Characters / Superman – Doomsday (Character)

Superman Main Character Index
Title Character
Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman
Supporting Cast
Lois Lane | Jimmy Olsen | Ambush Bug | Steel
Villains
Central Rogues Gallery (Alexander "Lex" Luthor, Bizarro, Vril Dox/Brainiac, Cyborg-Superman, Darkseid, Doomsday, Lobo, Mister Mxyzptlk, Mongul, Phantom Zone Criminals [General Zod]) | A-L | M-Z (Superboy-Prime)
Spin-Offs
Supergirl (Kara Zor-El/Linda Danvers/Supergirl, Supporting Cast, Rogues Gallery) | Power Girl | Superboy (Conner Kent/Kon-El, Jonathan "Jon" Samuel Kent, Supporting Cast, Rogues Gallery) | Legion Of Superheroes (The Founders, Silver Age, Bronze Age, Five Years Later, Postboot, Threeboot, Retroboot, Other Heroes, The Fatal Five, The Legion of Supervillains, Other Villains, Supporting Cast)

Doomsday

Behold, the monster that killed Superman.

Species: Genetically Enhanced Prehistoric Kryptonian

First Appearance: Superman: The Man of Steel #17 (November, 1992)

AKA: The Ultimate

General Zod: "Most predators attack their attackers... but this beast... it destroyed everything. That was its function, after all... to ensure that no Kryptonian would ever be safe again."

A monster who showed up on Earth one day and started trashing everything for no reason. After tangling with a number of outclassed heroes, he found his match in Superman, with the two battling to the death (giving Superman his only canonical death). Doomsday is incredibly fast, strong, and invulnerable. He is cunning but not intelligent. More importantly, he has the ability to regenerate from any injury, even death, and adapts new defenses in the process so he can't be killed the same way twice. Eventually, it was revealed that Doomsday was engineered on Krypton and meant to be the Ultimate Life Form. In spite of this, Doomsday has suffered Villain Decay. Even though he should be getting more powerful with each fight, Superman has been more and more successful in each rematch.

During the events of Reign of Doomsday, an attempt was made to undo this villain decay, by unleashing four clones of Doomsday, each of which effortlessly defeated one of Steel, the Eradicator, the Cyborg-Superman and Supergirl, and Superboy. The mastermind of this plot was Lex Luthor, but his plan was hijacked by the Doomslayer, a sentient Doomsday clone who aimed to destroy himself, the other Doomsdays, and anybody else who had knowledge of them, all in the name of saving the universe from Doomsday.

In the New 52, Doomsday returned as a Walking Wasteland, whose mere presence causes everything around him to die. Attacking Krypton decades ago, he was exiled to the Phantom Zone, but inadvertently freed in the present day. Superman makes numerous efforts to halt, and finally kill, the rampaging monster, but all of them fail, with one even seeing Superman possessed by Doomsday.

