Given the events of the most recent issue of Josh Williamson and Dan Mora's Superman #20, the stakes will only continue to get higher for the Man of Steel. The book, which features the return of DC's ultimate destroyer, Doomsday, also reveals a major future change for Superman that has implications for his design and one of his most iconic abilities.
In Superman #20, a version of Doomsday, the powerful time-traveling entity known as Time Trapper, reveals Kal-El will lose an eye when he comes up against an old nemesis. "You still have your right eye…meaning Zod has not returned yet," he says ominously to Superman. The former Kryptonian military leader would pose a formidable challenge to the Big Blue Scout, and it now appears Superman will sport an eye patch soon, with his heat vision capability reduced by 50%. Before the future confrontation with Zod, Superman contends with the altered ambitions of Time Trapper Doomsday and the fatal battle with the entity's old rampaging version in the new issue.
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Following his numerous deaths and rebirths as Doomsday, including his iconic double knockout brawl with the Last Son of Krypton, Time Trapper experienced many more rebirths and deaths over millions of years until he fought The Legion of Infinite Worlds. Doomsday would typically evolve with each death, becoming impervious to whatever had previously killed him, but following his battle with The Legion, he did not evolve. Time Trapper, however, believes that he will become a god if he dies again, able to rule instead of destroy the universe.
Time Trapper arrives from the future to the present and asks Superman to help him achieve his new ambition by making the ultimate sacrifice in the impending battle with his old savage self. "All of history is at your disposal. Why come here?" Superman asks. Time Trapper explains that Time and Space are in flux, leading to his unintended early arrival. His comment about Superman's lost eye alludes to the fact he possibly wanted to arrive after Zod's return.
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Doomsday Returns
Time Trapper warns Superman of the coming threat of Doomsday. "But I remember this moment in history…my old self's arrival…The horror that comes next. The lives lost. You will be tested in ways you have never been tested before. You will survive, as you always do. The rest of your allies are not so lucky." Superman #20 features the fight between Superman and Doomsday as Parasite becomes one of the first victims of the universe-trotting killing machine.
DC Comics' Superman #20 is now available in comic book shops.
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