Doomsday (New Earth)

The nameless being later to be called Doomsday (by Booster Gold) was artificially created in the distant past on Krypton, long before the humanoid Kryptonian race had gained dominance over the planet.

History

Origin

In the early days of the planet, Krypton was a violent, hellish world where only the absolute strongest of creatures could survive (at the time, the world's dominant lifeforms were said to be the most dangerous creatures in the universe). Doomsday's creator was a mysterious alien named Bertron, who wished to create the ultimate life-form. To do so, Bertron and his team sent a baby onto the surface of the planet, where it would be instantly killed by the harsh environment or the vicious creatures inhabiting it. Each time, whatever of the lifeform's remains that survived were harvested and used again, to create a better, stronger version than the previous. In short, the mad scientist was using the method of cloning to accelerate the evolution of the being he was creating. Bertron named his creation Ultimate^[1]. Through decades of this process, the being who would eventually become Doomsday was forced to endure the agony of death, thousands upon thousands of times; the memory of these countless deaths was recorded in his genes and drove it to hate all life. Eventually, Doomsday gained the ability to evolve against what killed him in his prior life without the need of Bertron's technology. At this point he proceeded to hunt down and kill all of the lethal creatures that inhabited Krypton. When it saw Bertron, Doomsday considered him and the team to be a threat due to their roles in his multiple deaths and attacked the ship they were working in. Bertron himself met his death at the hands of his own creation.

Doomsday escaped Krypton and went on a killing spree across several planets. He began with crash landing on Bylan 5, a planet where Darkseid was about to wed a princess (in order to obtain that planet's chemical deposits for Apokolips' weapons factories). Just as Doomsday and Darkseid were to meet in combat, Darkseid was forced to flee as the battle had caused the planet's atmosphere to become toxic and therefore worthless to Apokolips. Doomsday managed to hitch a ride on an escaping shuttle.

This shuttle eventually crashed on Khundia. The warring Khundian clans united in order to build protective armor for a warrior named Kobald. His goal was to survive long enough to force Doomsday onto a rocket. Once the rocket was in space, Doomsday killed Kobald and the resulting explosion sent him hurling through space.

He next came across the path of a Green Lantern named Zharan Pel. Doomsday took his power ring and sensing the power of the Guardians of the Universe, made his way to them. Hundreds of Green Lanterns were sent to stop him and were killed. He continued to Oa where a single Guardian sacrificed himself in battle to defeat him. With Doomsday dead, the Guardians turned their attention to rebuilding the Corps.

In reality, the release of massive energies by the Guardian had caused a tear in space through which an injured and unconscious Doomsday fell. Eventually coming to Calaton, he tore that world apart for three years. With only the capital city left, all the members of the royal family combined their life forces into a single energy being, The Radiant. The Radiant killed Doomsday with a huge blast of energy (laying waste to over a fifth of his world in the process). In common Calatonian burial procedures, Doomsday's body was shackled and masked, and due to his status as a murderer, was shot into space. Eventually, he would land on Earth, the force of the impact of his landing driving the casket deep underground. Doomsday, however, was not dead, as any time he would be "killed", he would return, having evolved past whatever defeated him.^{[3] [1]}

Death of Superman

 Main article: Death of Superman

In his first encounter with the Justice League, shortly after breaking free from underground, Doomsday defeated the entire team of superheroes in a matter of minutes, which in turn attracted the attention of Superman. Notable is the fact that the creature fought the entire time with literally one hand tied behind his back, yet still was able to lay waste to all opposition and much of the surrounding area. The only Justice Leaguer who could even defend herself against Doomsday was Maxima. Also at that time, his naming occurred when League member Booster Gold stated how the rampage resembled the arrival of "Doomsday". The comment subsequently reached the broadcast media and thereafter led to the creature's accepted name.^[4][5]

During his rampage, Doomsday took interest in billboards and television spots advertising violent wrestling competitions held in Metropolis, which appealed to his bloodlust and thus enticed the otherwise mindless creature to head towards the city. By counterattacking, Superman quickly found that his opponent's awesome power was a match for his own, and so he realized that if Doomsday actually reached Metropolis, the resulting battle could conceivably destroy the city and kill millions of innocent people. Simultaneously, Doomsday developed a strong desire to murder Superman in particular.^[6][7] That desire was later explained as the agony of continually dying during his creation process; Doomsday developed in his genes the ability to sense anyone Kryptonian, plus an overriding instinct to treat any such beings as an automatic threat. (However, it remains unexplained why Doomsday did not also react with this specific type of malice towards the Cyborg Superman, who clearly possessed Kryptonian DNA).

