Doomsday Clock #11 Review

writer: Geoff Johns / artist: Gary Frank / DC As it happens in the comic book business, just when a book hits full stride and begins to barrel towards the finish, the delays hit. We haven’t gotten a Doomsday Clock issue since May, but thankfully the comeback issue doesn’t meander; it gives readers exactly what they need. The first half of issue #11 shows the total chaos that has happened in the wake of the culminating events. To catch you up on the most pertinent items: Jon aka Mr. Manhattan completely washed all the superheros up on Mars. Their absence created an opening for Black Adam and his crew of metas to invade America. Putin has issued a deadline to hand over the injured Superman to the U.S., and Lex came to Lois’ side claiming to have cracked this whole thing wide open. I know, it’s a lot, but yo, a lot is happening. Back to the present, the full scale chaos is rendered well in the panels. Several times the news jumps from parts of the world where different phenomena or social unrest is exploding, basically just as Ozymandias had planned (we’ll get back to him in a minute). It’s also interesting to see how different factions react to the chaos and how invested they are in either protecting their interest or helping to save the world. Often, the two aren’t mutually exclusive (looking at you Amazons).

The Lex discovery is on-brand and works well to ground the story in the middle ground, explaining the phenomenon of Jon and how he has had a profound influence on thei…