is physically superior to Superman?

Also, I'm not sure if Dr Psycho (IIRC?) should have been able to control Doomsday as it had previously fought off Brainiac's mind control (although it didn't die at the end of Doomsday Wars, and death was usually the trigger for evolution).

[marshal99]

Bad writing, or at least a lack of understanding of Doomsday and it's power set.

At that point, Doomsday was unbeatable by any Kryptonian (or anyone with a relative power level) one on one. It's how Doomsday's evolution ability worked and was explained very clearly in Hunter/Prey.

Doomsday died and evolved beyond that threat so, as Infinite Crisis proved the two Supermen were quite evenly matched, the two should absolutely not have been able to do that. It would have taken considerably more than them to take it out.

That said, I can't entirely remember if 'New Earth' was created before or after that battle, otherwise Johns could argue that the NE changes were responsible. Either way, it didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time. Why de-power a character whose entire gimmick is that it is physically superior to Superman?

Also, I'm not sure if Dr Psycho (IIRC?) should have been able to control Doomsday as it had previously fought off Brainiac's mind control (although it didn't die at the end of Doomsday Wars, and death was usually the trigger for evolution).

By that point , Doomsday has been brought back and defeated so many times , is he still a threat anymore ?

[exile001]

By that point, Doomsday has been brought back and defeated so many times, is he still a threat anymore?

Up to IC, Doomsday was defeated the following ways:

Doomsday was beaten to death by Superman, trapped at the end of time, split between four teleporters, obliterated by Imperiex, knocked out by Superman (due to confusion over its burgeoning new consciousness and Luthor splicing Kryptionian DNA into its latest regeneration then giving it a huge dose of K radiation that also almost killed Superman), teleported away by Steel and, with its new found intelligence came to Superman's aid and fought against Gog's army in Superman's name for hundreds of years.

That's not a lot of appearances, and it was usually portrayed as virtually unstoppable.

[marshal99]

Didn't Doomy also appeared in superman/batman ? Tbh , doomy should have been a one-off as he's a very one note character.

[victorsage]

I can't remember the issues, but during that time when the Supermen thought each other and lived one another lives Kal-L lived the Post Crisis Superman's life, and unlike the canon Post Crisis story when Kal-L went face to face with Doomsday he not only won the contest but he outright killed him, and not in the "he's gonna come back stronger" style he killed him period nothing left. Of course this ultimately ended with Kal-L destroying that Earth but that doesn't matter.

My point is that it hints to the idea that had Kal-El been willing to use all of his powers towards killing Doomsday back hen he would have been able to. At least that is what was being hinted at. So combine the two together and I think it's obvious that they could take him out pretty fast.

In that issue if I remember right Kal-L also sent pretty much every criminal to the Phantom Zone if he didn't kill them. Doing what the mainstream Superman "wasn't willing to do." Which was actually a very interesting idea.

[victorsage]

That said, I can't entirely remember if 'New Earth' was created before or after that battle, otherwise Johns could argue that the NE changes were responsible. Either way, it didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time. Why de-power a character whose entire gimmick is that it is physically superior to Superman?

At the time I thought it was just their to show people "Man that Kal-L is strong! The Supermen back then were tough and he's rubbed off on Kal-El! No way he's going anywhere anytime soon!!" Then of course SBP beat him to death.... so... yeah.

[exile001]

Didn't Doomy also appeared in superman/batman ? Tbh , doomy should have been a one-off as he's a very one note character.

Bunch of clones made by Darkseid that were easily defeated. I like Doomsday in all those appearances but the Loeb knock-out issue. After this, it became pointless and easily defeated. Maybe sentience is the way to go?

[exile001]

At the time I thought it was just their to show people "Man that Kal-L is strong! The Supermen back then were tough and he's rubbed off on Kal-El! No way he's going anywhere anytime soon!!" Then of course SBP beat him to death.... so... yeah.

Damn, that was sad. Kal-L deserved better.