Doomsday battled Superman in a titanic struggle, leading the hero to conclude that the creature would only continue to attack relentlessly and endlessly, with no urge for surrender. In an act of self-sacrifice, Superman refused to give up despite taking serious wounds and running low on stamina. The fight raged to the bitter end, where the two combatants each struck a simultaneous, fatal blow to the others head, effectively killing each other in front of the Daily Planet building in Metropolis.^[8][9]

In the aftermath of Superman's apparent death, no fewer than four super-beings appeared in his wake, two of them declaring themselves to be the "real" Superman. One of these four, a half-man/half-machine who greatly resembled Superman (and who would later become a dangerous villain called simply "The Cyborg"), took custody of Doomsday's apparently lifeless body. After strapping the creature to an asteroid with an electronic device attached (a device later revealed to be a backup of the cyborg's essence), the Cyborg flung Doomsday into deep space, on a trajectory supposedly certain to never intersect any other planet.

Round Two: Hunter/Prey

Eventually, after passing through a wormhole, Doomsday's asteroid was accidentally found by a deep-space scavenger ship. Upon closer examination of the peculiar-looking drifting rock, the ship's crew retrieved the object hoping to find something of value. The scavenger vessel happened to be on a route to Apokolips. Doomsday was fully rested and, after slaughtering the crew of the salvage ship, found himself landing on the harsh world. This was to be the setup for a final showdown between Doomsday and Superman (similarly resurrected, in the meantime), who had been uneasy about the possibility of Doomsday's resurrection. With the help of his JLA contacts, Superman procured a Mother Box, a thinking computer, after Darkseid's servant Desaad contacted Earth about a problem on Apokolips. Unknown to Superman, Doomsday had faced and beaten Darkseid himself in single combat (even surviving Darkseid's fabled Omega Beams) and was laying waste to Apokolips. Unfortunately, before Superman could deal with Doomsday, Desaad opened a boom tube to Calaton -- the first world where Doomsday was successfully defeated - and sent Doomsday through to what he believed was his defeat at the hands of The Radiant. However, because Doomsday is essentially able to adapt and overcome any opponent because of the process by which he was created (he was always stronger than he had been prior to his last death); Radiant cannot defeat him more than once. Likewise, Superman cannot kill Doomsday more than once. Superman, while knowing this, was obsessed with stopping Doomsday and traveled to Calaton. He fought Doomsday again with the help of the Mother Box, but, despite it providing him with extra weapons such as an ultrasonic gun and an energy sword, Superman met with defeat. He was forced to use one of Waverider's time travel devices to leave Doomsday stranded at the End of Time, where Doomsday was finally and permanently destroyed by the one force he could never adapt to; entropy.

Duplicates

An imperfect duplicate of Doomsday was created by an artificial intelligence based on the son of scientist Doctor Julian Lazarus, who was attempting to bring his son back after being responsible for the accident that killed him. The AI based on the child had already created short-lived copies of Barry Allen and Sinestro, but he simply did not realize that he was creating an actual monster; he thought he was simply playing a computer game. Despite the duplicate possessing all of Doomsday's raw strength, with the aid of the new Wonder Girl, and the disguised Hercules (currently posing as new hero Champion in a plot against the Amazons), Wonder Woman was able to shatter the false Doomsday when he was given access to so much power that his bone spurs covered his body, leaving him unable to move and reduced to a simple statue that Wonder Woman was able to shatter.

In an attempt to understand death, Mister Mxyzptlk created a temporary copy of Doomsday, who subsequently killed Mxyzptlk in a fight. However, Mxyzptlk was resurrected during a meeting with the "Supreme Being", and removed the Doomsday duplicate from the fight once again.

The Doomsday Wars

Doomsday returned yet again when Prin Vnok, an underling of Brainiac uses his technology to travel to the End of Time to retrieve Doomsday in order to combine the beast's massive power with Brainiac's formidable intellect (this was later revealed to have taken place due to the timeline's reconstruction following the events of "Zero Hour", when the former (at that time) Green Lantern Hal Jordan, presently known as Parallax broke down creation and the heroes were forced to trigger their own Big Bang to stop him; the reconstruction of time meant that Brainiac was able to change the outcome of Doomsday's defeat).