---

---

Tropes related to Doomsday

• Abusive Parents: The Mad Scientist, Bertron was about the closest parental figure Doomsday had since its earliest days and Bertron subjected it to a torturous, horrendous life each consecutive time as Doomsday was killed and revived, all in Bertron's insane attempts to create an Ultimate Life Form. Bertron did succeed... at the cost of his own life and Doomsday becoming a beast hellbent on destroying all life all due to the way Bertron raised him (if you can even call it that).
• Achilles' Heel: While Doomsday's ridiculous power and abilities make him immensely feared and dangerous by everybody, it turns out that giving him intelligence is a massive detriment to him in the long run as Doomsday suddenly gains the ability to feel strong emotions like fear and doubt, which hampers his destructive and fighting capabilities. In an odd sense of irony, Doomsday coped with this... by going insane again.
• Adaptive Ability: He becomes immune to anything used against him. He occasionally develops offensive abilities, like the ability to extend his spikes and reel in who they impale.
• Aliens Are Bastards: He's actually a very unorthodox subversion. Doomsday is, indeed, an extraterrestrial monster who wants to destroy all life, but his sapience and intelligence are equal to that of an animal that sees everything as a threat to its existence and acts accordingly to its nature. Then there's his backstory, which tells that Doomsday is more akin to a troubled and frightened kid lashing out at his surroundings than a being who wants to kill everything just because and was tortured and conditioned to be that way thanks to the actions of a genuine alien bastard.
• Alternate Company Equivalent: It's hard to think of Doomsday as this since he's become such a popular Breakout Villain and an incredibly iconic character due to his first storyline where Superman died at his hands. But before Doomsday came into being, Marvel also had their own unstoppable raging monster Mangog who was also an Omnicidal Maniac with Unstoppable Rage and who was a seemingly unstoppable Generic Doomsday Villain to The Big Guy of Marvel, Thor. While Mangog has not gone on to become anywhere near as popular as Doomsday, he was created first so in retrospect, Doomsday could be considered the DC equivalent to Mangog, being an Ax-Crazy monstrous being who does battle with Superman and provides Clark with the same Arrogant God vs. Raging Monster stories that Mangog provides for Thor.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Forget that Doomsday is basically unkillable (and comes back stronger even if you manage it), that he tore through the entire Justice League of America, that he literally beat Superman to death. The one metric more than any other which illustrates how much of a threat he is? Darkseid is scared of him.
• Appropriated Appellation: He was named by Booster Gold, who remarked, "It was like Doomsday was here!" after getting attacked by him. And considering its very nature and endgoal, the appellation is more than warranted.
• Arrogant God vs. Raging Monster: Doomsday provides these kinds of stories to Superman as the raging monster. Superman isn't usually "arrogant" and he's not technically a god. However, he does have god-like powers and there can be times when he pulls rank and reminds people verbally or otherwise just how powerful he is. Doomsday is the rampaging monster who just so happens to be powerful and Ax-Crazy enough that he doesn't care about all that and gives Superman the fight of his life in any scenario.
• Artistic Licence – Biology: The basic idea of Doomsday's power is wrapped up in the universally discredited Lamarckian theory of evolution. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck believed (incorrectly) that a lifeform could pass traits acquired during its existence to its offspring. Doomsday has no offspring, but he began as an infant exposed to Krypton's lethal biosphere, and each day was cloned from the dead body of the previous infant.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Doomsday is capable of developing sentience and moral agency thanks to his overpowered evolution rate, so one could assume that he might be able to plan his destructive tendencies creatively, become a Genius Bruiser, or even develop a sadistic taste for killing as further incentive for his drive for survival. However, almost anytime this occurs, this clashes badly against his berserker, unfettered nature, as Doomsday instead starts questioning why he's killing everything and even becomes fearful of his mortality. Incidentally, developing intelligence causes Doomsday to be less dangerous and effective as Superman defeats him more handily in those cases. The only way Doomsday could become a threat again is to go back to his mindless, insane nature.
• Ax-Crazy: Doomsday is beyond reasoning and understanding. The only thing that exists within its mind is to attack, butcher, and obliterate whatever it sets its eyes upon and it only communicates with animalistic rage and whatever obscene violence that it knows it can do. He's also a tragic deconstructed example of the violently insane character archetype; while Doomsday is certainly beyond the point of reasoning and is uncontrollably insane, his origins as shown in Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey clearly shows that he was tortured, killed, and recreated by immoral scientists solely to create an "ultimate being", hammering the fact that Doomsday's very nature was bought up upon by being subjected to an agonizing life, which obviously blanked his mind and perspective into insanity.
• Back from the Dead: Doomsday's most infamous ability is to return to life and evolve, becoming immune to whatever killed him previously.
• Bait the Dog: One of Doomsday's first actions is to stop and observe a little bird flying just a little above him. He opens up his palm and allows the bird to rest upon his hand. Looks to be a heartwarming scene... and then Doomsday promptly crunches the bird to death with a sudden clench. Alongside subverting any possibility of Doomsday having a redeeming quality, its also a dark foreshadowing of his own nature.
• The Berserker: This guy is so ludicrously rageful and perpetually destructive that it would probably make Khorne wince in respect. On a more serious note, Doomsday's main combat tactic is to act like a beast and plow through whatever either gets in his way or whoever he intends to kill and wail down on it like an angry kid slamming a pillow against another kid.
• Big Bad: Doomsday is the main antagonist of the Doomsday! story-arc in The Death of Superman. While he dies at the end of the story's first part, his actions influence the other two-story runs, essentially turning him into a Greater-Scope Villain throughout the entire storyline. Outside of that, he takes up the main antagonistic role in the first half of Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey.
• Blood Knight: He was drawn to Metropolis after seeing an over-the-top commercial for a wrestling contest (titled "War-Bash") being held there.
• Breakout Villain: Well, mainly thanks to its reputation as the only known villain to kill Superman in canon continuity, but Doomsday has since gone on to become one of the Man of Steel's best-known and popular villains, receiving a good deal of publicity and adaptations as well as making it onto more comic titles, usually either as a main or secondary antagonist. It is surprising to hear that Doomsday's popularity has endured to the point where he was able to receive a live-action film adaptation before Brainiac could.
• Breath Weapon: Through its adaptive-evolutionary biology, Doomsday was able to develop the power to breathe fire towards its opponents.
• The Brute: Anyone who can wrest control of his mind tends to employ him as this, considering just how much of a physical powerhouse Doomsday is. That said, most would consider the beast a Wild Card as Doomsday is usually more content in following its own desires and could prove resilient enough to break through whoever is trying to put a leash on him.
• Cessation of Existence: An attempt on this was made on Doomsday in Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey where with the aid of a Mother Box, Superman took Doomsday to the end of time to allow entropy, the one thing which it cannot adapt from, to devour Doomsday and wipe him out from history. Unfortunately, he still manages to come back, albeit due to shenanigans on Brainiac's part.
