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Doomsday Clock #1-12
Doomsday Clock
Not yet published
Expected 2 Jan 79The critically acclaimed sequel to the best-selling Watchmen written by master storytellers Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. As the Doomsday Clock ticks toward midnight the final fate of the DC Universe lies in a confrontation between Superman and Dr. Manhattan that will result in the end of everything!
The world of Watchmen collides with the DC Universe in the most shocking story in DC history! Something is amiss in the DC Universe. Following the events of DC Rebirth and Batman/The The Button , Geoff Johns ( Flashpoint, Justice League, DC Rebirth ) and Gary Frank ( Earth One, Shazam!, DC Rebirth ) reuinite to rewrite the past and future of the DC Universe in a story hailed as a masterpiece!
Seven years after the events of Watchmen , Adrian Veidt has been exposed as the murderer of millions. Now a fugitive, he has come up with a new plan to save his once-adoring find Dr. Manhattan. Alongside a new Rorschach and the deadly Mime and Marionette he arrives in the DC Universe and finds it on the brink of collapse. International tensions are running rampant with The Supermen Theory implicating the U.S. government in creating superhumans to maintain global dominance! But what is Dr. Manhattan doing in the DC Universe? And how is he related to the events of DC Rebirth and The Button ? Our heroes will discover these answers all point to one thing. The end.
Collects issues #1-12 of the groundbreaking series
The world of Watchmen collides with the DC Universe in the most shocking story in DC history! Something is amiss in the DC Universe. Following the events of DC Rebirth and Batman/The The Button , Geoff Johns ( Flashpoint, Justice League, DC Rebirth ) and Gary Frank ( Earth One, Shazam!, DC Rebirth ) reuinite to rewrite the past and future of the DC Universe in a story hailed as a masterpiece!
Seven years after the events of Watchmen , Adrian Veidt has been exposed as the murderer of millions. Now a fugitive, he has come up with a new plan to save his once-adoring find Dr. Manhattan. Alongside a new Rorschach and the deadly Mime and Marionette he arrives in the DC Universe and finds it on the brink of collapse. International tensions are running rampant with The Supermen Theory implicating the U.S. government in creating superhumans to maintain global dominance! But what is Dr. Manhattan doing in the DC Universe? And how is he related to the events of DC Rebirth and The Button ? Our heroes will discover these answers all point to one thing. The end.
Collects issues #1-12 of the groundbreaking series
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2017
651 people are currently reading
3071 people want to read
About the author
Geoff Johns
2,716 books2,410 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 496 reviews
April 14, 2021
Watchmen di Alan Moore e Dave Gibbons è stata a fine anni '80 una pietra miliare del fumetto mondiale che, nonostante alcune mie riserve sul finale, non necessitava di alcun seguito o prequel.
Ovviamente la vacca grassa va munta fino in fondo e così la DC, dopo l'altalenante pletora di miniserie Before Watchmen pubblicata qualche anno fa, ha pensato bene di inserire Dottor Manhattan nel suo universo fumettistico prima con il Rebirth, e di far cozzare i due mondi dopo in questo Doomsday Clock.
Il risultato finale è esattamente l'opposto di quello che fu Watchmen nel 1986-87, non una critica al concetto stesso di supereroismo con cui l'industria fumettistica americana dovette fare i conti fino a cambiare radicalmente, ma una celebrazione dello stesso.
A parte questo, ed un finale secondo me decisamente non all'altezza del resto del volume, è ammirabile lo sforzo immane compiuto da Geoff Johns nel tentativo di scrivere un seguito all'altezza, cercando di dare una sistemata allo stesso tempo a quell'incubo che è da sempre la continuity dell'universo DC fino al prossimo arrivo di Superman sulla terra... chi leggerà capirà.
Siamo sulle tre stelle, tre stelle e mezzo se cerchiamo di non paragonare troppo questo seguito all'originale, ma i disegni di Gary Frank sono una vera meraviglia (adoro alla follia il suo Superman: praticamente un Christopher Reeve redivivo).
In fin dei conti questo Doomsday clock è stato un bel mattone che si è fatto leggere con piacere in due giorni e che probabilmente rileggerò presto, magari dopo aver riletto il capolavoro originale.
Quattro stelle piene per impegno e disegni.
January 14, 2020
It takes a particularly unsavoury combination of hubris, fanboyism and commercial greed to attempt to write a sequel to Watchmen and use it as the latest reboot event for DC’s creaking continuity nightmare. Yes, Geoff Johns decided to marry Watchmen to Crisis on Infinite Earths, with the biggest surprise about the resulting mess simply being how boring it is.
Geoff Johns either fails to understand Alan Moore’s work, or deliberately ignores what he was doing, in favour of setting up a metaphorical strawman for Superman to best. This is most clearly evidenced through how Dr Manhattan is depicted, where his character arc from the original is utterly missing, replaced with empty cynicism – a much easier strawman to batter about than actually engaging with the complexity found within Watchmen. As evidenced by this and much of his other work, Johns is an unabashed fan of DC Comics silver age, which is all well and good. He identifies Moore’s deconstructions as a self-destructive trend within superhero comics, which is unfortunate as this is more a product of Moore’s imitators than the original works, which pushed the boundaries of the medium, and were seldom completely nihilistic (though Moore does himself admit some of his work may have been misguided in light its subsequent derivatives). Comics went through a dark, and often juvenile period following the deconstructions of the Watchmen (1986-7), The Dark Knight Returns (1986), etc., in many ways mirroring what occurred in anime following the release of Akira (1988). Unfortunately, many of the books that followed the trendsetters, merely saw dark and violent tones and aped that, rather than the more erudite elements of those works. Johns has fallen right into this trap.
Johns only really plays around with some of the iconography and form of the original Watchmen here. For instance, he creates a second Rorschach who wears the exact same costume, but is just a misguided kid rather than a full-blown right-wing sociopath. The original character is very much a critique of Steve Ditko’s The Question (and Mr. A) and that creator’s Randian beliefs. Johns’ version is sympathetic, the child of Malcolm Long in the original series (the psychiatrist who attempted to treat Kovacs), he is manipulated and used by Ozymandias before learning that the original Rorschach was not very nice – despite already being in possession of his journal at the beginning of the story (the first-hand account of exactly how Roschach thought and what he did). This prompts a breakdown, with the character discarding the identity of Rorschach before taking it up again, deciding he can be a force for good. It’s incredibly shallow and petulant writing. Effectively, Johns seems to be one of those people that thinks Rorschach is cool and wants to play with him, but without the baggage of everything Alan Moore was critiquing.
Johns has a great deal of nostalgia for now defunct elements of the DC universe, and has had a lot of success with dusting off concepts and characters that were at one point seen as goofy and reinserting them into current continuity. It’s not for nothing that his comics have been described as neo-silver age. Of course Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-6), which slightly pre-dated Watchmen, began DC editorial’s now pathological attempts to restart and streamline their continuity. Each time various writers and editors, fond of aspects that were wiped from canon – have continuously reinserted them into the books (Johns included). Characters like Hawkman, Donna Troy and the Legion of Superheroes now have incredibly convoluted histories that require elaborate spider-diagrams and secondary reading to even begin to comprehend, due to the various hard and soft-reboots accomplishing the exact opposite of their stated goal – simplifying continuity for newer readers – and yet DC keep hitting the reboot button like a junkie promising their next hit will be their last.
Spoilers, Superman makes Manhattan see the error of his cynical ways by being nice – Manhattan proceeds to retcon the JSA and Legion back into existence. These fictional groups were removed (and returned, and removed again) from continuity during DC’s various reboots. The more recent Flashpoint reboot (2011) (also written by Johns), has been blamed for DC taking a turn toward more “grim and gritty” and less optimistic storytelling, though in truth this pattern was well in place before then (as were attempts to make DC go the opposite direction). Long story short (a very large amount of fictional minutia is required to understand the books full context and this is already becoming a history lesson), Johns is essentially blame-shifting the handling of DC comics main universe onto Alan Moore’s oeuvre, which is quite unfair and does not make for a good story. The whole exercise only serves to retcon back in more elements that aging fans may have missed, though they are only a reboot away from disappearing again. The in-story conflict between Manhattan and Superman is facile, and is resolved in such a trite way that you question why this book took so many issues to get to its bland conclusion. Just for good measure, Johns – Superman fanboy that he is – has Superman explicitly be the centre of the universe around which all else must revolve. It’s a pointless masturbatory metacommentary that is undermined by Johns’ own story requiring every other DC hero and villain to be side-lined in order for Superman to be an example.
This book is essentially a nerd pissing contest, that reveals a level of insecurity in Johns that you would think his career successes and critical acclaim would have rendered unnecessary. It’s the comic book equivalent of when Clint Eastwood argued with an empty chair.
Geoff Johns either fails to understand Alan Moore’s work, or deliberately ignores what he was doing, in favour of setting up a metaphorical strawman for Superman to best. This is most clearly evidenced through how Dr Manhattan is depicted, where his character arc from the original is utterly missing, replaced with empty cynicism – a much easier strawman to batter about than actually engaging with the complexity found within Watchmen. As evidenced by this and much of his other work, Johns is an unabashed fan of DC Comics silver age, which is all well and good. He identifies Moore’s deconstructions as a self-destructive trend within superhero comics, which is unfortunate as this is more a product of Moore’s imitators than the original works, which pushed the boundaries of the medium, and were seldom completely nihilistic (though Moore does himself admit some of his work may have been misguided in light its subsequent derivatives). Comics went through a dark, and often juvenile period following the deconstructions of the Watchmen (1986-7), The Dark Knight Returns (1986), etc., in many ways mirroring what occurred in anime following the release of Akira (1988). Unfortunately, many of the books that followed the trendsetters, merely saw dark and violent tones and aped that, rather than the more erudite elements of those works. Johns has fallen right into this trap.
