If your memory serves you well, then you’ll likely remember that earlier this year DC Entertainment President Geoff Johns hinted at writing for the Watchmen characters, an exciting prospect that we all assumed to be the culmination of everything set forth by the DC Universe: Rebirth one-shot released nearly one year ago. Well, it looks like our educated guesses were all correct as the the publisher has now announced Doomsday Clock.
Basically, this 4-issue standalone series will payoff everything set up by the aforementioned one-shot, The Return of Wally West, “Superman Reborn,” “The Button” and everything in between, making it feel like an event as significant as Final Crisis or Flashpoint, a statement that we’re not making lightly. And, if that weren’t motivation enough to entice you to read this limited run, then perhaps knowing that Gary Frank, the same artist who worked with Johns on Superman: Brainiac and Batman: Earth One, will once again re-team with the superstar scribe ought to add a little more sizzle to the steak.
In a recent interview with Blastr, Johns went on record saying that this is not a sequel to the classic graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons, but will set Superman on a collision course with Doctor Manhattan, something readers have dreamed about for decades:
“It is something else. It is Watchmen colliding with the DC Universe. It is the most personal and most epic, utterly mind-bending project I have ever worked on in my career. With Rebirth, I opened the door to Manhattan. Part of that was I loved the real-world influence Watchmen has. I put Manhattan out there, and always thought there was a Manhattan/Superman story to be told, but then … it grew. And grew. It took my heart and soul over. Still, at the core of it, there’s a being who has lost his humanity, and distanced himself from it, and an alien who embodies humanity more than most humans. I love the idea that Watchmen influenced DC, but what would that look like in reverse? And it goes well beyond that.”
Given the title, many of you out there are probably expecting Doomsday to show up, and that’s totally within reason. In fact, we implore you to recall that the mysterious Mr. Oz, often theorized to be Ozymandias, has the brutish monster in his custody, so it’s expected that all threads converge here – which is another thing that Johns touched on:
“It takes the iconic elements of both Superman and Watchmen, and the DC Universe. It felt like the perfect title. I like the “DC.” It used to be called “The Doomsday Clock,” but I took “The” off. Obviously people know who Doomsday is, but he’s not a part of the story, but I like the implications of it. People will think the last time they heard Doomsday and Superman, he died, so what is this going to be? What is he going to go through this time? And how will it affect them going forward?”
Doomsday Clock is slated to arrive in comic shops this November.
