Review: Doomsday Clock #2

Quick Summary

Pros: The Marionette and Mime are even better characters than before. A lot of potential is built up here to be played out later in the series. There are some epic moments where characters meet.

Cons: There is a brief moment of rather unnatural dialogue in the issue.

Overall: While the first issue of this series set-up the plot and introduced the characters, this one gets them to where they need to go. Because of this, there are not as many mind-blowing fights and earth-shattering revelations, but it does open the door for a lot to happen in the future. Plus, it has plenty of charming character moments and interesting meetings, even if the plot is not advanced much through these. If you’re interested in reading this series any further, this is not an issue to miss.

Story

Doomsday Clock #2 is harder to quantify than Doomsday Clock #1 (Review). This is because Doomsday Clock #2 is a transitionary issue, one that moves the story forward but does not provide quite as many amazing moments or shocking revelations on its own. Instead, the focus here is on building potential, which could be good or bad depending on how the rest of the series turns out. By no means does this make the issue itself bad though, as there are moments of drama and comedy here that would put most comics to shame, especially with how high the stakes are. Overall, this is not a mind-blowing issue, like the last one, but is a necessary step in the saga that Geoff Johns is telling.

(spoilers start here)

Most of the issue’s beginning takes place in a flashback. Here the Marionette and Mime are in the process of robbing a bank before they are stopped by Doctor Manhattan himself. He almost destroys the couple but is stopped when he realizes that the Marionette is pregnant. They are then handcuffed and lead away by a S.W.A.T. team, presumably to the prison where we discover them in Doomsday Clock #1 (Review).

One of my favorite aspects of Doomsday Clock #1 (Review) was the quirky humor and charming relationship between the Marionette and Mime, so seeing it again here was a blast. The two are ridiculous and funny while not pushing the limits too far by becoming Deadpool/Harley Quinn-type characters. That same dynamic returns here in a way that is sure to provide some laughs and brevity in an otherwise serious piece.

However, alongside these charming moments, is one of the book’s worst moments. While the bank robbery goes on, the bank manager is so over-the-top and brazen in his reaction that it seems completely unnatural. This harsh dialogue helps set him up as a villain and softens our perception of the Marionette when she attacks him, but feels out of place in doing so. It really is the only moment of this series that I have taken issue to so far and is a only a brief moment at that.

The other side of this flashback is how it relates to the epic as a whole. By having Manhattan spare the life of a small child, Geoff Johns is asserting that Manhattan believes in the potential for this child to be different from his parents. In essence, this is a return to hope as a theme and a moment of foreshadowing. With Superman being the ultimate symbol of hope, it will be interesting to see how this theme ends up relaying Johns’ message.

The rest of the story details the journey of Ozymandias’ team into the normal DC Universe, where they begin their initial interactions with its denizens. Rorschach meets Batman and Ozymandias meets Lex Luthor. Though neither pair has much time to interact, the sheer importance of these meetings adds an additional level of epic suspense to the interaction. With the entire premise of this series hinging on these worlds colliding, this is a slower paced but necessary moment.

The issue ends with more up in the air than ever before. The Watchmen cast is in the DC Universe, numerous characters are just beginning to talk to each other, the Marionette and Mime are on the loose, and the Comedian is back somehow. As discussed earlier, there is a lot of potential here and, if it all works out well, this issue will be remembered fondly as the place where a lot of it started.

(spoilers end here)

Art

To absolutely no one’s surprise, Gary Frank does another fantastic job with the second issue of Doomsday Clock. Characters, buildings, vehicles, and locations all look great and have the level of detail readers have come to expect from Frank’s work. Plus, all of the character designs are done well and the costumes for the Marionette and Mime are imaginative while still sticking to the gritty and realistic tone established for characters in Watchmen.

My favorite artistic bits in this issue revolved around Frank’s use of the same style transitions that Dave Gibbons used in Watchmen. In Watchmen, Gibbons would often end a page by focusing in on an image and start the next page by using that same image in a different way. In Doomsday Clock #2, readers see this on a page that focuses on Rorschach’s mask in order to start the next page with Batman looking at an ink blot test. This is just one example of this happening as the other examples would be too filled with spoilers to detail here, especially since many of them are done in order to emphasize important and previously unrevealed plot points. These moments are great and help connect this series to the previous one.

Continuity

Doomsday Clock #2 is the continuation of a brand new deluxe series from DC Comics. The series directly continues the story of Watchmen and started with Doomsday Clock #1 (Review). It also continues stories started in DC Universe: Rebirth (Review), The Button, and Superman: The Oz Effect.

The series will continue in Doomsday Clock #3.