• Clone Angst: In an alternate timeline where the original Young Justice was never formed, a thinking teenage clone of Doomsday named Doomsboy was created when what would have been Superboy turned out powerless. He's got the angst of living up to Superman's legacy Conner usually has with the bonus of being associated forever with the monster that killed him. This makes him more reckless and selfish until he decides to just kill Conner for trying to set him straight after denouncing everything Superman stood for.
• Clone Army: He becomes the subject of focus, courtesy of Lex Luthor, to be cloned into many individuals in one of his plans to defeat the Super Family and finally prove to himself to be the stronger, more influential figure.
• Clothing Damage: Doomsday starts in a containment suit that held him bound in his vault; freeing one arm allowed him to escape the vault and start his rampage. Attacks by the Justice League steadily damage this suit, to the point their all-out combined The Worf Barrage only succeeds in freeing Doomsday's other arm. Like Superman, Doomsday's "costume" is all but gone by the time the final blows are exchanged in Metropolis.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: His early appearances had him dishing out numerous ones to foes as diverse as the JLA and Darkseid. Bonus points for battering the former with literally one hand tied behind his back.
• Cyborg: The clone that was sent after Cyborg-Superman during Reign of Doomsday was able to mimic his technopathic powers, and create mechanical limbs and weapons for itself.
• Death of a Child: Doomsday's first couple of incarnations were just itself being a scared little child when it was sent off to prehistoric Krypton, only to be killed moments later. While later lives would fare better, the previous ones were still well remembered due to Doomsday's Genetic Memory, which certainly contributed to becoming perpetually rageful and insane later on.
• Deus Exit Machina: A variation. It's noted that superheroes with magic or cosmic powers, like Doctor Fate or Shazam!, have a tendency to be conspicuously absent from the group of heroes that have to face Doomsday whenever he shows up. This means that almost all of the fights with him have to be resolved with physical force, which is his specialty meaning that it's not the best of ideas...
• Diabolus ex Nihilo: Showed up out of freaking nowhere and absolutely wrecked the Justice League, Supergirl, Cadmus, Metropolis, and Superman.
• Didn't Think This Through: His creator Bertron wanted to make the Ultimate Life Form and proceeded to launch him out into prehistoric Krypton for decades. Bertron never stopped to think about what would happen when he finally succeeded or when he would break free.
• Dirty Coward: Generally, no. However, he ends up becoming this the moment he develops moral agency with his ability to adapt and evolve, which results in one of the first things happening that he gets a grasp on mortality and starts fearing for his own life. He stops battling midway when he realizes he's not winning and just tries to escape said fight. Though considering Doomsday's origin, this is a case of deconstruction as he's mentally still a child who remembers how it feels to be killed in many agonized ways and doesn't want to be involved with it again. This trope is lost when he loses said agency and becomes a feral berserker again.
• The Dog Bites Back: Considering the amount of agony and pain his creator put him through for several years, Doomsday finally catching up to and killing Bertron is a satisfying moment to behold.
• Due to the Dead: Once when he was seemingly defeated and killed by the Radiant in their first encounter together, the Calatonians follow their burial customs for him instead of just destroying the body. They bound the creature's body with metallic bonds, seal him up inside a thick-walled cube container, and shipped him off into outer space where he would do no harm... or so it seemed, as the ship was knocked off its course by an asteroid field and crash-landed on Earth in its distant past.
• Dumb Muscle: Up to eleven in that he killed Superman, but he is a quite animalistic being with no other thought than to destroy any living thing it encounters because they threaten his existence. Thanks to his Adaptive Ability, however, he "Evolved" sentience due to being outwitted over and over. He then promptly decided his old way of life was stupid and underwent a Heel–Face Turn.
• The Dreaded: Many in the superhero and supervillain community are terrified of him especially since he is one of the few beings alive who can go toe-to-toe with Superman and is the being infamous for actually killing the Man of Steel. Superman himself admits to being frightened of him.
  Narrator: This was an anomaly. This was a being of such immeasurable power that its name, in any translation— be it recognizable or wholly alien tongue— struck unholy terror into the hearts of those who heard it. No mercy involved. No cracks in the veneer of indestructibility. It had never had an earthly name until recently, earning it rightly with the murder of the greatest hero of the age. It was a name that parents frightened their children with. It was a name that had become myth. Doomsday.
• Enemy to All Living Things: He attacks until a planet is completely extinct, then moves to another one. Rinse and repeat. He typically starts with the greatest threats he can perceive, motivated by survival.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: He died countless times to the savage creatures on prehistoric Krypton. Because of this, he now sees all forms of life, no matter how small or harmless, as threats to be eliminated on sight.
• Evil Is Bigger: It's huge and towers over Superman in every incarnation and writer.
• Evil Laugh: It is sometimes capable of emitting a sinister chuckle, though that said, it's rare to come across those outside of his debut storyline, given Doomsday's perpetually raging nature.
• Evolutionary Pressure Cooker: According to Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey, his creator, Bertron, would launch a baby out in ancient Krypton's harsh environment and if the creatures outside didn't kill it, the atmosphere would. Bertron would do this over and over and over to create the Ultimate Lifeform.
• Feral Villain: Is usually portrayed this way being rampaging monster out to kill anything that comes in his way.
• Flying Brick: He acquired the ability to fly in Reign of Doomsday.
• Freudian Excuse: From the moment he was born, he was left on the Death World known as prehistoric Krypton and killed an ungodly number of times. He remembers every single horrifying moment.
• From a Single Cell: He can regenerate from any trace of him left.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Bertron turned a helpless infant into an immortal killing machine feared across the cosmos. Before the experiments start, he says this is part of his plan:
  Bertron: You are nothing special now, child—but one day, you will become perfection embodied.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Trope Namer. His sole reason for being was The Death of Superman. And to defeat Superman, Doomsday had to be overtly strong and feral to the point he has basically no personality, being comparable to an angry stampeding animal. The contrast between Doomsday and the rest of Superman's foes is touched upon in the story, with Superman fearing he might have to delve into He Who Fights Monsters territory. He would later grow out of this as his origins were explored in depth and it’s shown that Doomsday is the creation of an ancient Kryptonian scientist Bertron and lack of personality comes from the trauma he experienced while Bertron was perfecting his formula.
• Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: Doomsday's entire life and the reason behind his creation stems from this trope. He was to represent the concept of the ultimate specimen that can adapt to any surroundings and eventually defeat any being as envisioned by Bertron. The end results were successful, or well, too successful as Doomsday has not just proven itself to be a sentient weapon of mass destruction, but actively seeks total destruction towards all life.
