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).
SPOILERS
Johns’ story is a sprawling one, which is to be expected in part due to its large cast, with some parts done better than others. Rorschach and Comedian are back from the dead because they’re popular and it wouldn’t be Watchmen without them. But mostly because merch. Even Bubastis, Ozymandias’ awesome cat, is back from the dead (and chibi-fied, probably also because merch)!
Rorschach’s not really undeaded - this time around it’s a black kid who’s fixated on Rorschach who picks up the smelly mask, trench coat and personality/fighting skills, which is all very convenient for replacing the fan favourite character perfectly while ticking an equality box at the same time. Comedian’s resurrection though is a total cop-out - Doctor Manhattan chose to save him for no reason! … wha?
No sign of Nite Owl or Silk Spectre (yet) and Manhattan only cameos briefly in a handful of short scenes. In their place are a couple of new characters: Marionette and Mime (they’re both on the cover). Their inclusion is very tenuous - Marionette met Manhattan once during a robbery and we’re told that she apparently represents a moment from Jon’s past. Buh…? This is the sole reason for Ozymandias including them in his plan and it doesn’t make any sense.
Still, I liked these two new characters. M&M are both nutty and do terrible things (at first I thought they were the Watchmen world’s version of Joker and Harley but they’re not - also, mmmm, peanut M&Ms...), but their origin story made them sympathetic and I actually found myself rooting for them. I also want to know if Mime has some kind of superpower that allows him to manifest invisible objects or whether he has invisible weapons/tools.
The Watchmen cast mixing with the DC Universe really only means the characters meeting Batman, Lex Luthor and Joker (for now anyway). Rorschach asking Batman to read the original Rorschach’s journal and then Batman locking him up in Arkham Asylum was really funny. Ozymandias and Lex’s tussle was ok, as was M&M’s encounter with the Joker - there’s a slightly exciting air of tension in both scenes as, basically, the same characters step through the mirror and interact and we wait to see what they’ll end up doing. I expected a bit more from a meeting of these two worlds but this was fine for a first book.
The other storyline is a contrived one: just as the Watchmen appear in the DCU, there’s a controversy over something called the Supermen Theory - that the US government has been covertly creating an army of superheroes in the wake of Superman’s appearance. Why is that blowing up now? There’s some news footage showing Hawk and Dove acting like dicks in Russia and apparently that now means Gotham is fed up with Batman and want him gone. Yeah, that didn’t track for me either.
There are a number of nods to the original Watchmen book: instead of Comedian, this time Ozymandias is thrown through a glass window atop a skyscraper; Rorschach winds up in a prison-like environment again; a type of Cold War reignites as Russia starts building up their own superhero arsenals and the world is on the brink of collapse once more; the format of the series is also 12 issues with (mostly) 9-panel grid layouts and extra material interstitials (which also aren’t interesting like in the original book).
As always with Geoff Johns stories, there are a lot of questionable plot choices. Like, the whole reason Ozymandias brought Marionette with him to the DCU was because she has some connection with Doctor Manhattan - so why is his first action, once they arrive, to chain her up in the Owlship instead of taking her with him?? Sure, he’s going to see Lex, not Manhattan, but what if he encountered Manhattan when he went to see Lex?
Why is Black Adam, of all people, offering asylum to superheroes in Kahndaq? Also, FYI Black Adam - when you’re offering an olive branch, maybe don’t decapitate a journalist on camera at the same time!!
Why is the Comedian going after villains (why is the Comedian even here)? Why does Saturn Girl from the Legion of Super-Heroes break Rorschach out of prison? Is obscure Golden Age character Johnny Thunder (who’s now 102 years old!) Green Lantern - why did he travel to some derelict factory in the middle of nowhere to uncover a Lantern, and why has no-one else found it before him?! I guess we might find out the answers to these questions in Part 2 but it’s still unsatisfying not to have even a hint of an answer.
Besides the Green Lantern thing, all of the Johnny Thunder stuff - and there’s unfortunately quite a bit of it - in the old folks home, watching pulpy black and white gumshoe movies, was really tedious, not least as they don’t seem relevant to the story. I also didn’t like the new Rorschach’s backstory much. It just went on and on, especially all that crap in the asylum with Mothman. We get it, he’s traumatised! The book just stops too - not really at a natural conclusion but more like in the middle of a story. Which is exactly the case. Very inelegant.
As always, there’s little to criticise about Gary Frank’s art - it’s always very skilful and nice to look at. The Owlship appearing through the Bat Signal on the cloud was a cool visual and a clever entrance for the Watchmen into the DCU. I liked the Stewart Lee cameo (he’s an excellent British comedian). Unless you don’t like that Frank always draws Superman as Christopher Reeve, you’re not going to have a problem with the way this book looks.
I had some issues with minor plot elements and there are parts of the book that are plain boring to read and really slow things down to a crawl. Part of me wonders if they weren’t included to beef up a slighter story into the desired 12 issue length. I also have my reservations about Ozymandias’ plan and this Superman Theory stuff, but I’m willing to give Johns the benefit of the doubt that he’ll develop these things a bit more in the second part.
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.
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