Doomsday Clock -- Watchmen Sequel

Cafe Society
1

Surprisingly good, actually. I was expecting something weak…and, instead, this is remarkable for the strength of the characterization.

Yes, Rohrschach’s resurrection is “fanservice.” It’s a Watchmen story, so you gotta have ol’ spackle-face. But he’s a very good incarnation of the character, and I have no complaints.

The Mime is a delight! Laugh out loud funny!

The concept? Ya gotta love it or hate it, and I’m fine and happy. It’s a (loose) crossover between the Watchmen universe and the DC universe. Doctor Manhattan will meet Superman; Rohrschach will square off with Batman. Totally cool.

The premise is a bit of a downer; Veidt’s plan has failed, period. Okay, whatevs. One can still enjoy the original, without buying in. Someone wrote a sequel to “The Lady and the Tiger,” too. That’s the point to DC’s multiverse: this is only one of many possibilities. Pretend it’s an “Elseworld” offering.

I was very pleasantly surprised by how darn good this is.

2

I was pretty happy with it as an introduction to the new story.

Of course, the big question from the issue is, who is pretending to be Rorschach? Indications are it is somebody known in that world. One guess I’ve seen so far is that it may be Dan Dreiberg but he seemed to be in too good of shape.

3

Well, that and the fact that – spoilers? – he, uh, looks to be black.

4

Really? I missed that. I will have to re-read.

5

I assume this is a comic and not a movie?

6

Yes, it’s a twelve issue miniseries.

7

Sigh

All love to DC but Watchmen was thirty years ago. Are they so bereft of new quality ideas?

8

The prison psychiatrist?

9

He and his wife died when Ozymandias’ monster bomb detonated in Manhattan.

10

Heck, Superman was created 79 years ago. Comics are all about the tried, true, and familiar.

That said, Watchmen, itself, was a variant on the familiar, so what’s wrong with a variant on it?

Also, Doomsday Clock does have something new and high-quality: The Mime! He’s wonderful! He’s a really delightful addition to the mythos!

11

For what it’s worth, Mime and Marionette are – apparently – knockoffs of Charlton characters the way the Watchmen were: Punch and Jewelee, villains who had a whole 'marionette ’ schtick going on, since they could puppeteer folks.

Here’s a page from a comic from back when, where a story ends with Punch behind bars and Jewelee busily pondering what to do next…

12

Doomsday Clock is sort of the final piece of the Rebirth rebranding from 2016. In the Rebirth one shot, it was strongly hinted that Dr. Manhattan was involved with reshaping the DCU into the New 52, back in 2011. Hopefully, the series will answer any unanswered questions.

13

My guess is that he’s the shrink’s son.

14

I don’t think there was any indication the psychologist and his wife had children. If the new Rorschach is indeed a character from the original, it may be the mixed-race child of Rorschach’s landlady.

15

A shot of the pschiatrist’s desk with a “DAD” coffee cup on it, coupled with a panel that showed a dropped file that seemed to contain med records.

16

Huh. Even after all these years and rereads, there are details I missed.

17

This article makes the case that the new Rorschach is Malcolm Long’s son. It’s thin, but there have been sequels based on less.

One minor nit that’s been bugging me is people calling Long a psychiatrist. He was very specifically a Ph.D. psychologist, not a psychiatrist.

18

The second issue is out now. An even bigger surprise than in the first issue.

19

Sometimes, it’s worth it to go back to the well.

20

Incidentally, did I miss something with regards to #2?

Veidt, after a quick library visit, figures that the two smartest locals are Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor. Now, I’ll grant that Luthor’s brains are common knowledge; he probably touts himself as the world’s smartest man, and he probably has a ton of patents to his name, and whenever his company scores a victory he probably takes all the credit; and that’s why Veidt slips past Luthor’s security to introduce himself as his world’s smartest man, having just found his way from there to here.

But how would Bruce Wayne be the obvious #2 pick? Wayne smilingly pretends he isn’t the world’s greatest detective. Wayne has, as far as I know, zero patents to his name. Wayne tries very hard, IIRC, to make it look like he’s a playboy who merely owns the inherited business that Lucius Fox expertly runs. It’s like asking who the strongest man around is, and saying “well, Clark Kent is in the running.”