Doomsday's will proved too strong to override completely with psionics, and he reacted too quickly for any chemical process to eliminate his simple mind, so Brainiac attempted to use a human host to genetically engineer a Doomsday body without the mind while temporarily lodging in Doomsday's head. He chose to use Pete Ross and Lana Lang's newborn baby, born eight weeks premature and being transported by Superman to the best Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit in the country; Brainiac intercepted Superman during the attempt and stole the baby to hurt his long-time foe, correctly deducing that it was the child of someone close to Superman. In the end, Superman thwarted Brainiac's plot by driving him out of Doomsday's body via the use of a telepathy-blocking "psi-blocker". He then lured Doomsday to the moon, where he placed Doomsday in a kind of stasis with four JLA teleporters; perpetually transporting between those four booths, Doomsday would never be more than 25% integrated, and thus unable to think of a plan to escape.^[10]

Our Worlds at War

 Main article: Our Worlds at War

Following these events, Doomsday was released by Lex Luthor's Suicide Squad to battle Imperiex, a threat that was judged to be even greater than Doomsday himself. Once freed, Doomsday slaughtered the Squad, and then went on to battle Imperiex's numerous probes (his mind having been altered to regard them as the threat he normally perceived Superman to be), which had thus far managed to seriously injure or kill most of Earth's heroes. Doomsday tore through numerous probes with seemingly little effort, while aided by Superman — the only time the two enemies would come close to teaming up — before finally confronting Imperiex himself. Imperiex proved too much for Doomsday; he blasted him, reducing the creature to a glowing skeleton.^[11]

Joker's Last Laugh and Sentience

Doomsday's skeleton was retrieved and his flesh regrown by Lex Luthor (by using Superman's Kryptonian DNA), who handed Doomsday over to Darkseid (Luthor's aide in the retrieval, repair, and improvement of Doomsday) to repay Earth's war debt to Apokolips. By this time, Doomsday had evolved intelligence and sentience. Luthor arranged for the Joker to set Doomsday loose in Washington, D.C. to demonstrate that he was "in good working condition." It also happened to be the anniversary of the day that Superman had died while stopping Doomsday. Despite being weakened by kryptonite exposure when Luthor attempted to exploit Doomsday's Kryptonian origins, Superman's heart was restarted by Black Lightning and he reached Doomsday just as the monster was struggling with the Martian Manhunter. Learning from J'onn that Doomsday wanted to kill Luthor because he blamed Luthor for his "death" in the Imperiex War, Superman managed to defeat the creature by using his newfound sentience and intelligence against him. While Superman proceeds to take everything Doomsday throws at him and then knock him out for good, he explains how he has done so:

After Superman defeated Doomsday, Lex Luthor gave him to Darkseid, who took him back to Apokolips.^[12]

The Supergirl from Krypton

 Main article: Superman/Batman: The Supergirl from Krypton

Darkseid attempted to replicate Doomsday, producing an army of Doomsday clones. Fortunately, Darkseid was not able to duplicate perfectly the creature in all its raw power, possibly as a result of the creature's complex DNA, and they were defeated by a combination of heat vision and Batman's explosive batarangs during an attack on Paradise Island while Darkseid kidnapped the newly arrived Supergirl.^[13]

When Superman traveled to Apokolips to reclaim the life of John Henry Irons, the man known as Steel, Darkseid's wife Mortalla ordered his troops to release Doomsday in an attempt to help Darkseid. Doomsday's short freedom was quickly halted by John in the Entropy Aegis, an armor with incredible power that had been built out of the remains of an Imperiex probe. Doomsday disappeared and was seen wandering the harsh lands of Apokolips.^[14]

