Doomsday Clock 9

When I first read Watchmen in 1989, part of my response, following the patterns of all the DC stories I'd read before, was to wonder how the Justice League would respond to the deadly events wrought by Veidt and accepted by Dr. Manhattan in Watchmen. Neatly thirty years later, a partial answer to that question was offered by Doomsday Clock #9. Reduced to a pure "versus" between Dr. Manhattan and most of the most powerful characters in the modern DCU, it appears that the result is no contest. In a direct confrontation, Dr. Manhattan absorbs most of their most powerful blows and he is not so much harmed as inconvenienced. Almost as though to add insult to injury, he is fascinated rather than angered by their attack, as their powers are manifestations of physics that he'd never seen before.

Yet, in both Watchmen and DC #8-9, Dr. Manhattan is a mere physical force, reduced to a feckless judge of events around him. His direct contribution to Veidt's plan was nothing more than killing Rorschach, to preserve the secrecy that Veidt's plan required. He was, moreover, a failure in this regard, Rorschach's journal having leaked eventually, and the Watchman world is eventually in chaos because of/despite the collective efforts of Veidt and Dr. Manhattan.

But Veidt is the real agent at work here, as we're reminded when a single panel pairs Wonder Woman's use of the phrase "single villain" with Veidt's hands at work pushing a button. Veidt orchestrated the spiraling tragedy in Moscow, which is clear to the reader, but it's important to note that his ruse is very sophisticated, layered two deep. First, he made it seem to the world that Firestorm attacked the good people of Russia and that Superman took Firestorm's side, turning the whole world against the last, most respected superhero. The superheroes see through this first ruse, tracing the radiation to Mars. But, as Batman suspects, there is a double ruse: Dr. Manhattan didn't attack Superman, either.

Veidt's self-stated purpose is to save everybody. And yet, Saturn Girl is so horrified by what Veidt had in mind (much of which, we've seen) that he had to knock her out to subdue her. Veidt is trying to reshape events according to his design, and he's surely reshaping events, and certainly things will change, but the endgame can't go quite the way he's imagining.

A real eye-opener in DC #9 is that the group of superheroes who go to Mars ("they all" in Batman's formulation) lacks Wonder Woman. A reason that makes sense of this within the story is offered, but what is Johns' reason? Because the design this creates is that, of all the major superheroes, the only three who didn't leave the Earth for Mars are Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman, and anytime those three share something in common, we ought to take notice.

At this point in the story, we have:

• A single superbeing who is capable of beating any of the DC heroes, perhaps all of them at the same time. He goes immunity even to the strongest magic as well as science-based powers.

• When an army of superheroes attacks the superbeing, he lashes out in retaliation, besting all of them.

• A genius who himself lacks superpowers but is directing the actions of that superbeing. He wants to change the nature of reality for the better but cannot be trusted with regards to his tactics or objectives.

• The supervillains of Earth united into an army.

• The Trinity held aside from all the other superheroes.

• Lex Luthor is working on his own behalf, opposed to the aforementioned genius.

• The superbeing has just resisted an attack launched by another version of himself.

What interests (and concerns) me about this is, this is much where we were at the end of Infinite Crisis #6, also written by Geoff Johns. (Noteworthy: Superboy Prime shows up in Guy Gardner's ring-projected circle of villains.) Without opening up a full re-discussion of that story, I find it to be an epic of impressive scope, many exciting scenes, and a story that ultimately becomes disconnected from its own arguments. After raising many interesting questions about what the superhero world should be, it has a brawl create an accidental choice of what the future (2006–2011) DCU would be like, with no compelling demonstration that the outcome was different was a rejection of what the villain (Alexander Luthor of Earth-3) had hoped for nor a positive affirmation of the world that the heroes would have chosen (if there'd ever been a consensus hinted at). The result was a world where the JSA had begun the era of heroes, and Wally West and the Teen Titans were part of a modern era alongside the JLA.

If, 13 years of DC comics later, Doomsday Clock takes a thus-far exemplary 12-issue story to get us back to that same basic point it would feel like a very roundabout path to get back to where we started. And, yes, comic books like other serials have, at their heart, circular time at their essence, but when a story begins as well as Doomsday Clock has, one hopes for more. This is, we hope a response to Watchmen rather than a replay of Infinite Crisis.

Means and Motives

To see where the story is going, the prime movers are the knowledge and motives of Veidt and Dr. Manhattan. We already know that Veidt wants to save "everything and everybody" on both worlds. But what does Dr. Manhattan want?

