Action Comics Presents: Doomsday Special

The Doomsday Special was a one-shot comic tying into the main Superman titles under the banner of Action Comics Presents. This book was released in 2023 and was written by Dan Watters, with art by Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, and Adriano Lucas, and letters by Dave Sharpe. There was another Action Comics Special that came out around the time of Action Comics 1000, but this is the only book under the “Action Comics Presents” title. Action Comics, for the past 85 years, is most often associated with Superman, but other heroes have taken up the headlining spot in the book periodically and Supergirl is no stranger to the title. The story obviously centers around Doomsday, but this is not his story and the protagonists are instead Supergirl and the Martian Manhunter.

We open the story with a terrifying nightmare that Kara is having that obviously seems to still be affecting her the next morning at breakfast with Clark. After noticing Kara is a bit off, Clark asks her what’s up and the pair begin talking about the subject of her dream; Doomsday. Clark goes into his history with the creature and Kara fills us in that on Krypton he was a kind of “shik’lrith” or “urban truth” however she also refers to the stories about Doomsday as “campfire stories”. The super-twins come in after the history lesson and pull Clark away and Kara leaves the apartment with the mindset that “It was only a nightmare…what else would it be?”

Unfortunately for the girl of steel, she is met with the Martian Manhunter who informs her that it was no dream but was instead a Kryptonian message that the Martian received and relayed to Supergirl. The pair join minds to further piece together the message when suddenly they are transported to a fiery horrible place that could only be Hell. Supergirl is unconvinced saying that rationally Hell can’t exist but J’onn says “Humankind believes in it. So it is real.” So here we have a Kryptonian and a Martian in a very human Hellscape against their will and the first thing Supergirl does is see someone in need and saves them. Supergirl more than anything else wants to help all these damned souls but it is an unsurmountable task and our hero is soon overwhelmed before witnessing the reason they’re in Hell.

Doomsday has not been suffering in Hell like many others banished here but has instead been thriving, finding more and more ways to be killed and revived stronger, finding more beings to torment, and being named “KING DOOMSDAY”. Snatched away before their demise, Kara and J’onn meet with The First of the Fallen who we find out is the reason the heroes have found their way into hell. The First of the Fallen informs them that Doomsday has become stronger and stronger and is well on his way to become King of Hell where he could use that power to break out of Hell and go back to Earth. The First of the Fallen has brought the heroes to Hell for the selfish reason of not wanting to give up his throne and uses the threat of Doomsday on Earth to convince the pair to help him push Doomsday back.

With a new goal in mind, the heroes set out on their mission. Supergirl, now adorned with Hell armor, takes the fight directly to the beast while the Martian uses his psychic powers to help sway the minds of the damned. Supergirl is outmatched and struggles against the monster, but she is able to fight back enough for J’onn to start the residents of hell towards the gates where they begin to make a seal. By the time Doomsday realizes the ploy against him, there is already a solid wall of flesh keeping Doomsday stuck where he is. Doomsday is furious and he is about to take it out on the maid of might helpless in his clutches when he is met with an empty set of hell armor between his claws.

Now back on his throne, The First of the Fallen no longer needs the heroes and has sent them back to earth. Back in the land of the living, Supergirl worries about the value of life if a place like hell could really exist, but J’onn convinces her that humanity is still in good hands because those fallen souls, even after all they’ve been through, still joined together to protect the living and if that’s not hope what is? The story ends with a page reminiscent of Doomsday’s earliest appearances where we see him punching his way out of hell with a tease that Doomsday will continue past this. There is also a short Bloodwynd story included in the back of this issue where we’re introduced to a new version of the character who is called “A Superman for Hell”. The story is fine from what I remember but the main story of the book is what we’re focusing on here since it’s the story with Supergirl.

The story can be summed up as “Supergirl goes to Hell and fights Doomsday” which is definitely an interesting idea for a story and it absolutely delivers. The art throughout the book is really stunning and does a great job of visualizing Hell with great coloring and heavy inks. I’m particularly fond of how the artists draw our 2 main heroes, Supergirl is drawn really pretty and the Martian has a distinct alien look to him and the characters show a wide array of emotions quite successfully in the 30 pages of story. Dan Watters seems to have a really solid grasp on Supergirl in my opinion, he captures her heroic nature quite well and we get some good insight to her Kryptonian heritage as well. While Clark Kent isn’t in much of the story, and Superman only shows up in flashback, I really like how Watters portrays him. I’m also quite fond of the Doomsday logo on the cover, the angled line that goes between the letters M, S, and D is a really great bit of typography that gives the title a bit of character without being anything overwhelming. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first and possibly only use of this logo but I would love to see it used more. The cover as a whole however doesn’t really excite me. I mean no disrespect to Björn Barends and it does seem to be well rendered, it’s just not for me. The book had quite a few covers released for it including a couple retailer exclusives, but my favorite for this book was the Jon Bogdanove on which I put at the start of this post. Unfortunately this was a 1:50 incentive variant and I was unable to get it when the book came out.

The Hell armor that Kara puts on about halfway through the story is a great look. The design is great and my only complaint is that we didn’t get more of it. It also sticks to a red and blue color scheme but goes for a blue cape as opposed to her standard red but it’ still a really solid look. Going back to the tease of Doomsday breaking back to earth, Doomsday did find his way back fairly soon after this and would face off against the man of steel himself and the newly powered up Lois Lane. His return did result in a pretty intense battle between the power couple of steel, but was soon sidelined when the Time Trapper showed up and revealed himself as a much further evolution of Doomsday, so the ultra powered up from hell version of Doomsday that shows up in this story doesn’t really amount to much so rereading this book doesn’t quite have the weight to me knowing where Doomsday ends up after this.

Let me know your thoughts on this story or your thoughts on Doomsday as a whole by commenting below or emailing daringnewblog@gmail.com. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time!