Doomsday Clock: The Adjournment

Doomsday Clock has paid considerable attention to a story within the story, a 1954 detective movie called The Adjournment. Like the pirate story "Marooned" in Watchmen, the story within a story can and almost certainly does provide insight regarding the main story. This is particularly fertile given that the star of The Adjournment is intertwined with some of Doomsday Clock's main characters, and the screenwriter himself is a Golden Age superhero. It's certain to be with good reason that Geoff Johns has devoted seven pages so far to giving us the story of The Adjournment, but what is that reason, and what does this story tell us?

There are at least three directions to follow in understanding The Adjournment.

1) On a surface level, what is its story? It's a story we've only seen the early portions of and we don't know its ending and/or the answer to its central murder mystery. This may not be highly compelling in and of itself, but it is part of the big picture.

2) Probably most important, what does the movie plot tell us about the main Doomsday Clock story? It seems highly likely that it parallels part of the main plot, and understanding that parallel could be used either to predict what is coming or to see what Johns is emphasizing as the most important aspects of the larger story.

3) Because the superhero Tarantula is the movie's screenwriter, the story may tell us something important about him and his relationships with other Golden Age characters.

The Adjournment's Plot

First, the facts. We have seen only the first portion of the movie, and while we have two spoilers regarding the upcoming portions, we don't know how it will end, nor do we know if there are more major characters to be seen. But we do know this:

• Nathaniel Dusk is an ex-cop turned detective.

• On Christmas Eve, a former colleague of his, Murray Abrahams, comes with him asking for help with a case that involves the death of Abrahams' brother-in-law.

• Two men, Alastair Tempus and Bentley Farmer, have been shot dead and lie in blood on Tempus' floor alongside the pieces of a chess game.

• Dusk and Abrahams visit three different buildings: The crime scene; the former home of Dusk's dead lover, Joyce; and, the home of Tempus' employee Wellington.

• There is considerable friction in the lives of these men: Dusk doesn't consider Abrahams a friend; Abrahams "never liked" Farmer; Wellington stole from Tempus; Farmer is divorced; Dusk has enemies he's hiding from on both sides of the law. At both of the last two stops, Abrahams warns Dusk against "breaking and entering."

• We are told of the men's various female companions: Dusk's "greatest love" is dead. Abrahams is married with young kids. Tempus' wife is dead. Farmer is divorced. Wellington claims to want a sex-change operation, which may or may not be an excuse for the women's clothing in his luggage.

• The crime scene appears suspicious: There is only one chair visible near the chessboard. A white knight is standing on its base on the floor, an extremely unlikely position for a chess piece to settle into after a table is knocked over. Dusk is in a position to see if the knight was on the floor before blood flowed around it or if it was set down into the blood.

• Dusk seems to believe that Wellington is not the killer, despite the cash he has stolen from Tempus.

• In the last frame we have seen, two scarab beetles appear onscreen behind Dr. Manhattan. I don't see the relevance of this, but they are linked to Blue Beetle, who was the inspiration for Nite Owl, and there were two Nite Owls in the Watchmen Universe.

• We are told of a "big twist, where one of the dead guys turns out to be a killer, too."

• The cover of DC #10 shows a man stepping on Dusk's head while a woman in an eye-catching dress looks on with scorn.

• The very first comment by Abrahams in analyzing the scene concludes that Tempus was the killer's intended target and Farmer was not. Dusk does not agree that this is certain.

The Solution

In a strict sense, we cannot solve this mystery with any certainty. Johns has a free hand to augment considerably the little we have seen of the movie, even bringing in several new characters. What we know so far may end up insignificant in comparison to what is coming. However, if we can solve it given what we've seen, there is only one plausible solution (and it is bolstered by working backwards from some things that would follow if the rest is true):

The killer (of at least one of the two men) is Murray Abrahams. Farmer is a primary target of the killing.

We have the following evidence:

• The crime scene was tampered with. Abrahams saw it before Dusk did.

• Abrahams did not like Farmer.

• Abrahams is not a friend of Dusk, which makes him suspect.

• Abrahams is smarter than Dusk gives him credit for.

• The only characters in the movie besides Abrahams are Dusk, the two dead men (at least one of which had a killer who wasn't one of those two), Wellington (who, Dusk assures us, is innocent), and two unnamed women (Farmer's sister and Farmer's ex).

• One more reason involving a parallel to the main plot that I will mention later.

Abrahams knows more than he is letting on, and is either the killer or, at the outside, is covering for the killer. He is looking for Dusk to solve the case incorrectly, and in so doing, clear him. Therefore, he wants to lead Dusk off the correct track.

Perhaps we will see more Adjournment characters in the story yet to come, and my solution will prove to be off-track, but there are reasons besides the internal logic of The Adjournment that make it an effective solution.

