Doomsday Clock: The Complete Collection

Spoilers. This one is pretty messy. But here's what works. The core conceit--that this arc explains the creation of the New 52 universe and ties together the subsequent Rebirth clues that Dr. Manhattan was messing with the main DC continuity--is a great idea. Some of the issues toward the end, when Dr. Manhattan is essentially monologuing the thesis of the story, are also interesting, and you can tell that this thesis is what Johns et al. really wanted to get on paper, i.e. Superman is the heart of the DC multiverse (or metaverse), and changes to Superman throughout the decades are the core of the various rebooted universes. It's obvious, but also elegant. In addition, the art by Gary Frank is well done. And of all the subplots and new characters, I thought Mime and Marionette were the most intriguing, and I really loved everything about their storyline. Now, that being said, what didn't work? Pretty much everything else.* And I mean everything. Every time the story tries to be a Watchmen copy, it's grating. The story-within-a-story told via a noir film, the escalating mystery with political cold-war type tensions rising in the background, even the darn 3 x 3 grids (which you can feel constraining the story, especially as they occasionally, thankfully break from the format). You can feel the writing try super hard to imitate Watchmen and it just. Does. Not. Work. Whereas Watchmen was a dense, literary puzzle-box of interwoven materials and themes and references, this story is like a wikipedia article thrown in a blender--a whole lot of surface level mess. Similarly, the majority of character interactions between the DC and Watchmen characters, Batman and Rorschach, or Joker and Mime/Marionette, Luthor and Veidt, was like really cringeworthy fan fic. Hey, let's put together the detectives! The clowns! The evil geniuses! We get it dude. I don't pretend that I'm an expert in DC lore, but I do think I read more than the average person. So every time there is a Crisis-level event, I do my best to keep up with the canon. And, usually, while these events are flawed, I admire the ambition and guts it takes to try to write these universe-changing stories. But some of them, like Final Crisis, and now Doomsday Clock, are ones that I do not recommend to most readers. I think folks should buy this if you really, really, really, really, want to be a completionist and cover all major DC events. But otherwise skim/rent/borrow whatever this one and just get the cliff notes. *In re-reading this, I realize this came off as more blunt and harsh than I intended, so I just wanted to edit and add, I am a huge fan of Johns' work as a general matter, so I don't mean to imply he is a bad writer by any means. I just think, stepping back, and comparing this to some of his other major works, like Infinite Crisis, this doesn't reach that level (which is a high bar, for me). So, grain of salt.

Amazon need to update on there package since we paying prima

Like many people i've been interested in how things would play out ever since it became clear Doctor Manhatten was influcencing the DC universe. I must confess i find it surpising he can influence entire timelines so easily since i didn't think he was that powerful, and the nature of how time affects the story can make things confusing. But it's all worth it for when Superman and Manhattan meet, and how hope can always come back

You should only read this if you like Justice League AND Watchmen. I’m not really a fan of either but I like DC in general and I like most of the individual Justice League members so I thought it would be fine l. Got halfway through the book and realized that I didn’t know what was going on so I had to have my ex-boyfriend explain it to me.

The authors tried to tie DC universe with the Watchman universe, and Dr. Manhattan and Superman... don't really think it clicked and was a bit antithetical to Alan Moore's original work

A great sequel to the Watchmen story. Through a lot of modern D.C. titles it can serve as another reamagining of the Multiverse and a good potential to future Watchmen storylines. Only reason why I'm not rating it a full 5 is due to its long complexity of a conclusion. It may serve other veteran readers a satisfying ending but to most causal readers it can be a real thinker. But again, great cross dimensional story. And highly recommended for Superman fans of any caliber or era.

I read this novel over 3 days and it was hard to put down. I loved the different story choices that were made to continue the watchmen. It was an interesting take on DC history and incorporating the watchmen's universe into the story. I don't want to give away any details, but if you're a comic book fan I strongly encourage you to get this.

Incredible Watchmen follow up. Great art. Totally in tandem with the tone of the 80’s book.

Going into this, I am a huge fan of DC but I have never read the actual Watchmen comic. I wasn't sure what to expect but let me tell you, I was hooked after the first issue within this collection. This is DC at it's gritty best but you really get to see what drives each character as you wonder...who will survive and what will happen to our heroes.

I almost gave it a 2/5 but I feel like a 3/5 might be the right call. I'm still a little confused on how to feel about this comic. It's all right, not bad just all right. But that's the problem.

