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Doomsday Clock #7-12
Doomsday Clock, Part 2
The epic conclusion to the critically acclaimed Doomsday Clock by the renowned team of writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank. The truth behind DC Universe: Rebirth is revealed, and the final fate of the DC Universe is decided in a confrontation between Superman and Dr. Manhattan.
Where or what is the Justice Society of America? Who is Wally West? As the answers to the mysteries plaguing our heroes reveal themselves one thing is certain. Their world will never be the same. With the Earth teetering on the brink of an international super-war, Black Adam and his followers make their move while our heroes are busy elsewhere. Dr. Manhattan has set his endgame into motion. The Doomsday Clock continues to tick toward midnight with the fate of the entire multiverse hanging in the balance.
Geoff Johns and Gary Frank raise the stakes with a level of sophistication and depth unseen in comics while seamlessly blending in with Alan Moore and Gibbons' revolutionary tale, Watchmen.
Collects Doomsday Clock #7-12
Where or what is the Justice Society of America? Who is Wally West? As the answers to the mysteries plaguing our heroes reveal themselves one thing is certain. Their world will never be the same. With the Earth teetering on the brink of an international super-war, Black Adam and his followers make their move while our heroes are busy elsewhere. Dr. Manhattan has set his endgame into motion. The Doomsday Clock continues to tick toward midnight with the fate of the entire multiverse hanging in the balance.
Geoff Johns and Gary Frank raise the stakes with a level of sophistication and depth unseen in comics while seamlessly blending in with Alan Moore and Gibbons' revolutionary tale, Watchmen.
Collects Doomsday Clock #7-12
232 pages, Hardcover
First published May 12, 2020
27 people are currently reading
365 people want to read
About the author
Geoff Johns
2,735 books2,391 followersGeoff Johns originally hails from Detroit, Michigan. He attended Michigan State University, where he earned a degree in Media Arts and Film. He moved to Los Angeles in the late 1990s in search of work within the film industry. Through perseverance, Geoff ended up as the assistant to Richard Donner, working on Conspiracy Theory and Lethal Weapon 4. During that time, he also began his comics career writing Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. and JSA (co-written with David S. Goyer) for DC Comics. He worked with Richard Donner for four years, leaving the company to pursue writing full-time.
His first comics assignments led to a critically acclaimed five-year run on the The Flash. Since then, he has quickly become one of the most popular and prolific comics writers today, working on such titles including a highly successful re-imagining of Green Lantern, Action Comics (co-written with Richard Donner), Teen Titans, Justice Society of America, Infinite Crisis and the experimental breakout hit series 52 for DC with Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid. Geoff received the Wizard Fan Award for Breakout Talent of 2002 and Writer of the Year for 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 as well as the CBG Writer of the Year 2003 thru 2005, 2007 and CBG Best Comic Book Series for JSA 2001 thru 2005. Geoff also developed BLADE: THE SERIES with David S. Goyer, as well as penned the acclaimed “Legion” episode of SMALLVILLE. He also served as staff writer for the fourth season of ROBOT CHICKEN.
Geoff recently became a New York Times Bestselling author with the graphic novel Superman: Brainiac with art by Gary Frank.
His first comics assignments led to a critically acclaimed five-year run on the The Flash. Since then, he has quickly become one of the most popular and prolific comics writers today, working on such titles including a highly successful re-imagining of Green Lantern, Action Comics (co-written with Richard Donner), Teen Titans, Justice Society of America, Infinite Crisis and the experimental breakout hit series 52 for DC with Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka and Mark Waid. Geoff received the Wizard Fan Award for Breakout Talent of 2002 and Writer of the Year for 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008 as well as the CBG Writer of the Year 2003 thru 2005, 2007 and CBG Best Comic Book Series for JSA 2001 thru 2005. Geoff also developed BLADE: THE SERIES with David S. Goyer, as well as penned the acclaimed “Legion” episode of SMALLVILLE. He also served as staff writer for the fourth season of ROBOT CHICKEN.
Geoff recently became a New York Times Bestselling author with the graphic novel Superman: Brainiac with art by Gary Frank.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 192 reviews
July 18, 2020
Oh, man! This was actually really good!
I'm not a huge fan of the original Watchmen comic because it's just not my jam. If it is yours, I absolutely respect your opinion and completely agree that the story is one of the most iconic graphic novels ever written.
We can all be friends.
This storyline has been in the works for a while.
So long, in fact, that I'd forgotten about it and had stopped being excited to see what part Dr. Manhatten had played in the DC universe.
Remember all that foreshadow-y BUTTON stuff that came out?
Oooooh, I was so curious!
But then it sort of petered out while a new bearded Superman showed up and Batman went of his Heavy Metal tour.
So when Doomsday Clock popped up on my radar, I didn't think much about it.
Honestly, I thought it would probably be a goes-nowhere sort of story that was more than likely a blatant attempt to milk that cash cow. <--and yeah, there's probably a bit of that happening here, but if I had the right to profit off of something I would most certainly do it, too.
Ok, at the end of Watchmen, Adrien has 'saved his world' by using a really dirty trick that killed a lot of people. Rorschach is dead, but his diary (detailing Veidt's crimes) is in the hands of a newspaper. You're left to determine your own ending as you see fit.
Johns' story picks up and imagines that Adrien has been found out and the tentative peace that the world had found is over. The Watchmen world is on the verge of nuclear war and once again it is Adrien who has decided on a way to correct the course of history.
Meanwhile, Dr. Manhattan is still parked on Mars, studying the Rebirth version of Earth. Playing with the past, altering the future, and seeing what exactly makes this particular version of Earth so special. Not only that but who is the glue that holds the entire DC multiverse together.
I don't want to spoil the story for anyone, so I'll just say this was (for me) the perfect blending of the Watchmen into the DC universe. And the perfect way to reinvent/redefine the history of DC's multiverse.
Highly Recommended!
I'm not a huge fan of the original Watchmen comic because it's just not my jam. If it is yours, I absolutely respect your opinion and completely agree that the story is one of the most iconic graphic novels ever written.
We can all be friends.
This storyline has been in the works for a while.
So long, in fact, that I'd forgotten about it and had stopped being excited to see what part Dr. Manhatten had played in the DC universe.
Remember all that foreshadow-y BUTTON stuff that came out?
Oooooh, I was so curious!
But then it sort of petered out while a new bearded Superman showed up and Batman went of his Heavy Metal tour.
So when Doomsday Clock popped up on my radar, I didn't think much about it.
Honestly, I thought it would probably be a goes-nowhere sort of story that was more than likely a blatant attempt to milk that cash cow. <--and yeah, there's probably a bit of that happening here, but if I had the right to profit off of something I would most certainly do it, too.
Ok, at the end of Watchmen, Adrien has 'saved his world' by using a really dirty trick that killed a lot of people. Rorschach is dead, but his diary (detailing Veidt's crimes) is in the hands of a newspaper. You're left to determine your own ending as you see fit.
Johns' story picks up and imagines that Adrien has been found out and the tentative peace that the world had found is over. The Watchmen world is on the verge of nuclear war and once again it is Adrien who has decided on a way to correct the course of history.
Meanwhile, Dr. Manhattan is still parked on Mars, studying the Rebirth version of Earth. Playing with the past, altering the future, and seeing what exactly makes this particular version of Earth so special. Not only that but who is the glue that holds the entire DC multiverse together.
I don't want to spoil the story for anyone, so I'll just say this was (for me) the perfect blending of the Watchmen into the DC universe. And the perfect way to reinvent/redefine the history of DC's multiverse.
Highly Recommended!
July 2, 2020
Wow! Johns and Frank put the weight of both the regular DC universe and the Watchmen universe on their shoulders. Like Atlas, they were able to prop them both up, ultimately delivering a great story. There's so many angles to this story, it will require multiple readings to pickup on all of it just like Watchmen did years ago. It's about the ideal of Superman, hope vs hate. It's about explaining in a great way, DC's many reboots and rebirths. It's about extending what Moore and Gibbons did in Watchmen. Johns even packed in some more revelations like the Superman Conspiracy and making Firestorm interesting again. I'll probably give this a few months and then reread it and Watchmen back to back.
October 10, 2020
As Ozymandias tries to convince Doctor Manhattan to save their world, the DC Universe begins to implode too as a metahuman war between America and Russia breaks out - with Superman caught in the middle! All roads point towards these two - but what will happen when Superman meets Manhattan? The Doomsday Clock is mere moments away from midnight…
Well that was disappointing! Doomsday Clock Part 2 is an unsatisfying and surprisingly boring finale to what was only ever a mediocre first half to this story.
