Doomsday Clock #10 Review

Writer: Geoff Johns / Artist: Gary Frank / DC Comics Things had sped up considerably on Doomsday Clock, so it makes sense to slow down a bit before the big finale. With two issues left, we spend the entire issue with Doctor Manhattan still grappling to understand what happens to the future. Or more acutely, the future that he has altered. Even including the Watchmen itself, this might be the closest and most concentrated read have had of Jon. We are taken through his experimentation with the multiverse and metaverse. Johns does a great job of this construction of Big Blue (ya know, the other Big Blue) as his lone motivation is to understand everything around him, which like a good scientist means controlled experimentation. The use of a non-hero or significant figure to navigate Jon’s way through time underscores the banal nature of it all. It is all insignificant to him until it is not. There isn’t forward movement on the plot, one that was sprinting straight ahead up to this point, but there is a welcome introspection with the series most important character. After learning that he might be somewhat vulnerable in the last issue, we now see Jon contemplating some emotional response as he tries to make sense of the future. Or lack thereof. It does leave a lot of heavy lifting for only two issues in, but it has squarely set up the confrontation with Superman that was teased from the very beginning.

Frank continues to do the Lord’s work on this book, and I’ve become a broken r…