• Genetic Memory: The memory of each and every one of his previous deaths is imprinted onto his consciousness. This is pretty impressive considering Doomsday is usually considered a Dumb Muscle, yet due to the nature of his powers and physiology, he can perfectly and vividly remember the circumstances that he had been through in all of his previous lives. Something which Bertron learned the hard way.
• Godzilla Threshold: Doomsday is so far the only member of Superman's rogues gallery for whom lethal force is basically the only viable option 99% of the time, as he's an unthinking, unreasoning beast who will not stop for anything else, and seeks to destroy all life wherever he can find it. And it's not as if he's likely to stay dead, anyway.
• Gone Horribly Right: Bertron wanted to make Doomsday into a being who could beat even death. The poor schmuck got it and a whole lot more.
• Grand Theft Me:
  • Doomsday is on the receiving end of one in Superman: The Doomsday Wars as Brainiac manages to invade his mind and take over his body for use against Superman. That said, the Coluan does note that this is temporary as he becomes aware that Doomsday's rageful nature and sheer physical power would force Brainiac's subconsciousness out of him at any given point.
  • Also becomes a victim of this in Reign of Doomsday; after Doomslayer destroys the Eradicator's body, the Eradicator's consciousness is able to transfer into Doomsday, who was current comatose in Luthor's ship. Eradicator stated that he would eventually be expelled from the body, but he was able to maintain control long enough to help Earth's heroes stop the other Doomsday clones and then sacrifice himself to trap Doomslayer in a pocket dimension and send Superman home.
• Greater-Scope Villain: He dies in Doomsday! after having a Mutual Kill in Superman, but his destruction and the damage he caused ends up influencing the next two story arcs, which means that even in death, Doomsday's actions would lead to a dispute between four people claiming to be Superman and Mongul's eventual invasion with Cyborg-Superman, which would lead Hal Jordan becoming Parallax.
• Had to Be Sharp: This trope is essentially Doomsday's origin story. By forcing it onto the Death World of prehistoric Krypton over and over again, only the fittest and most adaptable traits of "the infant" managed to survive, until they became the genocidal, rampaging monster we know today.
• Healing Factor: While he normally dies before reviving fully healed, he can heal from injuries mid-battle.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: After being "saved" multiple times from otherwise permanent deaths by Braniac, Lex Luthor and Darkseid, Doomsday actually turns over a new leaf and tries to "befriend" Superman. He still wants to punch the man of steel, but no longer wants to kill him, and in fact goes out of his way to save Superman from the villain Gog and protects civilians in Superman's absence! Unfortunately Doomsday's "good" turn is undone by Doctor Psycho, who tries to make Doomsday a mindless killer again. Doomsday almost overcomes this only for Flashpoint to happen and reset him to a simple minded if he even has a mind brute for good.
• Hero Killer: In his first appearance, no less. And given the information about who he killed, Doomsday quickly shot up to become a Trope Codifier and one of the most famous/infamous examples of this trope in fiction. It's certainly not for nothing that his title as The One Who Killed Superman is warranted and has since struck a fearsome reputation to everybody, heroes and villains alike.
  • Contrary to popular opinion, he was not created specifically for this purpose. Dan Jurgens wanted to do a King Kong vs Godzilla style throwdown in Metropolis, and since none of Superman's rogues were capable of challenging the Man of Steel in such a manner, Jurgens decided to create a new one. Once the Death of Superman event was announced, Doomsday became its villain largely as a "Kill Two Birds With One Stone" style editorial decision.
• "Hey, You!" Haymaker: Subverted. While in a supermarket, Doomsday hears someone shout to him "hey you!". He turns, and instead of another hero ready to do battle, sees a large screen TV showing a wrestler promoting a wrestling event in Metropolis, which intrigues the beast.
  "MHH-TRR-PLSS?"
  • Double Subverted when Superman then yells "Doomsday!" and starts clobbering him again.
• Hidden Depths: If you get past his nature as a mindless monster, Doomsday can be seen as someone whose comparable to a scared child and that his being a mindless monster is his way of coping with the trauma and pain of being killed countless times and being subjected to abuse by Bertron. The fact that he sees Bertron's face in every other living being may suggest that Doomsday has a form of Psychological Projection that's a product of his violent tragic upbringing and another one of his coping mechanisms to survive.
• Hollywood Evolution: Bertron's method of creating Doomsday was to keep launching clones of the same baby into the hostile environment over and over again until the baby "evolved" into the ultimate survivor.
• Hope Crusher: Not that he intended to do this, but his killing Superman does cause a massive dent towards the Superhero community as well as most of the world, who highly looked up to the Man of Steel. The world struggles to cope with the loss of its greatest hero and, in turn, heroes find themselves struggling to live up to Superman's standards. Even the supposed "return" of Superman doesn't fully convince others that he's returned, not helped by the fact that it's four people competing to see who could be his successor. Only the return of the real Superman finally manages to dispel the crushed hope that Doomsday caused.
• HULK MASH!-Up: Doomsday is often compared to the Hulk due to their similar levels of strength and pure savagery, although Doomsday is usually less massive and speechless (except on occasions where he develops intelligence).
• Idiot Ball: Doomsday may be really tough, but he also presented absolutely no threat if he couldn't get within arm's reach of anything. Despite the Justice League having multiple telekinetics at the time, nobody thought of simply picking him up. Granted it probably wouldn't have worked since Doomsday was made unstoppable but points for trying. When Ice has to solo Doomsday, she explicitly states her intention to fight smart and keep her distance. Next, we see her, her unconscious body is being hurled by Doomsday through Mitch Anderson's living room so that obviously didn't work, but we're still not shown exactly why.
• In a Single Bound: In most adaptations, he can't fly, but can leap into the sky and across cities.
• It Can Think:
  • Has 'evolved' this a few times, but ironically enough becomes less dangerous when he does because he becomes capable of feeling fear, doubt, and in one case, actually thinking about why he's killing everything in sight.
  • During his fight with the Justice League, he stopped Fire from bombarding him with her flame by picking up a rock and throwing it at her. He also placed Booster Gold's head in an open car and slammed the door in his face.
• It Only Works Once: Whenever Doomsday is killed, he comes back with an immunity to whatever had done him in. He's even developed an immunity to Darkseid's infamous Omega Beam. The only thing he can't evolve an immunity to is entropy.
• Jobber: Can happen around and to Doomsday, who for all his power, does have glaring holes in his abilities. Notably, Green Lantern, Maxima, and Darkseid all forgot their telekinetic powers around Doomsday, despite Doomsday having no ranged weaponry at the time.
• The Juggernaut: You'd need someone like Superman or stronger to even think of slowing him down.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: He once took a moment to punch an unconscious Ice in the midsection, breaking her ribs.
• Knight of Cerebus: To date, he's one of Superman's darkest, most powerful, and most serious foes and his first appearance, which resulted in Superman's death, completely changed the tone of the series as a benchmark in comic book history. And since then, despite not being able to kill Superman a second time, Doomsday is still never played for laughs and whenever he shows up, you know Superman is in for the fight of his life.