Johns only really plays around with some of the iconography and form of the original Watchmen here. For instance, he creates a second Rorschach who wears the exact same costume, but is just a misguided kid rather than a full-blown right-wing sociopath. The original character is very much a critique of Steve Ditko’s The Question (and Mr. A) and that creator’s Randian beliefs. Johns’ version is sympathetic, the child of Malcolm Long in the original series (the psychiatrist who attempted to treat Kovacs), he is manipulated and used by Ozymandias before learning that the original Rorschach was not very nice – despite already being in possession of his journal at the beginning of the story (the first-hand account of exactly how Roschach thought and what he did). This prompts a breakdown, with the character discarding the identity of Rorschach before taking it up again, deciding he can be a force for good. It’s incredibly shallow and petulant writing. Effectively, Johns seems to be one of those people that thinks Rorschach is cool and wants to play with him, but without the baggage of everything Alan Moore was critiquing.
Johns has a great deal of nostalgia for now defunct elements of the DC universe, and has had a lot of success with dusting off concepts and characters that were at one point seen as goofy and reinserting them into current continuity. It’s not for nothing that his comics have been described as neo-silver age. Of course Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-6), which slightly pre-dated Watchmen, began DC editorial’s now pathological attempts to restart and streamline their continuity. Each time various writers and editors, fond of aspects that were wiped from canon – have continuously reinserted them into the books (Johns included). Characters like Hawkman, Donna Troy and the Legion of Superheroes now have incredibly convoluted histories that require elaborate spider-diagrams and secondary reading to even begin to comprehend, due to the various hard and soft-reboots accomplishing the exact opposite of their stated goal – simplifying continuity for newer readers – and yet DC keep hitting the reboot button like a junkie promising their next hit will be their last.
Spoilers, Superman makes Manhattan see the error of his cynical ways by being nice – Manhattan proceeds to retcon the JSA and Legion back into existence. These fictional groups were removed (and returned, and removed again) from continuity during DC’s various reboots. The more recent Flashpoint reboot (2011) (also written by Johns), has been blamed for DC taking a turn toward more “grim and gritty” and less optimistic storytelling, though in truth this pattern was well in place before then (as were attempts to make DC go the opposite direction). Long story short (a very large amount of fictional minutia is required to understand the books full context and this is already becoming a history lesson), Johns is essentially blame-shifting the handling of DC comics main universe onto Alan Moore’s oeuvre, which is quite unfair and does not make for a good story. The whole exercise only serves to retcon back in more elements that aging fans may have missed, though they are only a reboot away from disappearing again. The in-story conflict between Manhattan and Superman is facile, and is resolved in such a trite way that you question why this book took so many issues to get to its bland conclusion. Just for good measure, Johns – Superman fanboy that he is – has Superman explicitly be the centre of the universe around which all else must revolve. It’s a pointless masturbatory metacommentary that is undermined by Johns’ own story requiring every other DC hero and villain to be side-lined in order for Superman to be an example.
This book is essentially a nerd pissing contest, that reveals a level of insecurity in Johns that you would think his career successes and critical acclaim would have rendered unnecessary. It’s the comic book equivalent of when Clint Eastwood argued with an empty chair.
December 19, 2019
Barring for the occasional bright spot, such as Mothman and Mime, there's not a whole lot anything of interest in this comic, certainly nothing to warrant digging Watchmen back into prominence.
Please, just let good stories lie, finished and complete.
Please, just let good stories lie, finished and complete.
December 14, 2020
Convoluted. Boring. Preachy. Forgettable. And having little to do with the original Watchmen. Honestly, this was a total waste of time.
March 20, 2021
That was a surprisingly good story. It is an ambitious attempt by Geoff Johns to explain how the New-52 comes about by mixing the worlds of Watchmen and normal DC together. I am also going to point out that you should read "Watchmen" before reading this, as much of what is going on revolves around the character and themes of that seminal work.
Ozymandis has a plan to save his world and our reality. It revolves around Dr. Manhattan and Superman. What follows is a mind-bending, and more than a little confusing, romp through a history of DC's universe. The population of Earth is growing anti-hero and Superman becomes the eye of the controversy. Dr. Manhattan is unable to see the future and is able to forsee a clash between him and Superman that might end the world. Along the way we see how Dr. Manhattan's tinkering affects the DC universe. I also see Johns setting the stage for the DC crisis story arcs.
This volume has the dark feel of the original Watchmen story. The artwork is top notch and a pleasure to view. While John's prose will never match the original Moore work, it is still a good job of tackling what is a mind-bogglingly complicated story, especially having to work into the story some rather obscure characters from DC's past.
A nice ambitious work. Though not always successful, it is still a considerable improvement over the crap stories that seem to be the norm. I enjoyed the working together of the two worlds and also enjoyed the interaction between the villains of the different universes.
I think I'll grab a nice HC version of this when it comes out.
Ozymandis has a plan to save his world and our reality. It revolves around Dr. Manhattan and Superman. What follows is a mind-bending, and more than a little confusing, romp through a history of DC's universe. The population of Earth is growing anti-hero and Superman becomes the eye of the controversy. Dr. Manhattan is unable to see the future and is able to forsee a clash between him and Superman that might end the world. Along the way we see how Dr. Manhattan's tinkering affects the DC universe. I also see Johns setting the stage for the DC crisis story arcs.
This volume has the dark feel of the original Watchmen story. The artwork is top notch and a pleasure to view. While John's prose will never match the original Moore work, it is still a good job of tackling what is a mind-bogglingly complicated story, especially having to work into the story some rather obscure characters from DC's past.
A nice ambitious work. Though not always successful, it is still a considerable improvement over the crap stories that seem to be the norm. I enjoyed the working together of the two worlds and also enjoyed the interaction between the villains of the different universes.
I think I'll grab a nice HC version of this when it comes out.
January 3, 2020
Rorschach's Journal, 1985...
Hard to think that we would ever get a sequel to Watchmen, and if it at all would be even remotely good and not a blatant cash grab. However, Geoff Johns has done it again and given us a worthy sequel to Alan Moore's original graphic novel! I myself was reading the issues as they were coming out, as each issue kept my interest but the pacing felt a bit off since there were numerous delays between issues. But I can safely say after re-reading it that it does read well when you can read the whole thing in one go; as it keeps your interest with very good pacing. Geoff Johns is known for writing very action paced stories but here he writes a more methodical and politically driven thriller that talks a lot about the power struggles between world leaders today. And seeing the Watchmen characters cross over with DC heroes is fun to see to say the least. Johns even creates some new characters for the Watchmen universe such as the two mime characters who were both very interesting to read about!
Another great addition is Gary Frank's artwork which is amazing as always and was definitely worth the wait between issues. I'd say the only real flaw is that series did feel an issue or two too long and could of maybe of been scaled back. I was also surprised at the amount of the action in this book which was definitely a lot more then I was expecting but I think some may be disappointed as some of the fights you may be expecting to happen don't ever happen. But at its core this a story about Superman and his importance to the DC universe which is great to see as WB can really underappreciate him. I think between this and Superman Up in the Sky, its nice to see DC celebrating the character rather then trying to make him profitable by changing him completely. Overall, I'd recommend this one, especially if you're a fan of the original Watchmen!
Hard to think that we would ever get a sequel to Watchmen, and if it at all would be even remotely good and not a blatant cash grab. However, Geoff Johns has done it again and given us a worthy sequel to Alan Moore's original graphic novel! I myself was reading the issues as they were coming out, as each issue kept my interest but the pacing felt a bit off since there were numerous delays between issues. But I can safely say after re-reading it that it does read well when you can read the whole thing in one go; as it keeps your interest with very good pacing. Geoff Johns is known for writing very action paced stories but here he writes a more methodical and politically driven thriller that talks a lot about the power struggles between world leaders today. And seeing the Watchmen characters cross over with DC heroes is fun to see to say the least. Johns even creates some new characters for the Watchmen universe such as the two mime characters who were both very interesting to read about!
Another great addition is Gary Frank's artwork which is amazing as always and was definitely worth the wait between issues. I'd say the only real flaw is that series did feel an issue or two too long and could of maybe of been scaled back. I was also surprised at the amount of the action in this book which was definitely a lot more then I was expecting but I think some may be disappointed as some of the fights you may be expecting to happen don't ever happen. But at its core this a story about Superman and his importance to the DC universe which is great to see as WB can really underappreciate him. I think between this and Superman Up in the Sky, its nice to see DC celebrating the character rather then trying to make him profitable by changing him completely. Overall, I'd recommend this one, especially if you're a fan of the original Watchmen!
October 14, 2020
Doomsday Clock: The Complete Collection collects both parts of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s Doomsday Clock series. I give Part 1 three stars and Part 2 two stars so I’ll give the collection an overall score of two stars. I reviewed each book individually below - enjoy!
*
Doomsday Clock, Part 1 - 3 stars
Ozymandias, the world’s smartest man and a celebrated superhero, tried to save the world - and failed. About as badly as he could have!
7 years later…
The Doomsday Clock edges nearer to midnight - total annihilation - and the world has discovered the atrocities of Adrian Veidt. Nevertheless, he decides to once more try to save the world. This time the plan involves finding Doctor Manhattan. But where did he go? The DC universe. Tick, tock!
I’m not a fan of Watchmen or ever been that impressed by Alan Moore’s comics generally (I know, that instantly disqualifies any opinion I have on anything comics-related, right?) so I’m not one of those people who thinks that writing a sequel to Watchmen or introducing the Watchmen characters into the DCU is some kind of sacrilege. The property belongs to DC, they can do what they like with it - you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to.
I’ve actually been mildly intrigued by this project. Maybe Watchmen might be fun in the hands of other writers? After all, the Before Watchmen books weren’t all bad. And, while Geoff Johns is no Alan Moore - I’ll give Moore this: he’s a much more thoughtful and original writer than Johns will ever be - Doomsday Clock, Part 1 wasn’t as awful as I presumed (I’m not a Johns fanboy either).
Doomsday Clock, Part 1’s quality doesn’t match its fanfare but there’s enough going on to stop it from being too boring a read. It’s a mixed bag of cool and boring scenes, a vague story that’s definitely not in a rush to be told but with a compelling destination, all drawn well by a master cartoonist - and I’m tentatively looking forward to Part 2.
*
Doomsday Clock, Part 2 - 2 stars
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…
*
Doomsday Clock, Part 1 - 3 stars
Ozymandias, the world’s smartest man and a celebrated superhero, tried to save the world - and failed. About as badly as he could have!
