I continue to regret investing in this series, but inertia has me.
Creative Staff:
Story: Geoff Johns
Art: Gary Frank
Colors: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Rob Leigh
What They Say:
The critical and commercial hit series by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank continues following the shocking revelations of last issue. As the truth behind Dr. Manhattan’s actions against the DC Universe are revealed, Ozymandias turns to the only being who can stop him: Superman.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Doomsday Clock, as has been said, is a frustrating read. There are good elements to it, problematic elements to it, and a terrible release schedule that kills momentum and enthusiasm with pretty much every issue at this point. With a few months between books, Geoff Johns focuses on a more singular story this time and that helps a lot in making it more engaging than some of the previous issues. But it also frustrates with just how much real world it does bring in for us to deal with, which will irritate some more than others. Gary Frank does a fantastic job with everything and it’s near impossible to have any real issue with the look of the book. I really like the way he brings the emotion out in the characters so well and honestly.
The primary focus with this issue is on Firestorm, though we get some stuff at the Daily Planet at first about Lois’ desk being ransacked and Perry going on about figuring out the disparity in the metahuman gene around the world. Where things go south, however, is when the news hits on Firestorm being in Russia and believed to be an American agent sent by the government. That leads to the expected clash with the locals that are powered and serving the Russian government but turns disastrous when Ronny becomes overwhelmed and overstressed, causing his powers to go out of control and turn a crowd of civilians that was just overpowering him into glass. Suffice to say, that does not go over well on the news and ramps up worldwide tensions in a big way.
This all naturally sends Superman there to help, though he has a sidebar trip to Khandaq first to see if Firestorm is there and to get a feel for how Black Adam is handling everything since he seems to be setting himself up as an isolated nation-state of metagene holders. When it comes to Superman and Firestorm, we get to the core of Superman well where he trie to help and encourages him on figuring out how to reverse the process but they both go to implement it poorly on the larger scale, especially with Putin there setting the world at war against American metagene hegemony. It’s something that gets out of control far too quickly and blows up in a very bad way that’s only serving more of Ozymandius’s needs.
In Summary:
I find it hard to be enthusiastic about Doomsday Clock even when we do have a “good” issue like this. What we get here is nicely focused and it tells a tale with threads of the larger storyline at work but it feels so isolated in a way that I can’t quite pin down. The better moments are with Black Adam and Superman as well as Superman trying to work with Ronnie and Stein to fix things. There’s a lot of interesting elements to all of it but as a part of the larger whole it just doesn’t feel like it comes together as well as it should. The inertia continues on to bring me to the end of the series to see what it is that it’s trying to do but it’s more of an almost morbid curiosity at this point.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 15+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: December 5, 2018
MSRP: $4.99