• Kung-Fu Sonic Boom: The narration describes the final blow between Superman and Doomsday as setting off a shockwave that created a crater in the ground and shattered every window for blocks.
• Lamarck Was Right: Was created deliberately through a brutal process of Lamarckian evolution, taking a baby and killing it over and over until it 'learned' to evolve.
• Lightning Bruiser: Can overpower and outrun people like Superman and Darkseid. While his Super-Speed rarely gets too much focus nowadays, Doomsday in his debut was stated to be even faster than the Flash. And after many years of being able to exchange blows with Superman who can move at a Ludicrous Speed, it's clear Doomsday is every bit as fast as he is strong.
• Logical Weakness:
  • His Spikes of Villainy are made out of bone, meaning that if someone manages to break one of them (admittedly, this is no minor feat), it will inflict serious pain on him, something Superman took advantage of during the closing moments of their battle in Metropolis.
  • He can adapt to overcome anything that hurts him. Anything that restrains him without physically harming him won't trigger the effect, though it will still have to overcome his tremendous physical strength. Thus, most of the time he's defeated by being trapped somewhere he can't escape, such as the Phantom Zone.
  • Its esoteric, but raw entropy simply ends Doomsday. He was designed to be the ultimate. Once he's reached "the end" he just dies having fulfilled his purpose. Hence "The End Of Time" would have permanently done him in if not for fools like Julian Lazarus making a copy of him or Braniac saving him in an attempt to turn Doomsday into a puppet body.
• Mind over Matter: The clone sent after Superboy in Reign of Doomsday possessed a copy of his tactile telekinesis.
• Mutual Kill: While Doomsday is infamous for killing Superman, that doesn't mean it went out a winner. On the contrary, Doomsday ended up dying in the same fight after taking enough hits from the Man of Steel whilst also managing to fatally injure Superman before finally expiring from one last punch.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Doomsday got his name when Booster Gold compared his rampage to the end of the world.
• The Needless: Thanks to its overpowered adaptive abilities, Doomsday does not require air, water, or food to function.
• Nigh-Invulnerability: Doomsday's body is a solid mass with no vital organs, meaning he can take ridiculous amounts of damage without suffering much pain or feeling fatigue. To make matters worse, injure him with something once and his Adaptive Ability will ensure it won't work again.
• No Kill like Overkill: Doomsday never fails to unleash as much force on an opponent as he can, regardless of whether or not it's actually necessary.
• Obviously Evil: Gigantic physical appearance, studded with spikes all across the body, fangs for mouths, glowing red eyes, a tendency to act furious at all times... yeah Doomsday is not subtle about the fact that it's a threat out to end everything it sets its eye towards.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Doomsday will not rest until everything around him is destroyed.
• One-Man Army: Doomsday can take out entire planets on his own, and has torn through the whole Justice League on several occasions.
• Outside-Context Problem: In his first appearance. No one has any clue who left him in his prison or how long ago it happened; he just claws his way out of it and goes on a rampage.
• Patricide: While there is nothing known about Doomsday's parents (if he had any), one can make the assumption that Bertron filled up the paternal role, which would mean this trope is in play when Doomsday finally manages to kill him. This trope, however, is not played for sympathy on Bertron's end though.
• Poisoned Weapon: Due to his evolving nature, in addition to weaponizing his bodily spikes, Doomsday is even able to imbue them with some sort of toxin to further the lethal extent of his biological weaponry.
• Prehistoric Monster: Strangely enough, he technically counts as he's an odd, extraterrestrial example, being born and raised in a prehistoric version of Krypton. He didn't start out as a monster, but as a scared child who was understandably frightened by his surroundings and was killed several times. After being revived and adapting to his environment, he's become far more than just a monster from prehistoric times.
• Really 700 Years Old: Was born in prehistoric Krypton, putting him closer to Time Abyss.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Doomsday is usually shown to have glowing red eyes, mainly to underscore the fact that he is a raging beast who is hellbent on destroying all life that it encounters. Later on, it also shows that it is capable of firing Eye Beams just as strong as a Kryptonian's.
• Resurrective Immortality: Doomsday's ultimate power, despite his overwhelming power, is the latent ability to be resurrected sometime after he is killed. And no matter how many times he dies, he'll simply come back, immediately ready to kickstart another path of rage and destruction. What makes this power especially potent is the fact that whatever death Doomsday had is registered into its physiology and adapts to what caused it, giving Doomsday an evolutionary jump and making him immune to whatever killed him in his previous life.
• Sadist: You'd think so considering his sole purpose is to destroy everything and kill everyone in his path, but believe it or not, Doomsday himself really doesn't enjoy it. This could be explained in two different ways: 1) He lacks the cognitive capacity to actually derive pleasure from killing and destroying (humans are the only species on earth capable of harming others for pleasure because of their more developed minds) or 2) He sees what he's doing as his only means of survival and so his war against life is less leisurely and more necessary to him, at least that's what he's been genetically programmed to believe. While at times it might seem like Doomsday is enjoying what he's doing, it's likely because he sees that the "threat" is almost over and he will once again survive the encounter.
• Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The total death toll of Doomsday's attack? Well, concrete numbers are hard to come by, but from the ones we are given, it's less than one thousand. Now, that might just be from the battle in Metropolis, the estimate from Doomsday's rampage from Ohio to Metropolis (explicitly in New York State, at least for this story)? Just over one hundred. Apparently, Doomsday really sucks at being a mindless destroyer killing everything in its path. At least partially justified, however: The JLA and Superman worked hard at keeping Doomsday's attention focused on them, as well as protecting and rescuing people caught in the way. . . the JLA may have just been really good at it. Also, normal people didn't stick around to watch Doomsday's rampage.
• Sealed Evil in a Can:
  • In his first appearance, Doomsday arrives on Earth trapped in a Calatonian casket and a containment suit. He breaks free from the former with ease once his injuries are healed, while the latter gets shredded during his confrontation with the Justice League.
  • In Superman: Doomsday, Doomsday is initially trapped in a spaceship that is unearthed by LexCorp. Once he awakens, he kills the digging crew and goes on to destroy everything he sees in Metropolis.
  • Not only does Doomsday have Nigh-Invulnerability, but the combination of his Healing Factor and Adaptive Ability means he can come Back from the Dead with immunity to whatever killed him the last time. As a result, in most adaptations, the heroes only manage to defeat him by banishing him to a place he cannot escape from: the Phantom Zone in Justice League and Injustice: Gods Among Us, the center of the Earth in Smallville, etc.
  • In the Post-Flashpoint timeline where his existence was made known in then-contemporary Krypton and due to his nature as a Walking Wasteland whose presence was enough to kill off any sort of sentient life around him, Doomsday was forced to be thrown and imprisoned into the Phantom Zone by the Kryptonian Council.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: Doomsday wears green pants.
