The Other Side of Doomsday is a The DCU story published in Super Team Family #11 (July, 1977), featuring The Flash, Supergirl and The Atom. It was written and illustrated by Gerry Conway and Alan Weiss.
Barry Allen and Ray Palmer have gone to Ivy Town to attend a symposium wherein Barry's wife Iris West and Ray's fiancée Jean Loring will be giving a speech. On their way they bump into Linda Danvers, who has also been invited to give a speech.
Before beginning their panel, though, Linda, Iris and Jean are bathed by a strange beam. One explosion later, there seems only to be three piles of dust left. Barry and Ray hurry to change into the Flash and the Atom to investigate the case. As taking samples of the dust, though, they are attacked by weird humanoid creatures who appear out of nowhere and crumble to dust when they are exposed to electricity.
Meanwhile, Linda, Iris and Jean have been teleported to an unfamiliar place and placed into transparent tubes. Unlike her human partners, Linda has not passed out, so she is the only one who can take notice of both their surroundings and the guardian robot guarding them. Linda quickly changes into Supergirl, smashes her pod and engages their mechanical guardian. The robot is unexpectedly tough, but it eventually falls; and when it does, its body similarly crumbles to dust.
As Supergirl frees her companions and explores the strange facility, Flash and Atom analyze their samples and determine the dust gives off an electrical signature which can be traced, an old villain of the Justice League of America congratulates himself on his plan coming together neatly.
Tropes:
- Artistic License – History: When he comes around and notices he has been chained to a stone wall, the Flash identifies it as "a medieval dungeon", even though nothing about its design suggests this. Barry's reasoning seems to be: "It is murky, muddy, mossy, there are shackles on the walls... It looks awful and primitive so it must be medieval. Specifically".
- Batman Cold Open: The story starts with four pages of Flash, Supergirl and Atom beating up a gang of high-tech crooks called "Sky Pirates" before the beginning of the real plot (which the Pirates have nothing to do with).
- Big Bad: T. O. Morrow, a villain of the Justice League, kidnaps Iris West and Jean Loring to lure two Leaguers into a death trap.
- Bit Part Bad Guys: A criminal gang called the "Wind Pirates" are defeated in the first three pages, and their only plot relevance is introducing and getting the tale's heroes together in the same place.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: T.O. Morrow manages to knock Flash and Atom out, but despite his yearning for revenge, he merely throws them into a dungeon instead of killing them. It is possible he intended to use them as a bait to lure the rest of the JL into his trap-world, but this is not stated in the story.
- Chained to a Rock: After knocking his prisoners out, T.O. Morrow gets them chained to a dungeon's wall.
- Failed a Spot Check: Flash and Atom trace the electrical signature of the creatures involved in the kidnapping of Iris and Jean to an abandoned electric plant, and they decide to split up and sneak into the place. As looking around, Flash is so worried about Iris that he does not notice he has just walked by a hulking creature until it is smashing it into unconsciousness.
- Fastball Special: When the heroes realize that they are stuck in a living planet, Flash throws Atom at super-speed into the ground, sending him all the way to the planet's core, the equivalent of its brain, so Atom can knock it out.
- Genius Loci: Supergirl, Flash and Atom eventually deduce the whole planet where they have been trapped is a living planet, entirely controlled by T.O. Morrow.
- Golem: As trying to find their missing love interests, Flash and Atom are assailed by creatures resembling huge, muscular, blue humanoids. Said creatures lack eyes and mouth, and they crumble to dust when they are exposed to electricity. Laboratory tests reveal they are made from some alien dirt-like substance bonded by sheer electrical energy, and later the heroes learn those creatures were created and animated by a living planet at Morrow's behest.
- Impact Silhouette: When Supergirl is slammed into a wall by a guardian robot's missiles, her body leaves a person-shaped hole in a metal plank.
- Not Enough to Bury: Subverted. When a mysterious beam hits Linda, Iris and Jean, it looks like they have been reduced to three little mounds of soot. However, it is revealed that they were teleported into another dimension, and the soot were residuals of the teleportation beam.
- Not Quite Flight: As staring at Atom gliding through the air, Flash outright asks him how he can fly. Atom answers he can ride the air currents due to weighing less than a fraction of an ounce.
- Off with His Head!: Supergirl gets mad as fighting T.O.Morrow's guardian robot and punches its head off its shoulders.
- "Open!" Says Me: When she runs into a thick metal door as exploring their prison, Supergirl simply tears it off its hinges.
- People Jars: When they are abducted by T.O. Morrow, Linda, Iris and Jean are teleported into three transparent cylindrical tubes.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Supergirl spouts the next line when a robot who she is fighting makes her angry. She punches its head off straight after.Supergirl: "That cuts it! Robot, you've made me mad."
- Rule of Three: T.O. Morrow abducts three women: Linda Danvers, Iris Allen and Jean Loring.
- Sinister Surveillance: As Supergirl knocks one guardian robot out and proceeds to set Iris and Jean free, her actions are being video-monitored by T.O. Morrow from a hidden room.
- Spanner in the Works: Intending to take revenge on the League, T.O. Morrow takes advantage that Flash's wife and Atom's fiancé were going to give a public speech to kidnap them, hoping to lure their love interests into his world. However, as kidnapping both women he also kidnaps Linda Danvers, unaware that she is Supergirl.
- Trapped in Another World: Linda, Iris and Jean are abducted into another dimension by T.O. Morrow to lure Flash and Atom into a trap.
- Trick-and-Follow Ploy: The Flash and The Atom attack the "Wind Pirates", a gang which is part of a greater criminal organization, intending to let one thug get away so they can follow him back to the ringleader. Unfortunately, Supergirl unintentionally ruins their plan by unexpectedly showing up and knocking all pirates out.The Atom: "These creeps were part of a larger organization...And if we'd let one of them escape, we could've tracked him...right back to all his pals!"
- Unexplained Recovery: When Flash and Atom learn T.O. Morrow's is behind their wives' disappearance, Flash points out the JLA watched him disappear several months ago, and his own computers stated he ceased to exist. Morrow shrugs it off by telling he "ceased to exist" on Earth when he was whisked away to another dimension.
- Unwanted Assistance: Supergirl sees Flash and Atom fighting a criminal gang, so she quickly swoops down on them and delivers a curb stomp. Atom angrily tells her they were supposed to let one crook escape in order to track him right back to the remaining gangsters.
- Unwitting Pawn: T.O. Morrow uses a staff to control the living planet, and there is no indication that the planet is aware of or willing to harm the heroes.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Supergirl, Flash and Atom have strong rules against killing, but they are not bothered by effectively killing a living planet which was being enslaved by Morrow.
