I'm missing the last few issues of Doomsday Clock, still, so I can't fully comment but I've been keeping up with the general series of events, including the final issue, and I gotta say... I ultimately dig it. It's definitely going to be controversial, not everyone will find it satisfying and still more will forever argue whether the series needs to exist at all, but I like what they came up with.
"Watchmen" was ultimately about cynical nihilism and "Doomsday Clock" is ultimately about hope and redemption - two themes which previously couldn't even be thought of as applicable to the Watchmen universe. But in the end they complement and "book-end" each other perfectly in their stylistically similar but thematically-opposite approach.
As a huge Superman fan, I can't help but enjoy the idea that Superman's example is so powerful that it can impact worlds where he doesn't even exist as an idea. It's consistent with many, many stories that have been told and re-told with the character for decades, the idea that the very concept of "Superman" and his heroic ideal is so powerful that he becomes an inevitability. "If for some reason Superman did not exist, somehow, eventually, he would." It's an idea Morrison and others have played with to great effect, and Manhattan's sacrifice at the end of Doomsday Clock definitely implies something to that effect. Even a "hopeless" world like that of "Watchmen" would ultimately, inevitably, have their "Superman". Not an unstoppable, all-powerful
Ubermensch like Manhattan himself, but rather a pure and incorruptible force of good, a symbol of Hope and an example to aspire towards. The fact that Manhattan's final "gift" to his own world was directly inspired by Superman himself, and how their brief interaction was enough to make Manhattan rethink and ultimately reject everything he'd ever believed in... that's powerful, powerful stuff. The hook with Dr. Manhattan was always that he was "beyond" such simple concepts as "Good" and "Evil", and yet, when he actually comes face-to-face with Superman, he realizes he was wrong; Absolute Good
does exist. He (and the reader) have been expecting a violent confrontation between the two for twelve issues, and in the end, when those expectations are subverted, he realizes that he was wrong to preemptively assume the worst would always happen simply because it always had. And in seeing that he was wrong, he decides to use his powers to do something Good for, really, the Very First Time Ever, to
really change his world for the better, something he'd previously insisted was pointless or couldn't be done at all.
It's like, he observed Superman through every different alternate timeline and scenario, screwed with his life and that of everyone else in the DCU, pretty much because "Why not?", and then, upon actually coming face-to-face with him, finally realizes the meaning of the simple truth that Superman has said time and time again: "There IS a Right and Wrong in the universe... and the distinction is not difficult to make."
To me, this is pretty neat. I can see someone who's a Watchmen purist or less of a Superman fan than I am feeling like the ending is "corny" or a cop-out, but I, a noted an outspoken cynic, think that's simply a very jaded and cynical opinion. I mean, they said from day one that it was ultimately a Superman story - which confused a lot of people since he wasn't in the series as much as they'd expected, but in the end it all makes sense. AND we get to more or less have the "real" DCU back, and the New 52 gets its own Earth in the Multiverse for the three people who care about it.
If someone hates the idea of Watchmen having a sequel at all, and especially hates the idea of mixing the DCU "proper" into it, they probably don't have any reason to read the series. But I don't think its existence hurts Watchmen one bit; it's still there as a standalone story, and anyone who wants to ignore this "sequel" can do so. But I think it's a satisfying sequel, companion piece
and opposing point of view that actually enriches Watchmen rather than cheapens it. Watchmen is grounded, Doomsday Clock is more fantastical. Watchman eschews and satirizes the DCU, Doomsday Clock embraces and glorifies it. Watchmen is about mankind not even being worth saving, Doomsday Clock is about a Hope so strong it can't be contained to a single universe.
I really,
really like that. I think it's even better than "more of the same as the original" would have been. Most writers, tasked with doing a sequel to Watchmen, would certainly have gone with "more of the same", because it's safe and it's easy. Johns, who has often been accused of many things as a writer, definitely didn't play it safe with his approach and I applaud him for it. Doing a "sequel" that both perfectly complements while totally subverting the original had to have been a daunting task, indeed. They're the same, but completely opposite... like Superman and Manhattan, themselves, in a sense. Two diametrically-opposed interpretations of the fundamental "Superman" idea... it only makes sense that, in the end, everything revolves around Them/Him.
It's not a perfect story by any means; as I said, I'm missing issues but it definitely sounds like the story was being booked on the fly a little bit towards the end over the last few, thanks to delays and things changing in Editorial at DC along the way, but I'm pretty sure this was how it was always going to end. I think some of the subplots and supporting cast were ultimately moved around or trimmed down from what they were originally planned to be in order to get the damn books done, and that's unfortunate. BUT, knowing DC, I have little to no doubt that there will be a Collected Edition, probably Expanded and in hardcover, with tons of extra pages that didn't make the cut this time around. So hopefully some of that stuff will be given more room to breathe at that point. It sucks for those who have been following it in single-issues, but a lot of people have been waiting for the collection with this series, anyway, especially with all the delays.
I'm going to try and go to the shop this weekend and see if I can pick up the issues I'm missing. I've enjoyed it a ton so far but I've been nervous how they'd stick the landing, and I'm really, really happy with the pages I've seen so far.
Good stuff.