• Self-Made Orphan: He shredded his creator, Bertron, who Doomsday hates more than anything, to the extent that he's occasionally been written as seeing literally every living thing as Bertron.
  Bertron: No! You can't do this to us! We made you better! Don't you see? No one can equal you! My genius built you—created you! You cannot kill... your father!
  Doomsday: *Beat*
  Doomsday: *PUNCH*
• Slasher Smile: He's sometimes seen sporting a large toothy smile on his face, mainly to project his status as a dangerous villain.
• Spikes of Villainy: Doomsday has bony spikes protruding from various regions of his body, essentially shielding him from most physical attacks. Later incarnations of the character can also extend the spikes and use them as improvised weapons to stab his enemies.
• Superpower Lottery: Doomsday, being an attempt at creating the ultimate predator and warrior, meant that it had to have adapted several times to acquire various different powers and abilities in its own millions of years of existence. It already possessed superhuman strength, speed, and durability by the time it arrived on Earth and duked it out against the Justice League and Superman. Later on, not only does it gain more new powers like electronic manipulation, heightened intelligence, flight, laser beams, and a lethal virus carrier, but its own existing powers become better and more proficient over time.
• Stripped to the Bone: This happened to him once when he got blasted by Imperiex.
• Super-Soldier: He was bred to be the definitive one. However, the road to becoming one was anything but pleasant.
• Super-Toughness: His resilience is phenomenal. Superman and the JLA bombarded him with all their long-range energy attacks for an extended period of time, and all he suffered from it was Clothing Damage (enough to free his other arm). And during a later fight between himself, Superman and Maxima, Maxima accidentally blew up a gas station around them (due to pulling up an actively sparking lamppost while they were surrounded by leaking gasoline). While the explosion was sufficient to knock out both Superman and Maxima, Doomsday quickly recovered, and continued on his path of destruction.
• Technopath: One of the clones from Reign of Doomsday possessed these powers, and used them to defeat Cyborg-Superman.
• Time Abyss: He's millions of years old, having existed in a prehistoric point of time in Krypton. That said, he's an unusual example in that his origins are heavily tied to science and evolution.
• Through the Eyes of Madness: Due to a combination of being killed multiple times and its genetically enhanced memory allowing him to remember its past lives, Doomsday was basically conditioned into seeing Bertron in some capacity or another for the rest of its life, as in being reminded of the scientist whenever it sees the face of anyone it takes a glance of. It adds some sort of tragic light into Doomsday's violent nature, showcasing just how terrible Bertron's influence was on Doomsday's psyche.
• Took a Level in Badass: The Doomsday clones and the Doomslayer in "Reign of Doomsday", which brought Doomsday back up to his previously badass levels; in fact, it took The Eradicator taking control of the original Doomsday to turn the odds in the favor of the heroes.
• Tragic Villain: He was killed thousands of times over, and had every single death recorded into his memory, all in an attempt by Bertron to create what he saw as "The Ultimate". Due to genetic engineering, this caused him to believe that he had to kill all life just to stay alive. He does not even understand that killing is wrong.
• Training from Hell: For a given form of "training", he became what he is through repeatedly being thrown into an inhospitable environment, and after he was killed, whatever's left was scooped up and used to clone an all-new Doomsday, which was then thrown back into the inhospitable environment. Rinse and repeat for 30 years and thousands of deaths, until he developed Resurrective Immortality and became powerful enough to kill his creators.
• Ultimate Life Form: Doomsdays' entire existence revolved around being created and engineered by a group of unfeeling scientists to create what they wanted to be the most powerful and adaptive creature that could ever exist. It took several years, which included Doomsday getting maimed, tortured, crippled, killed, and then some more, but the results paid off; the conclusions came that Doomsday was a creature that was able to adapt to whatever it faced against and is literally incapable of dying permanently.
• Unskilled, but Strong:
  • Played straight as a mindless brute, he fights with no finesse, but he doesn't really need it since he's stronger, faster, and tougher than Superman.
  • Inverted when he was revived from being destroyed by Imperiex. Superman beat him without much trouble and specifically noted that since he's now a sapient being fighting for his life, rather than a berserk beast hopped up on adrenaline all the time and feeling no pain with no goal other than killing, he's easier to take down. This suggests that Superman was actually slightly stronger than Doomsday the whole time, and they only drew in their first fight because Superman had restraint and self-preservation instincts that Doomsday didn't.^note This has real-life precedence: people hopped up on PCP or in an adrenaline rush typically take several other larger people to hold down, even if they're scrawny. Notice also that the usual downsides, the body risking to hurt itself from the effortor pain pushing yourself to your limits, do not affect Doomsday due to his biology. Basically, his lack of skill is a skill in its own right that makes him more effective.
  Superman: You're different now. You can think for yourself. So think about this. Before, you were a mindless thing. Nothing could hurt you. You couldn't feel pain, much less understand it. But once you have felt it—it changes you—forever. And you'll begin to understand something new. Fear. I've lived with it all my life. You don't want to die again, do you? The agony of what's happened to you affects your speed—your strength...and that little bit of doubt—that you cannot win today—grows. You understand now, don't you? You will never hurt me again.
• Unstoppable Rage: He is nothing but pure rage at everything around him.
• Vampiric Draining: By Superman: Doomed, he has evolved to a point where he can absorb the life force of everything within a hundred yards. When he becomes infected with the Doomsday virus, Superman acquires this. He is able to gain some degree of control over this power to free Lois from Brainiac's control.
• Villain Decay: Because you can't really top killing Superman. Every instance since then he's been defeated easier and easier.
• The Virus: Doomsday eventually develops the ability to spread a viral condition in the Post-Flashpoint era that subjects the infected into a steady, yet horrendous and agonizing conversion into a creature just like Doomsday itself. This phenomenon plays a large factor in Superman: Doomed when the Man of Steel himself is infected and has to find a way to quickly cure himself.
• Walking Wasteland: In the Post-Flashpoint era, Doomsday's body evolved to such lethality that he subconsciously emitted some sort of energy that caused whatever was within its vicinity to be destroyed and die off by setting them on fire. This was one of the reasons why it had to be sealed off into the Phantom Zone, and when it was released, it caused this again when simply taking a walk in Africa, killing off a large number of wildebeests and rendering them an endangered species.
• With My Hands Tied: Doomsday makes its debut with its left arm slung onto its back, which ends up making him even bigger of a threat than expected when he still manages to brutalize whatever heroes come across his way. And this is before the left arm is freed by a combined attack effort by the Justice League, which only makes a dire situation even worse.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: At his very core, he's an extremely frightened and traumatized toddler who has come to view every single bit of life as a threat thanks to how he came to be what he is now.
• The Worf Effect: Imperiex disintegrated him with a single blast.