7 years later…
The Doomsday Clock edges nearer to midnight - total annihilation - and the world has discovered the atrocities of Adrian Veidt. Nevertheless, he decides to once more try to save the world. This time the plan involves finding Doctor Manhattan. But where did he go? The DC universe. Tick, tock!
I’m not a fan of Watchmen or ever been that impressed by Alan Moore’s comics generally (I know, that instantly disqualifies any opinion I have on anything comics-related, right?) so I’m not one of those people who thinks that writing a sequel to Watchmen or introducing the Watchmen characters into the DCU is some kind of sacrilege. The property belongs to DC, they can do what they like with it - you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to.
I’ve actually been mildly intrigued by this project. Maybe Watchmen might be fun in the hands of other writers? After all, the Before Watchmen books weren’t all bad. And, while Geoff Johns is no Alan Moore - I’ll give Moore this: he’s a much more thoughtful and original writer than Johns will ever be - Doomsday Clock, Part 1 wasn’t as awful as I presumed (I’m not a Johns fanboy either).
Doomsday Clock, Part 1’s quality doesn’t match its fanfare but there’s enough going on to stop it from being too boring a read. It’s a mixed bag of cool and boring scenes, a vague story that’s definitely not in a rush to be told but with a compelling destination, all drawn well by a master cartoonist - and I’m tentatively looking forward to Part 2.
*
Doomsday Clock, Part 2 - 2 stars
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…
January 23, 2023
I didn't hate this but I wouldn't say I liked it either. Basically, it's a crossover between the Watchmen universe and the main DC universe. The art is good but the story is all over the place.
I feel like it tries too hard to be anything other than what it is: A cross over event. Too much of the story focuses on Marionette and Mime, the Watchmen universe equivalents of Punch and Jewelee, a couple mostly forgotten Captain Atom villains from the Charlton era. There's also a growing distrust of super heroes that feels ham fisted as hell and was obviously tacked on to create thematic parallels to Watchmen.
There were a lot of moments I didn't like, like Rorschach being able to waltz right in to Wayne Manor, or Firestorm not immediately suspecting some shenanigans when his powers affected organic matter. The Nathaniel Dusk asides were meant to parallel the Black Freighter bits in Watchmen but I don't think they accomplished much.
What else? Batman riding in Archie was cool. I guess the whole thing felt unnecessary. I feel like Johns was trying hard to make this a Big Important Comic like Watchmen but it feels like when my toddler walks around with my shoes on. He recognizes the shoes go on his feet but not that they're too big for him and he'd be better off wearing his own shoes.
Two stars. I got this for $7 and I think I would have been happier with the money.
I feel like it tries too hard to be anything other than what it is: A cross over event. Too much of the story focuses on Marionette and Mime, the Watchmen universe equivalents of Punch and Jewelee, a couple mostly forgotten Captain Atom villains from the Charlton era. There's also a growing distrust of super heroes that feels ham fisted as hell and was obviously tacked on to create thematic parallels to Watchmen.
There were a lot of moments I didn't like, like Rorschach being able to waltz right in to Wayne Manor, or Firestorm not immediately suspecting some shenanigans when his powers affected organic matter. The Nathaniel Dusk asides were meant to parallel the Black Freighter bits in Watchmen but I don't think they accomplished much.
What else? Batman riding in Archie was cool. I guess the whole thing felt unnecessary. I feel like Johns was trying hard to make this a Big Important Comic like Watchmen but it feels like when my toddler walks around with my shoes on. He recognizes the shoes go on his feet but not that they're too big for him and he'd be better off wearing his own shoes.
Two stars. I got this for $7 and I think I would have been happier with the money.
August 23, 2020
Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s Doomsday Clock should’ve never existed. As a spit in the face to creator’s rights everywhere, in 2016 it was revealed that Doctor Manhattan from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’s Watchmen was behind everything that went awry in the DC Universe from Flashpoint on. Fans waited roughly a year for this tease to be expanded upon. The results were (spoilers) not good. So let’s talk about it. What works and what doesn’t. I’ll address the misunderstanding of the source material, nuclear paranoia and Geoff Johns.
Before I get into my main critiques of Doomsday Clock, I’d like to address some things I think were actually done well. Gary Frank and the rest of the art team (Brad Anderson on colors and Rob Leigh on letters) did a great job. Visually, it takes inspiration from Dave Gibbons without feeling like a direct copy. Frank’s paneling and understanding of why Watchmen works visually is all there. The book definitely looks like what it’s trying to do. Geoff Johns also shows off his ability to write a page that adheres to the Watchmen base 9 panel grid. However, Johns does break this a lot. In Watchmen the base 9 panel grid was used always with 9 panels being the most that go on one page with only one exception I can think of at this time: the dream sequence where Dan and Laurie die in a nuclear explosion. This break in the layout was used to be jarring, it was a surreal dream. Johns however uses more than 9 panels a page seemingly whenever he feels like it. That however, is a minor criticism and I could 100% excuse that. I think visually and the way the story is told is effective. Johns and Frank know how to make a comic book. Also, I seriously do love Mime and Marionette. They’re fantastic characters and are very interesting. I’d say their background is the best part of the story.
Watchmen is a dense book with tons of themes, recurring motifs and ideas on how a comic could be made. It takes itself seriously to great effect. I do not think Johns understood most of what makes Watchmen work. First, Watchmen satirizes superheroes by making none of it’s characters heroes. Johns repurposes these characters throughout Doomsday Clock and reduces them to different shades of morality. Ozymandias is the best example of this. In Watchmen, Ozymandias does the worst thing he could’ve done, he killed millions of New Yorkers in an effort to save the world from nuclear annihilation. It worked. Ozy did this because he ultimately thought it’s what had to be done and he was right. The world of Watchmen is moving steadily towards annihilation and Ozy stops it. In Watchmen it’s inferred that this action for the greater good would be a massive burden for Ozy to constantly have on his shoulders. He did something that would be evil in any other superhero comic here, but it’s done for a reason that the reader understands and it’s portrayed in a way where you feel shitty for agreeing with him. In Doomsday Clock, Ozymandius is nothing more than a cheap Lex Luthor clone. He hatches absurdly complex plan after complex plan, always revealing it in some crazy, mustache twirling supervillain way. Ozymandias is no supervillain. The other character (that plays arguably the biggest role throughout) is Doctor Manhattan. In Watchmen, Manhattan is disconnected from reality. He sees time as a whole, except the ending of the story which is perceived by the reader to be due to complete nuclear destruction. Johns repurposes this same exact thing for Doomsday Clock but instead of impending nuclear doom, Manhattan comes to the conclusion that Superman destroys him or he destroys the universe. I struggled to come to why this didn’t work for me and while writing this I realized why. In Watchmen, we as readers believe it’s possible the world could end because of its standalone, original nature. These are characters and a world we’ve never seen before and we know we’ll never revisit this world when it’s over (until now). But Doomsday Clock takes place in a world that will always be saved. There are no stakes there. Johns’s treatment and misunderstanding of Manhattan also extends to his perception of time. Johns directly has Manhattan referring to what’s going on in the page as “now”. It’s a minor nitpick, but Manhattan’s ability to see all of time, experiencing everything happening on the page at once mirrors the reader’s experience reading the book. Comics allow for the reader to experience more than one bit of time at once which is unlike any other visual medium. In film, you see what’s on the screen. In comics, you see what’s on the page which is composed of several screens (also why Ozymandius sits in front of a bunch of screens). In Doomsday Clock this is explored very shallowly through repeated puppet symbols, but it isn’t explored as thoroughly through the character as it is in Watchmen and later through William Gull in Moore and Campbell’s From Hell. The last thing I’d like to mention in terms of misunderstanding of the source material is the repurposing of the line “Nothing ever ends Adrian”. This was originally a very meta line. It could be interpreted as consequences coming back to bite you (in regards to Ozy’s massacre of New York) or more literally, that superhero narratives traditionally don’t end. The irony in that interpretation is that Watchmen does end and that’s because at the end of the day, it isn’t a superhero story. It could even be in reference to a clock. Manhattan’s father was a watchmaker, Watchmen uses a clock motif and has 12 issues. None of that is coincidence. Clocks never end, they restart. That is the same with a book, you could start right back at the beginning. Nothing ends. Johns repurposes the line to have Manhattan scream “Everything Ends”. This contradicts everything I just explained prior and some. Having your Deux Ex Machina screaming about the ending before ending your story completely misunderstands the original line.
The nuclear paranoia found in Watchmen comes from two things: the Cold War the world was enveloped in at the time it was made and the history superhero comics have with atomic symbols and nuclear weaponry. The atmosphere of Watchmen stems from both of these things, fully embracing the nuclear paranoia of the time and a lot of the conversation of this centers around Doctor Manhattan. This atmosphere creeps through everything in Watchmen. It’s a specific vibe that Moore and Gibbons very effectively achieve and communicate to the reader. Johns and Frank attempt this through the Russian American conflict based around the “Superman Theory” which asks the question: why are most superheroes American? This isn’t a bad idea, I think if elaborated on one could make a pretty effective piece of work around it but Johns doesn’t elaborate or execute it too well. He positions this theory to spark the distrust of American superheroes and metahumans while also amping up tension between America nad Russia through this plot thread. What Johns fails to understand however is that Watchmen really doesn’t care about America vs Russia, it’s concerned with the mayhem and destruction the results of the conflict would be. There’s this despair in the atmosphere of Gibbons and Moore’s masterpiece that Johns attempts to replicate. The reason it doesn’t work is both because there’s no tangible or apparent danger and it lacks the unpredictableness of Watchmen. As a self contained, original graphic novel Watchmen very well could have blown the world up for the climax of the story. It didn’t, but as a reader checking it out for the first time you seriously don’t know. In Doomsday Clock, you know it’s safe.