Doctor Manhattan makes his big entrance (sans black zigzag underpants so you can see his doomsday cock) and I’d forgotten how annoying his speech pattern was. “It’s July 1960 and so and so’s doing something; it’s December 1943 and so and so’s doing something; it’s January 1986 and so and so’s doing something; it’s August 2014 and so and so’s doing something”. Droning on and on in this tedious fashion. I get it, he’s a time-traveller who sees multiple realities! But there’s so much of this rubbish in this book to struggle through.
Geoff Johns falls back on that most dull of superhero tropes: big dumb pointless fighting. Because of Firestorm’s contrived presence in Russia and an incident he seems to cause there, the superheroes get their asses to Mars to fight Manhattan. That was so, so stupid. Not one of them stood a chance, even together. I mean, what are Nightwing and Batgirl going to do against a time-travelling god who can literally create universes - throw a Batarang at him?!
Later on, the no-name Russki superheroes take on the big-name superheroes led by Superman - who d’you reckon will win? Come on. This is just tiresome padding to fill up space and isn’t in the least bit interesting to read.
The worst bit of the first book was the old movie stuff in the old folks’ home that led to the old geezer finding a Green Lantern in an abandoned factory. I’d thought the old movie stuff was irrelevant but it turns out the Green Lantern stuff was instead - I don’t think the Lantern or the old man play any role in this book whatsoever! Same with Rorschach, Saturn Girl, Marionette and Mime, Batman - pretty much everyone from the first book!
It still feels like there’s way too many pages spent on what’s a fairly basic concept, especially when nearly all of those pages are hella boring.
There wasn’t much I liked about this book. And Gary Frank’s art is superb as always - really impressed with the details of the splash pages.
The ending was far too confusing. And I guess Geoff Johns did what he set out to do which was place (most of) the Watchmen characters in the DCU - hamfistedly and without telling a fun, enjoyable story, but he dunit.
Doomsday Clock Part 2 is a weak and clumsy ending to an overwrought story. Tick, to... - snooze. Roll on Tom King’s Rorschach…
Well that was disappointing! Doomsday Clock Part 2 is an unsatisfying and surprisingly boring finale to what was only ever a mediocre first half to this story.
Doctor Manhattan makes his big entrance (sans black zigzag underpants so you can see his doomsday cock) and I’d forgotten how annoying his speech pattern was. “It’s July 1960 and so and so’s doing something; it’s December 1943 and so and so’s doing something; it’s January 1986 and so and so’s doing something; it’s August 2014 and so and so’s doing something”. Droning on and on in this tedious fashion. I get it, he’s a time-traveller who sees multiple realities! But there’s so much of this rubbish in this book to struggle through.
Geoff Johns falls back on that most dull of superhero tropes: big dumb pointless fighting. Because of Firestorm’s contrived presence in Russia and an incident he seems to cause there, the superheroes get their asses to Mars to fight Manhattan. That was so, so stupid. Not one of them stood a chance, even together. I mean, what are Nightwing and Batgirl going to do against a time-travelling god who can literally create universes - throw a Batarang at him?!
Later on, the no-name Russki superheroes take on the big-name superheroes led by Superman - who d’you reckon will win? Come on. This is just tiresome padding to fill up space and isn’t in the least bit interesting to read.
The worst bit of the first book was the old movie stuff in the old folks’ home that led to the old geezer finding a Green Lantern in an abandoned factory. I’d thought the old movie stuff was irrelevant but it turns out the Green Lantern stuff was instead - I don’t think the Lantern or the old man play any role in this book whatsoever! Same with Rorschach, Saturn Girl, Marionette and Mime, Batman - pretty much everyone from the first book!
It still feels like there’s way too many pages spent on what’s a fairly basic concept, especially when nearly all of those pages are hella boring.
There wasn’t much I liked about this book. And Gary Frank’s art is superb as always - really impressed with the details of the splash pages.
The ending was far too confusing. And I guess Geoff Johns did what he set out to do which was place (most of) the Watchmen characters in the DCU - hamfistedly and without telling a fun, enjoyable story, but he dunit.
Doomsday Clock Part 2 is a weak and clumsy ending to an overwrought story. Tick, to... - snooze. Roll on Tom King’s Rorschach…
June 6, 2022
All right, that definitely kicked some butt. The whole DC universe teaming up against two of the biggest badasses in DC. Doctor Manhattan as a big bad is something truly awesome to behold.
Did I really click with the Superman Theory? Either Superman Theory?
Eh, no. But as a symbol, he still works for me. All told, it's pretty damn awesome. So neat seeing Black Adam and Firestorm, among others. :)
Superman vs. Doctor Manhattan. Whew.
Did I really click with the Superman Theory? Either Superman Theory?
Eh, no. But as a symbol, he still works for me. All told, it's pretty damn awesome. So neat seeing Black Adam and Firestorm, among others. :)
Superman vs. Doctor Manhattan. Whew.
June 20, 2020
This is perhaps one of the worst books I have ever had the displeasure of reading. It is a jumbled mess of dropped plot points, constant rewrites, and confused cynicism. Doomsday Clock took years to come out after constant changes, and even the well-crafted artwork of Part 1 has turned into a clumsy mesh of weird faces and filler occupied with no substance just bodies of superheroes. It tries to be nostalgic and forward-thinking but comes off as pessimistic and ignorant.
The greatest problem of this book is its commitment to apathy. It masquerades as hope if only to conceal its thin disdain for progress. It constantly "both sides" the issues of hate and love, good and evil. The great moral value that this book espouses is that fighting is bad, even fighting injustice. Superman, a character created to be the "Champion of the Oppressed" and a proactive source for good in the world, is made out to be a a passive man in bright spandex who has the world meaninglessly accept him for nothing more than a slight grin. The world proves itself to be a dark and awful place for no reason, with the exception of Superman. Without Superman, the world is broken. With Superman we are complacent. There is nothing worth fighting for, or caring about, except the belief that hate can either be solved with a smile or is just as important as love.
Make no mistake, this is barely a crossover between Watchmen and the DC Universe. This series is 11 issues of Geoff Johns writing a Watchmen sequel and retcon, with one final issue where you are fed a helping of nostalgia and told that it means something. It is an empty husk of a story that never knows exactly what it wants to be but the minute you decide what you think it should be it chastises you for it. Geoff Johns acts as a critic of the comics industry and how it has lost its way since Watchmen while ignoring how he himself has proved an active mover and shaper of the universe who is more at fault than any of his peers. He has lead an era of DC Comics through confusing reboots and relaunches, restructuring the universe through his various Rebirths and retcons, as the main spearhead of the DC Universe and now at the end of it all has written one singular series where he can act above and beyond his prior work as the arbiter of what comics are really supposed to be. And what they are supposed to be is nothing more than cheap entertainment and promises of change with no willingness to actually progress.
I am a worse person for having read Doomsday Clock. It is a terrible follow-up to Watchmen that completely misses every theme and misrepresents every character of the original series. It is a terrible critique of the DC Universe that accomplishes nothing. It is not worth reading in any instance save a need to see this train wreck for yourself.
The greatest problem of this book is its commitment to apathy. It masquerades as hope if only to conceal its thin disdain for progress. It constantly "both sides" the issues of hate and love, good and evil. The great moral value that this book espouses is that fighting is bad, even fighting injustice. Superman, a character created to be the "Champion of the Oppressed" and a proactive source for good in the world, is made out to be a a passive man in bright spandex who has the world meaninglessly accept him for nothing more than a slight grin. The world proves itself to be a dark and awful place for no reason, with the exception of Superman. Without Superman, the world is broken. With Superman we are complacent. There is nothing worth fighting for, or caring about, except the belief that hate can either be solved with a smile or is just as important as love.
Make no mistake, this is barely a crossover between Watchmen and the DC Universe. This series is 11 issues of Geoff Johns writing a Watchmen sequel and retcon, with one final issue where you are fed a helping of nostalgia and told that it means something. It is an empty husk of a story that never knows exactly what it wants to be but the minute you decide what you think it should be it chastises you for it. Geoff Johns acts as a critic of the comics industry and how it has lost its way since Watchmen while ignoring how he himself has proved an active mover and shaper of the universe who is more at fault than any of his peers. He has lead an era of DC Comics through confusing reboots and relaunches, restructuring the universe through his various Rebirths and retcons, as the main spearhead of the DC Universe and now at the end of it all has written one singular series where he can act above and beyond his prior work as the arbiter of what comics are really supposed to be. And what they are supposed to be is nothing more than cheap entertainment and promises of change with no willingness to actually progress.