Parallel Plots

Whether this or something else is the solution to the whodunit, we still have to deduce why Johns is sharing any of this with us. I have, over the past several months, considered many combinations of characters in the main story and in this one, trying to find patterns where someone in the movie matches someone in the main DC plot.

1) Alastair Tempus = Alan Scott?

A few clues point me in a particular direction. First, the killing of someone, in this story, if it's to represent a pivotal event, would stand a good chance of representing Dr. Manhattan's killing of Alan Scott in 1940, changing the timeline. Now, zero in on the first part of "time"line and note that Alastair Tempus' last name is Latin for "time." This seems like a good place to start. Does Alastair Tempus represent Alan Scott? There are some matching characteristics, such as age and wealth. And look at the name alone:

ALA_S_Tair  → ALAn ScotT

It's quite an odd choice of given name, increasingly the likelihood that that similarity is deliberate. (Also note: Alastair is derived from Alexander and Veidt is obsessed with Alexander the Great.) But "tempus" means "time" in Latin, not "lantern" or "scott." It may be more apt to posit that Tempus represents the post-COIE or post-Infinite Crisis timeline, with the JSA living in the JLA's past, and that the death of Alastair Tempus represents the end of the Alan Scott timeline, which is to say the entire pre-Flashpoint continuity.

2) Nathaniel Dusk = Adrian Veidt?

Another pair who may match up is Dusk and Veidt. Look at these panels that occur in DC #3, Veidt in the lower-left corner of page 7 and Dusk in the lower-left panel on page 17 – ten pages apart, in the same part of the page. The composition is identical, and their hair is similar, though the lighting is nearly opposite. Now consider the following lines of dialogue:

Erika Manson to Veidt: "What's the price on your head anyway?"

Abrahams to Dusk: "Everyone knows about the price on your head."

And, consider the thematic arcs for each: Veidt is disgraced and preoccupied with tragedy in his past while trying to make sense of a new mystery. This is also true of Dusk. Most to the point: The prime mover in the Doomsday Clock plot is Veidt undertaking a plan to save the Watchmen Universe by finding Dr. Manhattan. The Adjournment centers on the investigation by Dusk of a pair of murders. The central figure of The Adjournment should likely correspond to a central character in Doomsday Clock and that's quite a short list. The aforementioned clues place the focus on Veidt.

3) Murray Abrahams = Dr. Manhattan?

If the first two matches are correct, then Abrahams has to be Dr. Manhattan. We already know that Dr. Manhattan is the killer of Alan Scott; killing Scott changed the timeline and Tempus is the timeline, so whoever killed Tempus represents Dr. Manhattan. Dusk and Abrahams have an established relationship, have worked together before, but are not friends. Reggie, the New Rorschach could also fit the bill of Abrahams, but then he certainly didn't work with Veidt before this case. And Dusk asks Abrahams for the favor of helping him revisit Joyce's home; Veidt's entire mission begins with seeking Dr. Manhattan's help, and nobody else in The Adjournment plays that role. These panels from #5 and #7 may provide another clue that this pair of characters is linked.

4) Bentley Farmer = The Reverse Flash?

Two players in this story are associated with changed timelines. Two, counting "The Button," are killed by Dr. Manhattan. Thawne recognized Dr. Manhattan when he saw him, indicating a past interaction between the two. And Alan Scott is not a killer, so the other of the two victims must be. Pandora – killed by Dr. Manhattan in Rebirth – could possibly also fit the bill, but for centrality to the larger story, a better match is the Reverse Flash. If you recall the details of "The Button," Reverse Flash actively sought out Dr. Manhattan, with confidence that the latter had never faced anyone like him. That didn't go well for Eobard Thawne. The two had some past association, just as Farmer and Abrams are related by marriage. The art, again, may hold clues, as Farmer was shot in the left side of his face and Thawne was blasted, strangely, with the left side of his face blown off. To match the main plot, we may end up learning that Farmer tried to kill Abrahams, but was himself killed in the attempt.

5) Jasper Wellington = Johnny Thunder?

There's a curious complication about the JSA's removal from the timeline, which seems to involve both Alan Scott and Johnny Thunder: We know that the JSA is not part of anyone's memory in the current timeline. The fact that Dr. Manhattan removed Alan Scott from the timeline might seem to be part of a larger pattern that removed the entire JSA. Dr. Manhattan indicates in DC #7 that when he removed Alan Scott's survival from the timeline, the meeting of the JSA in November 1940 did not go on to occur. According to Rebirth, Johnny Thunder belonged to a "covert team of mystery men." He later told his Thunderbolt to protect the JSA at the meeting wherein McCarthy told them "Take off your masks" in October 1951. It appears that the JSA was removed from the timeline in two steps: First, Dr. Manhattan moving the lantern in 1940, then Johnny Thunder sought to protect them via his Thunderbolt at the hearing in 1951. The cause-and-effect relationship of timeline alteration may be pretty tricky, but the chronology of those two "events" goes from Dr. Manhattan in 1940 to Johnny Thunder in 1951. Now, we can say that he removed the JSA from their would-be lives, but unlike Dr. Manhattan's killing of Alan Scott and the Reverse Flash, he didn't actually kill anyone. The visuals are a tip-off, too. Check out this pair of panels, both from issue #5. And how many characters wear a bowtie? Finally, one of those ambiguous speech balloons in that issue refers to Wellington with "This poor man never hurt anybody" and overlaps with a panel of Johnny Thunder, a hint that they are the same "poor man."