---

Related Characters

Doomslayer

Doomslayer

Species: Genetically Engineered Prehistoric Kryptonian^note Cloned from Doomsday

First Appearance: Action Comics #901 (July, 2011)

"I am the death of Doomsdays. I am the Doomslayer."

One of several Doomsday clones that was created by Lex Luthor in his latest scheme to combat and defeat the Superman family in yet another attempt to claim dominance over them. However, during an altercation between them, Supergirl ended up punching this clone into a tunnel on its ship, sending it into a space-time portal. There, due to the acceleration of time, this Doomsday clone ended up not just adapting, but also developing much greater sapience than the other clones did, as well as a heightened intelligence. It returned to the material realm, now rebranding itself as the Doomslayer, with the new goal to kill off every remaining Doomsday clone, its genetic template, and everybody that knows of a way to recreate them, in its twisted desire to finally end the threat of Doomsday forever.

---

• Apologetic Attacker: The Doomslayer, while willing to destroy the entire Earth and everyone on it in his attempt to erase Doomsday, showed no real malice over his actions and told the heroes so.
• Apocalypse How: His endgoal is to end all life on Planet Earth in his twisted perspective to rid the universe of Doomsday as well as the possibility of him being recreated.
• Badass Boast: He introduces himself with a boast...
  Doomslayer: The course of this station must not be altered. Earth must be destroyed. On this depends the future.
  Superman: Who are you?
  Doomslayer: I am the Death of Doomsdays. I am the Doomslayer.
• Big Bad: The Doomslayer clone was the Big Bad and Final Boss of "Reign of Doomsday".
• Clone Angst: He hates being a clone of a monster, and fighting against Doomsday's rage.
• Colony Drop: His method of achieving his goal is to use his spaceship and thrust its speed to terminal, directing its approach towards Earth so that he could hit it with enough force to cause a worldwide extinction event.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: The Doomslayer was originally a mindless Doomsday clone created by Lex Luthor to distract and hound the Super-Family while he carried another evil scheme out. Nothing the Supers had not faced and beaten several times before. Then, he gains sentience, extra-knowledge, and an undying hatred towards all living beings which leads him to attempt to blow Earth up.
• Genius Bruiser: The Doomslayer clone, which masterminded a plot aimed at destroying Earth, and could operate technology designed by Luthor.
• Hero Killer: Anti-Hero Killer would make more sense here, but it is the Doomslayer who manages to bring about a permanent end for The Eradicator in the Post-Crisis timeline.
• It Can Think: Even Doomslayer went from 'kill EVERYTHING that's alive'' to 'kill this one planet, myself, and all my clone brothers to protect the universe from me', which is at least a slight improvement.
• Kill All Humans: Doomslayer wants to kill the entire population of Earth in order to make sure that all knowledge of how to create Doomsday clones is lost.
• Offhand Backhand: He barely notices he has just backhanded Superman into the floor as he strides towards the Eradicator.
• Pre-Mortem One-Liner: When The Eradicator tells the rest of the Super Family to leave while he fends off the Doomslayer, adamant that his nature as a energy-based being would ensure he would remain alive after a beatdown, Doomslayer is willing to snap back at him before more than ready to prove him wrong...
  Eradicator: Guys, get out of here. I can delay him. I'm made of energy, I can't be—
  Doomslayer: You're in ERROR! I have given myself the power— and I have always had the RAGE— to KILL far stronger than YOU!
• Planet Destroyer: He is a sapient clone of Doomsday determined to destroy the planet Earth and everyone on it so that all knowledge of how to create Doomsday clones is lost.
• Secondary Color Nemesis: Doomslayer is orange and green.
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: The Doomslayer aims to kill not only himself, but all other versions of Doomsday, and anybody who might be able to recreate Doomsday, leading him to try and kill the entire planet Earth.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Doomslayer, who wants to end the threat that Doomsday poses to the universe, by killing himself, the other Doomsdays, and everyone who knows about them. Unfortunately, this happens to include the Super Family and everyone on Earth.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: The Doomslayer is a more traditional example, aiming to kill himself, the other Doomsdays, and Earth because he hurts too much to think straight about it.

Bertron

Bertron

Should The Ultimate find any creature stronger than he—and actually be killed—he will come back to life, evolved into a superior being! He is... beautiful!

First Appearance: Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey #2 (May, 1994)

An alien scientist who happened to have found and set up a research/genetic engineering site many years ago on a prehistoric planet that would eventually become known as Krypton. His life's goal was to create a creature and find whatever way it takes to turn it into what he can see as the Ultimate Life Form. His life's work; the legendary monster that would come to be known as Doomsday.