Geoff Johns isn’t a bad writer. He’s very good at what he does and what he does is write monthly DC superhero books. His breakout Flash run and his take on Aquaman remains some of my favorite superhero comics to this day, they’re so god damn fun. However, was he really the right man for the job. Johns excels at action sequences and understanding why people like these established characters. He often understands their long, complex histories and adds to them throughout his time on a team or character. Doomsday Clock is not in Johns’s wheelhouse. He attempts to ask greater, philosophical questions throughout the series and falls short almost every time. Johns is not Alan Moore and that’s ok. A lot of this book felt like cheap fan service, in fact the Watchmen characters that do appear throughout largely could be removed or replaced and the story would remain the same. The only Watchmen character that was necessary was Doctor Manhattan. Johns stops using a bunch of these characters when Manhattan first makes his appearance which confuses me. I kept asking myself “what’s the point of the Comedian being here? If Ozymandias isn’t showing up and his effect on the story is minimal, why be there at all?” I truly feel like these characters only appeared to meet Lex Luthor. Or fight Batman. Or be in Arkham Asylum. Or meet the Joker. Johns wanted his action figures to play. That leads to my major criticism of the work which is: What’s the point? Was the point to show that Superman is a symbol of hope in the DC Universe and his absence causes despair? Morrison addresses that in All Star Superman. Was it that Watchmen left a bloodstain on the happy face that is superhero comics and Johns was going to correct it here? Moore did it himself with The America’s Best Comics line. I fail to see the point of this book existing other than the reason of dollar signs.
Doomsday Clock is not a bad comic from a structural sense. It understands the visual storytelling of both it’s source material and the medium of comics. However, what it doesn’t understand is the content of its source material. Doomsday Clock misrepresents Watchmen to a modern audience and re-purposes it into the corporate caricatures of the current DC Comics. In its attempt for glory, Doomsday Clock flew too close to the sun. In a world where standalone stories get sequels and spin offs, riffing on nothing but nostalgia (another theme of Watchmen) and money, Doomsday Clock sits on the shelf next to the Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls, Jurassic Worlds and Dark Knight 3s.
Before I get into my main critiques of Doomsday Clock, I’d like to address some things I think were actually done well. Gary Frank and the rest of the art team (Brad Anderson on colors and Rob Leigh on letters) did a great job. Visually, it takes inspiration from Dave Gibbons without feeling like a direct copy. Frank’s paneling and understanding of why Watchmen works visually is all there. The book definitely looks like what it’s trying to do. Geoff Johns also shows off his ability to write a page that adheres to the Watchmen base 9 panel grid. However, Johns does break this a lot. In Watchmen the base 9 panel grid was used always with 9 panels being the most that go on one page with only one exception I can think of at this time: the dream sequence where Dan and Laurie die in a nuclear explosion. This break in the layout was used to be jarring, it was a surreal dream. Johns however uses more than 9 panels a page seemingly whenever he feels like it. That however, is a minor criticism and I could 100% excuse that. I think visually and the way the story is told is effective. Johns and Frank know how to make a comic book. Also, I seriously do love Mime and Marionette. They’re fantastic characters and are very interesting. I’d say their background is the best part of the story.
Watchmen is a dense book with tons of themes, recurring motifs and ideas on how a comic could be made. It takes itself seriously to great effect. I do not think Johns understood most of what makes Watchmen work. First, Watchmen satirizes superheroes by making none of it’s characters heroes. Johns repurposes these characters throughout Doomsday Clock and reduces them to different shades of morality. Ozymandias is the best example of this. In Watchmen, Ozymandias does the worst thing he could’ve done, he killed millions of New Yorkers in an effort to save the world from nuclear annihilation. It worked. Ozy did this because he ultimately thought it’s what had to be done and he was right. The world of Watchmen is moving steadily towards annihilation and Ozy stops it. In Watchmen it’s inferred that this action for the greater good would be a massive burden for Ozy to constantly have on his shoulders. He did something that would be evil in any other superhero comic here, but it’s done for a reason that the reader understands and it’s portrayed in a way where you feel shitty for agreeing with him. In Doomsday Clock, Ozymandius is nothing more than a cheap Lex Luthor clone. He hatches absurdly complex plan after complex plan, always revealing it in some crazy, mustache twirling supervillain way. Ozymandias is no supervillain. The other character (that plays arguably the biggest role throughout) is Doctor Manhattan. In Watchmen, Manhattan is disconnected from reality. He sees time as a whole, except the ending of the story which is perceived by the reader to be due to complete nuclear destruction. Johns repurposes this same exact thing for Doomsday Clock but instead of impending nuclear doom, Manhattan comes to the conclusion that Superman destroys him or he destroys the universe. I struggled to come to why this didn’t work for me and while writing this I realized why. In Watchmen, we as readers believe it’s possible the world could end because of its standalone, original nature. These are characters and a world we’ve never seen before and we know we’ll never revisit this world when it’s over (until now). But Doomsday Clock takes place in a world that will always be saved. There are no stakes there. Johns’s treatment and misunderstanding of Manhattan also extends to his perception of time. Johns directly has Manhattan referring to what’s going on in the page as “now”. It’s a minor nitpick, but Manhattan’s ability to see all of time, experiencing everything happening on the page at once mirrors the reader’s experience reading the book. Comics allow for the reader to experience more than one bit of time at once which is unlike any other visual medium. In film, you see what’s on the screen. In comics, you see what’s on the page which is composed of several screens (also why Ozymandius sits in front of a bunch of screens). In Doomsday Clock this is explored very shallowly through repeated puppet symbols, but it isn’t explored as thoroughly through the character as it is in Watchmen and later through William Gull in Moore and Campbell’s From Hell. The last thing I’d like to mention in terms of misunderstanding of the source material is the repurposing of the line “Nothing ever ends Adrian”. This was originally a very meta line. It could be interpreted as consequences coming back to bite you (in regards to Ozy’s massacre of New York) or more literally, that superhero narratives traditionally don’t end. The irony in that interpretation is that Watchmen does end and that’s because at the end of the day, it isn’t a superhero story. It could even be in reference to a clock. Manhattan’s father was a watchmaker, Watchmen uses a clock motif and has 12 issues. None of that is coincidence. Clocks never end, they restart. That is the same with a book, you could start right back at the beginning. Nothing ends. Johns repurposes the line to have Manhattan scream “Everything Ends”. This contradicts everything I just explained prior and some. Having your Deux Ex Machina screaming about the ending before ending your story completely misunderstands the original line.
The nuclear paranoia found in Watchmen comes from two things: the Cold War the world was enveloped in at the time it was made and the history superhero comics have with atomic symbols and nuclear weaponry. The atmosphere of Watchmen stems from both of these things, fully embracing the nuclear paranoia of the time and a lot of the conversation of this centers around Doctor Manhattan. This atmosphere creeps through everything in Watchmen. It’s a specific vibe that Moore and Gibbons very effectively achieve and communicate to the reader. Johns and Frank attempt this through the Russian American conflict based around the “Superman Theory” which asks the question: why are most superheroes American? This isn’t a bad idea, I think if elaborated on one could make a pretty effective piece of work around it but Johns doesn’t elaborate or execute it too well. He positions this theory to spark the distrust of American superheroes and metahumans while also amping up tension between America nad Russia through this plot thread. What Johns fails to understand however is that Watchmen really doesn’t care about America vs Russia, it’s concerned with the mayhem and destruction the results of the conflict would be. There’s this despair in the atmosphere of Gibbons and Moore’s masterpiece that Johns attempts to replicate. The reason it doesn’t work is both because there’s no tangible or apparent danger and it lacks the unpredictableness of Watchmen. As a self contained, original graphic novel Watchmen very well could have blown the world up for the climax of the story. It didn’t, but as a reader checking it out for the first time you seriously don’t know. In Doomsday Clock, you know it’s safe.
Geoff Johns isn’t a bad writer. He’s very good at what he does and what he does is write monthly DC superhero books. His breakout Flash run and his take on Aquaman remains some of my favorite superhero comics to this day, they’re so god damn fun. However, was he really the right man for the job. Johns excels at action sequences and understanding why people like these established characters. He often understands their long, complex histories and adds to them throughout his time on a team or character. Doomsday Clock is not in Johns’s wheelhouse. He attempts to ask greater, philosophical questions throughout the series and falls short almost every time. Johns is not Alan Moore and that’s ok. A lot of this book felt like cheap fan service, in fact the Watchmen characters that do appear throughout largely could be removed or replaced and the story would remain the same. The only Watchmen character that was necessary was Doctor Manhattan. Johns stops using a bunch of these characters when Manhattan first makes his appearance which confuses me. I kept asking myself “what’s the point of the Comedian being here? If Ozymandias isn’t showing up and his effect on the story is minimal, why be there at all?” I truly feel like these characters only appeared to meet Lex Luthor. Or fight Batman. Or be in Arkham Asylum. Or meet the Joker. Johns wanted his action figures to play. That leads to my major criticism of the work which is: What’s the point? Was the point to show that Superman is a symbol of hope in the DC Universe and his absence causes despair? Morrison addresses that in All Star Superman. Was it that Watchmen left a bloodstain on the happy face that is superhero comics and Johns was going to correct it here? Moore did it himself with The America’s Best Comics line. I fail to see the point of this book existing other than the reason of dollar signs.
Doomsday Clock is not a bad comic from a structural sense. It understands the visual storytelling of both it’s source material and the medium of comics. However, what it doesn’t understand is the content of its source material. Doomsday Clock misrepresents Watchmen to a modern audience and re-purposes it into the corporate caricatures of the current DC Comics. In its attempt for glory, Doomsday Clock flew too close to the sun. In a world where standalone stories get sequels and spin offs, riffing on nothing but nostalgia (another theme of Watchmen) and money, Doomsday Clock sits on the shelf next to the Kingdom of The Crystal Skulls, Jurassic Worlds and Dark Knight 3s.
July 30, 2024
First off, Watchmen is my favourite comic book of all time. I was a fan before Zack Snyder’s film adaptation was even released, and from the time I was first getting into comics, I have read Watchmen five or six times. Although it paved the way for superhero comics to go through a dark deconstruction – much to the upset from writer Alan Moore – in terms of both what and how it told its multi-layered narrative, everyone can have their own interpretation about what Watchmen is about.