6) Chess pieces = Characters in the DC Universe?

If Tempus and Farmer represent Scott and the Reverse Flash, who in turn involve timeline manipulation, then the chessboards and pieces may represent those timelines and the characters within them. Flashpoint has been referenced in this for a reason. Perhaps each of the pieces we see represents particular DC characters. When we see, then, Dusk closely examining the white and black kings, this may represent Veidt considering the DCU, and contemplating two opposing sides, either the heroes and villains, or the polar icons of Superman and Batman.

Now, does all of this wash? I wouldn't bet the farm on this, but a lot of details fit together in a pretty comprehensive way. Others don't, such as the fact that Alan Scott and the Reverse Flash never played a game of chess against one another, so far as I know, and if any characters in the larger plot are akin to chess opponents, there would be better ones to choose from. Because this is all on the level of symbolism, the story isn't obliged to declare that the plots are parallel in the way I describe here; this is the sort of thing one may see or not see or argue about weeks or years after the series is over. I'm going to go out on a limb, though, and suggest that these alignments of details in the plot and the art are part of an intended framework of parallels.

In any case, the Adjournment plot is much smaller than the Doomsday Clock one and I spent some time considering if the older and younger victims might represent the personalities of Firestorm – Martin Stein and Ronnie Raymond. It could just be that they work in that fashion, too, because parallels aren't obligated to be unique. "Marooned" certainly doesn't map to the Watchmen plot in a singular way. This or other parallels may work in addition to or instead of the ones I have mentioned. We don't know, but in the meantime, I find myself thinking that the art parallels are not likely a coincidence.

Author, Author

The Golden Age Tarantula is not one of DC's most beloved and enduring characters, but Johns has mentioned Tarantula's alter ego, John Law, in some detail in DC #3. As the screenwriter of The Adjournment and a suspect in Colman's murder, Law has at least two roles to play in this story. His divorce from Libby Lawrence may be driving some animosity between any other man who has tried or succeeded in winning Lawrence over. This could explain why he's a suspect in Colman's death. If so, there's some a major soap opera style plot going on. Consider that Lawrence, the original Liberty Belle, is the mother of Jesse Quick / the second Liberty Belle, and the possible connection (via "tick tock") between Colman and Hourman: A romance between Lawrence and Colman could be a one-generation-earlier pairing up like the marriage between Rick Tyler and Jesse Chambers, a romance originally authored by Geoff Johns.

In addition, Law's angst over losing Lawrence (shown in great detail in The Golden Age) could also surface in the plot of The Adjournment. In only seven pages, we've seen how no fewer than three men have lost the women in their lives – two to death and one to divorce. The evil-looking woman on the cover of #10 may be another facet of Law's bitter feelings towards women and romantic relationships.

Wheels Within Wheels

One unmistakable characteristic of Doomsday Clock is the attention to detail, something we have not seen in all that many works, including some of Johns' more sprawling epics like "Sinestro Corps War" and "Blackest Night" that are more broad and vast than deep. I, for one, admire the obvious degree of intricacy in the scripting, and I'm more than accepting of the slower release schedule that has been necessary. It's a pleasure to have a story with our favorite superheroes be worthy of this much attention. However posterity may remember Doomsday Clock in relation to Watchmen, I think fans will salute the effort that Johns put in and the intricacy that resulted. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next three issues bring and how well the patterns I cite here continue – or don't – as the story moves towards a finish.

Button Part One Analysis: Batman #21

The opening scene of The Dark Knight Returns uses a sporting event – a car race – to describe in symbols all the major events of the entire story. The car (world) goes out of control and the driver (Batman) is the only one who can control it. It looks like he dies, but he escapes certain death.

Batman #21 begins with a similar sporting event, whose actual event (a hockey player dies in a fistfight) is probably not as significant as the symbolism that Tom King – almost certainly working under the vision of Geoff Johns – provides. The contest is between Metropolis and Gotham City with "two heavy hitters" confronting one another, and if you need to be told who those two cities represent, you've probably never read a comic book. If you still don't get it, the Metropolis team's colors are red and blue while the Gotham team wears black and yellow. And if you're wondering what the outcome will be, the Gotham team is named after a deadly weapon and the Metropolis team is named after an extinct species. And if this fight is meant to be prophetic, the Batman surrogate beats and literally kills the Superman surrogate.

