User blog:Transcendentalstate/Review: Superman--Doomsday; Hunter/Prey Book 1, DC Comics 1994

A very exciting book, nicely drawn with 90's art in all its glory and limitations. This book frustrates me a little, because there are several leaps that must be made in the narrative to follow the story--for a newbie to comics like myself, this was a little difficult to follow. You need to know already that Superman and Doomsday previously killed each other, and that Cyborg was somehow involved. You can sort of figure that out by the text, but a fair amount of inference is required if you have not been following the comic continuity. As I got this in a bundle of old comics...well, not so much for me.

I was unhappy also with the relationship portrayal between Superman and Lois--she was so unsure of him, didn't want him to leave in search of Doomsday. Clark, in very brusque fashion, pushes her objections aside as secondary to his own need to find Doomsday and leaves her with not much more than a pat on the head and a lingering kiss. Their relationship is worth more than that scene portrayed.

Doomsday is a delightful force of nature in this comic; plowing through anything in his way, including Darkseid. Darkseid's arrogance is amusing, and DeSaad's disobedience is outstanding. Cyborg's choice of exo-armor as his vehicle seems interesting in view of the fact that Doomsday is making mincemeat of the exo-armor in general. I'm not certain what makes Cyborg feel that Doomsday will be a good minion for himself instead of turning on him, but perhaps that will be developed further later. Or perhaps, I simply don't know the continuity well enough.

I ended up reading this issue 3 times, with greater pleasure on each read. I hope that I am able to find issues 2 and 3 so that I can find out how this fun issue ends!