Spoilers. This one is pretty messy. But here's what works. The core conceit--that this arc explains the creation of the New 52 universe and ties together the subsequent Rebirth clues that Dr. Manhattan was messing with the main DC continuity--is a great idea. Some of the issues toward the end, when Dr. Manhattan is essentially monologuing the thesis of the story, are also interesting, and you can tell that this thesis is what Johns et al. really wanted to get on paper, i.e. Superman is the heart of the DC multiverse (or metaverse), and changes to Superman throughout the decades are the core of the various rebooted universes. It's obvious, but also elegant. In addition, the art by Gary Frank is well done. And of all the subplots and new characters, I thought Mime and Marionette were the most intriguing, and I really loved everything about their storyline. Now, that being said, what didn't work? Pretty much everything else.* And I mean everything. Every time the story tries to be a Watchmen copy, it's grating. The story-within-a-story told via a noir film, the escalating mystery with political cold-war type tensions rising in the background, even the darn 3 x 3 grids (which you can feel constraining the story, especially as they occasionally, thankfully break from the format). You can feel the writing try super hard to imitate Watchmen and it just. Does. Not. Work. Whereas Watchmen was a dense, literary puzzle-box of interwoven materials and themes and references, this story is like a wikipedia article thrown in a blender--a whole lot of surface level mess. Similarly, the majority of character interactions between the DC and Watchmen characters, Batman and Rorschach, or Joker and Mime/Marionette, Luthor and Veidt, was like really cringeworthy fan fic. Hey, let's put together the detectives! The clowns! The evil geniuses! We get it dude. I don't pretend that I'm an expert in DC lore, but I do think I read more than the average person. So every time there is a Crisis-level event, I do my best to keep up with the canon. And, usually, while these events are flawed, I admire the ambition and guts it takes to try to write these universe-changing stories. But some of them, like Final Crisis, and now Doomsday Clock, are ones that I do not recommend to most readers. I think folks should buy this if you really, really, really, really, want to be a completionist and cover all major DC events. But otherwise skim/rent/borrow whatever this one and just get the cliff notes. *In re-reading this, I realize this came off as more blunt and harsh than I intended, so I just wanted to edit and add, I am a huge fan of Johns' work as a general matter, so I don't mean to imply he is a bad writer by any means. I just think, stepping back, and comparing this to some of his other major works, like Infinite Crisis, this doesn't reach that level (which is a high bar, for me). So, grain of salt.

Amazon need to update on there package since we paying prima

Like many people i've been interested in how things would play out ever since it became clear Doctor Manhatten was influcencing the DC universe. I must confess i find it surpising he can influence entire timelines so easily since i didn't think he was that powerful, and the nature of how time affects the story can make things confusing. But it's all worth it for when Superman and Manhattan meet, and how hope can always come back

You should only read this if you like Justice League AND Watchmen. I’m not really a fan of either but I like DC in general and I like most of the individual Justice League members so I thought it would be fine l. Got halfway through the book and realized that I didn’t know what was going on so I had to have my ex-boyfriend explain it to me.

The authors tried to tie DC universe with the Watchman universe, and Dr. Manhattan and Superman... don't really think it clicked and was a bit antithetical to Alan Moore's original work

A great sequel to the Watchmen story. Through a lot of modern D.C. titles it can serve as another reamagining of the Multiverse and a good potential to future Watchmen storylines. Only reason why I'm not rating it a full 5 is due to its long complexity of a conclusion. It may serve other veteran readers a satisfying ending but to most causal readers it can be a real thinker. But again, great cross dimensional story. And highly recommended for Superman fans of any caliber or era.

I read this novel over 3 days and it was hard to put down. I loved the different story choices that were made to continue the watchmen. It was an interesting take on DC history and incorporating the watchmen's universe into the story. I don't want to give away any details, but if you're a comic book fan I strongly encourage you to get this.

Incredible Watchmen follow up. Great art. Totally in tandem with the tone of the 80’s book.

Going into this, I am a huge fan of DC but I have never read the actual Watchmen comic. I wasn't sure what to expect but let me tell you, I was hooked after the first issue within this collection. This is DC at it's gritty best but you really get to see what drives each character as you wonder...who will survive and what will happen to our heroes.

I almost gave it a 2/5 but I feel like a 3/5 might be the right call. I'm still a little confused on how to feel about this comic. It's all right, not bad just all right. But that's the problem.

Excellent storyline blending the main DC and Watchmen universes, especially for those of us that like traditional lawful good Superman.

It was a gift for someone. Person liked it.

great story

Yes this story is late & is trying to use Watchmen bonus features in this story too (which most aren't bad actually); but, I got this simply to read it straight through w/o having to breakout 12 books.

A great read in my opinion a worthy successor to the original Watchmen.

Extremely good story

Awesome

Fantastic story for a comic book fan, whether or not you are familiar with Watchmen.