We're not the only ones to get the symbolism. Saturn Girl, in Arkham Asylum, has privileged knowledge about the future, and she lets it slip that she's not talking about more than what we see in the hockey game when she says "They're going to kill him." Not the one person – "he" – that we see on television, but "they." Maybe the hockey game is tragic in its own right, but Saturn Girl sees something else – "Superman won't come. Our friends will die. The Legion will die." If the hockey fight represents a superhero calamity to follow, Superman will somehow be sidelined by Batman, and will therefore be unable to save the lives of the Legion and their friends (present-day superheroes?). Remember, Geoff Johns used Saturn Girl's fellow Legionnaire Star Boy in an almost identical fashion after Infinite Crisis, with the now Star Man taking over the role of the eponymous member of the Justice Society and providing ample quantities of foreshadowing along with mental illness.

These events are the kick-off to the big DCU / Watchmen crossover event that's coming, as symbolized by the hockey commentator's phrasing: "We're down to the final minute here, folks." (FYI, hockey overtime isn't one minute.) And then, "Here we go."

There are visual symbols galore as well, and if you're wondering why the Reverse Flash is involved in this story, one starting point is that his symbol – like the hockey visual in the first panel – looks like the Comedian's bloody button, for a big visual case of "Coincidence? I think not." (When Batman spits blood onto the Reverse Flash's yellow-masked face, it produces a mirror image of the same design.)

But there are important plot points, too. Reverse Flash remembers the Flashpoint universe in which Thomas Wayne was Batman, and he speaks to the no-longer-living Thomas Wayne in a mocking tone, enjoying how the elder Wayne died and how it hurts both Waynes when Thawne rips up the letter that Thomas sent to Bruce. The carrier of that message (a la the Roman god Mercury, who inspired the Flashes in many ways) was Barry Allen, so it's very appropriate that the message is destroyed by the Reverse Flash, un-doing something that the Flash did.

Like Saturn Girl, the Reverse Flash has information that allows for a very Johns-ian lookahead, and he tells us that some power resurrected him. This is undoubtedly for a reason and there are only so many possibilities. In this issue, the Reverse Flash beats the tar out of Batman, rips up the note from the Flashpoint universe, vanishes into a blue glow, returns speaking of God, and dies. And, I would caution the reader: We don't know if they actually occurred in the simple linear fashion that we thought we saw. If we take the events on their surface form, this Reverse Flash has come to this world from the world of Flashpoint, which makes him as well as the letter alien objects in this timeline, and if his purpose was to destroy the letter, and whoever revived him wanted to eliminate the connection between this Earth and the Flashpoint timeline then it's logical that Thawne needed to die after destroying the letter. It appears as though he did, but maybe something trickier happened. Reverse Flash was thoroughly splashed with blood before he vanishes, but when he returns, there is no sign of blood. Maybe he went through a physical experience that removed the blood (along with a fair bit of his own flesh), but maybe the timeline is trickier than it seemed, and the Reverse Flash who returned might be from a very different moment in his timeline than just a little bit after his fight with Batman. Otherwise, why make it so complicated as to have him disappear and reappear, instead of just burst into a blue flame and die? Note also that he disappears when the button is in his hand, but he returns with no apparent trace of it. Perhaps it just got lost in the violence of the moment, but given that the story is named after this object, it seems odd for it to be misplaced as a small detail.

There's another important reference/recurrence here: In Crisis on Infinite Earths, Batman sees a dying version of the Flash (Barry Allen) who is jumping in and out of time from later in the story. A dying Reverse Flash also appears before Batman here, which makes for the second reference to COIE, the other being Psycho Pirate's mask. All told, we have four objects from other timelines: The button, the letter, Thawne, and the mask. At the end of this story, two or three of these objects have been eliminated, leaving possibly just one. Clearly, someone is trying to eliminate connections between worlds, or at least certain connections. Perhaps the person pulling the strings is Dr. Manhattan, perhaps Mr. Oz (who also took Tim Drake "off the board" for presenting a similar threat). Perhaps the multiple, quick actions in this story were taken by more than one player, with someone wanting to get rid of the letter and someone else wanting to get rid of the button.

Whatever the case, more action is afoot in Superman #21, where someone who looks just like The Comedian deliberately summons up something that looks a lot like the giant cephalopod from Watchmen appears. Quite possibly, we have seen in short order, the handiwork of at least three major players from Watchmen, along with one artifact and one killer apocalyptic bio-weapon. If that many Watchmen characters are now in the DCU, it recalls the line:

At midnight, all the agents and superhuman crew go out and round up everyone who knows more than they do.
 -Bob Dylan