I am a worse person for having read Doomsday Clock. It is a terrible follow-up to Watchmen that completely misses every theme and misrepresents every character of the original series. It is a terrible critique of the DC Universe that accomplishes nothing. It is not worth reading in any instance save a need to see this train wreck for yourself.
August 9, 2021
WHAT AN EPIC!
Loved this whole way through! It starts with the Firestorm controversy and whatever happens with Superman in Russia and then he is wanted, the battle of the superhero community with Dr Manhattan on Mars and that one was so epic plus we learn of Ozymandias plan and what he has done and the origin of Carver Coleman and his connection to Dr M and the inevitable confrontation of Superman and Dr Manhattan and learn how time has been tampered by him and the various crises and his role in it plus when they two meet, Superman does something unexpected and its the return of JSA and LOSH and history corrects itself and so much as Dr M changes things on this world and his, consequences, new status quo of the DCU and everything is changed forever.
This story was just wow particularly the ending as it explains the many different iterations of Superman and the metaverse and teases things to come and they all sound so exciting. I just love it. Superman and how he is important to DCU is shown here and its perfect and I love the way Johns shows it. He shows him for the greatest hero and also restores the DCU the way we know it and ends Watchmen with a hopeful thing and great twist. The metaphors and everything here is just perfect and one of the quintessential DC books ever.
Loved this whole way through! It starts with the Firestorm controversy and whatever happens with Superman in Russia and then he is wanted, the battle of the superhero community with Dr Manhattan on Mars and that one was so epic plus we learn of Ozymandias plan and what he has done and the origin of Carver Coleman and his connection to Dr M and the inevitable confrontation of Superman and Dr Manhattan and learn how time has been tampered by him and the various crises and his role in it plus when they two meet, Superman does something unexpected and its the return of JSA and LOSH and history corrects itself and so much as Dr M changes things on this world and his, consequences, new status quo of the DCU and everything is changed forever.
This story was just wow particularly the ending as it explains the many different iterations of Superman and the metaverse and teases things to come and they all sound so exciting. I just love it. Superman and how he is important to DCU is shown here and its perfect and I love the way Johns shows it. He shows him for the greatest hero and also restores the DCU the way we know it and ends Watchmen with a hopeful thing and great twist. The metaphors and everything here is just perfect and one of the quintessential DC books ever.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 10, 2021
What’s happened to Watchmen, Alan Moore’s brilliant intellectual property and gift to the world, is just about as sickeningly puzzling as what was done to the legacy of Harper Lee and To Kill a Mockingbird with the publication of its shitty rough draft Go Set a Watchman, foisted on the public as some sort of sequel to Lee’s great novel. The mediocre GSAW is a book no one should ever read and one that tarnishes Lee’s original work and undermines its very message.
Now sadly, and inevitably I suppose, with the publication of the ridiculously bad Doomsday Clock sequel, a similar fate has befallen Moore’s Watchmen, his insightful critique of superherodom and one of the greatest of graphic novels which alas in the future will no doubt only be referred to as the first installment in the “DC Watchmen franchise.”
If Lee and Moore’s titles aren’t goofily enough similar to you to make you wonder if somehow the lizard people who live in the earth’s hollow core aren’t behind it all, just wait for next year when Mockingbird’s publishers mysteriously announce a newly discovered prequel to the sequel of Go Set a Watchman where a time traveling Arthur Radley (what’d you really think he was doing inside his house for all those years???) goes back in time to impregnate Atticus’s young bride, thereby finally revealing the truth behind Atticus’s words, “Thank you, Arthur, for my children.” Or at least that’s what the moron on the GoodReads discussion thread dedicated to finally unveiling the actual parentage of Scout and Jem must be desperately hoping for...
And if you think that’s absurd...well, it’s not that far away from what happens in Doomsday Clock as Adrian Veidt and Rorschach 2.0 somehow travel on Archie the Owlmobile across the Multiverse and into the realm of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, whose reality has been tampered with by Dr. Manhattan. Why? Well, for no real conceivable purpose, as far as I can tell, except for maybe the same reason that chicken crossed the road.
Doomsday Clock isn't the first time Watchmen has been monkeyed with; it's just the absolute worst, at least so far. Without Alan Moore’s cooperation or approval, you had the 2009 movie (which honestly wasn’t as bad as Moore thinks it is, although it wasn’t particularly good, either, and some of its omissions and alterations were weak cop-outs); then you had the uneven Before Watchmen prequels which were mostly mediocre (and entirely unnecessary), with any real bright spots they may have contained overshadowed by the dreck; right now you can watch HBO’s series set a generation into the future, and it has its moments, although I’m sure Moore doesn’t tune in, although part of me really hopes he secretly likes it.
But I’m certain that if Moore has wasted his time dipping into Doomsday Clock, he must be infuriated by this ridiculous sequel to his work, which not only tampers with Moore’s original storyline, but advances a mainstream superhero agenda in its pages so diametrically opposed to the philosophy introduced by Moore in Watchmen that somebody at DC should go to jail for criminal malfeasance, as well as general greedy grasping assholery. Wait, check that...not just somebody, a whole collection of dumbasses at the executive and editorial level at DC who fail to understand the greatness of Watchmen and only see it as a cash cow to be leveraged for filthy lucre.
(In my imagination I can picture Alan Moore looking even more than usual like Jesus tipping over the tables and desks at DC calling their editorial offices a den of thieves.)
Perhaps you think I protest too much, and perhaps I do, but in part this is because I gave the first part of Doomsday Clock three stars, which now I gladly retract after seeing where the storyline has gone in the second volume. The first time out I was intrigued by the concept and nostalgic for the characters. Forgive me; I knew not what I was doing and I had no idea where the story was going.
And where it went in Part Two was smack dab into some bizarre affirmation of the very values that Alan Moore tears down in the original Watchmen, an affirmation of the world of superheroes with their capes and their underwear on the outside of their pants, an affirmation of the centrality of Superman to our very existence, instead of Moore’s real-world critique of the dark psychopathy and twisted violence that would be at the heart of real-world superheroes. And to reinforce this grotesque twisting of Moore’s message in Watchmen, DC assembles their entire pantheon of heroes here (with Black Adam, Lex Luthor, Vladimir Putin, and a few other supervillains too, sigh) and illustrates it all with sweeping double-page battlescapes complete with virtue victorious and evil defeated and Superman rightfully re-enthroned at the center of the DC multiverse.
Bleah.
Now sadly, and inevitably I suppose, with the publication of the ridiculously bad Doomsday Clock sequel, a similar fate has befallen Moore’s Watchmen, his insightful critique of superherodom and one of the greatest of graphic novels which alas in the future will no doubt only be referred to as the first installment in the “DC Watchmen franchise.”
If Lee and Moore’s titles aren’t goofily enough similar to you to make you wonder if somehow the lizard people who live in the earth’s hollow core aren’t behind it all, just wait for next year when Mockingbird’s publishers mysteriously announce a newly discovered prequel to the sequel of Go Set a Watchman where a time traveling Arthur Radley (what’d you really think he was doing inside his house for all those years???) goes back in time to impregnate Atticus’s young bride, thereby finally revealing the truth behind Atticus’s words, “Thank you, Arthur, for my children.” Or at least that’s what the moron on the GoodReads discussion thread dedicated to finally unveiling the actual parentage of Scout and Jem must be desperately hoping for...
And if you think that’s absurd...well, it’s not that far away from what happens in Doomsday Clock as Adrian Veidt and Rorschach 2.0 somehow travel on Archie the Owlmobile across the Multiverse and into the realm of Clark Kent and Lois Lane, whose reality has been tampered with by Dr. Manhattan. Why? Well, for no real conceivable purpose, as far as I can tell, except for maybe the same reason that chicken crossed the road.
Doomsday Clock isn't the first time Watchmen has been monkeyed with; it's just the absolute worst, at least so far. Without Alan Moore’s cooperation or approval, you had the 2009 movie (which honestly wasn’t as bad as Moore thinks it is, although it wasn’t particularly good, either, and some of its omissions and alterations were weak cop-outs); then you had the uneven Before Watchmen prequels which were mostly mediocre (and entirely unnecessary), with any real bright spots they may have contained overshadowed by the dreck; right now you can watch HBO’s series set a generation into the future, and it has its moments, although I’m sure Moore doesn’t tune in, although part of me really hopes he secretly likes it.
