OK,
for real, today is comic book day here on I’m So Glad My Suffering Amuses You.
If you,
and may God have mercy on your soul, really miss the political stuff, there’s a post on Monday as we take
a peek at what the Democrats running for President are doing.
Sounds like fun, eh?
But
today: COMIC BOOKS!
(Tomorrow:
DOCTOR WHO!)
Doomsday
Clock#11
After
nearly 2 years, the Watchmen sequel no one wanted and no one asked for is
finally approaching it’s conclusion.
I
was admittedly in the camp that Watchmen by writer Alan Moore, artist Dave Gibbons and colorist John Higgins needed no sequel
spinning off the Watchmen world into the larger multiversal continuity of the
DC Universe. Watchmen was a self-contained
thing into and of itself, a story with a beginning, middle and end.
I’m
not saying Watchmen is sacred and should never be touched by hands other than
Moore and Gibbons. But as a complete work, it stands alone and needed no
further expansion.
But
if one is going to do a sequel spinning off the Watchmen world into the larger multiversal
continuity of the DC Universe, at least do it right.
And
I will say that over the very long journey of getting through these 11 issues,
writer Geoff Johns, artist Gary Franks and colorist Brad Anderson have done
this mostly right.
Doomsday Clock is not as tightly structured as Watchmen but it does present a multi-layered and nuanced story that rewards patience and attention to detail. Much like Alan Moore used Tales of the Black Freighter, the pirate comic book that runs in and out of Watchmen's narrative, John's employs scenes from a detective film noir featuring a private eye named Nathaniel Dusk* to seed clues to the larger story taking place.
* Nathaniel Dusk was featured in a pair of DC limited series back in the 1980s written by Don McGegor and illustrated by Gene Colan.
Issue #11 brings then to a penultimate point in our story. It seems that Doctor Manhattan has been poking around with the past, present and future of what we know as the DC Universe. For several issues, Doctor Manhattan has been obsessed with an unknowable future. He foresees a confrontation with Superman. The darkness. Nothing.
Does Doctor Manhattan die? Or is it the end of everything?
Issue #11 ends on this confrontation coming to fruition: Superman, his cape flowing in the breeze, faces off with Doctor Manhattan, his blue penis dangling in the breeze.
We also learn in this issue that Lex Luthor has a special insight to all the shenanigans going in with time and all the cosmic resets that bedevil all of existence.
There's a theory going around on the internet that Lex Luthor IS Doctor Manhattan.
Well, that is surely going to piss off Alan Moore.
Doomsday Clock#11 is not always an easy read. There are tons of exposition but there's a ton of plot to get in place before the 12th and final issue drops.
Sometime next year maybe?
Meanwhile, as Doomsday Clock is ticking down to its conclusion, DC appears to be lifting their embargo on a couple of super teams.
Over the course of Doomsday Clock, we have learned that Doctor Manhattan's manipulations have removed the Justice Society of America from history. When Lois Lane receives the data file from Lex Luthor with the 1940s newsreel footage of the JSA, Lois has not idea who these people are.
Over in Justice League#31. Green Lantern (John Stewart) and the Flash (Barry Allen) have gone back in time to fetch some damn artifact of power thingy to help in their war with the Legion of Doom. When GL and the Flash arrive in the past, they are greeted by the Justice Society of America. John and Barry have no idea who these people are, even the two who also call themselves Green Lantern and the Flash.
Also from Doomsday Clock, not only has the past been manipulated but the future is also left uncertain. Saturn Girl, the telepathic ace a thousand years hence, seems to be stranded on a 21st century world that is falling apart around her. Is the Legion of Super Heroes doomed to not come to pass?
In Superman#14, the issue ends with Superman, Supergirl and Superboy receiving a visit from the future, from the Legion of Super Heroes. The Legion looks at once familiar and different. (Look! Lightning Lad is black now!)
There is a new Legion series on the horizon from writer Brian Michael Bendis and that series gets a prequel of sorts in Legion of Super Heroes: Millennium#1. Fair warning: while this is a book with "Legion of Super Heroes" in the title, no one from the Legion appears in it. Instead the book is a history of the future that chronicles the DC Universe to come featuring Batman Beyond, Kamandi and Tommy Tomorrow, a chronicle of key points of the DC universe timeline over the next thousand years walking us right up to the doorstep of the arrival of the Legion.
