Earlier this month, DC released the first six pages of Doomsday Clock #1, and there is a lot to unpack.
Writer Geoff Johns has said that he and artist Gary Frank can spend hours poring over a single panel, and that effort shows in what has been released so far: the six pages made available to fans at New York Comic Con are packed with content, plot, dialogue, meaning, and politics.
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So much so, in fact, that when we sat down to try and break down the first six pages, we found that 2,000 words in, we had just barely finished writing about the first page.
You can check out our deep dive into the first page of the miniseries here. Here is our look at the second.
For starters: the second page is laid out in a mirror image of the second page from Watchmen #1.
Let’s get moving through the page — and let us know if we (somehow) missed something at @comicbook!
Panel 1
In panel 1, a brick crashes through a window, while Rorschach narrates “We shattered the American dream.”
The brick, like many of the objects in the book so far, is angled in such a way that it would point to 11 o’clock on the Doomsday Clock. It’s worth noting that items oriented in that way are not new to Doomsday Clock and were present throughout Watchmen, so it likely is not a Johns/Frank thing but a Moore/Gibbons thing.
Or else we are just reading too much into it.
The broken glass in the panel mirrors the broken window from throughout Watchmen‘s second page.
Panel 2
In the second panel of Watchmen‘s second page, a police officer says “Looks like someone broke in by bustin’ this door down.”
The corollary page for Doomsday Clock features a crowd of protesters spilling out of the streets and into Veidt’s building through the shattered glass.
Ironically, it was Veidt who broke into The Comedian’s apartment before the start of Watchmen.
Not really a deep cut, but it is worth mentioning the the fountain seen here is the same one Veidt fought a man in front of in Watchmen #5.
Again, the protest sign is pointing to 11 o’clock.
Panel 3
The Vice President is mentioned here and on page two of Watchmen as well. In the context of Doomsday Clock, though, it’s worth noting that it is likely not Gerald Ford, who was the Vice President in Watchmen.
Why? Well, later in the issue they refer to the President winning an election based on an anti-Ozymandias platform. Since this story takes place in mid-November 1992, it would have taken place shortly after the 1992 election.
That said, the President is referred to as the President, not the President-elect, and the new President would not have been inaugurated yet. This suggests the world of Watchmen has had the same President since 1988.
It is not clear whether Ronald Reagan won election in 1988; in Watchmen, a headline in one of the later issues indicated that he was mulling a run for the office.
When we spoke with Geoff Johns at New York Comic Con, he indicated that he had not yet decided on the President’s name, which seems like it wasn’t Nixon.
The Vice President shooting someone felt at first like it was a reference to a 2006 hunting accident in which then-Vice President Dick Cheney shot a friend of his in the face. Obviously, it got darker than that quickly…
It is unlikely that the “fifth hour, seventeen hostages” line is a reference to anything specific. On page 17 of Watchmen #5, the story leaves Ozymandias’s fountain and moves to the Tales of the Black Freighter. In the background, you can see Walter Kovacs walking around with his protest sign.
Panel 4
There is a dark comedy in the reference to “a hole in one” while the police officer shoots a protester.
The action is coming in from the top left, making the whole panel another 11 o’clock beat.
And of course, the reference to the President golfing while the world falls apart is likely a shot at current U.S. President Donald Trump, who spends most weekends at golf courses he owns through his private holdings.
Panel 5
The Russian military movements into Eastern Europe were a major part of the threat looming over the geopolitical landscape during Watchmen.
For the most part, in the years since the end of the Cold War, that would have felt like an anachronism…but Russian attempts to destabilize the U.S. elections have thrust them back to the forefront.
Apparently in the world of Watchmen, the European Union was founded and collapsed before it ever even came into being in the real world.
Panel 6
Again, the body in the fountain is likely a call back to when Ozymandias killed his “attacker’ in Watchmen #5.
The body, also, is oriented in the 11 o’clock position.
Panel 7
North Korea as a political and military threat is a nod to current events, as the Soviet Union was in the original Watchmen.
The sign, too, is oriented in the direction of “danger” on the Doomsday Clock.
As seen on page 1, there is a sleeve that looks very much like one that Dave Gibbons used to draw, keeping the fashion of Earth-Watchmen intact.
In another reference to Trump policies, we have a mention of a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico, which is being torn down so that Americans can flee nuclear war. The parallels between that wall coming down and the breaking and entering into Veidt is likely intentional too.
Panel 8
The 1:07 time (or 11:07?) on the TV news chyron is likely going to be important later, since time and clocks are always significant in Watchmen.
There is something to be said for the President’s golf clubs being parallel to the Korean missiles, maybe implying that the President spending so much time not doing his job is as big a threat to national security as the threats of international agents.