But I’m certain that if Moore has wasted his time dipping into Doomsday Clock, he must be infuriated by this ridiculous sequel to his work, which not only tampers with Moore’s original storyline, but advances a mainstream superhero agenda in its pages so diametrically opposed to the philosophy introduced by Moore in Watchmen that somebody at DC should go to jail for criminal malfeasance, as well as general greedy grasping assholery. Wait, check that...not just somebody, a whole collection of dumbasses at the executive and editorial level at DC who fail to understand the greatness of Watchmen and only see it as a cash cow to be leveraged for filthy lucre.
(In my imagination I can picture Alan Moore looking even more than usual like Jesus tipping over the tables and desks at DC calling their editorial offices a den of thieves.)
Perhaps you think I protest too much, and perhaps I do, but in part this is because I gave the first part of Doomsday Clock three stars, which now I gladly retract after seeing where the storyline has gone in the second volume. The first time out I was intrigued by the concept and nostalgic for the characters. Forgive me; I knew not what I was doing and I had no idea where the story was going.
And where it went in Part Two was smack dab into some bizarre affirmation of the very values that Alan Moore tears down in the original Watchmen, an affirmation of the world of superheroes with their capes and their underwear on the outside of their pants, an affirmation of the centrality of Superman to our very existence, instead of Moore’s real-world critique of the dark psychopathy and twisted violence that would be at the heart of real-world superheroes. And to reinforce this grotesque twisting of Moore’s message in Watchmen, DC assembles their entire pantheon of heroes here (with Black Adam, Lex Luthor, Vladimir Putin, and a few other supervillains too, sigh) and illustrates it all with sweeping double-page battlescapes complete with virtue victorious and evil defeated and Superman rightfully re-enthroned at the center of the DC multiverse.
Bleah.
August 13, 2020
You can find my review on my blog by clicking here.
Was it wise of DC Comics to split this major event story in two? It was time to find out in this second volume if the decision was wise and if, at least, as a whole, anything makes more sense. After all, it is clear that this second volume now carries the burden of justification, one of its own existence with the hopes of having a resolution and finale that can capitalize on the potential of a universe where the heroes of Watchmen can live among those of the DC Universe. The task remains large as the story now requires an explanation as to why, where, when, who, and how the Watchmen universe ended up reaching their hands into the DC Universe and manipulating the subtle yet powerful threads that exist within the ever-evolving multiverse. As the mystery unfolds, Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s vision become much more visible and something promising might just be around the corner.
What is Doomsday Clock Part 2 about? Picking up where the previous volume ended, the search continues for Dr. Manhattan as we discover that his arrival in the DC Universe might in fact be due to his curiosity in the Man of Tomorrow. With Ozymandias, the Comedian, Rorschach, Mime, and Marionette now on his trail, each drawn into a web of lies and deceit, the heroes of the DC Universe find themselves struggling with their own impending war amidst the Supermen Theory. Collecting the second half of this twelve-issue limited series, Doomsday Clock offers readers the chance to revel in the collision of two universes where the end is near and the future is unpredictable.
If there’s one lesson to take home from this series, it’s to not split your experience in two and just pick up the complete edition instead. This second volume offers us a much more satisfying resolution to this event by reminding us the power of creativity that possesses legendary writer Geoff Johns. In this volume, the long-awaited confrontations between iconic characters happen with ingenuity as these characters’ potential is fully actualized in their most genuine splendour. The revelations regarding the purpose behind Dr. Manhattan’s odyssey is what ultimately offers this story-arc the authenticity and relevance it desperately sought. This wasn’t just about re-introducing classic characters to fans who are well-versed in the DC lore. This time around, there is an attempt to build on each of the Watchmen characters and offer them a ray of hope, a chance of redemption, while also giving the DC Universe a proper reminder of what makes their history so special. The ending, in fact, also offers a glimpse into the past, present, and future of the DC Universe.
When it comes to the artwork, it continues to be stellar from start to finish. Artist Gary Frank offers us an incredible and consistent display of raw artistic talent as he continues to draw inspiration on Dave Gibbons’ original masterpiece to create a pseudo-sequel to Watchmen that feels genuine. Colourist Brad Anderson also adds a splash of colour that simply brings life to this series and captures the heart and essence of Watchmen through it. Some of the best moments in this story are also seen in the splash pages that make for memorable moments that are twists in themselves in how the tone of this story is supposed to be. Although the first volume hinted at an existential dread, this one presents an homage to superheroes and their rich history filled with hope. It is also worth mentioning the couple of additional pages found at the end of each issue are original in themselves and give insight on the world-building that would otherwise be impossible to obtain through the story.
Doomsday Clock Part 2 is an original and inspiring second-parter offering fans the chance to see hope and a potential conciliation between universes.
Yours truly,
Lashaan | Blogger and Book Reviewer
Official blog: https://bookidote.com/
November 18, 2021
I liked this better than the first volume because it focuses more clearly on the theme of the book than the first volume did. It gets a bit trippy at times as Dr. Manhattan monologues through time and alternate histories, but it all makes a point about what the multiverse is and the role that the current continuity plays in generating the multiverse. That gives comic book readers a lot to think about.
June 28, 2020
The second half of Doomsday Clock makes a somewhat abrupt change from being an intriguing story about the Watchmen universe to being yet-another DC Crisis. I mean, this was always the intent, to bring these two things together, but it's still abrupt and the climax being about bringing the DC timeline back together just doesn't have the depth of some of the Watchmen stories, or the Nathanial Dusk story-within-a-story. Instead, it's just another Crisis.
With that said, it was enjoyable and bringing back the JSA and the Legion is extremely worthwhile, so yay for doing that. And the whole Superman conspiracy thing had a great reveal about Firestorm. But I wish this had just been Crisis all along, not trying to do double-duty as Watchmen 2.
And of course the big question is WHERE IN THE WORLD DOES THIS FIT INTO CONTINUITY. Because in the last 35 years or so, DC has never met a continuity that it didn't like to trash, and it sure looks like this story got trashed mid-storyline. Because there's no way any of this storyline lines up with events in the DC Universe any time in the near future. It looks like the intent was to have it happen 5 years hence, and fast-forward to that with 5G, which now isn't going to happen. So who knows?! Thanks, DC, as usual.
With that said, it was enjoyable and bringing back the JSA and the Legion is extremely worthwhile, so yay for doing that. And the whole Superman conspiracy thing had a great reveal about Firestorm. But I wish this had just been Crisis all along, not trying to do double-duty as Watchmen 2.
And of course the big question is WHERE IN THE WORLD DOES THIS FIT INTO CONTINUITY. Because in the last 35 years or so, DC has never met a continuity that it didn't like to trash, and it sure looks like this story got trashed mid-storyline. Because there's no way any of this storyline lines up with events in the DC Universe any time in the near future. It looks like the intent was to have it happen 5 years hence, and fast-forward to that with 5G, which now isn't going to happen. So who knows?! Thanks, DC, as usual.
October 14, 2020
Underwhelming to me. The story just never felt that "new" to me, It borrows on the watchmen story and a little DC stuff. The first book was better and it had more anticipation, book 2 felt like a phone in. I was entertained but mainly because I was waiting for the "big moment", once again it was pretty underwhelming to me. The whole "superman" message is a nice idea but did it have to be a watchmen story to tell it? I will say the action was lacking, I barely saw anything that was really cool. I appreciate the idea but the execution was boring to me, oh well
May 7, 2020
Well, that certainly happened. The worlds of Watchmen and DC collide head on as Geoff Johns and Gary Frank tell a tale that only they could tell. It took a long time, but it was well worth the wait.
The breadth of this story can't really be explained. It's an ambitious undertaking anyway; we've had other stories set in the Watchmen-verse, but they've never crossed over into the world of DC in such an obvious way here. Geoff Johns is on top form as he uses the format of Watchmen to tell his own story, threading in characters both new and familiar into the DCU as he tells the story of Doctor Manhattan and Superman, and their inevitable confrontation. Things that seem insignificant become massively important, while things that seem massively important are only catalysts for other stories further down the line. And when the dust settles, the story stands alone as something you can revisit again and again and find something new that you didn't find the first few times.
Gary Frank's never been high on my list of favourite artists (it's the noses) but he does a fantastic job with this series. I'm glad DC opted to let Frank do every issue, rather than trying to shove fill-ins into the works. It's he and Johns' book, through and through, and it wouldn't be the same without either of them.
