Before we dig into Doomsday Clock issue #2, a quick addition from issue #1. The story's start date of November 22 is significant for several reasons, but we missed mentioning one of the more notable. On November 22, 1959, the familiar glowing blue form of Doctor Manhattan first appeared, hovering over his colleagues in the Gila Flats Test Base cafeteria. You can check out the first issue's complete annotation here.

As you might expect, Doomsday Clock plays around with timelines in some interesting ways; but that's not all we have to discuss today. Clearly there will be SPOILERS from here on out, so grab your copy of issue #2 and follow along!

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Doomsday Clock issue #2 was written by Geoff Johns, drawn by Gary Frank, colored by Brad Anderson and lettered by Rob Leigh. Brian Cunningham was the Editor, with Amedeo Turturro as Associate Editor.

(By the way, one of the creative team's nicer "retro" touches is the inclusion of actual page numbers on the story pages. They are very much appreciated.)

Two Clowns Walk Into A Bank (Pages 1-10)

At Rockefeller Military Research Center
Rorschach visits Doctor Manhattan and Silk Spectre at their military home

The issue's first sequence may inadvertently tell us something about how closely D-Clock will or won't follow Watchmen's structure. Over its first six issues, Watchmen focused alternately on present-day events and character-specific flashbacks. Issue #1 concerned the Comedian's death, so issue #2 revealed his backstory. Doctor Manhattan left Earth in issue #3, and we learned his origins in issue #4. The police caught Rorschach in issue #5, so issue #6 was his origin. Issues #7 and 8 were Nite Owl-centric, so he didn't get a flashback issue as such; while Silk Spectre's flashbacks were in issue #9 and Ozymandias' were in issue #11.

While two issues might not be enough to establish a pattern (particularly considering this story's wider scope), clearly this issue isn't all character-specific flashbacks. Granted, D-Clock doesn't have to do as much world-building as Watchmen did. So far it's only introduced a handful of new characters, and probably isn't done with the familiar ones. In short, D-Clock looks to be much more plot-intensive than Watchmen was.

RELATED: Doomsday Clock: How The Watchmen Characters Arrive In The DC Universe

At any rate, while Johns and Frank play around a little, structurally, this sequence involves Ozymandias watching archive footage of Mime and Marionette robbing a bank, as the present-day pair reclaim their costumes and equipment. The sequence becomes a complete flashback on Page 4, reverting to the present on Page 9. It's a well-executed manipulation of the timeline, and may even be as subtle as some of Watchmen's structural feats.

Page 1's reference to The Tailor's Wife, a/k/a "this woman out in Jersey" who sold supervillain costumes and codenames, may well remind longtime DC fans of Paul Gambi, sartorial consultant to the Flash's Rogues' Gallery. Created by John Broome and Carmine Infantino, Gambi first appeared in December 1963's The Flash issue #141 and became a fixture. He lasted well into the Wally West era, where his ultimate creation "The Suit" broke Wally's legs (November 1997's Flash vol. 2 #130; written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar and pencilled by Paul Ryan). Not to be outdone, Paul's brother Peter Gambi designed Black Lightning's first costume (as per April 1977's Black Lightning #1, written by Tony Isabella and pencilled by Trevor von Eeden).

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Ozymandias' "[w]e're all considered criminals" line is a rough restatement of a Batman line from Watchmen's equally-influential cousin, 1986's alternate-future The Dark Knight Returns (issue #3; by Frank Miller, Klaus Janson and Lynn Varley, like you didn't know). Superman remembers Batman laughing, "Sure, we're criminals. We've always been criminals. We have to be criminals." Perhaps tellingly, Batman says this in the context of outside investigations from "parents' groups and [a] sub-committee," as part of a social and governmental movement which drove the superheroes underground and left only Superman as the sole government-sponsored superhero.

Although this sequence must take place no later than October 1985, as in D-Clock issue #1 Johns incorporates a very 2017 social issue. Here it's workplace misogyny, courtesy of Julia's brutally-insensitive boss Mr. Mangold.

