Yesterday, I
intended to write a post about comics in general. Heroes In Crisis was only
supposed to be a part of it.
It became the whole damn thing.
So today, it’s Doomsday Clock.
Do I think a sequel to Watchmen was necessary? No.
Do I think integrating the Watchmen characters into the DC Universe was particularly vital? Nope.
But if someone is going to do a sequel to Watchmen and integrate the characters into the DC Universe, at least do it right.
For the most part, I think Geoff Johns and Gary Frank having been doing it right with Doomsday Clock.
Yes, it’s moved too slow, it’s been choppy and disjointed at times.
Issue #10 brings us up to speed on what the hell has been going on, not just in this series but in the totality of the DC Universe.
Over the course of this series, we’ve seen snippets of a crime noir film about a private eye named Nathaniel Dusk played by an actor name Carter Colman.
*Nathaniel Dusk starred in a pair of mini-series back in the 1980s, created by writer Don McGregor and artist Gene Colan. Have those stories been collected?
In issue #10, we explore the life of Colman and how it intersects with a glowing blue man from a world beyond.
Doctor Manhattan arrives in the DC Universe.
Over the course of Colman’s life, Manhattan explores this strange new version of Earth, a world where on a spring day in April 1938, a super powered man in red and blue first appears.
Doctor Manhattan tinkers with time and now Superman doesn’t appear until the 1950s.
Or is it the 1980s?
Each time Doctor Manhattan makes a shift in the development of this world, Superman himself changes. When he arrives in Earth. How he grows up. How other super beings come into existence.
Doctor Manhattan concludes this Earth is not just another Earth in a multiverse of infinite Earths. It is a metaverse and changes here affect the entire continuum of the multiverse. At the center of those changes is Superman. Anything that affects Superman and his place in this metaverse ripples outward.
Doctor Manhattan creates a world where Superman loses his human, adoptive parents at a young age and never meets the Legion of Super Heroes. This Superman is further removed from his humanity. This is a Superman that Doctor Manhattan relates to. This is the Superman of the New 52 era.
But Doctor Manhattan’s changes are not going unchallenged.
Wally West pushes himself out of oblivion to re-assert himself back into existence.
A senile old man named Johnny Thunder vaguely remembers heroes that no one else remembers; he remembers a lamp, a green lamp of incredibly powerful magic.
A young woman named Imra claims to be from the future and can read your thoughts as easily as one might read a book.
The metaverse is pushing back against Doctor Manhattan, reasserting histories and legacies he tried to remove. Almost like a living thing, the metaverse is fighting Doctor Manhattan’s intentions.
The New 52 era was a controversial one for DC. In a big, bold move, DC cancelled all their titles and relaunched everything, 52 titles, in September 2011 with a brand new #1. It also relaunched a NEW DC universe that was new and completely reborn. Everything you knew was different now.
It was a fresh start that enjoyed some immediate success with DC capturing some significant market share from chief rival Marvel Comics. But the price of that “fresh” start was high, the loss of DC’s most valuable asset: it’s history, the legacy of it’s characters. The price paid did not seem worth what was gained from this new universe, a view shared by creators and fans alike.
What we have here in Doomsday Clock is an in universe, in canon representation of that repudiation of the New 52.
If Doctor Manhattan, cold, distant and dispassionate, represents the corporate cynicism that stripped the DC Universe of its history, its legacy, this "metaverse" represents the will of creators and of the still loyal fanbase that asserts that the history and legacy of DC is still important.
The force that guides and shapes the destiny of the denizens of the DC Universe... is us.
It became the whole damn thing.
So today, it’s Doomsday Clock.
Do I think a sequel to Watchmen was necessary? No.
Do I think integrating the Watchmen characters into the DC Universe was particularly vital? Nope.
But if someone is going to do a sequel to Watchmen and integrate the characters into the DC Universe, at least do it right.
For the most part, I think Geoff Johns and Gary Frank having been doing it right with Doomsday Clock.
Yes, it’s moved too slow, it’s been choppy and disjointed at times.
Issue #10 brings us up to speed on what the hell has been going on, not just in this series but in the totality of the DC Universe.
Over the course of this series, we’ve seen snippets of a crime noir film about a private eye named Nathaniel Dusk played by an actor name Carter Colman.
*Nathaniel Dusk starred in a pair of mini-series back in the 1980s, created by writer Don McGregor and artist Gene Colan. Have those stories been collected?
In issue #10, we explore the life of Colman and how it intersects with a glowing blue man from a world beyond.
Doctor Manhattan arrives in the DC Universe.
Over the course of Colman’s life, Manhattan explores this strange new version of Earth, a world where on a spring day in April 1938, a super powered man in red and blue first appears.
Doctor Manhattan tinkers with time and now Superman doesn’t appear until the 1950s.
Or is it the 1980s?
Each time Doctor Manhattan makes a shift in the development of this world, Superman himself changes. When he arrives in Earth. How he grows up. How other super beings come into existence.
Doctor Manhattan concludes this Earth is not just another Earth in a multiverse of infinite Earths. It is a metaverse and changes here affect the entire continuum of the multiverse. At the center of those changes is Superman. Anything that affects Superman and his place in this metaverse ripples outward.
Doctor Manhattan creates a world where Superman loses his human, adoptive parents at a young age and never meets the Legion of Super Heroes. This Superman is further removed from his humanity. This is a Superman that Doctor Manhattan relates to. This is the Superman of the New 52 era.
But Doctor Manhattan’s changes are not going unchallenged.
Wally West pushes himself out of oblivion to re-assert himself back into existence.
A senile old man named Johnny Thunder vaguely remembers heroes that no one else remembers; he remembers a lamp, a green lamp of incredibly powerful magic.
A young woman named Imra claims to be from the future and can read your thoughts as easily as one might read a book.
The metaverse is pushing back against Doctor Manhattan, reasserting histories and legacies he tried to remove. Almost like a living thing, the metaverse is fighting Doctor Manhattan’s intentions.
The New 52 era was a controversial one for DC. In a big, bold move, DC cancelled all their titles and relaunched everything, 52 titles, in September 2011 with a brand new #1. It also relaunched a NEW DC universe that was new and completely reborn. Everything you knew was different now.
It was a fresh start that enjoyed some immediate success with DC capturing some significant market share from chief rival Marvel Comics. But the price of that “fresh” start was high, the loss of DC’s most valuable asset: it’s history, the legacy of it’s characters. The price paid did not seem worth what was gained from this new universe, a view shared by creators and fans alike.
What we have here in Doomsday Clock is an in universe, in canon representation of that repudiation of the New 52.
If Doctor Manhattan, cold, distant and dispassionate, represents the corporate cynicism that stripped the DC Universe of its history, its legacy, this "metaverse" represents the will of creators and of the still loyal fanbase that asserts that the history and legacy of DC is still important.
The force that guides and shapes the destiny of the denizens of the DC Universe... is us.
No comments:
Post a Comment