Doomsday Clock deserves recognition for setting the bar enormously high and then meeting it. Watchmen has been lauded as nigh untouchable, but Doomsday Clock (and the HBO Watchmen TV series) has proven that sometimes, touching the untouchable can bring back something equally as amazing.
The breadth of this story can't really be explained. It's an ambitious undertaking anyway; we've had other stories set in the Watchmen-verse, but they've never crossed over into the world of DC in such an obvious way here. Geoff Johns is on top form as he uses the format of Watchmen to tell his own story, threading in characters both new and familiar into the DCU as he tells the story of Doctor Manhattan and Superman, and their inevitable confrontation. Things that seem insignificant become massively important, while things that seem massively important are only catalysts for other stories further down the line. And when the dust settles, the story stands alone as something you can revisit again and again and find something new that you didn't find the first few times.
Gary Frank's never been high on my list of favourite artists (it's the noses) but he does a fantastic job with this series. I'm glad DC opted to let Frank do every issue, rather than trying to shove fill-ins into the works. It's he and Johns' book, through and through, and it wouldn't be the same without either of them.
Doomsday Clock deserves recognition for setting the bar enormously high and then meeting it. Watchmen has been lauded as nigh untouchable, but Doomsday Clock (and the HBO Watchmen TV series) has proven that sometimes, touching the untouchable can bring back something equally as amazing.
August 4, 2020
Tohle se bude hodnotit strašně těžce na rozdíl od první části. Na úvod se sluší říct, že Johns si zaslouží respekt za to jak dokázal ukočírovat tenhle velký cirkus. Jenže tady začíná kámen úrazu, ten cirkus je v určitý moment obří, Geoff má obrovské množství postav a dějových linek a začíná se celkem plácat na místě. Je strašně znát, že se do toho v průběhu vydávání sahalo protože některé věci jsou takové, mno zvláštní? Naopak jsem si strašně užíval Manhattana který tu je napsaný moc dobře a celá myšlenka o Supermanovi na závěr se mi hrozně líbila. A bacha, Batman už je asshole jen trochu! Gary Frank a Brad Anderson mají taky můj palec nahoře, skvěle odváděli svou práci celý komiks (sakra ty jejich variant covery jsou tak awesome).
Sumec Sumárum, Johns si ukousl moc velké sousto ale dokázal jej zpracovat se ctí a dokázal tak, že je velkým autorem jelikož ne každý zvládl dobře a navíc takhle se ctí pracovat s Watchmen postavami, takže chci nakonec říct jen, bravo. Není to to nejlepší co jsem kdy četl, ani letos ale rozhodně neodcházím zklamaný.
Sumec Sumárum, Johns si ukousl moc velké sousto ale dokázal jej zpracovat se ctí a dokázal tak, že je velkým autorem jelikož ne každý zvládl dobře a navíc takhle se ctí pracovat s Watchmen postavami, takže chci nakonec říct jen, bravo. Není to to nejlepší co jsem kdy četl, ani letos ale rozhodně neodcházím zklamaný.
August 18, 2020
Luego de un arranque lento y flojo, en el que Johns estaba demasiado preocupado por emular el estilo de Moore, la cosa mejora notoriamente para este tramo final, momento en el que se consolida el cruce entre los personajes de Watchmen y los héroes de DC.
Superman se convierte en el centro de la historia y Johns empieza a jugar en un terreno en el que se siente más cómodo, con multiversos y crisis varias de por medio. Johns se saca la ropa de Moore y se calza un traje más morrisoneano, en tanto hace un abordaje que recuerda al que Morrison propuso en Final Crisis y que tiene que ver con esa idea del Universo DC como un ente vivo, y que en este caso tiene la posibilidad de transformarse a sí mismo.
Como decía, el rol de Superman en la historia es clave (fundamentalmente como contraparte de la presencia de Dr. Manhattan), al punto que Doomsday Clock termina siendo, ante todo, una historia del Hombre de Acero y su rol en el Universo DC.
Si sos de los que no se anima a leer Doomsday Clock (porque te parece una falta de respeto a Moore, porque no le encontrás sentido a este cruce de personajes, o simplemente porque te importa tres carajos), te recomiendo le des una chance. Lo que pintaba para bodrio terminó dejando un sabor de boca bastante dulce. Además, nada de lo que suceda va a modificar la gloria intachable de la obra de Moore y Gibbons. No perdés nada.
Superman se convierte en el centro de la historia y Johns empieza a jugar en un terreno en el que se siente más cómodo, con multiversos y crisis varias de por medio. Johns se saca la ropa de Moore y se calza un traje más morrisoneano, en tanto hace un abordaje que recuerda al que Morrison propuso en Final Crisis y que tiene que ver con esa idea del Universo DC como un ente vivo, y que en este caso tiene la posibilidad de transformarse a sí mismo.
Como decía, el rol de Superman en la historia es clave (fundamentalmente como contraparte de la presencia de Dr. Manhattan), al punto que Doomsday Clock termina siendo, ante todo, una historia del Hombre de Acero y su rol en el Universo DC.
Si sos de los que no se anima a leer Doomsday Clock (porque te parece una falta de respeto a Moore, porque no le encontrás sentido a este cruce de personajes, o simplemente porque te importa tres carajos), te recomiendo le des una chance. Lo que pintaba para bodrio terminó dejando un sabor de boca bastante dulce. Además, nada de lo que suceda va a modificar la gloria intachable de la obra de Moore y Gibbons. No perdés nada.
August 5, 2020
Supremely ambitious. There is a lot to unpack in this graphic novel and I think I need yo re-read it a time or two before I fully understand all the implications and meanings. Doomsday Clock Part 2 weds Watchmen and DC as Dr. Manhattan takes an interest in the DC multiverse and rewrites histories, changes fates and timelines for no apparent reason. What is he really up to and why does the meddling Ozymandias care so much? Unique, but like I said - I need to give this another read through.
April 1, 2021
I really don’t know what else to say about this other than the fact that it felt pretty fuckin pointless.
I don’t even know where to start.
The whole set up of this story was ‘Superman and Mr. Manhattan are going to fight!’ Unless you’re 10 years old, this shit ain’t interesting. It’s Insulting. Watchmen is my favourite comic and possibly my favourite book of all time. It is perfect and has never needed a sequel. Reading this over once has shown me why it hasn’t needed one.
I don’t know if Geoff Johns’ is just a hack writer or loves writing bad fiction. Parts of this were well written, like the issue with Jon and the actor. But still, in order to enjoy it, I have to ignore the stupidity behind it because This was the moment it turned from Superman V Jon Manhattan to let’s appeal to Dr Manhattan’s sense of humanity.... which is fucking ridiculous. He has no humanity that’s what makes him so interesting.
On top of that let me just fire off some awful spoilers that made me angry to read
- Comedian’s death was retconned for absolutely no reason.
- new psychotic characters based on Joker and Harley Quinn show up and for some reason Dr Manhattan raises their kid but it’s never explained why. Also he gives his powers onto the kid which also makes no sense.
- there’s à New Rorschach, his back story is mildly interesting since his father is the therapist who analyses the first Rorschach. The stupid part is that everyone thinks it’s a good idea for him to take up Rorschach’s identity even tho the original one had a big hand in killing his father.
My biggest gripe of all though from this is that in true DC fashion, at the end of the day, this is just continuity clean up. New 52/Rebirth ain’t going the way they wanted so now here’s the event to correct their error, except this time they maximise their profits by billing this as a sequel to watchmen when it fucking isn’t. It’s classic DC continuity clean up. It’s the ‘oh fuck we messed up and need to include all of our older villains and heroes again - quick make a shitty event about it’
It’s not witty, it’s not new. It’s fucking dog shit.
I don’t even know where to start.
The whole set up of this story was ‘Superman and Mr. Manhattan are going to fight!’ Unless you’re 10 years old, this shit ain’t interesting. It’s Insulting. Watchmen is my favourite comic and possibly my favourite book of all time. It is perfect and has never needed a sequel. Reading this over once has shown me why it hasn’t needed one.
I don’t know if Geoff Johns’ is just a hack writer or loves writing bad fiction. Parts of this were well written, like the issue with Jon and the actor. But still, in order to enjoy it, I have to ignore the stupidity behind it because This was the moment it turned from Superman V Jon Manhattan to let’s appeal to Dr Manhattan’s sense of humanity.... which is fucking ridiculous. He has no humanity that’s what makes him so interesting.
On top of that let me just fire off some awful spoilers that made me angry to read
- Comedian’s death was retconned for absolutely no reason.
