Warning! Spoilers ahead for Lazarus Planet: We Once Were Gods #1It looks like Superman has nothing on the intense healing abilities of one of his greatest foes. Lazarus Planet: We Once Were Gods #1 reveals that Doomsday has changed the game when it comes to regenerative powers.
With his otherworldly powers, there's little that can hurt the Man of Steel. But even when he does come to harm, Clark, like many other heroes in the DC Universe, has an enhanced healing ability that allows him to remedy his wounds at a faster rate. However, his healing is nothing compared to the restorative powers of Doomsday, the villain that killed Superman. The result of a twisted experiment to create the most resilient weapon, Doomsday was literally made to survive anything the world could throw at him to the point where death isn't enough to keep him down. Such a powerful healing factor makes Doomsday one of Superman's most fearsome foes.
Doomsday Truly Has No Limits To His Power
And as impossible as it sounds, Doomsday’s healing ability just got even more powerful, completely flipping what regeneration truly means. In Lazarus Planet: We Once Were Gods #1, the backup story “Songs of Pain" by Dan Watters and Max Dunbar, sees Martian Manhunter trying to protect the world as Lazarus Resin rains from the skies. A man named Raphael Arce has been blessed with empath powers and is attempting to take pain away from others. In a bid to heal Metropolis, Arce tries taking on the city’s collective painful memories. Unfortunately, this backfires and triggers a painful transformation in Raphael. J'onn J'onnz attempts to take the pain from Arce, only to realize that the man has accidentally taken on the memory of Doomsday, giving the villain all he needs to come back.
Coming back from a memory is a pretty impressive feat, and that level of regeneration is something that would make Wolverine envious. Regeneration is a pretty tricky superhero ability, and its rules are often fast and loose. But almost every hero with the ability to regrow parts of their body after experiencing extensive damage needs to have at least some of their original body. Doomsday, however, pushes this particular ability to levels rarely seen and may have redefined what healing factors truly are.
Doomsday Lives On In The Minds Of Everyone
Doomsday has been killed multiple times, but as J’onn points out, he’s been able to come back from things as small as a nucleotide. One would think the solution would be to attempt the complete annihilation of Doomsday’s body, since there are plenty of heroes in the world who can make such a thing happen. But if Doomsday can come back from a memory, then that creates a huge problem. As long as there are people who Doomsday, then it doesn’t matter if he’s completely exterminated. Nothing short of a mind-wipe on a global scale could purge the memory of Doomsday, and considering the League’s past with mind-alteration, that’s a big can of worms. Readers can see the chilling healing factor of Superman's foe for themselves in Lazarus Planet: We Once Were Gods #1, on sale now.