Granted that we did get Snyder’s film, which was not the ideal adaptation that fans envisioned, DC did publish Before Watchmen, a prequel consisting of eight limited series without the involvement of Moore and artist/co-creator Dave Gibbons, which was the reason why I pretty much avoided this whole title. However, at the start of the 2016 relaunch, known as DC Rebirth, Geoff Johns teased the return of the Watchmen world, which will in some way be integrated into the DC Universe, culminating in a twelve-issue direct sequel to Moore and Gibbons’ story, written by Geoff Johns with art by penciller Gary Frank and colourist Brad Anderson.
Seven years after the massacre in New York City, Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias’ plan for world peace has failed after the details of Walter Kovacs/Rorschach's journal was published. Now a fugitive, Ozymandias is gathering several others – including a new Rorschach and the criminal husband-and-wife team, Mime and Marionette – to find Doctor Manhattan and bring him back to save the world. As this unlikely team travels to another universe to locate the blue-glowing post-human god, the rise of metahumans has created international conflict and led to an arms race, with various governments around the world recruiting metahumans and creating sanctioned super teams.
Geoff Johns may have an encyclopaedic knowledge of DC Comics, but he’s not the best writer when it comes to story and character. What is considered a very ambitious narrative that spans through the DC multiverse, I guess it makes sense to get Johns, who was the writer of Infinite Crisis. As a sequel to Watchmen, there is a great deal of respect towards its acclaimed predecessor. Considering what the original creators were doing something groundbreaking in the mid-eighties, Doomsday Clock may predominately use the nine-panel grid, as well as the supplemental fictional documents that add to the series' backstory that appear at the end of each issue, it’s not doing anything new and can feel like Watchmen karaoke. I imagine if Moore and Gibbons returned to their creation, they would tell a different kind of story with its own methods.
However, Doomsday Clock works best when it actually expands on the mythos of Watchmen, from the morality of Ozymandias, to particularly the new characters. Often misrepresented as the cool anti-hero of Watchmen, Rorschach is both a tragic character and a representation of Moore’s issues towards characters like Batman, who can be seen as a vigilante psychopath. Evoking a tradition in mainstream superhero comics, which is a superhero inheriting the mantle of another, the backstory of the new Rorschach is again a tragedy with the eventual realisation of what the mask originally represented.
The cast of Watchmen was inspired by the Charlton characters like The Question and Captain Atom, and so Geoff Johns and Gary Frank carry this idea by creating their own version of Punch and Jewelee, in the shape of Mime and Marionette. Although many of their scenes are about their path of bloody carnage, which leads to them encountering the Joker, the banter between them is a lot of fun, whilst you get their tragic backstory in one issue, showing that the two love each other and are motivated to search for their son, hence their participation in Ozymandias’ mission.
When we delve into the DC universe, this is where things get messy. On the plus side, the world is turmoil with the “Supermen Theory”, a conspiracy theory that accuses the federal government of the United States of creating its own metahumans. Considering that Zack Snyder tried and failed to deconstruct the DC universe through the lens of a political thriller with Batman v Superman, Johns does a better job here with multiple sides debating about the ever-growing nature of metahumans, whether they should be discriminated, used as government weapons, or form their own government. Superman may not always be the main focus, but when he is in the spotlight, the book showcases how he deals with such issues, which don’t always have the best outcome, but he is willing to try and see the best in humanity.
However, Doomsday Clock is pulling in different directions from being a Watchmen sequel to the culmination of both The New 52 and Rebirth. How it tries to achieve these goals, the narrative starts to get muddled in the later issues with too many characters and subplots that never get a pleasant conclusion as the book ends up falling into the pitfalls of a typical superhero crossover event.
Gary Frank is one of the best artists working in comics today, with his realistic renditions of characters from both universes, no matter how theatrical many of them are. His Rorschach was a real highlight with his mask that has a Rorschach inkblot test that is always changing; you know how he feels when he looks at a plate of pancakes. Doomsday Clock isn’t really an action comic, but Frank tries to illustrate superhero spectacle, but because of the book’s rigid if messy structure, the action doesn’t pop. Brad Anderson’s colouring is really strong, though it lacks John Higgins’ off-kilter style from the predecessor.
During the recent years of franchising Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ masterpiece, where we’ve had the HBO limited series and Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, Doomsday Clock is the weakest of the bunch, but there is a great deal of respect within this series that expands on the mythos of Watchmen, even if the ideas can get lost due to other commitments. Having now read this, I'm more excited about Tom King and Jorge Fornés’ twelve-issue series on Rorschach.
Granted that we did get Snyder’s film, which was not the ideal adaptation that fans envisioned, DC did publish Before Watchmen, a prequel consisting of eight limited series without the involvement of Moore and artist/co-creator Dave Gibbons, which was the reason why I pretty much avoided this whole title. However, at the start of the 2016 relaunch, known as DC Rebirth, Geoff Johns teased the return of the Watchmen world, which will in some way be integrated into the DC Universe, culminating in a twelve-issue direct sequel to Moore and Gibbons’ story, written by Geoff Johns with art by penciller Gary Frank and colourist Brad Anderson.
Seven years after the massacre in New York City, Adrian Veidt/Ozymandias’ plan for world peace has failed after the details of Walter Kovacs/Rorschach's journal was published. Now a fugitive, Ozymandias is gathering several others – including a new Rorschach and the criminal husband-and-wife team, Mime and Marionette – to find Doctor Manhattan and bring him back to save the world. As this unlikely team travels to another universe to locate the blue-glowing post-human god, the rise of metahumans has created international conflict and led to an arms race, with various governments around the world recruiting metahumans and creating sanctioned super teams.
Geoff Johns may have an encyclopaedic knowledge of DC Comics, but he’s not the best writer when it comes to story and character. What is considered a very ambitious narrative that spans through the DC multiverse, I guess it makes sense to get Johns, who was the writer of Infinite Crisis. As a sequel to Watchmen, there is a great deal of respect towards its acclaimed predecessor. Considering what the original creators were doing something groundbreaking in the mid-eighties, Doomsday Clock may predominately use the nine-panel grid, as well as the supplemental fictional documents that add to the series' backstory that appear at the end of each issue, it’s not doing anything new and can feel like Watchmen karaoke. I imagine if Moore and Gibbons returned to their creation, they would tell a different kind of story with its own methods.
However, Doomsday Clock works best when it actually expands on the mythos of Watchmen, from the morality of Ozymandias, to particularly the new characters. Often misrepresented as the cool anti-hero of Watchmen, Rorschach is both a tragic character and a representation of Moore’s issues towards characters like Batman, who can be seen as a vigilante psychopath. Evoking a tradition in mainstream superhero comics, which is a superhero inheriting the mantle of another, the backstory of the new Rorschach is again a tragedy with the eventual realisation of what the mask originally represented.
The cast of Watchmen was inspired by the Charlton characters like The Question and Captain Atom, and so Geoff Johns and Gary Frank carry this idea by creating their own version of Punch and Jewelee, in the shape of Mime and Marionette. Although many of their scenes are about their path of bloody carnage, which leads to them encountering the Joker, the banter between them is a lot of fun, whilst you get their tragic backstory in one issue, showing that the two love each other and are motivated to search for their son, hence their participation in Ozymandias’ mission.
When we delve into the DC universe, this is where things get messy. On the plus side, the world is turmoil with the “Supermen Theory”, a conspiracy theory that accuses the federal government of the United States of creating its own metahumans. Considering that Zack Snyder tried and failed to deconstruct the DC universe through the lens of a political thriller with Batman v Superman, Johns does a better job here with multiple sides debating about the ever-growing nature of metahumans, whether they should be discriminated, used as government weapons, or form their own government. Superman may not always be the main focus, but when he is in the spotlight, the book showcases how he deals with such issues, which don’t always have the best outcome, but he is willing to try and see the best in humanity.
However, Doomsday Clock is pulling in different directions from being a Watchmen sequel to the culmination of both The New 52 and Rebirth. How it tries to achieve these goals, the narrative starts to get muddled in the later issues with too many characters and subplots that never get a pleasant conclusion as the book ends up falling into the pitfalls of a typical superhero crossover event.
Gary Frank is one of the best artists working in comics today, with his realistic renditions of characters from both universes, no matter how theatrical many of them are. His Rorschach was a real highlight with his mask that has a Rorschach inkblot test that is always changing; you know how he feels when he looks at a plate of pancakes. Doomsday Clock isn’t really an action comic, but Frank tries to illustrate superhero spectacle, but because of the book’s rigid if messy structure, the action doesn’t pop. Brad Anderson’s colouring is really strong, though it lacks John Higgins’ off-kilter style from the predecessor.
During the recent years of franchising Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ masterpiece, where we’ve had the HBO limited series and Peter Cannon: Thunderbolt, Doomsday Clock is the weakest of the bunch, but there is a great deal of respect within this series that expands on the mythos of Watchmen, even if the ideas can get lost due to other commitments. Having now read this, I'm more excited about Tom King and Jorge Fornés’ twelve-issue series on Rorschach.
December 25, 2020
In the middle of the DC Rebirth initiative, the release of Doomsday Clock was supposed to be a huge event that Rebirth was leading up to for years in the making, an event that would reshape the entire universe. But big shakeups at DC Comics lessened its impact and its importance (seemingly in favor of Scott Snyder’s Metal vision) to the point where it doesn’t even really fit into the continuity aside from a few big reveals at the end.
This maxi series is a follow-up to what Geoff Johns was setting up in the DC Rebirth one-shot, where the return of a previously non-existent Wally West heralded the end of the New 52 and it was revealed that Watchmen’s Dr. Manhattan was behind that transformed universe. This book can be seen not only as a direct sequel to Watchmen, but also serves as a way of reckoning with why the New 52 happened and where the DC universe will go from here.
It’s probably one of Geoff Johns’s most ambitious projects, showing a lot of guts to write a follow-up to what is considered the greatest graphic novel of all time. He pulls this off for the most part, with a clever understanding of how the Watchmen universe compares and contrasts to the main DC universe. An interesting way to pay homage to Watchmen is the use of many of the motifs and the updating of many ideas from the original comic, from the use of a story within a story with the focus on the Nathaniel Dusk movies, to the updating of Watchmen’s hero disillusionment and nuclear fear with the focus here on a meta human arms race. The book is dense and challenging, requiring a lot of familiarity with DC and Watchmen lore, but as usual with Geoff Johns’s work, amidst all the comic book deep dives, there’s a real attention to and control of character, emotion, and modern mythology.