- new psychotic characters based on Joker and Harley Quinn show up and for some reason Dr Manhattan raises their kid but it’s never explained why. Also he gives his powers onto the kid which also makes no sense.
- there’s à New Rorschach, his back story is mildly interesting since his father is the therapist who analyses the first Rorschach. The stupid part is that everyone thinks it’s a good idea for him to take up Rorschach’s identity even tho the original one had a big hand in killing his father.
My biggest gripe of all though from this is that in true DC fashion, at the end of the day, this is just continuity clean up. New 52/Rebirth ain’t going the way they wanted so now here’s the event to correct their error, except this time they maximise their profits by billing this as a sequel to watchmen when it fucking isn’t. It’s classic DC continuity clean up. It’s the ‘oh fuck we messed up and need to include all of our older villains and heroes again - quick make a shitty event about it’
It’s not witty, it’s not new. It’s fucking dog shit.
December 23, 2019
Is there a lot wrong with this series, in addition to all the delays in between release of the individual issues-yes. I'll even argue that the delays affected continuity for readers who would have to go back and re-read a couple of issues to refresh their recollection of what came before. There will be those who worship at the altar of Alan Moore who will decry and moan people touching their beloved bible of Watchmen.
Hey, member Moore himself had to change the characters from the original Charlton heroes (Dr. Manhattan=Captain Atom) because DC Comics, his employer, had other plans for those properties (and Dick Giordano who had shepherded them when he worked at Charlton hand had strong feelings about them-btw I met Giordano once and I found him to be very much a gentleman).
All of that out of the way, the series plays to Johns' strength, and damn I think he is good writer when he does that. Johns knows how to take existing properties and add something to new to them and to make them more interesting. He has a long track record of doing that, and unfortunately when he had tried to create his own stuff from scratch it hasn't been as good.
This series could be summed up as how important is Superman as a concept to the world? That is also a bit of a spoiler. Yes, characters do cross over from Watchmen to the regular DCU. Yes, Ozymandias does hatch a plan that considers killing Superman. Yes, Dr. Manhattan does give thought to ridding the world of super heroes.
But, it still comes down to Superman as an ideal and a concept. It might be corny, but that is where the character excels. Another exmaple would be Action Comics 775. Like Captain America the ideal does matter.
I also want to give Johns credit for adding a political aspect to the super hero concept. It has been done before, but in a small way, and one I would like to have seen expanded upon. Johns goes with the concept of countries essentially weaponizing their super humans.
The teasers for future company wide events-well executed.
(note: read as digital floppies)
Hey, member Moore himself had to change the characters from the original Charlton heroes (Dr. Manhattan=Captain Atom) because DC Comics, his employer, had other plans for those properties (and Dick Giordano who had shepherded them when he worked at Charlton hand had strong feelings about them-btw I met Giordano once and I found him to be very much a gentleman).
All of that out of the way, the series plays to Johns' strength, and damn I think he is good writer when he does that. Johns knows how to take existing properties and add something to new to them and to make them more interesting. He has a long track record of doing that, and unfortunately when he had tried to create his own stuff from scratch it hasn't been as good.
This series could be summed up as how important is Superman as a concept to the world? That is also a bit of a spoiler. Yes, characters do cross over from Watchmen to the regular DCU. Yes, Ozymandias does hatch a plan that considers killing Superman. Yes, Dr. Manhattan does give thought to ridding the world of super heroes.
But, it still comes down to Superman as an ideal and a concept. It might be corny, but that is where the character excels. Another exmaple would be Action Comics 775. Like Captain America the ideal does matter.
I also want to give Johns credit for adding a political aspect to the super hero concept. It has been done before, but in a small way, and one I would like to have seen expanded upon. Johns goes with the concept of countries essentially weaponizing their super humans.
The teasers for future company wide events-well executed.
(note: read as digital floppies)
May 29, 2020
Read this in single issues, and what Johns was able to accomplish (primarily with issue 11), was nothing short of genius. I think in 10 years, we'll look back and consistently see Doomsday Clock in the top 10 of "Best DC Comics" lists.
July 25, 2020
I’m not going to lie I lost interest in the hero with cape type comics many years ago. The industry as a whole suffers from it’s repetitive writing, and a lot comic readers grow out of it for more edgy movies and tv series. HBO’s watchmen series or the Joker movie come to mind.
Speaking of “edgy” the original Watchmen comic was that and more. DC keeps trying to reinvent itself to bring in more readers while also keeping the older ones as well. See https://cosmicbook.news/rip-dc-comics...
So, This current reset of the DC timeline involves Dr. Manhattan from the Watchmen. His presence definitely helps make the finished work more interesting, but alas his presence is only temporary and the cycle will continue.
Speaking of “edgy” the original Watchmen comic was that and more. DC keeps trying to reinvent itself to bring in more readers while also keeping the older ones as well. See https://cosmicbook.news/rip-dc-comics...
So, This current reset of the DC timeline involves Dr. Manhattan from the Watchmen. His presence definitely helps make the finished work more interesting, but alas his presence is only temporary and the cycle will continue.
January 29, 2021
Fantastic! The secret behind the Rebirth Universe is revealed. Might be a little confusing, one if you have never read Watchmen, and two if you weren't aware of some of the points mentioned in DC history. It ties a few things together for those who have been keeping up. Well thought out and well executed.
September 1, 2020
Part 2 isn’t quite as strong as the first part but it’s still a solid ending to this exciting crossover and hell of a lot of fun!
January 5, 2023
While still nowhere near as good as Watchmen, the second part of Doomsday Clock was an introspective and compelling read nonetheless.
February 16, 2023
This was really good
October 8, 2022
Doomsday Clock Part 2 was equally as impressive as the first. Johns nails the voice and feeling of Dr Manhattan. And though I know that this story deals with a lot of DC's past and various iterations of its history and characters, it never made me feel like I needed to know more than what was given in the pages. I guess being familiar with Watchmen would be the exception to that, but if you are the type of comic reader to pick this story up, I assume you would have already read a classic like that. There are a lot of different pieces of story that come together perfectly here. Any time as I was reading and feeling slightly confused, by the end it all felt clear and deliberate. Frank's art continues to be excellent and match the tone of this series faultlessly. And despite the last couple pages hinting at something more, I feel like this can easily be taken as a contained story in its own right. I am really happy that I finally moved this one up to the top of my TBR pile.
July 10, 2020
DC thumbs its nose at Alan Moore again but produces a fairly decent Crisis-style event with lots of fodder for longtime fanboys. Specifically fiftysomething fanboys like me who believe 1986 was comics' greatest year.
I'm not sure that Johns' Metaverse concept differs that much from Waid and Morrison's "It's all true!" Hypertime concept from the '90s, but if it clears the way for some better stories in the future I'm all for it.
But I hope they put the Watchmen characters back in the toy box for a while. Or better yet, do right by Moore.
I'm not sure that Johns' Metaverse concept differs that much from Waid and Morrison's "It's all true!" Hypertime concept from the '90s, but if it clears the way for some better stories in the future I'm all for it.
But I hope they put the Watchmen characters back in the toy box for a while. Or better yet, do right by Moore.
July 27, 2020
This book & its companion volume should not exist.
The Watchmen universe should never have been brought into contact with the DC universe.
The bleak dystopian view of the bulk of both volumes overwhelmed the story often & I nearly gave up three times.
That all said, the climax & denouement salvaged this experiment & made it work despite itself.
Still not happy it exists, but it provided a new focus on the meta-nature of Superman et al. And for that alone, my review rose from 1 to 3 stars.
The Watchmen universe should never have been brought into contact with the DC universe.
The bleak dystopian view of the bulk of both volumes overwhelmed the story often & I nearly gave up three times.
That all said, the climax & denouement salvaged this experiment & made it work despite itself.
Still not happy it exists, but it provided a new focus on the meta-nature of Superman et al. And for that alone, my review rose from 1 to 3 stars.
December 23, 2019
I really wish Doomsday Clock was better than it is. I love Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen and I really enjoy the DC Universe; I even thought much of the lead up to this series was very good - or, at least, intriguing. But then the actual series came out and it was plagued by so many delays in its publication that it genuinely became difficult to follow the story as it went on. Unfortunately, rereading the whole series upon its completion didn't really make it much easier to follow. But, I suppose, that's in line with the original Watchmen graphic novel.