With his newfound intelligence, Doomsday managed to escape Apokolips and return to Earth. Upon his arrival, Doomsday encountered a series of emotions previously alien to him - love, compassion and kindness. Exploring the full abilities of these new emotions, Doomsday made his way to Metropolis once more, though not in the destructive manner he had before. Upon his arrival in Metropolis, Doomsday found Superman at the brink of death at the hands of one of his enemies. Using his new emotions, Doomsday shocked both Superman and his opponent, Gog by helping Superman fight against Gog's army. This unfortunately was not enough and Gog stood triumphant over Superman. In this new future, Doomsday was remembered as one of Earth's greatest heroes, who continued Superman's legacy by leading an army under his name against the army of Gog. This new timeline ended when it was revealed that Superman was still alive. Superman had been trapped for two centuries and tortured by Gog. Superman was bound and surrounded by kryptonite, not enough to kill him but enough to prevent his escape. Gog constantly asked Superman why he did not save his family. Superman tells Gog that he could not trade their lives for others. Gog began offering Superman a chance to go back in time and kill him; Superman refused. Eventually Superman shows Gog the error of his ways. Suddenly Doomsday bursts in and picks up Superman. Gog offered Doomsday the chance to return to the past telling Doomsday that he can correct all of this albeit at the cost of becoming a monster again. Back in the present, an unconscious Doomsday was transported away by a younger version of Gog to an unknown location for an unknown purpose.

Battle of Metropolis

During Infinite Crisis, Doomsday was freed from captivity in a cavern near the center of the Earth by Doctor Psycho and Warp. He was then mind-controlled by Doctor Psycho and used as the "spear-carrier" of a super villain assault on Metropolis. Just as he came into full view in front of Green Arrow, he was stopped by Kal-El and Kal-L, the two Supermen, who made quick work of the villain as, for the first time, the two Supermen acted as a team.^[15]

New Krypton

Doomsday reappeared shortly after the establishment of New Krypton in the North Pole. He fell from the sky during a Kryptonian delegation to Washington, D.C. Despite Doomsday's prodigious might, the battle was short-lived. Fighting against Superman would have been difficult enough, but he had little hope of winning against dozens of super-powered Kryptonians. Superman, Supergirl, Zor-El, Alura In-Ze and several others took Doomsday to the moon where they incapacitated him.^[16]

Reign of the Doomsdays

 Main article: Reign of Doomsday

After his death at the hands of the Kryptonians, Doomsday comes back to life more powerful than ever and begins to carve a new path of destruction throughout the world. His journey starts with Steel, and during their battle, Doomsday manifested metallic steel armor and bone protrusions that boosted his durability, and also gained the power of flight.

His second target was the Eradicator. Despite the aid of his allies within The Outsiders, Doomsday was able to vanquish them due to their own squabbling and take the Eradicator hostage. Next on his list was apparently the Alpha Lantern Corps member Boodikka. Supergirl and Batman were able to get her to safety as Starman and Blue Lantern Corps leader Saint Walker intercepted Doomsday. However, Supergirl and Batman learned that Doomsday was not after Boodikka, but the person hiding within her: Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg Superman. Despite his desire to die, Henshaw took control of the JLA Satellite, battling Doomsday before plowing through him, tearing him apart. Doomsday, in return, became Cyborg Doomsday, took control of the Satellite and defeated Henshaw. Supergirl, cured of her dark self, attacked Doomsday but was similarly defeated, both Kryptonians being kidnapped. His next target was Superboy, fresh from his race with Kid Flash. Despite his best attempts, Doomsday defeated and kidnapped him as well.

Within a mysterious base in the ruins of New Krypton, the five shield bearers deal with Doomsday and wonder why he can only attack them with one set of their powers. However, a discovery by the Cyborg Superman and the arrival of Superman himself revealed the truth: the Doomsday they were facing was not the real one. The real one was imprisoned and that they were actually dealing with three Doomsdays, created by Lex Luthor.^[17] Attempting to flee from the clones with Doomsday, the Superman Family discover that their ship is now on course for Earth with the potential to trigger an extinction-level-event if it strikes, only for their attempt to divert the ship being interrupted by a being called "Doomslayer", resembling a cyborg version of Doomsday - later revealed to be a Doomsday who was tossed down an infinite tube that gave it time to evolve - who effortlessly tears Eradicator apart and proclaims that Earth must die for the future.^[18]