This maxi series is a follow-up to what Geoff Johns was setting up in the DC Rebirth one-shot, where the return of a previously non-existent Wally West heralded the end of the New 52 and it was revealed that Watchmen’s Dr. Manhattan was behind that transformed universe. This book can be seen not only as a direct sequel to Watchmen, but also serves as a way of reckoning with why the New 52 happened and where the DC universe will go from here.
It’s probably one of Geoff Johns’s most ambitious projects, showing a lot of guts to write a follow-up to what is considered the greatest graphic novel of all time. He pulls this off for the most part, with a clever understanding of how the Watchmen universe compares and contrasts to the main DC universe. An interesting way to pay homage to Watchmen is the use of many of the motifs and the updating of many ideas from the original comic, from the use of a story within a story with the focus on the Nathaniel Dusk movies, to the updating of Watchmen’s hero disillusionment and nuclear fear with the focus here on a meta human arms race. The book is dense and challenging, requiring a lot of familiarity with DC and Watchmen lore, but as usual with Geoff Johns’s work, amidst all the comic book deep dives, there’s a real attention to and control of character, emotion, and modern mythology.
September 13, 2023
I think that this was overall a very enjoyable read. Doomsday Clock is basically about what would most likely happen if Rorschach’s journal was discovered and the whole world figured out what Ozymandias really did at the end of Watchmen. Plus lots of multiverse stuff since DC really loves that.
In this we get to learn what all has been going on with DC and the Multiverse and who exactly (if it isn’t obvious) has been meddling with everything.
We also get a new Rorschach and a couple of new characters: Mime and Marionette. The new Rorschach “Reggie” was a really interesting character and I liked him and I think he was a great addition, but Mime and Marionette were by far the best additions. I think most people would agree that they feel like they would fit perfectly in Watchmen. Geoff Johns really outdid himself with them.
There was also an old black and white tv show that I assume was supposed to be like the comic that was within a comic in Watchmen and it ended up being pretty interesting as its own story. It’s overall connection to the main plot didn’t really feel like it was very important but I still enjoyed it.
I also really enjoyed all the JSA stuff and the meddling that went on with them throughout history. Every time Geoff Johns writes something about them I usually enjoy it.
My only real complaints were that Batman felt dumbed down a little too much and that the ending fell a little flat for me. I just didn’t particularly care for it that much. I’ve read similar types of endings and really enjoyed them before, but this one just didn’t do as much for me. Other than that this was great and I would highly recommend this.
Just make sure you read Watchmen first.
In this we get to learn what all has been going on with DC and the Multiverse and who exactly (if it isn’t obvious) has been meddling with everything.
We also get a new Rorschach and a couple of new characters: Mime and Marionette. The new Rorschach “Reggie” was a really interesting character and I liked him and I think he was a great addition, but Mime and Marionette were by far the best additions. I think most people would agree that they feel like they would fit perfectly in Watchmen. Geoff Johns really outdid himself with them.
There was also an old black and white tv show that I assume was supposed to be like the comic that was within a comic in Watchmen and it ended up being pretty interesting as its own story. It’s overall connection to the main plot didn’t really feel like it was very important but I still enjoyed it.
I also really enjoyed all the JSA stuff and the meddling that went on with them throughout history. Every time Geoff Johns writes something about them I usually enjoy it.
My only real complaints were that Batman felt dumbed down a little too much and that the ending fell a little flat for me. I just didn’t particularly care for it that much. I’ve read similar types of endings and really enjoyed them before, but this one just didn’t do as much for me. Other than that this was great and I would highly recommend this.
Just make sure you read Watchmen first.
January 23, 2023
I read a few issues of this a while back, but it took so long to come out that I forgot about it for a while.
People who aren't huge fans of Superman should beware, though, because Johns triples down on the whole "Superman is Christ" trope.
People who aren't huge fans of Superman should beware, though, because Johns triples down on the whole "Superman is Christ" trope.
January 6, 2020
4.5
I’m still thinking about this book and will probably write an actual review some time later when I can read all of it at once again.
Some random disconnected thoughts:
1. It’s very good and doesn’t use the watchmen as a gimmick or cash grab. The story is very thoughtful and acts as a polemic against the cynicism of the original watchmen. Some people may not like this, but it’s a deliberate choice that makes its point well. I like both works for separate reasons and think they can coexist and each have their place.
2. This story was above average, in my opinion, but I’m not sure if it’ll reach that “classic” status the Watchmen itself does. Much like the HBO show it’s an incredible thing on its own, but I just don’t think it’ll be on the pedestal the original had. It’s certainly something I hope is in dialogue in the future.
3. The release schedule hurt the coherence of this. It took about two years for twelve issues. I kept forgetting or rereading things. This is why I feel I need to re-evaluate once I can reread it.
4. I’m confused how the individual issues have as much or more reviews than the whole copy and have significantly higher ratings. This stinks of Moore Fanboys giving it bad ratings without having read it. I invite legitimate criticisms though.
That’s all I have for now.
I’m still thinking about this book and will probably write an actual review some time later when I can read all of it at once again.
Some random disconnected thoughts:
1. It’s very good and doesn’t use the watchmen as a gimmick or cash grab. The story is very thoughtful and acts as a polemic against the cynicism of the original watchmen. Some people may not like this, but it’s a deliberate choice that makes its point well. I like both works for separate reasons and think they can coexist and each have their place.
2. This story was above average, in my opinion, but I’m not sure if it’ll reach that “classic” status the Watchmen itself does. Much like the HBO show it’s an incredible thing on its own, but I just don’t think it’ll be on the pedestal the original had. It’s certainly something I hope is in dialogue in the future.
3. The release schedule hurt the coherence of this. It took about two years for twelve issues. I kept forgetting or rereading things. This is why I feel I need to re-evaluate once I can reread it.
4. I’m confused how the individual issues have as much or more reviews than the whole copy and have significantly higher ratings. This stinks of Moore Fanboys giving it bad ratings without having read it. I invite legitimate criticisms though.
That’s all I have for now.
February 8, 2023
This was good, almost as good as Watchman, though it lacked the philosophical depth of the classic forerunner.
January 1, 2025
Not as good as Watchmen, but it has some brilliant moments (starting issues and last issue).
Gary Frank, brilliant.
Gary Frank, brilliant.
April 23, 2023
I'm astounded at how bloody good this was! It took me a good long time to get around to reading watchmen, and after I did I was blown away at how fantastic it was, despite its crushing darkness. Doomsday clock follows on from this storyline, and effortlessly weaves itself through the fabric of the DC universe, in a way that makes so much sense and adds to the overall narrative of DC comics in a really cool way, a way that is so intrinsic and base that it underpins everything that currently is. If you've read watchmen and wished you had just a bit more, then get ready because this absolutely delivers, but what's better is now there's actual superheros.
March 8, 2021
Well it's not spectacular but it's not terrible. I think Doomsday Clock: Part 1's problem is that it's part 1. Its main goal is setting up the world the story is told in. We're getting introduced to a lot of new and interesting characters. There are issues and motivations we have to understand. And the board has to be set before the game can begin. Problem is it all feels slow and a bit boring. At the same time though its pacing and story telling really reminded me of the original Watchmen book (some critics may see this as a lack of originality). I enjoyed reading this and am excited for Part 2.
Though I do have to say that I felt a bit lost going in. I was pretty up to date with DC during their New 52, and felt I was still in the know by just reading Scott Snyder's works since Metal. But this DC Universe seems different. I'm wondering if there are some additional stories that would explain this sudden "Supermen Theory" or Gotham's hate on for Batman.
Part Two:
Now this wasn't what I expected. The entire time I was waiting for Doomsday Clock to release; I had assumed it would be a natural follow up to Geoff Johns Justice League. I mean that's sort of how Rebirth pitched it. So I guess that's why I'm a little disappointed. The representation of what Doomsday Clock was going to be in stories like Rebirth or The Button, did not match with what it ended up being.
I felt like there was a huge disconnect from the DC continuity that this story falls in. Just looking at Batman and Superman's costumes had me wondering when this was taking place. Plus there's the portrayal of Lex as a corporate villain again, when he was recently reinvented as Super Lex. The story just felt like it was ignoring everything that was taking place before it.
The stories cohesion sort of falls apart after Part 7 "Blind Spot". The Marionette, Mime, and the Comedian are completely abandoned to the background. Same with Saturn Girl and Thunder, once they served their purpose they just stop showing up. We don't get to see a lot of moments that to me would be important. Like what did Bat's do after he escaped Joker, did he share with Superman what he discovered, where was the meeting with the world's superheroes all deciding to goto Mars, where the heck is Wonder Woman. Things became so focused on Dr. Manhattan that we don't really get other character points of view. Lex's revelation to Lois also seems coincidental and contradictory to certain things that happened prior.
That being said this wasn't terrible. Sure it wasn't action packed and as epic as we all envisioned, but if you look at it for what it was rather than what we wanted. You get a look at DC's past and future. Johns presents the idea that DC's characters aren't just trivial forms of entertainment, but eternal symbols of hope meant to inspire generations. I loved the analysis of Superman's continuity and the fact that he was a linchpin to the Metaverse. I really enjoyed the Supermen Theory and it's representation of political turmoil. Though my favorite part would be how Batman and Superman changed there respective Watchman characters. Rorschach is reborn as someone that is no longer broken from his past and the lies he once thought true. While Dr. Manhattan is given hope and purpose to actually care about the now, instead of just passively watching.
Was hoping for more but still satisfied with what I got.
Though I do have to say that I felt a bit lost going in. I was pretty up to date with DC during their New 52, and felt I was still in the know by just reading Scott Snyder's works since Metal. But this DC Universe seems different. I'm wondering if there are some additional stories that would explain this sudden "Supermen Theory" or Gotham's hate on for Batman.
