How does one go beyond a multiverse? To put it simply, like an old rerun of Emeril Live… you kick that sucker up a notch!
But we’ll get there.
For the moment let’s turn our attention to the aftermath of the events that transpired in Doomsday Clock Issue #9. If anyone hasn’t officially called it the Manhattan Metahuman Mars Massacre, I’m totally claiming it right now. That kind of alliteration should not go unacknowledged. But yes, a better chunk of the DC Comic Universe flew to the Red Planet to be easily defeated by our favorite naked blue Watchman. Seriously, like seventy plus years of graphic iconography all wiped out. However I feel if the Avengers franchise hadn’t beat Geoff Johns to the idea of an epic obliteration of comic book personas, with the potential to bring them back, Issue #9 would have made a hell lot more of an impact.
You ever notice how a real popular movie or a show will execute a plot point so damn well it basically screws other movies or shows out of similar ideas? Avengers totally owns the destruction of a story universe angle. Just as Game Of Thrones ruined turning a central protagonist from good to bad for about ten years of television. One might view this like a challenge for writing staffs in the never ending quest for originality because there’s no denying if millions of people all see the same plot twist, it’s going to be hard for lightning to strike again in a different part of town.
Ok… so back to Doomsday Clock. Being that the previous installment was such a spectacle, I figured we’d be back to one of the series’ toned down, yet more revealing issues. I’m telling you they’re taking a page straight out of the Lindelof Lost playbook. This would be the fourth time since the run began that Johns and Frank followed a major plot twist ending with a chapter that’s more for the story’s sake than the action’s.
Remember how the original Watchmen had Tales Of The Black Freighter? Doomsday Clock is doing something similar though there’s no separate cohesion. Freighter wasn’t technically relevant to Alan Moore’s story but the little anecdotes in Doomsday Clock are used for exposing secrets of the DC Universe (not the streaming service).
So what was the big reveal in Chapter Ten, entitled Action? Turns out, if you couldn’t tell from the Manhattan Metahuman Mars Massacre, Dr. Manhattan is solidified as one of three core antagonists we’ve seen so far. Ozymandias and Lex Luthor being the other two.
Though from the frame above… something may not be how it seems.
Our journey starts at Dr. Manhattan’s teleported departure from the original Watchmen Universe to the current DC Universe where he becomes infatuated with of Superman. And I mean he wants to know everything in his typical Manhattan sort of way. He meets Carver Coleman, a homeless man who eight months from now will be offered a movie role that’s life changing. Coleman is the random character constant in this issue that provides an anchor of unity while Manhattan’s voice over narration carries us through the pages. Their repeated discussions at a diner, combined with a visual history of DC Superheroes explains the origins of the Metahuman.
Everything starts with Superman, then evolves to the Justice Society Of America (which includes the original non-Barry Allen Flash and Green Lantern), then Multiverses, then the big twist. So where things get interesting is that Carver Coleman’s outlook is always the same. Superman’s keeps changing. Sometimes there are instances of the Man Of Steel never existing. All because Dr. Manhattan repeatedly alters the past to challenge the future.
And here’s what we learn… Superman is the center of the current DC Comic Universe. Dr. Manhattan came from the Watchmen Universe, which is a part of the DC Multiverse, that the current DC Comic Universe is the center of, which technically makes Superman the heart and souls of this whole concept. Events that happen in the current DC Comic Universe, ripple into the DC Multiverse. Even creating more Universes, fifty-two of them to be exact, maybe… the “New 52”? And in making these changes to the timeline, Manhattan realizes what’s happening is a part of a “Metaverse”.
Now Wikipedia actually defines the Metaverse as a collective virtual shared space. And in this collective virtual shared space, 3D virtual spaces (DC Universes) are linked together. And things that happen in one 3D virtual space (Current DC Comics Universe) can effect the others. This differs from a Multiverse in the sense that a Multiverse is a series of actual Universes. For the sake of comics, the Universes in the Multiverse unite under the banner of DC, while maintaining independent storylines.
So in short; what Dr. Manhattan did created everything in the known DC Comic Universe… I think.
Dr. Manhattan has shaped this Metaverse, and now it has turned against him. He is the villain of the world he had a hand in making. And there’s only one man who can stop him… Superman.
So now we know where Dr. Manhattan’s Superman super hard on came from. Big Blue has been watching him since a spacecraft crashed into a Kansas farm. Learning everything about Supes leads up to that single moment where two of DC’s greatest forces come face to face for an epic showdown.
And if you’re wondering about Carver Coleman… he dies. Killed by his own mother who resented him for being gay. An awful outcome to a rising star.
So we got Dr. Manhattan vs. Superman. Black Adam and his group of Metahumans making their move against humanity. The U.S. and Russia are at it again. A world on the brink of chaos with only one question remaining… exactly who will do the most damage?
I’ll see you in two months.
By Adam Chmielewski
@PolishKaiju
Photo Credits- DC Comics
Who would win… Superman or Dr. Manhattan? Let Nerdbot know in the comments!!