RELATED: Has Dr. Manhattan Been Disguised As A DC Superhero All Along?

The interest-rate poster on Page 7, Panel 2 features a couple frolicking under a very mushroom-cloud-shaped tree. Forget the Fed, refinance before it's really too late!

Mr. Mangold's shouty reference to "Rockefeller" might seem at first to mean Rockefeller Center in the heart of New York City. His you-are-nothing rant at Julia suggests that their customers at "Rockefeller" are wealthy and powerful. However, as we see on page 8, he's really talking about Rockefeller Military Research Center, home of Doctor Manhattan (and depending on the timeframe, probably Laurie Juspeczyk).

Page 9's "Babum" captions represent another break (albeit through a loophole) from Watchmen's no-sound-effects rule. In fact, the "babum" might remind latter-day Green Lantern fans of the literal pulse-pounding which accompanied the Red Lanterns. Here, though, it signals that Doctor Manhattan senses Marionette's unborn child.

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Escape From New York (Pages 11-13)

Too bad about the cat
Ozymandias kills Doctor Manhattan (sort of) and his cat (maybe)

Page 11 begins with a particularly on-the-nose reference, but subverts expectations fairly quickly (and fairly well). We learn on Page 13 that Archie (a/k/a the Owl Ship) never flew above New York, because it only needed to "quantum tunnel" from the Owl Cave to the skies above DC-Earth's Gotham City ... but we're getting too far ahead.

It is no exaggeration to say that "Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! IT'S SUPERMAN!" is one of the most evocative, if not iconic, phrases in all of pop culture. Not only does it describe the exhilaration of seeing the famous figure in flight, its call-and-response nature makes it a shared experience. Debuting as the introduction to the "Adventures of Superman" radio serial, it began in 1940 as "Up in the sky! Look!" but by September 1945 the phrase had been reversed into its more familiar form. All that said, it is still pretty dark for Johns to use these phrases as the prelude to nuclear annihilation.

RELATED: Does Doomsday Clock #1 Tease One of DC’s Three Jokers?

Page 11 also features Ozymandias' discussion of the "intrinsic field" possessed by every living being. We're not evaluating the science behind it (although the four forces are obviously real), but Ozy does seem to go farther into it than Watchmen did. Wally Weaver comes closest in Watchmen issue #4 when he explains, "What if there's some field holdin' stuff together, apart from gravity?"

On the other hand, quantum tunneling is apparently a real thing, or at least as real as quantum physics ever gets. Here Veidt uses Archie to "quantum tunnel" to DC-Earth, perhaps because he's never heard of the vibrational frequencies separating the various other parallel DC universes. We've covered a good bit of this over in the Metal annotations, so for those not in the know, basically you can travel between Earths by adjusting your body's particular molecular vibration rate. If you're not a super-speedster, you probably need something like a Cosmic Treadmill or Transmatter Cube. Now, it could also be the case that manipulating one's vibratory frequency is just another version of quantum tunneling, but I guess we'll have to wait until Ozymandias and one of the Flashes hash it out.

Regardless, mentioning quantum physics makes us wonder whether we'll see the main-line Captain Atom in this miniseries. The Captain Atom which DC relaunched after Crisis On Infinite Earths – i.e., the one who Alan Moore ended up not being able to use in Watchmen – had powers which came from tapping into the "quantum field."

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Hunt The Dark Knight (Pages 14-15)

No means no
Metamorpho Says "No!"

Just as one of Superman's familiar shout-outs was referenced in the Watchmen world, Page 14 uses Bruce Wayne's HR department to echo Rorschach's infamous "pretty butterfly" session from Watchmen issue #6. The analyst even wears a bow tie, like Watchmen's Doctor Long did.