Perfect gift

I've let the ending of Doomsday Clock simmer after reading it in singles. And now that I have the complete collection, I can read it in one sitting. And boy, I can say this book is not as good as it was in singles. The start of the book is much stronger than the end. Johns starts off having a message about the current landscape of comics and how everything is dark and gritty (odd because he has been an architect of such a landscape in the past decade or so) and there's no hope. This literally is explained when the Watchmen characters jump universes into the DC universe. You can tell that Johns has a lot of reverence and love for Superman and how Superman is the ideal hero and how hope and the wellbeing of every universe revolves around Superman. However, while he has all this love for Superman, the Watchmen characters turn from their complex and interesting characters from the original book to very one dimensional and used more as plot points rather than actual characters. This book could have been so much better if they used any villain or created any type of villain rather than use Watchmen, but that would have resulted in lower sales on the book. The ending seems to forget the point of Superman and chooses to use the ending to bring back a lot of legacy characters rather randomly and sudden. The book peaks with the issue where the metaverse is explained and quickly dive bombs due to the rushed nature of the ending. In summary, I'd say this book is one of the weaker Crisis level events that DC has had, and as a Watchmen sequel, it's terrible. It doesn't add anything to the Watchmen book nor does it provide anything interesting for the Watchmen property, which makes me question why use Watchmen in the first place except to make a quick buck? The one huge positive I have for this book is the art. Gary Frank is amazing and one of the best artists working today. HIs detailed expressions and pencils really evoke the feel of Watchmen, including the use of the 9 panel grid. Gary Frank's Superman is probably my favorite modern day rendition of the Man of Steel (closely followed by Jorge Jimenez). It's a shame that the story doesn't live up to the quality of the art.

This isn't a bad book, and the art is awesome. But here are my problems: 1)pales in comparison to the original Watchmen graphic novel and the HBO series; 2)can only really be appreciated by hardcore DC fans The original graphic novel was an exciting, innovative blast of fresh air when it was released. And you didn't have to have read any comics before to follow and appreciate the story. And while it helped to have read Watchmen before seeing the HBO series, it wasn't necessary. Doomsday Clock, has some ok moments here and there, but not only do you need to have read Watchmen (which in itself isn't a problem for a sequel), but you have to be familiar with not just the basics of characters like Batman and Superman, but also the ridiculously convoluted changes in DC continuity over the last 40 years. I can understand why someone who lives and breathes such things would eat this up, but to a more general audience much if it is baffling and off putting. It seems that DC and Marvel aren't even really trying to get a more general audience to buy their books, just focusing on the tiny number of hardcore fans.

A fantastic DC experience and great introduction to Justice League and Watchmen. A must buy for DC fans, Johns and team knocks it out of the park.

He seemingly doesn't have an original idea unless it's some sort of criticism about stories he seemingly doesn't agree with. Also, ballsy for him to basically do a sequel to Watchmen. Watchmen was superhero deconstruction. Doomsday Clock was a crash grab while criticizing post-crisis DC for the billionth time, also done 999,999,999 previously by Johns. I don't get it. Why do you people like the trash this guy peddles?

Competent artwork tries to ape Gibbons as the writer drools utter nonsense on and on for pages. Avoid this mess.