---

• Abusive Parents: Bertron was the one who created and bought Doomsday up back in the latter's earliest days, so it's easy to state that Bertron was the closest Doomsday had to a father figure. Unfortunately, Bertron has no intention of looking after him and teaching him like any loving father would and instead decides to send it out to a Death World where it would be killed over, after which Bertron would resurrect Doomsday just to send him out again, over and over, all in an attempt to create the "perfect being". He immediately chose to become one of the worst parental figures the DC Universe ever had just to have results, and he eventually gets it... at the cost of his own life.
• Abusive Precursors: He comes from a Kryptonian species that predated Superman's race.
• Adapted Out: He was the creator of Doomsday in the Post-Crisis era but come New 52/Rebirth, he's no longer included in Doomsday's backstory.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When he's finally at the mercy of Doomsday, he has the gall to start begging for his own life, claiming that it "can't kill your own father". It doesn't work.
• Aliens Are Bastards: He is a tall, lanky grey alien who also just so happens to be a twisted mad scientist who wants to create a deadly being only to satiate his own desires whilst letting his experiment die countless times for his results. Interestingly, he manages to be an extremely hatable alien figure by just letting things happen, a contrast to how other alien villains tend to get themselves personally involved in something, usually via Alien Invasions.
• Asshole Victim: Bertron is suddenly killed by Doomsday when the latter finally manages to find a way to catch up to the former's laboratory base, and through that, Doomsday proved his success by slaughtering the residing scientists and his own father-figure. But given just how horrendous and callous Bertron proved himself to be throughout Doomsday's life, his fate was more than deserved.
  • While he doesn't make an appearance in the Post-Flashpoint universe, General Zod does claim to have killed Doomsday's creators, so it is possible that Bertron was one of them. That said, there is no evidence to suggest that Bertron created Doomsday for the same reasons as he did in the Post-Crisis version had. Even so, Zod's description of Doomsday still leans on this trope.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: His ultimate goal was to create a living being that could fight against whatever it comes across, adapt to its surroundings quickly, basically something that could be considered the pinnacle of evolution and survival. After several attempts with whom he calls The Ultimate, Bertron succeeds, only to be found and killed by the very being whom he created.
• Black Eyes of Evil: Bertron has large black irises for his eyes and he's an unfeeling, sociopathic alien scientist who is downright obsessed with making a top-evolutionary killing machine.
• Didn't Think This Through: Bertron wanted to make the Ultimate Life Form and proceeded to launch him out into prehistoric Krypton for decades. Bertron never stopped to think what would happen when he finally succeeded or what would happen when he would break free. For extra points, some of his fellow scientists did try to tell Bertron about the possibility of the monster breaking free, but he chose to ignore them entirely,
• Dirty Coward: He pathetically begs for his life the moment Doomsday manages to reach the science facility from where it was born and corners Bertron after killing the other scientists. Needless to say, Doomsday is having none of Bertron's pleas, not that he was able to be reasoned with anyway, and promptly offs his father figure.
• For Science!: Bertron had no practical reason for creating Doomsday, he did it simply because he could.
• Gone Horribly Right: He created Doomsday to be the perfect unkillable creature that could not only conquer the harsh environment it was thrust into repeatedly, but would also slay its resident creatures. However, once the creature reached the point where nothing on the planet could withstand him, Doomsday turned its attention on its creators, killing them and Bertron in the process.
• Greater-Scope Villain: While Bertron has been long dead in the Post-Crisis timeline, it was his creation of Doomsday and his lack of even thinking about giving it proper parental care in favor of creating a "perfect" lifeform that led to a whole slew of events that saw Earth and the universe be threatened with destruction multiple times as well as the tragedy and downfall of several heroes, especially Hal Jordan. Ultimately, the actions of Bertron are what indirectly led to the events of The Death of Superman, Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey and all following stories featuring Doomsday as well as Emerald Twilight and Zero Hour: Crisis in Time!.
• The Greys: Bertron's species is never named, but he bears a strong resemblance to the Greys of UFO folklore.
• Hate Sink: Everything shown about Bertron is sickening and utterly loathsome; a pathetic excuse of a Mad Scientist whose approach to creating the Ultimate Life Form was to create a child, only to send it out to a virtually inhospitable planet to die and be revived over and over again. This, on top of the fact that he couldn't give a shit about the child's well-being, ignoring whatever potential threats his colleagues warned him of and filling himself up with egotistical pride and hubris that his work will be successful. In his very short appearance, Bertron dedicated his moments to be as reprehensible as possible, considering that his actions and pride resulted in the creation of one of the most unstable and deadliest beings in the universe, the destruction of untold and the corruption of a notable hero into a potential multiversal destroyer solely because he wanted to create a "perfect" lifeform. Tellingly, his death at the hands of his creation is as sudden as it was wholly cathartic.
• Ignored Expert: Not Bertron himself, but rather, the other scientists, who actually point out that what Bertron is doing to The Ultimate is a bad idea in the long run and would eventually backfire. Bertron's response is to either tell them to shut up, overrule them, or kick them out of his facility, not wanting to jeopardize his attempts at creating what he wants The Ultimate to be.
• Karmic Death: He is killed by his very creation, the one whom he had been recklessly and remorselessly throwing out into the wilderness to constantly die over in an attempt to create what he saw as The Ultimate, and this after Bertron's life goal had finally been accomplished. For extra points, Bertron was someone whom Doomsday remembered, so unlike everyone else, he would have had a personal reason to kill Bertron, a feat that no one else shares.
• Lack of Empathy: The guy could really care less about the fact that what it was sending out to its death several times might as well be his offspring, nor about the fact that what he was doing was unethical and counterproductive in almost every way imaginable.
• Lamarck Was Right: Bertron's method of creating Doomsday was to keep launching clones of the same baby into the hostile environment over and over again until the baby "evolved" into the ultimate survivor.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Bertron's constant abuse towards his creation by causing him to die repeatedly so he could be cloned over and over resulted in his creation eventually turning on him and beating him to a bloody pulp.
• Mad Scientist: Bertron was a scientist who existed back in Krypton's prehistoric times and has very personal ties with Doomsday. And with that said, he was the monster's creator, being obsessed with the idea of creating the ultimate killing machine that he constantly sent it out to the dangerous wilderness, cloning it again over and over whenever it was killed, alongside taking glee in his sick and demented accomplishments. Even with those aside, Bertron was shown to be rather cold and dispassionate most of the time either with his fellow scientists or whenever the topic of his creation was bought up.
• Milking the Giant Cow: He overreacts twice, whenever his child creation is destroyed.
• Oh, Crap!: The moment Doomsday finally manages to reach back to the science facility in which he was born in Bertron is shocked and frightened at his sight and frantically pleas to be spared before being killed.
• Offing the Offspring: Doomsday is his creation and Betron was the closest he had to a parental figure in his life. As a result, this trope plays out whenever Bertron decides to send it to prehistoric Krypton to adapt, die, and get resurrected over and over. Interestingly, and ironically, when Bertron is about to be killed by the very thing he created, he tries to call himself "your father" as a desperate and futile attempt to save face.
• Predecessor Villain: His role and overall actions were done way before the current events of the Post-Crisis universe, but what he does proves to be very influential in regards to Doomsday and his legacy can be felt throughout whatever works Doomsday appears in.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Bertron only appeared in one comic book issue, yet his actions and impact have proven to be so massive with the creation of Doomsday as well as his callous and abusive treatment of the creature since its inception. It would ultimately prove to be seen as a major reason why Doomsday is violently insane as well as indirectly setting up many major events in the DC Universe.
• The Sociopath: Bertron has several traits associated with sociopathy; he has an inflated sense of self-worth, believing that he is justified to work and prove whatever he is doing, is vain and egotistical to the point where he chose to ignore his fellow scientist's warnings about the idea of The Ultimate escaping, has displayed nothing in the way of feeling empathy or remorse towards anything and, for someone with a respectable job as a scientist, is impulsive and very short-sighted when he decided that the best way to do things is by repetition, considering that sociopaths tend to act very impulsively and don't really factor in long-term goals all that much.
• Stupid Evil: Bertron is this trope incarnate. For some reason the possibility of the creature he's horrifically abusing (for the sake of creating an unstoppable superweapon no less) turning on him never occurred to him.
• Too Dumb to Live: Not once did Bertron stop to think that probably creating an ultimate killing machine is a terrible idea from the get-go. In fact, several other scientists pointed this out, yet Betron was too stubborn to acknowledge any fault, responsibility, or shame in his actions. What's even worse is that his idea was to recreate his invention and send it off to die again, aware that the creature had since developed a Genetic Memory, so he would be aware of who exactly is responsible for driving it insane. Naturally, it all comes to a head; Bertron and the other scientists get killed primarily because Bertron was too stupid and haughty to back down and reconsider how horribly unethical and detrimental his goal was.
• Villainous Legacy: He may have died a long time ago, but keep in mind, Doomsday was his creation, so all of the actions committed by Doomsday in the present are, in turn, because of Bertron's desires and machinations to create a "perfect" life form.
• Would Hurt a Child: Doomsday was only a little child when Bertron sent him to prehistoric Krypton and was quickly killed by its hostile fauna. Though depending on your point of view and given the nature of Doomsday's existence, Bertron either killed thousands of identical children or killed the same child thousands of times just to yield results. Either way, age or the fact that the child is technically his doesn't matter so long as Bertron gets what he wanted.
• You Remind Me of X: Not in-universe, but Bertron has many similarities to Brainiac. Both are deviously intelligent, but callous, psychopathic Mad Scientists who have no empathy for life beyond their research, both their actions have very far-reaching repurcussions and both embody the Aliens Are Bastards trope to an iconic level. Hell, Bertron is an asshole almost on par with Brainiac; the only difference is that Brainiac is a far more deadly threat and considers himself the Ultimate Life Form, while Bertron created something like that and had no defensive capability whatsoever. They probably would have liked each other.

---