Perhaps the biggest problem with Doomsday Clock, besides its inconsistent publication schedule, is its pacing. It's just very uneven. It's clearly trying to emulate Alan Moore's style from the Watchmen graphic novel, but it doesn't quite nail its homage. There are numerous moments that go by way too quickly that you wish would go by a bit slower so you could really dig into what's being done (most notably the first couple of issues that actually sets everything up) and then there's a lot of stuff that goes by so slowly in some of the later issues that you wish would be sped through a bit quicker so the comic could focus more on the more interesting elements of the plot and its themes. The plot of this comic, itself, is so muddled that large chunks of it go completely unexplained and the final issue almost collapses under its own pressure as so little of anything has actually been explained. But it sure tries to tell an interesting story, and when it does work, it's often very good.
Picking up some seven(ish) years after the end of Watchmen, Doomsday Clock begins as Adrian Veidt's plan to save humanity falls apart with everyone being aware that he was the force behind the squid-drop. But, of course, he has a plan! A plan that will require him to recruit a new Rorschach (this time the son of the psychiatrist who tried to treat Rorschach in prison) and two psychopathic villains (The Mime and the Marionette) and travel to the alternate universe in which Dr. Manhattan has sequestered himself. Unfortunately, that's about the end of the Watchmen-universe related information as the rest of the story takes place almost entirely in the DC Universe and has only the barest of connections with Watchmen - those few characters make appearances (and have their histories expanded upon a bit) and Veidt wants to convince Manhattan to return to their universe and save it. How? Even the final issue of the comic doesn't seem to entirely know.
To be completely honest, a lot of what I didn't like about Doomsday Clock was the Watchmen stuff. Aside from Veidt and Manhattan, the other "Watchmen characters" didn't really feel like they fit in with the story and far too much time was spent explaining who they were to us when that time could've been spent better developing what was actually going on. In the vast scheme of the things, the new Rorschach and Mime and Marionette just didn't really matter to the story. Rorschach 2, as I'll be calling him from hereon out, had a subplot where he gave Batman the original Rorschach's journal and clued Batman into what was actually going on, but that plot thread really never went anywhere as the story shifted into its ultimate Superman vs Doctor Manhattan focus. The same was true with Mime and Marionette, who seemed utterly pointless until the very end - and even then, I'm still not quite sure what their purpose was in the story. They were just there and the combination of their storylines took up at least three entire issues of the series. And with them having so little bearing on the overall plot, I'm left wondering what the point was in spending so much time with them? In the original Watchmen, every diversion felt important as it furthered our understanding of characters who were either important to the storyline or events which would prove important by the ending. That's not the case here as Rorschach 2, Mine, and Marionette essentially lose importance as the storyline goes on; they are presented as vital parts of Veidt's plan at the beginning until it becomes clear they're not. And Veidt, himself, is missing from nearly half of the comic and doesn't actually do anything. So, what's the point? It's very clear that Johns didn't really have anything new to say about Watchmen, and that's okay, I suppose. His new additions didn't really seem to fit with the original comic and then he never did anything with those creations anyway. It'd be more frustrating if the HBO Watchmen series didn't exist and this comic was the only continuation of the story we ever got to see. But, luckily, we can just turn elsewhere for a Watchmen continuation that's actually good.
So, with Doomsday Clock being a lackluster sequel to Watchmen, is it at least a good multi-universe crossover story? Yes and no. Much the way that the story's Watchmen-universe setup is interesting, so too is its DC-Universe setup. Something has happened in the DC-Universe that has led to the massive revelation of the Meta Gene, and the various government-run experiments to create superpowered beings that could act as super soldiers to their respective countries. Naturally, people are very concerned about this and that's where the bulk of the conflict in this story comes from. Tensions are rising and sides are taken and somehow Superman has ended up in the middle of all of this. Honestly, it's a huge shame the Watchmen stuff had to be crammed into this story because all of this stuff about the Meta Gene was what was actually interesting about Doomsday Clock but too much of it goes unexplained (or poorly explained) because the Watchmen characters have to fit into this story somehow and only Dr. Manhattan actually has superpowers (although it certainly looks like the Mime and Marionette have some superpowers, though that's never explained at all) and he can't really come into the story completely until the final act. I really enjoyed the elements where the DC characters were trying to figure out what to do about the Meta Gene crisis but I also didn't understand a lick of what was going on. Maybe this is a plotline that had been being explored in some other DC titles prior to Doomsday Clock's launch? Either way, it might have been smart to actually spend some time really going into that and explaining it.
The biggest question, I suppose, was how the ultimate confrontation between the Watchmen characters and the DC-Universe characters turned out, and how/why did Dr. Manhattan cause the New 52 universe to exist. Luckily, Doomsday Clock does do a reasonably decent job of explaining this. Particularly, I appreciate just how in character Dr. Manhattan's reasoning was for messing around with the DC Universe was. His and Superman's ultimate showdown was a bit of an anticlimax, but it was very clearly being set up as such so that's not as disappointing as you'd think. I mean, even with Superman being nearly god-like, Manhattan can disintegrate people in the blink of an eye; there was no way this was going to be a particularly impressive showdown. As for the rest of the characters? It's very clear Doomsday Clock's main focus was on Superman and Dr. Manhattan as they get the bulk of the attention in the story. Which is fine. It's just often difficult to understand how the Watchmen characters relate to the plotline of what's actually going on in the DC Universe. And then the way everything gets wrapped up is really unsatisfying and rushed and 100% puts a damper on the whole thing. Perhaps the ending could've worked had the previous issues been paced better and actually built up to what happened. But, alas.
Perhaps I was never going to like Doomsday Clock. On the whole, I tend not to like these multi-verse stories in comic books as it never really feels like they actually know what they're doing and, unless you're extremely well-versed in the history of multiple universes, it's extremely easy to get very lost very quickly. Which is honestly what happened to be with Doomsday Clock for large chunks of the story. As previously mentioned, the pacing is really uneven and places too much focus on elements of the story that don't end up being important. The Watchmen universe and the DC-Universe never really seem to mesh particularly well together, aside from Manhattan and Superman, so I'm honestly not sure why everyone else was even there. Perhaps the kindest thing I can say about the comic is that Gary Frank's artwork is genuinely impressive. At times, it evokes Dave Gibbons' artwork beautifully and he has a great command over facial expressions and action scenes. This comic is certainly a nice one to look at even if it wasn't the most impressively written. On the whole, I can't say this was a comic worth waiting an entire two years to have in its entirety. It's fine; way too ambitious for its own good and never focusing on the aspects of the story it should. I'm honestly not sure who this story is meant for - Watchmen fans will be annoyed at some of the liberties taken with those characters and DC fans will be annoyed at the lack of focus most of the DC heroes get. It's just a really uneven book. But probably one worth a read for those who are curious.
Perhaps the biggest problem with Doomsday Clock, besides its inconsistent publication schedule, is its pacing. It's just very uneven. It's clearly trying to emulate Alan Moore's style from the Watchmen graphic novel, but it doesn't quite nail its homage. There are numerous moments that go by way too quickly that you wish would go by a bit slower so you could really dig into what's being done (most notably the first couple of issues that actually sets everything up) and then there's a lot of stuff that goes by so slowly in some of the later issues that you wish would be sped through a bit quicker so the comic could focus more on the more interesting elements of the plot and its themes. The plot of this comic, itself, is so muddled that large chunks of it go completely unexplained and the final issue almost collapses under its own pressure as so little of anything has actually been explained. But it sure tries to tell an interesting story, and when it does work, it's often very good.
Picking up some seven(ish) years after the end of Watchmen, Doomsday Clock begins as Adrian Veidt's plan to save humanity falls apart with everyone being aware that he was the force behind the squid-drop. But, of course, he has a plan! A plan that will require him to recruit a new Rorschach (this time the son of the psychiatrist who tried to treat Rorschach in prison) and two psychopathic villains (The Mime and the Marionette) and travel to the alternate universe in which Dr. Manhattan has sequestered himself. Unfortunately, that's about the end of the Watchmen-universe related information as the rest of the story takes place almost entirely in the DC Universe and has only the barest of connections with Watchmen - those few characters make appearances (and have their histories expanded upon a bit) and Veidt wants to convince Manhattan to return to their universe and save it. How? Even the final issue of the comic doesn't seem to entirely know.
