Superman #20 is a big comic, tying together the history of two separate DC characters. It features one of the most brutal battles between Superman and Doomsday (with the newly empowered Superwoman getting in on the fight.) It also features more than a few shocking moments that had me stepping away from my computer to process. But it never once lost me, and that’s how you can tell you’re holding a good comic.
Let’s start with the big reveal: Doomsday, thanks to his constant deaths and rebirths, will eventually embody the mantle of the mysterious Time-Trapper. Time-Trapper Doomsday requires Superman’s help, and when Superman refuses he warns that the Man of Steel will either help him or see everything he loves perish. He also mentions an altercation with General Zod that results in Superman losing his eye…which is a whole other level of ominous.
The rest of the issue is full of a massive fight scene between Superman, Superwoman, and Doomsday. Dan Mora pushes his work to eleven in this issue: buildings explode, concrete cracks, and blood is spilled in one particularly brutal sequence. But there’s one page that Mora should be particularly proud of, featuring Superman circling the globe to help Lois. Panels featuring him as a red and blue blur curving around the Earth’s surface are undercut with panels of Lois locked in battle with Doomsday. To add even more horrifying effect, Doomsday is constantly surrounded by flames, with his eyes glowing red in the dark. I’ve been singing Mora’s praises long before he came onto DC, but work like this proves why he’s one of the best artists in comics.
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It helps that he’s working with a great writer in the form of Josh Williamson. Williamson, in the same vein as his fan-favorite Green Arrow run, pulls from different eras of DC canon when shaping this story – the retcon of Doomsday as the Time-Trapper is a truly genius twist. But he also doesn’t resort to leaning on nostalgia, either. When Superman fought Doomsday in the past, he usually fought alone. This time, he has help in the form of Lois, Steel, and not one but two of his old enemies.
Williamson also gets the human side of Clark Kent, especially in a sequence shown after the Doomsday battle. Clark tells Lois that even without superpowers, he’ll worry for her, and it’s a truly heartwarming moment. Mora adds to the moment by drawing them in a quiet moment, providing a respite from the chaos he spread across previous pages – and it’s topped off by Alejandro Sanchez’s warm, inviting color work.
Superman #20 features what might be one of the biggest fights between Superman and Doomsday, tempered by emotional weight and hints of a foreboding future. It’s made even more ominous by the fact that Time-Trapper Doomsday says that something more terrifying than him is coming for Superman…and considering that Doomsday beat the Man of Steel to death, that sounds all kinds of scary.
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