Let me start by saying that this event had a lot of build-up across almost the whole Superman line: Action Comics, Superman, Superman/Wonder Woman, and to less extant, Batman/Superman and Supergirl. For the most part with events, you can follow along but not have to worry about doing research. This is one of those cases where you pretty much needed to be following along the whole time. Since I was only reading "Action", I was somewhat lost when the actual event started in certain areas. The main Doomsday build-up was happening in "Superman/Wonder Woman" while "Superman" dealt with a storyline involving Lois Lane developing psi-powers and the citizens of Smallville inflicted by a disease putting them in comas. In addition, Cyborg Superman, who plays a part in the event later, was appearing in "Supergirl", but I wasn't covering that, and if it wasn't for the Cyborg Superman one-shot from DC's Villains Month, I wouldn't have known that it was Zor-El, Supergirl's father and Superman's uncle, experimented on by Brainiac and acting as a herald to find worlds to collect. The point is, there's a lot going on, and if you were only reading just one of these books, you won't get a full grasp of the event.
But I think that is only half the problem with this event. The main premise of "Doomed" wasn't going to be a rehash of "Death of Superman" for the New 52, but after Part One of the event depicts Superman defeating Doomsday, he is infected by a virus that causes him to actually transform into a Doomsday creature, being triggered by stress or anger, similar to Bruce Banner turning into Hulk. Now when the event began with that premise, I thought it was pretty good. We would see Superman dealing with something he couldn't control and his friends would have to find a way to save him. There's even a really good issue of "Superman/Wonder Woman" where she finds him in his Doomsday state and its causing him to vent his frustrations about her and their relationship.
If that was going to be the main focus of the event, maybe I would feel differently about this event. But once Brainiac attacks Earth again, using the psi-powered Lois we find out is under his control to lead his forces, and is also behind the comas in Smallville as the beginning of collecting all the minds of everyone on Earth, it just goes all over the place. I believe there's some attempt to explain that Brainiac was somehow responsible for infecting Superman with the Doomsday virus, but I didn't really understand it. Honestly, it feels like there were two very different stories occurring in the event that were poorly connected. If it wasn't for the personal moments between the characters throughout this events, I don't think I would have made it through.
The best way to describe the ending of this event is "Deus Ex Machina". Eventually, Superman confronts Brainiac, who reveals his plan to collect psionic energy of people across the universe to rewrite it to his own whim, particularly to revive his wife and son. Let me explain why I have a hard time following that. I know comic book science can be totally out there, but I have never heard of the idea of people's consciousnesses or minds could actually manipulate reality. Even the anime "Code Geass" worked with the idea that all people's consciousnesses were part of a system that makes up God, but even that idea didn't deal with changing things as drastically as Brainiac wanted here. Besides that, the way people have seen Brainiac is that she's this emotionless being who does things on an intellectual or preservationist level. I know the New 52 can makes changes to characters as they want, but don't try to make me feel emotion for someone like Brainiac. Lex Luthor, sure, make him a member of the Justice League and give him a sad story about his sister, but I really don't think Brainiac can be done that way either.
To defeat Brainiac, Lois uses her own powers to transfer his psionic energy into Superman, which creates what I'd like to call a "SuperDoomBrain" creature. If anyone has a better name, I'd like to hear it, cause I honestly feel dumb typing and referring to him as that, and I hope whoever came up with that idea did. Superman then uses that energy to free the minds Brainiac had collected, which apparently burns out that power but also the Doomsday virus, reverting Superman to his normal state. Like I said, "Deus Ex Machina." It just seems like a quick resolution to the whole event, which lasted way longer than it should have in my opinion.
Now the finale of this event was supposed to be out at the end of August but ended up delayed to the end of September. Usually when that happens, it's due to an art delay, but upon reading it, I think it was to tie-in more with the "Futures End" Five Years Later event DC has all its titles involved in that month. The final moments of the finale have Superman forcing Brainiac's ship into a black hole, trapping them both. They are separated, and Brainac ends up in a place where he views visions of the classic DC universe before "Flashpoint" occurred. A week later in the "Futures End" weekly series, we find Brainiac, apparently unheard of since "Doomed", with a new giant robotic body and residing on what he calls the "Blood Moon". In addition to that, in these connecting "Futures End" covers, a wave of energy is coming from Brainiac's hand, and if you look closely, you can see DC characters in their classic depictions.
Since this event actually ended in September, you're probably wondering why it took so long to get a review up. Well, I had to wait for Action Comics #35, which acted as an aftermath issue, to find out what happened to Superman and everyone else. There were also aftermath issues in "Superman/Wonder Woman" and "Supergirl", but as I feel they aren't necessary, I didn't read them. So apparently the aftermath of the event has the same problem as the build-up, where you can't get the whole story from the main portion, and need bookends to prop it up. So eventually, Superman finds his way home after two months and the issue deals with him exploring how the worlds has fared since Brainiac's defeat, and through a convoluted plan that would take awhile to explain, he realizes that even with the damaged caused through his battles, he still serves as an inspiration to the people of Earth.
The one drawback of this issue though is that Lois, who had discovered Clark was Superman in the main story, has forgotten his identity due to the loss of her psi-powers. In my opinion, that's a loss of a potentially good story. Apparently DC wants to keep pushing the Superman/Wonder Woman relationship, but would it have really hurt to have Lois know the secret? We all know that Superman and Wonder Woman's relationship will end at some point, DC even said so, so why not make it interesting and have a sort of love triangle? Sure Clark has more in common with Diana, but everyone's so familiar with his relationship with Lois. It could have left the door open for Lois and Clark to reignite things. But I guess DC wants to see how long they can keep the powerhouse couple afloat.
So to wrap things up, I wouldn't say it's a bad event. I mean, I gave it a fair shot and tried my best to like it and it did do some interesting things. The personal moments between characters got me through it though some plotpoints were confusing and probably played out too long. Maybe if I had been reading the other books involved, it would have been clearer and I may have enjoyed it more. I'm really just glad it's over and that "Action Comics" can get back to its own thing for awhile.
I usually give number scores for these comic reviews, one for story and one for recommendation, but I honestly can't really place numbers on this event. I'll just say that if you want to give it a try, go for it. I heard the trade collection will include the prelude and aftermath issues along with the main story, so you'd be lucky there.
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