It is a fun and engaging read, told through the eyes of an immortal character who has to live and endure each damn day of those one thousand years. It is a most unexpected character, Rose Forrest of Rose & the Thorn, a vigilante series that debuted in the early 1970s as a back up feature in Lois Lane's solo book.
The JSA and the Legion are important parts of my comics reading when I was kid back in the 1970s. They've been exiled from the DC line up for too long so it's good to see them come back.
Over in Doomsday Clock, the world appears to be spiralling towards oblivion. By issue #12, we will discover there is hope for this world of heroes yet.
Maybe?
Doomsday Clock is not as tightly structured as Watchmen but it does present a multi-layered and nuanced story that rewards patience and attention to detail. Much like Alan Moore used Tales of the Black Freighter, the pirate comic book that runs in and out of Watchmen's narrative, John's employs scenes from a detective film noir featuring a private eye named Nathaniel Dusk* to seed clues to the larger story taking place.
* Nathaniel Dusk was featured in a pair of DC limited series back in the 1980s written by Don McGegor and illustrated by Gene Colan.
Issue #11 brings then to a penultimate point in our story. It seems that Doctor Manhattan has been poking around with the past, present and future of what we know as the DC Universe. For several issues, Doctor Manhattan has been obsessed with an unknowable future. He foresees a confrontation with Superman. The darkness. Nothing.
Does Doctor Manhattan die? Or is it the end of everything?
Issue #11 ends on this confrontation coming to fruition: Superman, his cape flowing in the breeze, faces off with Doctor Manhattan, his blue penis dangling in the breeze.
We also learn in this issue that Lex Luthor has a special insight to all the shenanigans going in with time and all the cosmic resets that bedevil all of existence.
There's a theory going around on the internet that Lex Luthor IS Doctor Manhattan.
Well, that is surely going to piss off Alan Moore.
Doomsday Clock#11 is not always an easy read. There are tons of exposition but there's a ton of plot to get in place before the 12th and final issue drops.
Sometime next year maybe?
Meanwhile, as Doomsday Clock is ticking down to its conclusion, DC appears to be lifting their embargo on a couple of super teams.
Over the course of Doomsday Clock, we have learned that Doctor Manhattan's manipulations have removed the Justice Society of America from history. When Lois Lane receives the data file from Lex Luthor with the 1940s newsreel footage of the JSA, Lois has not idea who these people are.
Over in Justice League#31. Green Lantern (John Stewart) and the Flash (Barry Allen) have gone back in time to fetch some damn artifact of power thingy to help in their war with the Legion of Doom. When GL and the Flash arrive in the past, they are greeted by the Justice Society of America. John and Barry have no idea who these people are, even the two who also call themselves Green Lantern and the Flash.
Also from Doomsday Clock, not only has the past been manipulated but the future is also left uncertain. Saturn Girl, the telepathic ace a thousand years hence, seems to be stranded on a 21st century world that is falling apart around her. Is the Legion of Super Heroes doomed to not come to pass?
In Superman#14, the issue ends with Superman, Supergirl and Superboy receiving a visit from the future, from the Legion of Super Heroes. The Legion looks at once familiar and different. (Look! Lightning Lad is black now!)
There is a new Legion series on the horizon from writer Brian Michael Bendis and that series gets a prequel of sorts in Legion of Super Heroes: Millennium#1. Fair warning: while this is a book with "Legion of Super Heroes" in the title, no one from the Legion appears in it. Instead the book is a history of the future that chronicles the DC Universe to come featuring Batman Beyond, Kamandi and Tommy Tomorrow, a chronicle of key points of the DC universe timeline over the next thousand years walking us right up to the doorstep of the arrival of the Legion.
It is a fun and engaging read, told through the eyes of an immortal character who has to live and endure each damn day of those one thousand years. It is a most unexpected character, Rose Forrest of Rose & the Thorn, a vigilante series that debuted in the early 1970s as a back up feature in Lois Lane's solo book.
The JSA and the Legion are important parts of my comics reading when I was kid back in the 1970s. They've been exiled from the DC line up for too long so it's good to see them come back.
Over in Doomsday Clock, the world appears to be spiralling towards oblivion. By issue #12, we will discover there is hope for this world of heroes yet.
Maybe?
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