Story: "The Doomsday Protocol" (22 Pages)

Credits:

Joe Casey (plot, script)
Mike Wieringo (pencils)
Larry Stucker (inks)
Wildstorm FX (colors)
Bill Oakley (letters)
Tom Palmer Jr. and Eddie Berganza (edits)

Feature Character:

Superman (last in JLA: Our Worlds at War #1, also appears in flashback to one hour previous to the main story; next in Superman: The Man of Steel #116)

Guest Star:

Steel II (next in Superman: The Man of Steel #116)

Supporting Characters:

Lex Luthor (in flashback preceding main story; last in JLA: Our Worlds at War #1, next in next in JSA: Our Worlds at War #1)
Amanda Waller (in flashback preceding main story; next in Action Comics #781)
Frank Rock (in flashback preceding main story; last in JLA: Our Worlds at War #1; next in Action Comics #781)
Sam Lane (pictured in flashback preceding main story; next in Action Comics #781)

Villains:

Shrapnel
Chemo
Mongul II (all three possibly deceased)
Manchester Black (next in Superman Vol. 2 #181)
Doomsday (seemingly dies; next in Superman #175)
Imperiex Probes
Imperiex Prime

Synopsis:

Superman discovers that Lex Luthor has authorised the Suicide Squad to release Doomsday from his imprisonment in the JLA Watchtower. Luthor has lost contact with the Squad, and Superman is asked to go and investigate. Superman reluctantly complies. On the moon he discovers the lifeless bodies of Shrapnel, Mongul and Chemo, and encounters Manchester Black, who has not been touched by Doomsday. He also discovers a badly injured Steel, who had come along with the Suicide Squad in order to provide them with access to the Watchtower. Black had then messed with Doomsday's mind so that the hatred he feels for Superman was redirected at Imperiex probes. Black has also found a way to neutralise the fluid that allows the president to paralyse him - with which revelation he makes his exit. Superman calls in medical help for Steel and follows Doomsday, having been asked by Steel to 'make sure he does what he was freed to do'.

Wrestling with the demons of his memories, Superman fights Imperiex's probes alongside Doomsday, until finally they are confronted by Imperiex Prime, many thousands of times the size of any of the probes. With a wave of his hand, Imperiex reduces Doomsday to bones, and thinks he has done the same to Superman - but the Man of Steel has been rescued at the last moment by a boom tube and brought to Apokolips.

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