Doomslayer believes the original Doomsday to be an infection, so it plans to destroy Earth, as it considers Earth to be ground zero for Doomsday's "infection". Superman and his allies escaped the ship with the original Doomsday and stop the ship from crashing on Earth, pushing it into Metropolis's bay. Afterward, Doomslayer attacks the city with the Doomsday clones.^[19] The clones spread across the world, wreaking havoc, while Doomslayer's second plan is to get the Doomsdays to reach the Earth's core so that he can expand the universe inside the ship's tower and destroy the planet from within, thus erasing all knowledge of Doomsday from the universe. In S.T.A.R. Labs, Superman's allies use the original Doomsday's body to try to find a way to stop the Doomsday clones. Doomsday awakens, but Eradicator (who was thought to be killed by Doomslayer) was in control. As Eradicator and the heroes' attack the Doomsday clones, he warns that Doomsday's mind is beginning to awaken.^[20] In the final battle, Superman makes contact with the ship's artificial intelligence before it reaches Earth's core, hoping to have the tower teleport away. Meanwhile, the Doomsday clones were defeated by Earth's heroes and sent back into the pit the tower is located in. Eradicator then arrives and defends Superman from Doomslayer. He quickly throws Superman out of the tower and allows himself to be trapped with Doomslayer before the tower teleports away.^[21]

Flashpoint

Flashpoint
This section of the history takes place during Flashpoint, a massive crossover event set in an alternate timeline to the mainstream DCU. History was completely changed when Professor Zoom finally found a way to erase his nemesis the Flash without harming his own legacy.

In an effort to save his mother's life from the Reverse-Flash, Barry Allen unknowingly changes reality, creating a new world in which his friends' lives, Superman included, are drastically different.

In this new world Doomsday was part of Project Superman allocated the title Project Six, he was found lying dormant in an underground vault. His DNA was used by the government under the observation of General Sam Lane to create an army of super soldiers. The prototype for this project was volunteer Lieutenant Neil Sinclair.^[22] Project Six was later use as a weapon controlled by General Nathaniel Adam via a mental interface, was sent to attack Booster Gold believing him to be an Atlantean attack on the United States.^[23] The interface is however severed by a Metahuman woman named Alexandra Gianopoulos, which caused its true destructive personality to awaken.^[24] The creature then attacks and nearly kills Booster Gold, the hero only surviving as Project Six is at a more basic level of evolution than the mainstream Doomsday at this point. When Booster Gold shot off the helmet used to maintain remote control of Project Six, Doomsday began to rampage, killing innocent people, but after recovering Booster placed the mental control helmet back on the creature, giving General Adam back control. However, believing that the creature was naturally mindless and incapable of doing anything without being under the control of another, General Adam decided that it was Booster's fault and used the creature to capture him.^[25] As General Adam began to interrogate Booster Gold, Booster shot down a girder, knocking the control helmet off Project Six. At that moment the image of "Project Superman" appears on a computer screen and the beast's true personality awakens again. The creature then rampages through the facility looking for the Kryptonian known as Subject One, Alexandra Gianopoulos put on the control helmet, forcing him to rip open his own chest.^[26]

Rebirth

After the Flashpoint and the Convergence, Doomsday made his way to the Prime Earth, where he threatens both Superman and Lex Luthor, guardians of Metropolis.^[27] Somehow, Doomsday's intelligence had grown and he becomes capable of using strategy against his foes.^[28] Superman was eventually able to lure Doomsday to the Fortress, where he banished his enemy to the Phantom Zone, but he was unaware that an unknown organization had intercepted the transport and captured Doomsday for their own purposes. It finally took the combined might of Superman, Lex Luthor, and Wonder Woman to take down Doomsday.^{[29][30][31][32]}

