If you were to ask any avid lover of comics which books the medium has produced are the most essential reads, odds are that their shortlist includes Watchmen. Since its original publication in the mid-1980’s, Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ undisputed classic has earned the respect of both diehards and mainstream critics. Not only that, but it’s been adapted to a major motion picture and will soon be the subject of a new television series to be aired on HBO.
Still, the comic book realm hasn’t been bereft of the reinterpreted Charlton characters since the era of Reaganomics. A few years back, DC published a line of Before Watchmen prequel miniseries and, soon enough, worlds will collide in the pages of Doomsday Clock.
Now, we all know that a showdown between Superman and Doctor Manhattan is imminent, but we can’t help but think a few other Watchmen characters will make appearances in Geoff Johns and Gary Frank’s 12-issue series. Naturally, our minds would conjure the likes of Nite Owl or Ozymandias, but was anybody really expecting to see Rorschach?
As Johns himself put it in a recent episode of DC All Access, Walter Kovacs met “a finite end” at the hand of Doctor Manhattan, but when has death ever been permanent in comics? Furthermore, DC’s head honcho says, “It’s a really interesting question whether or not Rorschach’s in the book. I like that question, I’m not gonna answer it right now.”
Cryptic as that sounds, we’re hoping to get some sort of answer at New York Comic Con this weekend. Quite frankly, if Rorschach does return, it may very well set the industry on fire, with strong reactions coming from both sides of the aisle.
Doomsday Clock #1 arrives in comic shops this November.
Published: Oct 4, 2017 01:13 pm