In #7, over a long discourse with Veidt, Dr. Manhattan reveals, "At first, I thought I might find a place among them." But, then he saw a vision of the upcoming confrontation with Superman, "the most hopeful among them… now hopeless." "Carver Colman was once full of hope, too… but everything ends." And, later, in #9, says that his point is "even hope decays."

Given the first of that information (and perhaps inferring it all), Veidt begins the plan to create the encounters we've seen transpire. He knows that Dr. Manhattan sees no hope in Superman when their future encounter will take place, in one week. Is Veidt's double ruse an effort to bring Superman and Dr. Manhattan together, forcing the positive action he desires from him? If so, perhaps it could involve one or more of the following:

• Superman's actions will indeed inspire Dr. Manhattan with hope.

• Superman is perhaps capable of destroying Dr. Manhattan (his easy dismissal of so many superheroes may lead the reader to doubt this, but Dr. Manhattan himself obviously considers it possible), and his own mortality may prompt him to abandon his stoic outlook and act.

• Dr. Manhattan appears to have learned magic, and perhaps other things from seeing the DC heroes demonstrate them. He may be more powerful now than ever.

Back to the Future

One of #9's surprises is that the gloved hand that mailed a USB drive to Lois Lane belonged to Lex Luthor, not New Rorschach. We don't know how he accessed film from alternate timelines, but Luthor has some sort of cross-timeline information source; he also knows that Wally West paid the price for Dr. Manhattan's timeline manipulation. He considers the invasion from the Watchmen Universe to be one that undermines "all of creation" and will add his assistance to Superman's efforts. Luthor's intervention may end up being key in informing Superman of the stakes, and alter the confrontation with Dr. Manhattan to a result we are meant to favor.

Aside: The name-checked film Back to the Future and Watchmen both offer specific dates corresponding to their events and have their main action take place the same week of October 1985!

Parallel Lives

Though we learned, as expected, that Dr. Martin Stein, the older half of Firestorm, is the mysterious head of the governmental superhero initiative, this story seems to be only half revealed. Stein remains determined to prevent the course of events as we've seen them, and after Dr. Manhattan shows Ronnie Raymond a past in which Stein basically abducted Ronnie as his means into metahuman powers, Stein says that Dr. Manhattan cannot be trusted. Meanwhile, it is noteworthy that Dr. Manhattan has this information when he seems generally disoriented about the other superheroes. What is their relationship? Is Stein another manifestation of Dr. Manhattan, created by but now quite different in outlook from the blue man from the Watchmen Universe? Is Stein actually the hopeful one who will inspire Dr. Manhattan?

The Nathaniel Dusk movie holds a parallel for some other part of our story. A young man and older man are both killed, because one was targeted. Are Stein and Raymond the older and younger men this represents? Did Dr. Manhattan create the Firestorm storyline to mirror the movie?

Back to the Past

As we've learned before, Dr. Manhattan created the current DCU timeline by causing the death of Alan Scott. This erased the JSA from history, and also erased the LSH from eventually existing, as shown by the disappearance of Ferro Lad, the Legionaire who sacrificed himself to kill a Sun Eater in a 1967 story. Why did Dr. Manhattan do this?

We know that Dr. Manhattan is pained by the loss of hope that Carver Colman experienced. Did Alan Scott cause this by offering the JSA's retirement in the face of HUAC demanding they reveal their identities? Dr. Manhattan stood "on set" of Colman's movie. He was apparently in the guide of a real person, either Colman or someone close to him. This entire manipulation of the DCU may be due to the disillusionment that Dr. Manhattan experienced as a result of the 1950s HUAC affairs, with Alan Scott drawing the blame.

Errata or something else?

In the final two pages of DC #9, two apparent discrepancies occur.

One, Green Arrow congratulates Ronnie/Firestorm after Captain Atom temporarily blasts Dr. Manhattan. Is this misassigned credit, or did Firestorm participate in some way we didn't see?

Later, we see superheroes lying unconscious on the sands of Mars, and this includes Guy Gardner, in his Green Lantern costume, but he had lost his costume when Dr. Manhattan dissolved his ring earlier.

Are these errors or indications of some intended change?

With Doomsday Clock entering the final issues, this is something I'm asking myself more. Is this fine series holding more wonderful surprises in store, or is it going to be forced into a desired ending despite what we've seen so far? For us as well as the heroes, only time will tell.