Powers and Abilities

Powers

• Unique Physiology: Doomsday was created by a rogue scientist, through cloning an infant and having it killed and re-cloned hundreds of thousands of times, pushing him through millions of years of hyper-accelerated evolution to become the ultimate killing machine. Doomsday was killed over and over of the most dangerous species of the universe and in one of the harshest habitats in existence - prehistoric Krypton. As such, he returns to life every time he dies and becomes near invulnerable to what killed him before. His entire body is built as a defensive structure which continues to arm itself the more it is damaged.
  • Self-Evolution: Doomsday's main function is to adapt to whatever he is killed by. He constantly adapts to forms of attack. After experiencing one form of attack he learns how to resist it in the future.^[1] Superman used a sound gun to paralyze Doomsday, but Doomsday's auditory canals closed making him impervious to the weapon. Waverider paralyzed Doomsday once with "chronal" energy, but the second attempt backlashes on him.
    • Immortality: Doomsday is functionally immortal, meaning he will never age or wither due to time. He is around 250,000 years old.^[1]
    • Invulnerability: Doomsday is almost completely resistant to all forms of physical and mental types of harm, and as such, bullets bounce off him, rockets, lasers and bombs will not leave a mark on him, and high-voltage energy emissions cannot penetrate through his tough hide.
      • Energy Resistance: Doomsday was capable of withstanding Darkseid 's Omega Beams at point blank range, which he stated no other being has achieved.^[33] Furthermore, after his first battle with the Radiant, he evolved to the point of not only being able to resisting damage due to energy attacks, but is also able to physically counter and disrupt energy itself.
    • Energy Absorption: Doomsday can absorb solar energy to nourish himself and can store in for a millennium if necessary.^[1]
    • Regeneration: Doomsday also has a highly accelerated healing power that allows him to regenerate from most damage almost instantly.^[34]
    • Psionic-Blast: Doomsday has displayed the ability to telepathically assault others, as he did to Superman while showing him a vision.^[35]
    • Thermal-Blast: While fighting Martian Manhunter, Doomsday adapted and gained the ability breath a powerful stream of flames from his mouth.^[12]
  • Superhuman Strength: Doomsday's incredible strength allows him to easily overpower and kill humans and engage other powerful aliens, such as Kryptonians. He can bend and break through reinforced steel, destroy impenetrable barriers, and can lift extremely heavy objects with little to no effort, uproot trees and buildings/structures as well as decimate them with his might. He is strong and powerful enough to overcome entire rosters of superhumans, like the Justice League and the Green Lantern Corps. He was even strong enough to gain the upper hand against Darkseid.^[1]
    • Super-Leaping: Due to his extremely dense muscles and strength in his legs, Doomsday can leaps miles at a time.
  • Superhuman Stamina: Doomsday can take part in super-powered battles for months on end. He fought Superman through Metropolis for days of physical combat until even the Man of Steel was broken.
  • Superhuman Speed: Despite his bulked size, Doomsday is capable of moving at speeds on par with Kryptonians. Within seconds, Doomsday managed to render most of the Justice League incapacitated. Booster Gold stated that Doomsday appeared to be faster than the Flash.^[5]
  • Self-Sustenance: He can survive in space and can even operate while in the direct presence of space vacuums, vortexes and wormholes, and he does not require oxygen, water, or any form of nourishment to maintain himself.
  • Claws: Doomsday possesses extremely sharp bone protrusions, capable of cutting through the flesh of a powered Kryptonian.
    • Venomous and Extendable Claws: Doomsday can extend his claws various meters, and cause them to have a venomous effect, power enough to poison Superman.^[34]
  • Enhanced Senses^[35]
    • Telescopic Vision^[35]

Abilities

• Hand-to-Hand Combat (Advanced):^[36] Doomsday is able to fight on an above-average level, capable of holding his own against the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, Darkseid and others.
• Tactical Analysis: Despite being an entity of pure rage and destruction, even he can study his opponents to find weaknesses.^[37]

Weaknesses

• Entropy: This is the one thing that Doomsday cannot regenerate from nor form an immunity to. When sent to the end of time, he was finally destroyed along with the rest of the universe in that he simply ceased to exist.^[34]
• Single-Mindedness: Due to the fact that Doomsday was unintentionally programmed to hate everything that lives, Doomsday will focus only on killing, and could potentially be led into a trap.
• Monstrous Appearance

Trivia

• Doomsday is also known as The Ultimate Lifeform.
  

Recommended Reading

• Death of Superman
• Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey
• Our Worlds at War
• Infinite Crisis

Related

• 153 Appearances of Doomsday (New Earth)
• 50 Images featuring Doomsday (New Earth)
• Quotations by or about Doomsday (New Earth)
• Character Gallery: Doomsday (New Earth)

Footnotes

Superman Villain(s) This character has been primarily an enemy of Superman in any of his various incarnations, or members of the Superman Family. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Superman Villains category."

Steel Villain(s) This character, team or organization, is or was primarily an enemy of Steel. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Steel Villains category."

Justice League Villain This character is or was primarily an enemy of the Justice League, in any of its various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the category "Justice League Villains."

Secret Society of Super-Villains member This character is or was a member of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, a cadre of super-villains who band together to accomplish feats no one super-villain can do alone, in any of its various incarnations. This template will categorize articles that include it into the "Secret Society of Super-Villains members" category.