Part Two:
Now this wasn't what I expected. The entire time I was waiting for Doomsday Clock to release; I had assumed it would be a natural follow up to Geoff Johns Justice League. I mean that's sort of how Rebirth pitched it. So I guess that's why I'm a little disappointed. The representation of what Doomsday Clock was going to be in stories like Rebirth or The Button, did not match with what it ended up being.
I felt like there was a huge disconnect from the DC continuity that this story falls in. Just looking at Batman and Superman's costumes had me wondering when this was taking place. Plus there's the portrayal of Lex as a corporate villain again, when he was recently reinvented as Super Lex. The story just felt like it was ignoring everything that was taking place before it.
The stories cohesion sort of falls apart after Part 7 "Blind Spot". The Marionette, Mime, and the Comedian are completely abandoned to the background. Same with Saturn Girl and Thunder, once they served their purpose they just stop showing up. We don't get to see a lot of moments that to me would be important. Like what did Bat's do after he escaped Joker, did he share with Superman what he discovered, where was the meeting with the world's superheroes all deciding to goto Mars, where the heck is Wonder Woman. Things became so focused on Dr. Manhattan that we don't really get other character points of view. Lex's revelation to Lois also seems coincidental and contradictory to certain things that happened prior.
That being said this wasn't terrible. Sure it wasn't action packed and as epic as we all envisioned, but if you look at it for what it was rather than what we wanted. You get a look at DC's past and future. Johns presents the idea that DC's characters aren't just trivial forms of entertainment, but eternal symbols of hope meant to inspire generations. I loved the analysis of Superman's continuity and the fact that he was a linchpin to the Metaverse. I really enjoyed the Supermen Theory and it's representation of political turmoil. Though my favorite part would be how Batman and Superman changed there respective Watchman characters. Rorschach is reborn as someone that is no longer broken from his past and the lies he once thought true. While Dr. Manhattan is given hope and purpose to actually care about the now, instead of just passively watching.
Was hoping for more but still satisfied with what I got.
November 10, 2020
3,5/5*
Uf, asta a fost una grea de tot...
Doomsday Clock, continuarea (după 30+ ani) miniseriei Watchmen e o bucată foarte ambițioasă. Aș zice că are cam aceleași pretenții pe care le-a avut Crisis on Infinite Earths în 1986. Doomsday Clock împlinește câteva dintre ele, dar nu l-aș numi un game-changer.
Pornește din vreo câteva direcții care aparent n-au nicio legătură, cu personaje care n-ar mai trebui să fie în viață. Apoi, treptat, au loc câteva revelații. În spiritul originalului, există câteva twist-uri, nu-s extraordinare, dar funcționează. Povestea e coerentă până la numărul 10, dar când intră Manhattan în scenă, lucrurile devin... cuantice. Pe scurt, punctul culminant echivalează cu ascultatul a 4 melodii la volum maxim. Simultan. Încearcă să mai înțelegi ceva.
Problema cea mai mare e expozițiunea. Prea multă. Pe final, pagini întregi în care ți se explică (că altfel n-ai cum să pricepi ceva, dar aici e doar vina structurii) ce s-a întâmplat, ce se întâmplă și ce se va întâmpla.
Finalul e un pic prea moralizator pentru gustul meu (am avut același vibe ca și de la Kingdom Come), dar ultimele scene mi s-au părut eficiente.
Povestea e faină, m-a prins, și jonglarea firelor narative mi-a dat de înțeles că Geoff Johns și-a făcut temele.
Grafica e impecabilă, culorile superbe, la nivel tehnic se apropie de perfecțiune cât de mult posibil. Imaginile nu-s mega-realiste, ca ale lui Lee Bermejo (nu că omu n-ar desena fain, dar...), și nici nu alunecă în extrema cealaltă. Au EXACT nivelul potrivit de detalii și sofisticare ce-mi place mie.
Gary Frank emulează foarte bine tiparul vizual stabilit de Dave Gibbons pentru Watchmen. E multă poezie în imaginile din Doomsday Clock. Totuși, poate prea multe splash-pages cu toată familia (cred că am numărat cel puțin 5).
Nu-s sigur că Alan Moore ar fi încântat de chestia asta, dar nu e rea.
Uf, asta a fost una grea de tot...
Doomsday Clock, continuarea (după 30+ ani) miniseriei Watchmen e o bucată foarte ambițioasă. Aș zice că are cam aceleași pretenții pe care le-a avut Crisis on Infinite Earths în 1986. Doomsday Clock împlinește câteva dintre ele, dar nu l-aș numi un game-changer.
Pornește din vreo câteva direcții care aparent n-au nicio legătură, cu personaje care n-ar mai trebui să fie în viață. Apoi, treptat, au loc câteva revelații. În spiritul originalului, există câteva twist-uri, nu-s extraordinare, dar funcționează. Povestea e coerentă până la numărul 10, dar când intră Manhattan în scenă, lucrurile devin... cuantice. Pe scurt, punctul culminant echivalează cu ascultatul a 4 melodii la volum maxim. Simultan. Încearcă să mai înțelegi ceva.
Problema cea mai mare e expozițiunea. Prea multă. Pe final, pagini întregi în care ți se explică (că altfel n-ai cum să pricepi ceva, dar aici e doar vina structurii) ce s-a întâmplat, ce se întâmplă și ce se va întâmpla.
Finalul e un pic prea moralizator pentru gustul meu (am avut același vibe ca și de la Kingdom Come), dar ultimele scene mi s-au părut eficiente.
Povestea e faină, m-a prins, și jonglarea firelor narative mi-a dat de înțeles că Geoff Johns și-a făcut temele.
Grafica e impecabilă, culorile superbe, la nivel tehnic se apropie de perfecțiune cât de mult posibil. Imaginile nu-s mega-realiste, ca ale lui Lee Bermejo (nu că omu n-ar desena fain, dar...), și nici nu alunecă în extrema cealaltă. Au EXACT nivelul potrivit de detalii și sofisticare ce-mi place mie.
Gary Frank emulează foarte bine tiparul vizual stabilit de Dave Gibbons pentru Watchmen. E multă poezie în imaginile din Doomsday Clock. Totuși, poate prea multe splash-pages cu toată familia (cred că am numărat cel puțin 5).
Nu-s sigur că Alan Moore ar fi încântat de chestia asta, dar nu e rea.
May 13, 2020
Well, I was prepared not to be overwhelmed by this book. I understood it an attempt to bring Watchmen in DC continuity and explain the last mysteries of the New 52 / Rebirth succession.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised. The tone is very much in line with Watchmen, maybe a little too much at first, as the DC Universe turns as bleak as Moore and Gibbons’ creation. But it gets explained. Everything gets explained, neatly resolved with a ribbon.
We finally get someone to blame for the New 52, Dr Manhattan, of course, as everyone had guessed long ago, and DC gives its main universe a whole new meaning, absolving themselves of future continuity problems and the eventual crisis that will solve them.
In a way, there is some Grant Morrison in there as well, and it lines up with his Multiversity.
It’s not Watchmen, make no mistake, but it’s not a cash grab. Nor is it an attempt to integrate the Watchmen characters in the main continuity, after all. It’s a clever use of them tidying up some loose points, and making up for past mistakes.
I’ve been pleasantly surprised. The tone is very much in line with Watchmen, maybe a little too much at first, as the DC Universe turns as bleak as Moore and Gibbons’ creation. But it gets explained. Everything gets explained, neatly resolved with a ribbon.
We finally get someone to blame for the New 52, Dr Manhattan, of course, as everyone had guessed long ago, and DC gives its main universe a whole new meaning, absolving themselves of future continuity problems and the eventual crisis that will solve them.
In a way, there is some Grant Morrison in there as well, and it lines up with his Multiversity.
It’s not Watchmen, make no mistake, but it’s not a cash grab. Nor is it an attempt to integrate the Watchmen characters in the main continuity, after all. It’s a clever use of them tidying up some loose points, and making up for past mistakes.
March 29, 2020
Alan Moore worked hard to create something meaningful, then Geoff Johns came and attempted to cash in on Watchmen's success with cheap hubris. Sure, the art and tone appeared to look like something that could have come from Watchmen, it simply did not capture the motif and essence of the satire the original work managed to convey. Two biggest flaws of the already convoluting multiverse were a disatrous deus ex machina ending and, in my opinion to be the most disgraceful thing they could have done: to ruin fan favourite Rorschach for diversity points.
October 21, 2021
DC continuity porn, almost incomprehensible to anyone but fans, coupled with vague topical bromides about "hate and anger" worthy of Morning Joe or The View. It copies the surface of Watchmen—even the flaws: the tedious text-within-a-text and chapter endpapers—while missing the emotional and ethical core and dodging the political critique, because Superman, unlike Dr. Manhattan, is about "love." The art's good, but otherwise no wonder kids read manga.
September 12, 2019
Pure garbage.
February 21, 2022
"I believe I have misinterpreted what the universe actually is. I look to the future. Following Superman's trail of influence. How can one man affect so much?" - Dr. Manhattan.
The answer to the mystery that the Rebirth storyline began gets answered in this book, as we finally see who was behind it all. So obviously this was a big deal back when it was released, what with DC doing what many would consider comic book blasphemy in tying in the Watchmen universe directly into the main continuity of the DC universe. Many of the titles after the Rebirth reboot touched on and gave us breadcrumbs regarding what was happening, and just how big a reverberation it had on the universe itself. And while we knew what was coming, the characters themselves didn't, and seeing how that played out was utterly fascinating in my opinion.
Does it live up to the hype? Well, I would say for that answer, you would have to say, is it possible anything can live up to the hype of Watchmen? I don't think so.... unless maybe Alan Moore returns to write an official sequel, which would never happen. So being that there's no way it can in any way survive the hype and negative feelings I'm sure many comic book aficionados had at the very premise of the book, I took a step back and removed it from that as much as possible. I read the book and found it fun and highly entertaining once I judged it as it's own thing. I felt that what DC editorial, and the creative heads behind this project, were gutsy in what this book is saying. And in many ways, its brilliant.
