"Doomsday Clock" Review

DC Comics has been in a rather screwed-up state for a while, haven't they? At least in my humble opinion ever since 2011's "Flashpoint" series and the introduction of "The New 52" DC has been a steady decline. I have no clue if this is true or not, but again in my humble opinion, this reboot of the universe caused me to view Grant Morrison's "Final Crisis" as the series finale to The DC Universe. And DC Comics has rebooted itself once again with DC Rebirth back in 2016 culminating in the miniseries in question, "Doomsday Clock". "Doomsday Clock" serves as an epilogue to the DC Rebirth storyline as well as a sequel to Alan Moore's maxiseries "Watchmen". Talk about big shoes to fill, I need not discuss the impact "Watchmen" had on the comic book scene at large both negative and positives and I need not discuss the utter and absolute failure the HBO series was (which was itself a sequel to "Watchmen"). Instead, I'm going to focus this review on what "Doomsday Clock" tried to do, and explain what it should have done (not doing it in the first place notwithstanding). So join me in this rabbit hole of craziness we call "Doomsday Clock"...

"Doomsday Clock" was written by Geoff Johns, the grand finale to the "The New 52" storyline...which began with "Flashpoint". Geoff Johns is a very competent writer, lending his talents to "Teen Titans" from 2000 to 2007, spearheading "Green Lantern" with the "Blackest Night" storyline, Booster Gold's Post 52 (the good one) Run, and spearheaded DC's "Infinite Crisis" (a sequel to DC's biggest series "Crisis On Infinite Earths")...so needless to say Geoff Johns knows a thing or two about writing a story arc. And that's what makes "Doomsday Clock" so disappointing. So let's get the cat outta the bag, I did not enjoy this series and it's hard for me to pinpoint exactly why not because I'm having trouble putting it into words but because there are so many reasons to dislike this series I can't just choose one to focus on. I guess before I go on let me get some positives (if you can call them that) out of the way.

Despite having NO introduction in the "Watchmen" Universe I actually like Marionette and Mime, granted the two are derivative as HELL (essentially being Joker and Harley Quinn without the abuse) but something about their dynamic work and I find Mime's invisible weapons pretty neat. I did enjoy Dr. Manhattan appearing to a soon to be actor to save his life and essentially became "friends" (as much as friends as you could be with Dr. Manhattan) with him, that was pretty neat too. Everything else was a "No." from me.

Let's start with Rorschach since I began with him for my semi review of the (GOD AWFUL) "Watchmen" HBO series, Reggie Long enjoys fan support (and I can't figure out why) but for my money having the new Rorshach be the son of Rorschach's psychiatrist...no...for my money I'd have had it been someone who found Rorschach's journal and took up his mantle as a person seeking truth amidst a whirlwind of conspiracies. I mean in the "Watchmen" universe Ozymandias just pulled one of the biggest practical jokes of all time, tricking the world into peace by faking an alien invasion, if that's not MAJOR conspiracy theory fuel then I have no clue what is. Rorschach is a character-driven by conspiracies, Reggie Long despite being a blank slate isn't as blank because he didn't encounter Rorschach, only his father did and he was manipulated into becoming Rorschach. It'd have been better if Reggie Long became his own hero rather than took up Rorschach's mantle. Again, I understand why he did but I didn't enjoy it.

Ozymandias being found out to be a villain, that again is a "No." for me. While I'm all for truth winning out in the end, I have to think that The World's Smartest Man (which Ozymandias is, and has proved that numerous times) would have a backup plan should his machinations be discovered. At the very least in the HBO series, Ozymandias launched a covert smear campaign against Rorschach tying him to White Supermicists groups and essentially making him out to be a crazy person which given the fact that its Rorschach isn't exactly hard to do. So Ozymandias being discovered doesn't jive with everything we've seen from the man thus far, one journal shouldn't bring down his entire scheme, not without corroborating witnesses in Laurie and Daniel (now living under the names of Sandra and Sam Hollis.

If "Watchmen" were to continue I'd have had it go in another direction, in the 80s nations were waring with nations but these days such is not the case (as M stated in "Skyfall") our enemies now are ideological, they're individuals, essentially what I'm getting at is terrorism. Maybe Ozymandias convinced the nations to lay down arms but if you have a group of people who believe in something hard enough to blow up a few things, you have a different problem on your hands and yes, this isn't all-out nuclear war but global terrorism is a serious threat. So if Ozymandias needed to save the world again, let's have it be something we can all understand. But instead, we find Ozymandias trying to save his own bacon which is less interesting than it should be. His manipulation of the heroes into fighting each other and Superman wasn't as impressive as his masterstroke in his respective series and thus I felt as if Geoff Johns was trying too hard in replicating Ozy's " I did it 35 minutes ago." moment.

