The slow build begins.
Creative Staff:
Story: Geoff Johns
Art: Gary Frank
Colors: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Rob Leigh
What They Say:
DC Comics presents to you a 12-issue maxiseries from the critically acclaimed team of writer Geoff Johns, artist Gary Frank, and colorist Brad Anderson. See the WATCHMEN characters and the DC Universe come together for the first time!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With the first teases that we got during the Rebirth special that has helped to put DC Comics back on the right track with readers, the Doomsday Clock series looks to take the other teases in the time since and start pulling things together as to why so much went wrong with the DC Universe. Geoff Johns has the unenviable position of trying to do that using not just all the current modern works that are in place and the expectations there combined with those wanting more of the classic material to come back into play but also dealing with the wariness, to say the least, of utilizing the Watchmen storyline again. I hadn’t read any of the spinoff books we had a few years ago but like many I enjoy the original series a good deal with semi-regular revisits and I’m also an outlier as a really big fan of the film with what it presents there. Luckily, Johns is working on this with Gary Frank and he brings such a great kind of weight to the book, providing nods to what had come before but introducing his own touches to it, that this feels like a more natural continuation that I could have imagined. And it makes it a very worthwhile re-read to suss out more details.
That said, it’s easy to imagine that this book is going to be a difficult read for many. Johns doesn’t opt to go in with a bang or end the first one with one either. What we get is something that’s going to feel like the real world is intruding too much with certain phrases but that’s part and parcel of what Watchmen was itself. Taking place several years after the events of the original book, everything has been squandered. It’s that simple. With the truth of Veidt’s lie out there and the belief that Washington was in on it, distrust is high as the Russians are preparing to invade the collapsing European Union. Tensions are all over the map and the anger of the people isn’t just palpable, it’s in the streets. With a background piece of how the Vice President is holding people hostage in the White House and killing some of them, well, let’s just say things have gotten intense and it’s easy to understand why people can’t see a way out of it.
The main focus within all of this is on the new Rorschach as he moves about to collect the person he needs with Erika Manson, aka the Marionette. The plan to find “god” requires her and he’s doing what he has to in order to collect her, which means promises of helping to find her son while also freeing Marco Maez from prison. Which is important because nuclear war is about to start and all the cities are being evacuated and the like. We get a good handle on both Manson and Maez here, with him being known as the Mime due to being a mute, and seeing the kind of violence and connection they have is certainly well conveyed. It doesn’t explain why they’re needed, even more so when it’s revealed that it’s Veidt that orchestrated this in order to find Dr. Manhattan, but the combination of it all gives us a good sense of the state of the world and some of the familiar characters with where they are and why some aren’t involved, at least at the moment.
In Summary:
We do get some time with Superman toward the end as he has a nightmare, something he says he’s never had, involving the death of his adoptive parents and a struggle he went through as a teenager just before that. It’s one of those omen kind of moments that works well and helps to cement at least part of the book in the mainstream DCU while leaving you waiting to see how strong and varied the connections will become. With a book like this I’m sure those that do the really deep reads will find lots of clues in both dialogue and background artwork piece to really sink their teeth into but it also works very well as a standalone read. Yes, you get a lot more out of it if you know the prior Watchmen works but the mystery as presented covers enough of the basics and provides the forward narrative in a clear enough way along the way. Johns has a real challenge ahead of him, one that I want to see succeed, and am willing in a rare case to plunk down my $5 for each issue in order to be a part of the experience. Gary Frank’s job is no less difficult and the opening installment really does deliver in providing a book that feels connected to the past but not beholden to it. It’s advancing it and bringing new into it while adhering to the ideas behind it. I’m definitely intrigued, which is a good way to start a series like this.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: November 22nd, 2017
MSRP: $4.99