To wrap not only the changes to the universe within said universe (like crisis' and events that change their reality) but also changes to the universe outside of that universe (like editorial mandates and reboots) - to wrap it all up under the guise of Dr. Manhattan changing this and being there observing at the very least, was such a great way to show reverence to the character of Dr Manhattan and of course, the overall Watchmen series as a whole. It kind of ties things up nicely, especially with the new 52 and Rebirth, and made the whole thing, stories and editorial, part of the overall story - it was just really imaginative, bold, and exciting to read.
That's not to say the book is perfect in it's execution. There are some pacing issues, and characterization weirdness, which is to be expected I think, with a cast as large as the one needed for this story. I think the part that rubbed me the wrong way the most, was Geoff John's imitation of Alan Moore's writing style was sometimes too forced at times. Geoff Johns is a person who writes very hopeful and inspiring stories. So to delve deep into the murky, morally gray waters of the Watchmen universe... I could see he struggled a bit to get into that mentality and to pull it off without hitches here and there.
But nonetheless, the story was as coherent as it could be, it was exciting and thought provoking, and it was respectful of the source material. Gary Frank did a magnificent job with the art, evoking the tone of Dave Gibbons, but making it his own. And though John's writing did struggle a bit in the beginning to match that nihilistic-ish tone that the original series was blanketed with, towards the end, the more hopeful tone that John's is known for shinned through.
Because ultimately that was what the book was about. Hope vs cold logic. The ability to aspire people to do better, to make the world better, no matter how bleak things look. Superman is hope personified, so the question of who would win between Superman and Dr. Manhattan takes on a different form. Hope versus what Dr. Manhattan perceives as inevitable and hopeless. In the end, DC's beacon of hope is what saves the universe and multiverses, as everything revolves around Superman. And things will change again in the future, as we are shown in the book. But the anchor of Superman will always be there to pin everything on.
Highly recommended for fans of the DC universe.
The answer to the mystery that the Rebirth storyline began gets answered in this book, as we finally see who was behind it all. So obviously this was a big deal back when it was released, what with DC doing what many would consider comic book blasphemy in tying in the Watchmen universe directly into the main continuity of the DC universe. Many of the titles after the Rebirth reboot touched on and gave us breadcrumbs regarding what was happening, and just how big a reverberation it had on the universe itself. And while we knew what was coming, the characters themselves didn't, and seeing how that played out was utterly fascinating in my opinion.
Does it live up to the hype? Well, I would say for that answer, you would have to say, is it possible anything can live up to the hype of Watchmen? I don't think so.... unless maybe Alan Moore returns to write an official sequel, which would never happen. So being that there's no way it can in any way survive the hype and negative feelings I'm sure many comic book aficionados had at the very premise of the book, I took a step back and removed it from that as much as possible. I read the book and found it fun and highly entertaining once I judged it as it's own thing. I felt that what DC editorial, and the creative heads behind this project, were gutsy in what this book is saying. And in many ways, its brilliant.
To wrap not only the changes to the universe within said universe (like crisis' and events that change their reality) but also changes to the universe outside of that universe (like editorial mandates and reboots) - to wrap it all up under the guise of Dr. Manhattan changing this and being there observing at the very least, was such a great way to show reverence to the character of Dr Manhattan and of course, the overall Watchmen series as a whole. It kind of ties things up nicely, especially with the new 52 and Rebirth, and made the whole thing, stories and editorial, part of the overall story - it was just really imaginative, bold, and exciting to read.
That's not to say the book is perfect in it's execution. There are some pacing issues, and characterization weirdness, which is to be expected I think, with a cast as large as the one needed for this story. I think the part that rubbed me the wrong way the most, was Geoff John's imitation of Alan Moore's writing style was sometimes too forced at times. Geoff Johns is a person who writes very hopeful and inspiring stories. So to delve deep into the murky, morally gray waters of the Watchmen universe... I could see he struggled a bit to get into that mentality and to pull it off without hitches here and there.
But nonetheless, the story was as coherent as it could be, it was exciting and thought provoking, and it was respectful of the source material. Gary Frank did a magnificent job with the art, evoking the tone of Dave Gibbons, but making it his own. And though John's writing did struggle a bit in the beginning to match that nihilistic-ish tone that the original series was blanketed with, towards the end, the more hopeful tone that John's is known for shinned through.
Because ultimately that was what the book was about. Hope vs cold logic. The ability to aspire people to do better, to make the world better, no matter how bleak things look. Superman is hope personified, so the question of who would win between Superman and Dr. Manhattan takes on a different form. Hope versus what Dr. Manhattan perceives as inevitable and hopeless. In the end, DC's beacon of hope is what saves the universe and multiverses, as everything revolves around Superman. And things will change again in the future, as we are shown in the book. But the anchor of Superman will always be there to pin everything on.
Highly recommended for fans of the DC universe.
April 16, 2022
*4.5*
Doomsday Clock es una continuación de Watchmen y a la vez un cruce con el universo DC; es también un homenaje, más que nada al primero y un intento generoso de ordenar de alguna forma, el desconcierto del segundo.
Es una obra compleja y ambiciosa, donde son infinitas las decisiones que el guionista debe tomar y donde también es obvio que algunas de ellas aparezcan más atinadas que otras.
Geoff Johns consigue atrapar al lector y mantenerlo así durante 12 números, y lo más trascendente creo, establece consecuencias concretas en ambos universos, algo nada común en el comic de superhéroes actual, más allá de las decisiones futuras de la editorial.
Creo también que hay un gran respeto por parte de Johns por las obras en las que basa su trabajo, así como también por (la mayoría) de los personajes. Es una muy acertada decisión, que los antagonistas principales sean los más poderosos y carismáticos de cada mundo, en un choque entre el más humanos de todos nosotros y la personificación divina de la deshumanización.
Pero si alguna duda queda respecto a esta serie, basta solamente con hojear la lujosa edición de Ecc. En ella asistimos a un gran espectáculo, el trabajo de Gary Frank, que simplemente roza la perfección. Cualquier aspecto a considerar, ya sea la expresividad general de los personajes o la dinámica narrativa - compositiva de sus páginas, es sublime, el nivel de detalle es una locura, así como la ambientación y la perfecta utilización de la iluminación. Los artistas se suman a los homenajes, Frank utiliza constantemente la cuadricula de 9 paneles, que desdobla magistralmente según los requerimientos del guion, Brad Anderson, con una paleta que nos acerca visualmente al clásico de los ochentas.
Creo que afrontar la realización de Doomsday Clock no hubiese sido tarea fácil para ningún equipo, pero más que nada en lo que refiere al guion deben existir pocos autores capaces de enfrentarse a tal desafío, que exige y merece, más de una lectura.
Doomsday Clock es una continuación de Watchmen y a la vez un cruce con el universo DC; es también un homenaje, más que nada al primero y un intento generoso de ordenar de alguna forma, el desconcierto del segundo.
Es una obra compleja y ambiciosa, donde son infinitas las decisiones que el guionista debe tomar y donde también es obvio que algunas de ellas aparezcan más atinadas que otras.
Geoff Johns consigue atrapar al lector y mantenerlo así durante 12 números, y lo más trascendente creo, establece consecuencias concretas en ambos universos, algo nada común en el comic de superhéroes actual, más allá de las decisiones futuras de la editorial.
Creo también que hay un gran respeto por parte de Johns por las obras en las que basa su trabajo, así como también por (la mayoría) de los personajes. Es una muy acertada decisión, que los antagonistas principales sean los más poderosos y carismáticos de cada mundo, en un choque entre el más humanos de todos nosotros y la personificación divina de la deshumanización.
Pero si alguna duda queda respecto a esta serie, basta solamente con hojear la lujosa edición de Ecc. En ella asistimos a un gran espectáculo, el trabajo de Gary Frank, que simplemente roza la perfección. Cualquier aspecto a considerar, ya sea la expresividad general de los personajes o la dinámica narrativa - compositiva de sus páginas, es sublime, el nivel de detalle es una locura, así como la ambientación y la perfecta utilización de la iluminación. Los artistas se suman a los homenajes, Frank utiliza constantemente la cuadricula de 9 paneles, que desdobla magistralmente según los requerimientos del guion, Brad Anderson, con una paleta que nos acerca visualmente al clásico de los ochentas.
Creo que afrontar la realización de Doomsday Clock no hubiese sido tarea fácil para ningún equipo, pero más que nada en lo que refiere al guion deben existir pocos autores capaces de enfrentarse a tal desafío, que exige y merece, más de una lectura.
February 28, 2021
Ehhh
Great art. That was a plus. Also, it was fun to see The Watchmen revisited... until it wasn’t.
There were parts of this I genuinely liked, but the ending was so muddled and such an unwelcome addition to overall DC lore that I was left feeling empty. I respect the ambition... but it fell flat for me.
I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of time. If you’re expecting to hate it, you may be surprised. If you’re expecting to love it, you’ll definitely be disappointed.
Great art. That was a plus. Also, it was fun to see The Watchmen revisited... until it wasn’t.
There were parts of this I genuinely liked, but the ending was so muddled and such an unwelcome addition to overall DC lore that I was left feeling empty. I respect the ambition... but it fell flat for me.
I wouldn’t say it’s a waste of time. If you’re expecting to hate it, you may be surprised. If you’re expecting to love it, you’ll definitely be disappointed.
December 17, 2021
I think the core story and main throughline of this book is great. Some top notch stuff. I found some of the supporting stories to be a bit of filler. You could have probably cut 100 pages off this and told a more concise and interesting story. That said, I still really liked what I read. Johns has a knack for grand, overarching, epic stories.
April 14, 2020
Me esperaba algo peor, con mucha más confusión y un final más anticlimático. Pero sorprendentemente, ha sido todo lo contrario.
Un poco confuso a mitad, pero los últimos números con el punto de vista de Manhattan me parecen muy buenos.
Un poco confuso a mitad, pero los últimos números con el punto de vista de Manhattan me parecen muy buenos.
January 30, 2022
There are some interesting ideas in the series, but the characters, both old and new, are kind of forgettable. The ending is somewhat nonsensical. I think the big thing is the whole Alan Moore v. DC which makes seeing characters he made in the story feel weird.
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