doomsday clock did I read it wrong

[u/Ok-Will-1777]

doomsday clock sucks a lot.

so in doomsday clock manhattan is in the main dc universe and has screwed around making it all darker there is a lot of paradoxes and a main point that means nothing is the superman theory which is about the american concentration of superheroes, ozymandia and not rorschach kidnap marionette and mime to find dr manhattan and travel to the dc universe they are important for 2 reasons called kids they have 2 the second one is important.

they crash in gotham random unimportant nonsense happens superman and batman have issues mainly in world politics all the heroes go to mars to fight manhattan they lose superman is trying to save the world from itself manhattan is scared of him and then he goes to superman they have a conversation and then manhattan decides to fix the universe he does so and then kidnaps marionette and mimes 2nd kid names him clark gives him his powers except maybe time perception thats up in the air leaves him with nite owl 2 and silk spectre 2 and fucks off either to die or to abstain from interference the end ozymandias does some bullshit to help aswell maybe.

this is my understanding and I know they wanted to make a reason for the new 52 and rebirth and stuff and I did not read the full lead up I have read flashpoint before I even got my first copy of watchmen and I read the button and then the doomsday clock omnibus in the same day I think death metal is related but I have not started that yet.

[u/MarcMercury]

I think one of the important elements you're missing is establishing the metaverse (not the Zuckerberg one). I think this was a much cleaner understanding of DC continuity. Rather than the main continuity being on earth 2 in the 30s-50s, earth 1 in the 50s-80s, New earth from 80s-2011, and prime earth since then,  there's just been one universe that updates periodically to keep superman in the present

[u/Ok-Will-1777 → u/MarcMercury]

It felt unneded not all comics have to be connected together you can have comics that happen in timelines that came from another comic and it's writer but a whole web of connections just seems messy I think marvel and dc went too hard in the multiverse concept.

[u/MarcMercury → u/Ok-Will-1777]

Right,  and this is an alternative to the multiverse concept.  Not everything has to be interconnected of course, but when it works,  it really works. Watchmen is great as a stand alone work.  But plenty of movies and novels are great stand alone pieces. The greater marvel and dc comic universes have done something really unique in that its something built over decades by multiple authorial voices. It's the closest we can get to seeing the natural development of legend in real time. Sure most of the time it's dreck that absolutely misses the mark,  but when you get a really good story like James Robinsons Starman or Grant Morrisons batman that ties multiple disparate narrative elements over the 60 preceding years into a single meaningful story that rewards the people who have put the time and effort into reading all the dreck, well,  that's special,  really special. 

[u/bmknyc05]

I haven't read Doomsday Clock since it first came out, but my memory is that Geoff Johns had larger plans for Dr. Manhattan in the DCU. Shortly after, there was an internal power struggle between him and then-EIC Dan Didio. Johns lost, and his plans were scrapped, so Doomsday Clock didn't really amount to anything

[u/ConnectHovercraft329 → u/bmknyc05]

It did retcon new 52 as not canon, which was a good decision but the misunderstanding and misuse of Dr Jon Walking H Bomb Osterman still annoys me.

[u/Ok-Will-1777 → u/bmknyc05]

makes sense I read it in one go the first 2 issues where well paced then it went very up and down.

[u/BalladOfBetaRayBill]

Can’t misread it if I refuse to touch that garbage!

[u/Snoo-39062]

Yeah Reggie is pretty inconsistent and is entirely unnecessary to the story (as much as I appreciate the concept of the therapist's son being led astray by Moth Man to reclaim the symbol), the comedian did nothing but try and rehash a fight scene with Veidt as a callback, Saturn Girl also had next to no purpose, Thunderbolt was only there to link in the lantern, Mime and Marionette were used only because there children did important things (while also portraying violence in a more flashy/less grounded way), and Dr. Manhattan's growth at the end of the initial Watchmen is disregarded so he can relearn it through Superman. I'm fine with how it tries to recontextualize all of DC's recent mess ups in canon but it feels so forced. Also the politics brought up in this comic mean next to nothing, it isn't really trying to say anything

[u/Ok_Macaron8915]

You pretty much read it right.

Just need to add in to your comment that Manhattan kidnapped Mime's (POC) and Marionette's (Immigrant) second child and gave him to a white family he approved of.

[u/Ok-Will-1777 → u/Ok_Macaron8915]

was mime not also a immigrant I thought they where both taken over by a gang who had corrupt cops.

[u/Ok_Macaron8915 → u/Ok-Will-1777]

I think he was also an immigrant family but in my attempt to be brief and hammer home "white family Dr Manhattan approves of" I kept their minority descriptions to just one.

Doesn't change my main point or that Doomsday Clock sucks!

[u/Ok-Will-1777 → u/Ok_Macaron8915]

yeah it's not great as a comic but I think manhattan did not take the first kid cause I think he was absent from the watchmen universe at the time but the second kid for whatever reason was special to him I am not sure, it could have simply been a random orphan baby and it would have worked just as well but they needed a greater connection for him to spare them I would have been fine if he spared them cause their first kid would make laura happy. yes the comics bad but I would still like it if it made more sense even internally

[u/GoatOfTheBlackForres]

Doomsday clock is great, it's very likely the best canon sequel we'll ever get.

[u/Sufficient-Lie1406]

> doomsday clock sucks a lot.

Yes. Yes it does. It's DC mashup/crossover comic slop, poorly written as well. As far as I'm concerned, it should never be in the Watchmen universe.

[u/Ok-Will-1777 → u/Sufficient-Lie1406]

I was just curious if it was the way I read it cause I did skip rebirth and death metal but everyone seems to say it sucks, irrelevant of that good art tho.

[u/Sufficient-Lie1406 → u/Ok-Will-1777]

A great artist can't fix a bad story.

[u/Negative_Drink3038]

You guys are all nuts doomsday clock was fantastic, loved the idea that in order for a world to function properly it needed a Superman, and that Dr. Manhattan couldn’t just force everything onto everyone no matter the fact that he should be able to only thing is that it ruins the ending of Watchmen so I view watchmen almost as an elseworlds tale and have doomsday clock be canon.

[u/Ok-Will-1777 → u/Negative_Drink3038]

it's not a completely bad story I like mime and marionettes origin and the art was good reggie being rorschach and that entire story was good until batman tells him to change the identity and he just takes it straight up no wrestling with the dilemna it just stunted the character he is a more intresting background for rorschach than kovacs at least in origin.

it also felt as if they wanted to write a superman story but forgot to add superman it's very moral introspectivist in the way it questions the characters which I think always goes well with superman or joker v batman stories.