To be completely honest, a lot of what I didn't like about Doomsday Clock was the Watchmen stuff. Aside from Veidt and Manhattan, the other "Watchmen characters" didn't really feel like they fit in with the story and far too much time was spent explaining who they were to us when that time could've been spent better developing what was actually going on. In the vast scheme of the things, the new Rorschach and Mime and Marionette just didn't really matter to the story. Rorschach 2, as I'll be calling him from hereon out, had a subplot where he gave Batman the original Rorschach's journal and clued Batman into what was actually going on, but that plot thread really never went anywhere as the story shifted into its ultimate Superman vs Doctor Manhattan focus. The same was true with Mime and Marionette, who seemed utterly pointless until the very end - and even then, I'm still not quite sure what their purpose was in the story. They were just there and the combination of their storylines took up at least three entire issues of the series. And with them having so little bearing on the overall plot, I'm left wondering what the point was in spending so much time with them? In the original Watchmen, every diversion felt important as it furthered our understanding of characters who were either important to the storyline or events which would prove important by the ending. That's not the case here as Rorschach 2, Mine, and Marionette essentially lose importance as the storyline goes on; they are presented as vital parts of Veidt's plan at the beginning until it becomes clear they're not. And Veidt, himself, is missing from nearly half of the comic and doesn't actually do anything. So, what's the point? It's very clear that Johns didn't really have anything new to say about Watchmen, and that's okay, I suppose. His new additions didn't really seem to fit with the original comic and then he never did anything with those creations anyway. It'd be more frustrating if the HBO Watchmen series didn't exist and this comic was the only continuation of the story we ever got to see. But, luckily, we can just turn elsewhere for a Watchmen continuation that's actually good.
So, with Doomsday Clock being a lackluster sequel to Watchmen, is it at least a good multi-universe crossover story? Yes and no. Much the way that the story's Watchmen-universe setup is interesting, so too is its DC-Universe setup. Something has happened in the DC-Universe that has led to the massive revelation of the Meta Gene, and the various government-run experiments to create superpowered beings that could act as super soldiers to their respective countries. Naturally, people are very concerned about this and that's where the bulk of the conflict in this story comes from. Tensions are rising and sides are taken and somehow Superman has ended up in the middle of all of this. Honestly, it's a huge shame the Watchmen stuff had to be crammed into this story because all of this stuff about the Meta Gene was what was actually interesting about Doomsday Clock but too much of it goes unexplained (or poorly explained) because the Watchmen characters have to fit into this story somehow and only Dr. Manhattan actually has superpowers (although it certainly looks like the Mime and Marionette have some superpowers, though that's never explained at all) and he can't really come into the story completely until the final act. I really enjoyed the elements where the DC characters were trying to figure out what to do about the Meta Gene crisis but I also didn't understand a lick of what was going on. Maybe this is a plotline that had been being explored in some other DC titles prior to Doomsday Clock's launch? Either way, it might have been smart to actually spend some time really going into that and explaining it.
The biggest question, I suppose, was how the ultimate confrontation between the Watchmen characters and the DC-Universe characters turned out, and how/why did Dr. Manhattan cause the New 52 universe to exist. Luckily, Doomsday Clock does do a reasonably decent job of explaining this. Particularly, I appreciate just how in character Dr. Manhattan's reasoning was for messing around with the DC Universe was. His and Superman's ultimate showdown was a bit of an anticlimax, but it was very clearly being set up as such so that's not as disappointing as you'd think. I mean, even with Superman being nearly god-like, Manhattan can disintegrate people in the blink of an eye; there was no way this was going to be a particularly impressive showdown. As for the rest of the characters? It's very clear Doomsday Clock's main focus was on Superman and Dr. Manhattan as they get the bulk of the attention in the story. Which is fine. It's just often difficult to understand how the Watchmen characters relate to the plotline of what's actually going on in the DC Universe. And then the way everything gets wrapped up is really unsatisfying and rushed and 100% puts a damper on the whole thing. Perhaps the ending could've worked had the previous issues been paced better and actually built up to what happened. But, alas.
Perhaps I was never going to like Doomsday Clock. On the whole, I tend not to like these multi-verse stories in comic books as it never really feels like they actually know what they're doing and, unless you're extremely well-versed in the history of multiple universes, it's extremely easy to get very lost very quickly. Which is honestly what happened to be with Doomsday Clock for large chunks of the story. As previously mentioned, the pacing is really uneven and places too much focus on elements of the story that don't end up being important. The Watchmen universe and the DC-Universe never really seem to mesh particularly well together, aside from Manhattan and Superman, so I'm honestly not sure why everyone else was even there. Perhaps the kindest thing I can say about the comic is that Gary Frank's artwork is genuinely impressive. At times, it evokes Dave Gibbons' artwork beautifully and he has a great command over facial expressions and action scenes. This comic is certainly a nice one to look at even if it wasn't the most impressively written. On the whole, I can't say this was a comic worth waiting an entire two years to have in its entirety. It's fine; way too ambitious for its own good and never focusing on the aspects of the story it should. I'm honestly not sure who this story is meant for - Watchmen fans will be annoyed at some of the liberties taken with those characters and DC fans will be annoyed at the lack of focus most of the DC heroes get. It's just a really uneven book. But probably one worth a read for those who are curious.
April 19, 2024
(Zero spoiler review) 2.75/5
And here I was thinking things were looking up. They were, right up until they weren't. Book two was fixing a lot of the issues I had with book one. For starters, the Watchmen characters, which were far too prominent in the first book are relegated to side characters, especially Rorschach. Whatever Johns' intentions with the character, he well and truly missed the mark with me. Given John's time spent writing DC's roster, one would expect his proficiency with their characters to be more commensurate with the time spent, and at least initially, I was enjoying what was on offer. Even if that was more to do with having Gary Frank drawing the ladies of DC, more so than John's pulling up trees with the narrative. I'm really not sure how this was stretched into 12 issues, and 12 oversized issues at that, but it is what it is, even if it should never have been. That said, the whole 'it is April 18th... it is October 5th... blah blah blah, on and on bullshit added more unnecessary bloat to this story than Macdonalds has added to the Western worlds waistline. This was five issues, six max. It speaks to Johns' (or perhaps DC's) Hubris and ego that this went on as long as it did.
That said, I was anticipating a more positive overall impression for the book. That was until the final issue well and truly overstayed its welcome. Not knowing when to pull up stumps and knock it on the head absolutely killed it for me. About six pages from the end, apathy set in something fierce and I just didn't give a shit any more. I flicked through the final few pages, looking at Frank's sublime artwork. Saw the gist of it then angrily closed it and returned it to the library. A wet fart of an ending to a very attractive but completely unnecessary exercise. 300 pages of Gary Frank drawing DC starlet's with zero plot would have been infinitely more enjoyable, and I wouldn't have a headache trying to decipher John's vanity project. 2.75/5
OmniBen.
And here I was thinking things were looking up. They were, right up until they weren't. Book two was fixing a lot of the issues I had with book one. For starters, the Watchmen characters, which were far too prominent in the first book are relegated to side characters, especially Rorschach. Whatever Johns' intentions with the character, he well and truly missed the mark with me. Given John's time spent writing DC's roster, one would expect his proficiency with their characters to be more commensurate with the time spent, and at least initially, I was enjoying what was on offer. Even if that was more to do with having Gary Frank drawing the ladies of DC, more so than John's pulling up trees with the narrative. I'm really not sure how this was stretched into 12 issues, and 12 oversized issues at that, but it is what it is, even if it should never have been. That said, the whole 'it is April 18th... it is October 5th... blah blah blah, on and on bullshit added more unnecessary bloat to this story than Macdonalds has added to the Western worlds waistline. This was five issues, six max. It speaks to Johns' (or perhaps DC's) Hubris and ego that this went on as long as it did.
That said, I was anticipating a more positive overall impression for the book. That was until the final issue well and truly overstayed its welcome. Not knowing when to pull up stumps and knock it on the head absolutely killed it for me. About six pages from the end, apathy set in something fierce and I just didn't give a shit any more. I flicked through the final few pages, looking at Frank's sublime artwork. Saw the gist of it then angrily closed it and returned it to the library. A wet fart of an ending to a very attractive but completely unnecessary exercise. 300 pages of Gary Frank drawing DC starlet's with zero plot would have been infinitely more enjoyable, and I wouldn't have a headache trying to decipher John's vanity project. 2.75/5
OmniBen.
May 25, 2020
It was very good. Though I am slightly confused I still enjoyed it quite a bit. I think there's more to the story than I captured the first time around. I'll reread if I'm not too lazy. It could be that the story just didn't add up, but I'm hoping I just missed something.
One thing though is that they were definitely trying to capture a lot of elements from the original watchmen in terms of storytelling and art and I thought they did a good job with that. 4 stars I guess.
One thing though is that they were definitely trying to capture a lot of elements from the original watchmen in terms of storytelling and art and I thought they did a good job with that. 4 stars I guess.
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