Everything feels off in this story, from the characters to the pacing to the plot at large. I had a hard time just trying to grasp what the major conflict was, there is this plot point of "The Superman Theory", which to my understanding is the notion that the majority of superheroes come from North America and are by in large being manufactured as a response to Superman, thus creating a new arms race that isn't exactly nukes but super-powered beings...do I have that right? So Ozy is essentially trying to save the world from meta-humans. However, the cause of the Superman Theory (which is proven correct) is Dr. Manhattan eliminating the heroes of the past so that Superman is the 1st...although Wonder Woman existed long before Superman just didn't do anything until much later...

So, replace nuclear war with meta-humans and you have the core plot of the story. Black Adam I didn't understand in this story and I love Black Adam completely. Black Adam is much like Doctor Doom in that they're both the respective rulers of their country and love their people to the point of dictatorship, I think Doom wins out on being the better of the two, Black Adam was kind of a dick until Adrianna Tomaz convinced him to be a better ruler. Where I last Black Adam he had just got his power back after Billy Batson changed his magic word, now we find Black Adam in all his "Death To America" glory offering Kahndaq as a safe haven for heroes. But he really didn't need to be involved in the story and his involvement complicated things.

Let's talk about Mr. Blue Balls himself, Dr. Manhattan. I guess I can't discuss him without talking about his central conflict, Superman, and the ending. Dr. Manhattan has a vision of Superman looking at him in anger and then nothing leading Dr. Manhattan to wonder if he kills Superman or if Superman kills him. As a being who experiences time all at once having a point in time which he cannot see beyond is confusing, to say the least. So when the inevitable conflict between Dr. Manhattan and Superman happens, it turns out Dr. Manhattan didn't have the context for Superman's glare, and as it turns out Superman had no ill will against Dr. Manhattan and was actually attempting to save him. Confused by this but seeing the uniqueness of Superman to all of DC's timelines, Dr. Manhattan restores the DC timeline to ensure The JSA is created and returns to his own universe where he restores life to the Earth and dismantles all nuclear arms (although the knowledge of such weapons still exists).

His final act is to kidnap the male child of Mime and Marionette, pass on his powers to him, name him Clark and leave him to be raised by Laurie and Dan, thus The DCU is restored to semi-normal and The Watchmen Universe now has their own Superman (or Clark) to ensure peace. However, here's the issue, where we last left Dr. Manhattan he went off and threatened (I took it as a threat) to make some humans of his own. Well, apparently we don't get to see that interesting tidbit, instead Dr. Manhattan decided to bugger off to another sandbox...but say he did make those humans he threatened to make...wouldn't that have made more sense than Dr. Manhattan kidnapping someone else's child and raising them rather than him simply making his own Clark Kent and teaching him the values of Superman by passing along his memories of his encounters with The Man Of Steel?

Sod off, kid.

And that's essentially what "Doomsday Clock" is a love letter to Superman and his important to The DC Universe as a whole, which is fine but that was the ultimate point of the story, Dr. Manhattan being inspired by Superman to make a difference and I think this could have been done differently. If the ultimate goal was to have Superman inspire Dr. Manhattan than a story in which Dr. Manhattan attempts to remove Superman from the DCU but somehow a Superman type figure is always created (because Superman is a constant within the DCU) would be interesting because it would be Dr. Manhattan fighting against something larger than himself...The Metaverse. Creating a dynamic where no matter how hard Dr. Manhattan tries to remove Superman he just keeps coming back leading Manhattan to believe that Superman is essential to The DC Universe and a personal debate on whether or not he's the Superman of his own universe.

There is a president for this as well considering Captain Allen Adam or rather The Quantum Superman already looks similar to Dr. Manhattan, seeing a being mirror himself would be enough to give Dr. Manhattan pause. But here lies the biggest issue, "Watchmen" ended with Dr. Manhattan going off to make humans...did he ever do this and if so what did he do with them? Assuming he did how active of a role did he take in their development? Wouldn't it have been awesome if Superman was blasted to another universe and found himself on a world plagued by despair and hopelessness full of aimless people with no purpose because they have no clue what to do with their lives because their creator had abandoned them, only for Superman arrive and essentially inspire them and cause Dr. Manhattan take notice? You could do so much with a whole planet of brand new people who are just as clueless about things as Dr. Manhattan is. And that's the real issue with this, it does nothing to continue the story of "Watchmen", it only pays homage to it aesthetically and features a few characters here and there.

As a stand-alone story, trying to figure out where this falls in the realm of mainstream DC continuity is hard considering this is The Metaverse and the ripple effects from this event are only to be relevant for a few characters, Batman won't be affected because he's never effected by anything, for the most part Batman is reboot proof, the only things changing are his age and how long he's been active, that's about it. So no, "Doomsday Clock" is a mess that really shouldn't have happened and sadly did as another cash grab for DC Comics to once again milk the teet that is "Watchmen" until they can squeeze every last drop of coinage out of it. Alan Moore had no idea he was making such a thing when he wrote "Watchmen" and sadly, instead of trying to make their own thing a lot of people are just trying to emulate it. I'll catch ya'll later!