‘Superman & Lois’: How Did Lex Luthor Manage to Create Doomsday?

The season 3 finale of ‘Superman & Lois‘ was just released, and fans were overjoyed that the biggest villain that Clark faced this season turned out to be Doomsday, one of the most dangerous and monstrous villains that Clark ever faced in the comics. Doomsday’s origins are fairly well-known in the comics. Doomsday was created on Krypton through a series of cruel experiments that led it to develop immunity to everything that kills him so he can’t be killed twice in the same way. This makes Doomsday potentially indestructible. ‘Superman & Lois’ decided to put a twist on Doomsday’s origin story and presented us with something far worse but extremely original. Let’s see how Lex Luthor managed to create Doomsday. 

Lex Luthor created Doomsday out of Bizarro Superman by torturing him with weapons enriched with X-Kryptonite in order for Bizarro to develop immunity to everything that might harm him. The process of creating Doomsday was actually started by Bruno Mannheim, who stole the corpse of Bizarro from the D.O.D. and pumped him full of experimental drugs that were supposed to have regenerative effects. Bruno Mannheim managed to resurrect Bizarro, and Lex finished the transformation process. 

Now that we’ve given you a brief summary of what led to the creation of Doomsday, it’s time to explore it in a bit more detail. If you’re interested in more, stay with us and keep reading!

Is the monster from ‘Superman & Lois’ really Doomsday? 

Well, the monster that appears was never referred to as “Doomsday,” but when you consider its regenerative powers, it can’t be anyone else. Doomsday is perhaps one of the few creatures in the DC universe that presents a direct and deadly threat to Superman, and Lex Luthor did promise to kill Superman in order to get to Lois. 

Now even though the differences in origin are starkly different, the monster that appears in ‘Superman & Lois’ finale is clearly Doomsday, even if it gets another name in the upcoming fourth season. 

What led to the creation of Doomsday in ‘Superman & Lois’

The story of Doomsday begins with Bizarro Superman, and it begins in one of the earliest episodes of the third season. 

In a desperate attempt to find a cure for Peia’s cancer, Bruno Mannheim started experimenting with potentially dangerous drugs, which had the nasty side-effect of giving superpowers to criminals upon which he experimented. Bruno somehow managed to get his hands on Clark’s blood and used it as a reagent in order to create regenerative qualities of his drugs.

Kryptonian physiology is superb in terms of durability and metabolism, so this makes sense. Clark’s blood was not enough, and Bruno needed more. The cancer eventually returned. We’ve seen this both with Peia and Deadline, who were aggressively attacked by their diseases as soon as the effect of the experimental drugs wore off. 

This is why Mannheim decided to break into D.O.D. and steal some more Kryptonian goodies. Deadline was sent to create a distraction while the rest of the crew stole the corpse of Bizarro Superman. 

Dr. Hook managed to resurrect Bizarro, but no one was sure what that means 

Dr. Hook, who worked closely with Mannheim, managed to resurrect both Atom-Man and Bizarro, but the effects of this treatment were highly unstable. The treatment somehow made their condition return more aggressively than ever before, making their powers even more potent than before.

The best example is Peia, who was seemingly cured when injected with the same substance as Bizarro, and her condition improved dramatically. It didn’t last all that long, however, as the disease returned worse than ever, and she started losing control of her powers. Her sonic booms almost destroyed the Metropolis, and Superman was forced to fly her into the upper atmosphere, where she created a sonic explosion. 

Peia never made it out alive, and soon following this, Bruno Mannheim was arrested and sent to prison. But he never told the D.O.D. or Superman about his little project. 

Bizarro was left alone to stew in his misery 

Now Bizarro was never the most stable individual, he was always the more pathetic copy of Superman from Parallel Earth, but he was still powerful to pose a huge threat to the world. He was fortunately stuck in the abandoned parts of the Subway where Bruno Mannheim set up his secret lab. 

After Peia destroyed the lab by accident, Bizarro was woken up and left to his own devices. No one, and I mean no one, was aware that he was there, and now, Lex Luthor enters the picture.

Bizarro was discovered by Lex Luthor 

Lex Luthor was released from prison because it was revealed that he wasn’t responsible for the murder of Boss Moxie. That was Peia, and Peia also set Luthor up. Lex, however, blamed Lois because she was in part responsible for him ending up in prison. I mean, technically, it is since she was the one that uncovered the evidence and brought it to light, but in her defense, Luthor is far from innocent. 

The first stop when Luthor was released from prison was to visit and threaten Lois, and the next stop was to visit Mannheim’s former lab to see what his enemy was up to while he was gone. 

Luthor and his goon discovered the ruined lab and Bizarro Superman. Bizarro was hunting rats and eating them savagely when they walked in on him. Bizarro attacked them, but Luthor managed to fend him off by using a gun loaded with X-Kryptonite bullets. 

Bizarro was seemingly dead when he woke up again, stronger. Luthor shot him again, and the same thing happened. Luthor then noticed that Bizarro was physically changing every time he was killed. 

So what happened? 

Experimental drugs that Dr. Hook created influenced Bizarro’s physiology

It didn’t take long for Luthor to create a monster. He chained Bizarro to the ceiling and started torturing him with any weapon that he could find through any means necessary so Bizarro would become immune to the effects of that weapon. He hacked at him with an axe, drowned him, burned him alive, shot him up with X-Kryptonite, hacked at him with the chainsaw, and numerous other means. 

This process eventually made Bizarro unrecognizable. His frame got drastically bigger, and his Superman suit merged with his skin. He became a giant monstrosity twisted by the effects of torture and experimental drugs that brought him to life. 

It’s possible that Hook’s experimental drugs accelerated Bizarro’s healing process, just like it did with Deadline, Atom-Man, and Peia. But Bizarro is immune to the deadly effects of the drugs due to the Kryptonian physiology that provides him unparalleled healing abilities, so whatever destructive effects the drug had on others, it seemed to work wonders for Bizarro.

Bizarro’s powers, strength, and speed were greatly enhanced, and everything that he got killed by he was immune to it. And this includes being frozen to death and impaled on top of the tower.

In fact, Doomsday was so strong; he managed to hurt Clark and ragdoll him around. 

If this version of Doomsday is anything like his comic book counterpart, It will be nearly impossible for Clark to deal with Doomsday, and for the development of this story, we’re going to have to wait for the announced season 4. 

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