How The 'Watchmen' Characters Get To The DC Universe Revealed

Spoilers ahead for Doomsday Clock #2, on sale today.

During the second issue of Geoff Johns, Gary Frank and Brad Anderson's Watchmen sequel Doomsday Clock, Ozymandias brought the new Rorschach and their kinda/sorta allies the Marionette and the Mime to the DC Universe, setting their plot to recover Doctor Manhattan in motion and providing the first (and second and third) major meetings between the characters from Watchmen and members of the DC Universe proper.

Of course, the world of Watchmen is not much like the DC Universe, and some fans have long wondered how the non-powered Ozymandias and company would manage to travel the multiverse -- something that typically takes a character with Superman or The Flash-level speed and skill to do.

The answer? Well, it's a bit shaky, but it centers on using Doctor Manhattan's own energy, paired with Ozymandias's genius.

Ozymandias explains that, through the procedure in which he managed to disrupt Doctor Manhattan's energy field in Watchmen and create a fog through which Manhattan's "time vision" would not work, he discovered that Manhattan's blue energy leaves a trail of electrons that can be traced.

"There are billions of people on this planet," Ozymandias tells his allies. "Every living being has a unique intrinsic field that holds their atoms together. A quantum fingerprint made up of the four fundamental forces of nature: electromagnetic, strong interaction, weak interaction, and gravity. Jon's intrinsic field was removed twice. First, in his initial accident, and...secondly by me. I discovered then that his blue appearance is a result of electrons leaking from his body. Those electrons have left us a trail to follow today....Rebuilding the Owlship to withstand quantum tunnelling took more time than I anticipated."

In otherworse, the actual "vibrating through the multiverse" element of traveling to the DC Universe is not specifically addressed -- although the question of how they found Doctor Manhattan and "followed" him is -- sort of.

A souped-up Archimedes (as implied above, Nite-Owl's ship) now features a button that has Doctor Manhattan's logo on it, allowing the craft to follow Manhattan wherever he may go.

(And, yes, while they do not specifically address vibrational frequencies, the travel involves a good deal of vibration.)

Doomsday Clock #2 is available in stores and online now. You can get one at your local comics retailer (which you can find here) or pre-order a digital copy now.