Good read

If you have to write a sequel to Watchmen, the first thing you must do is evaluate the original. Its strengths, weaknesses, and importantly its effect on the medium. Alongside the Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen’s acclaim changed the identity of American Comic Books following. Readers now wanted to see Superheroes deal with more mature subject matters in a midst for their costumed heroes to grow up alongside them. The success of Watchmen allowed new voices to enter the industry to tell stories once considered difficult for a medium aimed at younger readers. Unfortunately, a lot of people took the wrong lessons from Watchmen, and for many years we had comic book stories that alienated a potential wider audience by doubling down on mire and misery in a midst to seem mature. Geoff Johns likely started with that in mind when writing Doomsday Clock. Doomsday Clock follows a number of event comics tied into DC line-refreshes that have been bubbling for the past couple of years. For context, I haven’t read any of this prologue material. I don’t believe you need to in order to fully enjoy Doomsday Clock. However, I don’t believe you’ll fully appreciate the series without some familiarity with Watchmen. Either you need to remember the movie or have read the original (Doomsday Clock does not tie in with the recent HBO series, which is its own sequel to the original series). The simple premise for the series is “What if Watchmen met the mainline DC Universe?”. This scenario posits that, following the end of Watchmen, Dr. Manhattan found peace in the world of Superman and Wonderwoman. Meanwhile, back in the continuity of Silk Spectre and Nite Owl, Ozymandias’ plan to unite the world through an alien attack has backfired following the publishing of Rorscharch’s Journal. Old and New faces in this world then follow Manhattan’s trail, and the adventure begins. Doomsday Clock isn’t coy in its revelry for the original Watchmen. The artists behind this title have managed to emulate the original’s look and feel to a science. A frequent re-reader of Watchmen will appreciate just the structure of Doomsday Clock, and the way it does all the clever panel work that Dave Gibbons pulled off in the original series. It’s colour palette is also as considered as Watchmen’s was - though not always. After all, this is a comic book designed in 2019 with all the tools available to today’s artists. Alongside those classic 9 panel time-lapses, we also get big spreads and superhero collages. I only wish that these distinct looks could have been referenced in the storytelling. Speaking of. Doomsday Clock’s writing is very much two beasts in combat. The DC continuity in Doomsday Clock is a little broad, and feels almost like a pastiche of the past few years of enormous event comics. Hundreds of heroes turn up for a single panel appearances, but everything is tried together by the Big Two. All the main players are people you would recognise, and rely on their known traits. By comparison, the Watchmen side of the equation sticks to the format of the original - a detective mystery broken up by different perspectives. There is a final answer at the end of this, but the bigger picture develops when you have the additional context. You could very easily read Doomsday Clock and internalise one protagonist at a time, as was the case with the original, and it still works absolutely fine. But it becomes something special with additional context - not just of these character’s histories, but of nature of DC’s business that birthed them. Doomsday Clock can’t help but have Dr. Manhattan witness Crisis on Infinite Earths and the various tweaks to the Superman’s Origin story as a bystander, just like the reader. Doomsday Clock is subtext made text about how Watchmen led to a supposed “dark age” for DC. Dr. Manhattan is responsible for a number of tragic incidents in the story of Doomsday Clock that have made the heroes of this world a little colder, in a midst to make them more relatable. It doesn’t quite reconcile this notion, though maybe that wasn’t the intent. Ultimately, it must reframe Superman as the force of positivity that made him the ur-example of the superhero. Doomsday Clock is built to have Superman be the solution to the Dark Age brought on by Watchmen, though it never really gets to fully form this idea. Considering how packed this book is as both a sequel to Watchmen and Watchmen meets DC, perhaps there wasn’t the breathing room. In writing a sequel to Watchmen, the team behind Doomsday Clock have written a story about the effect of Watchmen, and how we move on from it. Alan Moore, the writer of the original, never intended for this story to be the template for the future of comics writing, but rather a bar that others would overcome. In the years since, we have finally started to see people use the medium to tell more ambitious and bold stories, many of which don’t need to rely on deconstruction and grounding in reality to achieve that. Doomsday Clock is incredibly ambitious in what it attempts to do, but it doesn’t quite stick the landing. However, it’s most impressive feat is its accessibility. This very well could have been a nerds only comic packed with dense references and built around fore knowledge, and yet it only really requires you to know the story of Watchmen and the cultural osmosis of the past 80 years of DC titles. Like the original, it does get better when you re-read it, notice background details and know more context. I finished Doomsday Clock over a few evenings. Each issue takes about 20 minutes to read, or 30 if you’re scanning over the details. It very much earns its asking price - not just for being a splashy event comic that shows off the excesses of comic art and writing, but also for being a crowd pleasing mystery and wrap up for Watchmen.

If Watchmen was the deconstruction of the superhero myth, Geoff Johns' and Gary Frank's Doomsday Clock is a rather worthy attempt at some kind of reconstruction to a more hopeful and positive superhero universe. I personally agree but have not been blinded by my optimism. Unfortunately the world has moved on and we can never go back. Superhero comics will NEVER shed it's gritty 1980's transformation. If you read some current critically acclaimed superhero comics like FANTASTIC FOUR GRAND DESIGN and X-MEN GRAND DESIGN you will find that despite the Kirby, Byrne and Claremont homage the stench and grittier aspects of the 1980's will always come through. Writing good stories with solid characters rather than concentrating on identity or gender politics is the only TRUE way forward. The art is stunning and the story is engaging. This is more a Superman story than a Watchmen sequel. We cannot chop off the Dark Age . We cannot chop off the Bronze Age and we shouldn't want to chop off the Silver and Golden Age. We can only move forward. With the grit.

Although this graphic novel seemed a bit pricey (at the time of purchase), having read it, warranted it's price. Good story and artwork, and in my opinion, worth a read. Thanks.

Was a gift.my feedback was excellent,very good story line and fantastic pictures.

Good art and story. Would recommend it. Seems to be good value for money as there I a lot of it. A good read.

Book arrived in a shockingly bad state with pages folded inwards to hide the badly printed graphic novel. Do not buy as you are being sold a bad batch.

Perfect condition...before Doomsday clock I highly recommend to read first Watchman and Batman The Flash the button

I bought this for my boyfriend after seeing him eye it up in a comic store. He absolutely loves it!

A good sequel to watchmen. I enjoyed it