Bullet Review: Doomsday Clock #12

It took a long time ... a very long time ... but Doomsday Clock finally finished this month.

My hope is to reread it in its entirety, in one sitting, at some point soon.

In the end, it is a Superman story.

It is a love letter to DC Continuity.

In many ways, it is a love letter to Watchmen too.

And it goes a long way to say a simple message, Superman is the heart of the DC Universe and he always will be.

The Watchmen shouldn't be the template upon which the DCU is built.

It is Superman and all he represents.

Now did we need this heavy, sometimes clunky, perpetually delayed book to get us there? To tell us what many of us already know? Will it matter to the powers that be as we continue to be mired in the Year of the Villain, a time when this message sat next to Batman/Superman #5, an issue where six of the best heroes are corrupted?

I can only hope.

Because every Superman fan should read this story or at the very least this issue. I'll let others pore over the panels and the plots in detail.

Moreover, every Supergirl fan should also read this issue as well.

Writer Geoff Johns grew up a DC fan and it shows in this work. He loves the JSA. He loves the Legion. And he loves DC history.

So Supergirl fans should be thrilled to know that as he explains how the shunting of Superman's legend forward in time with each Crisis is the center of the DC Universe, that every other continuity remains intact somewhere.

That means out there is Earth-1985, a world unexplored even today.

Look at that, a headbanded Kara, smiling next to Superman and a classic JLA, out there, ready for new stories.

Yes, she died in that Crisis. I think that remains intact. But that Earth is there.

Classic Supergirl fans should be elated right now. For many of us, this is our Supergirl.

And then that simple point, something Johns hammers home as he postulates what future Crises will be, what future timelines will be built upon.

"No matter how many times Superman's existence is attacked, he will survive.

Even if change is constant.

Because hope is the North Star of the metaverse."

Superman and the hope he represents is what should guide the DC Universe.

Pretty simple ... isn't it?

Now one thing that may impact the current universe is that Johns brings back the concept of Superboy in the current DCU. And he undoes one of the biggest things that Grant Morrison brought to the New 52 DCU, the death of the Kents in a car accident.

Will the Kents be alive in the Bendis books moving forward? Is this a change that occurs in the New 52 timeline but not in the smudgy Rebirth one? I guess we'll have to find out.

Would I recommend Doomsday Clock as a whole? Yes. The Gary Frank art alone is worth it.
Will I reread it? Yes. But I don't know how often I'll revisit it.

In the end, so much of this was just verbose and intricate padding to get us to a simple message ...

Posted in: Reviews