Doomsday Clock Parts 1 and 2

 

Some of the multiverse/alternative timeline stories from DC can be a bit iffy, but I am still a huge Watchman fan and have dug the various offshoots that I have read, so when I saw these at our local library (support your libraries!), I definitely wanted to check them out.

We start in the Watchmen's world where chaos reigns as Ozymandias' plot to bring the world together was uncovered when Rorschach's diary was found and verified. So, while there was a brief respite in world affairs, life is now worse than ever and at the brink of destruction. Ozy is determined to find Dr. Manhattan and plead with him to right the wrongs and finds him in the Batman/Superman timeline, which is also at the brink as superpowered beings are causing more harm than good. Accompanied by an unlikely new Rorschach, the future's Legion of Super Heroes' Saturn Girl, Johnny Thunder (master of Thunderbolt) and villains the Marionette and the Mime, they encounter many of the new world's heroes (and some villains) and indeed find Dr. Manhattan, who has his own agenda, of course.

Since it is a multiverse tale involving Dr. Manhattan, it gets even more convoluted than the usual multiverse tales but it turns out that the good (?) doctor realizes that he still has more to learn and also realizes that he himself is creating new timelines but they revolve around Superman, the epicenter of that universe, for some unknown reason. 

There are cameos and heroes galore here - pretty much the entire super-powered (and even mystical) population of Superman's world - and fights, violence'n'gore, pontifications, and an eventual resolution. Not sure that I would agree that Superman should be the center of any universe, but an interesting concept, regardless, and plenty of twists'n'turns throughout. Fans of the Watchmen will certainly want to check it out.