At the start of the year, Geoff Johns teased his return to comics writing with a simple teaser image: The glowering brow of Watchmen‘s Dr Manhattan. Now we know just what he’s up to, and it has huge ramifications for the DC comics universe.
Image: DC Comics
Revealed through Blastr yesterday, Johns is teaming up with Gary Frank and Brad Anderson for a new standalone miniseries called Doomsday Clock, which promises to continue the story told in the initial Rebirth comic special and which is currently ongoing in the pages of Batman and The Flash in an arc called “The Button” — namely, the story of how the world of Watchmen will be wrenched into the world of DC Comics at large.
According to Johns, Doomsday Clock will focus on Superman and Dr Manhattan specifically, which makes sense given all the teasers we’ve had that Superman’s own merging of the personal timeline between his pre-and-post New 52 selves recently had caught the attention of a certain godlike blue entity. But aside from offering answers to the mysteries he set up in the earliest days of Rebirth, Johns also says the series will tackle the core nature of humanity that differentiates Superman and Manhattan as characters:
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.
DC promised a slow burn when it came to tackling just how it will bring Watchmen into the DC Universe, and it’s going to be a while before we see just how it all comes together; Doomsday Clock won’t begin until November this year. But with the final part of “The Button” in Flash #22 due out this week, it seems we’ve only gotten a hint of what’s really coming.
Comments
8 responses to “Superman And Watchmen’s Dr Manhattan Will Clash In Doomsday Clock”
So pumped, Geoff Johns is probably one of my favourite writers ever.
Word.
He’s never been shy to take a swipe at Superman or Batman and I actually dig his Lantern stuff.
I’m still sore over the Hulk losing to Supes, so I’m hoping Clark gets smacked around a bit by the Fusion Form Blue Man Group.
Why be sore though? I mean Hulk could beat N52 Supes, but the pre-Flash Point supes would literally just leave the hulk in dark space and when people talk about Superman its normally the one they all know, which is cartoon Superman.
That isn’t to say that I think they should have plot armour, I am all for Bruce or Clark losing if represented accurately.
Superman vs Dr Manhattan? Really?
Without some serious writing around, it would amount to Manhattan seeing what Supes will do and it would turn into a 2 second point and click adventure.
*Doc points at Superman. Proceeds to disassemble Supes at an atomic level*
This. There is no point in a serious confrontation between Manhattan and any other superhero, he is essentially a god who doesn’t perceive time in a linear fashion and has control over subatomic particles, and cant be destroyed as his consciousness can just reintegrate a new body from the surrounding particles.
Superman is awesomely powerful, for a mortal, Manhattan isn’t the same type of being.
Exactly. This is the whole Superman v Batman thing, only this time Clark Kent is the obvious loser. Without a major plot device Superman has nothing that can harm Dr M (can anything harm him? Besides his Mrs shagging an owl?), and no way of preventing it if Dr M decides to end him.
Gonna take some pretty nifty writing to make this work.