Comic Review: Doomsday Clock #8

Doomsday Clock #8

DC Comics

Writer: Geoff Johns

Artist: Gary Frank

 ‘What the hell are you doing?’

Another issue of Doomsday Clock, another set of reviews saying ‘this is all moving a bit slow isn’t it?’.
I’ll get that out of the way now so we don’t have to keep bringing it up later; it still seems that Geoff Johns has forgotten that he’s only got a limited number of issues to tell this story and he’s on #8 already.
Here’s hoping he can stick the landing right?

‘Who wants to go to Moscow?’

The main story for this issue revolves around Firestorm, who has traveled to Russia and inexplicably started attacking The People’s Heroes for their character assassination of him. As the fight continues, Firestorm explodes in anger and transmutes a crowd of Russian civilians into glass. This doesn’t go down well (obviously) and Firestorm is branded a criminal.

Though I could be wrong, I believe this is the first time we’ve seen Superman in a significant capacity in Doomsday Clock and it definitely doesn’t go well. It becomes increasingly apparent that Superman’s good nature is allowing him to be manipulated by a certain blue-skinned nudist, as he can’t help but stand up for Firestorm in the wake of their accident.

He first travels to Kahndaq, where we see Black Adam and the various metahumans who have taken refuge with him. Adam tells Superman he shouldn’t believe everything he sees or hears and that Firestorm isn’t there, but that the Superman Theory is true. Interestingly he also mentions Bashar Al-Assadin Syria as a Russian puppet; though it’s not unusual for comics to comment on current political events, this still struck me as a bold move and one that could be taken differently than intended.

At the end of the issue, as the situation has spiraled further out of control, we see Firestorm and Superman engulfed in a very familiar blue light that knocks out the cameras watching the events unfold. It appears that Superman has fallen into the trap that Manhattan had set for him; manipulating Firestorm to harm the civilians then making sure his attempts at peace-making fail and thus seriously harming his reputation as a hero for the world and not America.

 ‘Who the hell are the Justice Society of America?’

After learning last issue that the JSA were removed from history by a Tobias Funke cosplayer, we see Lois Lane receive a flash drive with video evidence of their WW2-era exploits. Serving as a mirror for Rorschach’s journal in the original Watchmen series, it’ll be interesting to see how this angle develops with Lois at the forefront. Will she find Johnny Thunder and subsequently Saturn Girl and Rorshach-no-longer? I’m hoping that she gets a bit more to do in the story and that Manhattan’s big plan to fuck everything up is spoiled by a normal human with no powers.

At this point, I’m still not really sure how Doomsday Clock is going to end but I’m guessing that Jay Garrick escaping the Speed Force and giving Doctor Manhattan the old one-two probably isn’t the most likely scenario. So long as Superman doesn’t convince DM of the value of humanity and their mistakes and how that makes them wonderful etc etc, causing the big blue guy to shed a single tear and then undo all of DC editorial’s bad decisions before flying away.

If that happens, then I might be a bit mad, but hey at least we’d undo all those deaths in Heroes in Crisis.