For all intents and purposes, Lucius Fox (mentioned on page 14, seen on page 15) runs Wayne Enterprises for Bruce Wayne. Only recently has he learned that Bruce is Batman; although his cinematic counterpart (played by Morgan Freeman in the Christopher Nolan-directed Batman movies) knew virtually from the start of Batman's career. Len Wein and John Calnan created Lucius for January 1979's Batman issue #307. Lucius' son Luke fights crime as the second Batwing.

RELATED: Doomsday Clock: Did Doctor Manhattan Kill Superman’s Parents?

Lucius is just the start of Page 15's main-line DC references. Bill Finger and Lew Sayre Schwartz created The Mad Hatter, a/k/a Jervis Tetch, based on the character from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures In Wonderland. He first appeared in October 1948's Batman #49. "The twins" likely refers to two other Carroll/Alice-inspired villains, Tweedledum and Tweedledee. Bob Kane, Jerry Robinson and Don Cameron created the Tweedles for April 1943's Detective Comics #74.

Although "LexCorp" was first mentioned in February 1986's Superman issue #416 (as part of a glimpse into the future from writer Elliott S! Maggin and artists Curt Swan and Al Williamson), Lex Luthor's role as head of the eponymous multinational corporation was largely a creation of 1986's Superman reboot. When it began several months later, writer/artist John Byrne, writer Marv Wolfman and penciller Jerry Ordway laid the foundation for the Luthor we have today. The "new" Luthor had an ominous cameo in October 1986's Man of Steel #2 (by Byrne and inker Dick Giordano), his first full appearance was in issue #4; and LexCorp Tower first appeared in February 1987's Superman vol. 2 issue #2 (by Byrne and inker Terry Austin). Naturally, Luthor himself was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and first appeared in April 1940's Action Comics #23.

Page 15 also continues the decades-old rivalry between Wayne Enterprises and LexCorp. On one level this is a classic battle between a good company and an evil one; but in the context of latter-day DC continuity it takes on a new dimension. See, Lex Luthor joined the Justice League in October 2014's Justice League #33 (written by Geoff Johns and pencilled by Doug Manhke); and in so doing revealed that he knew Batman's secret identity. Thus, Luthor's latest heel turn is even more precarious for Bruce Wayne all the way around.

Rex "Metamorpho" Mason was created by Bob Haney and Ramona Fradon and first appeared in January 1965's The Brave and the Bold issue #57. An archaeologist working for the wealthy Simon Stagg, Rex was turned into a patchwork "element man" after being exposed to an ancient Egyptian artifact. If "ancient Egypt" makes you think of Ozymandias, let's put a pin in that for now, because it may be important later. Doomsday Clock's revisionist backstories are certainly reminiscent of Ozy's "Doctor Manhattan causes cancer" campaign, although that may be Doctor Manhattan's own ironic way to discredit a new Earth's super-people.

Frank Robbins, Neal Adams and Julius Schwartz created Kirk "Man-Bat" Langstrom. A biologist whose experiments ended up making him into a shape-shifting bat-creature (complete with wings on his arms and an echolocation ability), Man-Bat first appeared in June 1970's Detective Comics #400.

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Markovia is a fictional European country on DC-Earth, first mentioned in the Batman and the Outsiders preview in July 1983's The Brave and the Bold #200. Created by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo, it's the home of sibling superheroes Geo-Force and Terra, about whom more later.

Bruce asks rhetorically on Page 15 about Gotham's collective trust in Batman. For much of the 1940s, '50s, and '60s, Batman and Robin were duly deputized peace officers, sanctioned fully by the Gotham City police department ever since October-November 1941's Batman #7. In the 1970s that started to change, as councilmen like Arthur Reeves (debuting in May 1970's Detective #399) and Rupert Thorne (debuting in May 1977's Detective #469) sowed distrust in Batman for their own (sometimes criminal) ends. During the 1990s the Bat-office treated the "Batman family" as urban legends, despite their high-profile roles in the Justice League and various Titans groups; and since then, in-universe public sentiment has varied according to the demands of particular stories.


Check back tomorrow for the second half of our annotations for Doomsday Clock #2 -- there's lots more to cover!!