WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Doomsday Clock #2, on sale now from DC Comics.


The last week of 2017 has brought DC Comics' Doomsday Clock #2 into the world, and the latest chapter in Geoff Johns and Gary Frank's 12-part story is the first to deliver on the controversial premise of the series: characters from the DC Universe interacting with characters from Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen for the first time.

In the issue, Ozymandias, the new Rorschach (whose identity has yet to be revealed) and recently introduced duo Mime and Marionette land in the DC Universe. Ozymandias encounters Lex Luthor, and Rorschach breaks into the Batcave (and eats Batman's pancakes that Alfred left for him). Though the true meeting between the two is yet to come in issue #3, the series has firmly established the overarching theme Johns has spoken about in the past: much like how Watchmen was a deconstructionist commentary on conventional superheroes back in 1986, Doomsday Clock is a chance for the DC Universe to respond.

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The issue -- and more prominently, its faux-news site backmatter -- has also introduced the concept of "the Supermen Theory," a growing conspiracy theory as to why the vast majority of the superhumans in the DC Universe are concentrated in the United States. Though exactly how it plays into the larger Doomsday Clock story remains to be revealed, Johns makes it clear in a one-in-one interview with CBR that it is very important to both this series and the DC Universe as a whole.

CBR spoke in-depth with Johns about Doomsday Clock #2, and the responsibility of honoring a seminal work like Watchmen by making sure the first meetings between the two worlds doesn't come across as a typical inter-universe comic book crossover. Johns also talks -- albeit understandably briefly at some points -- about the major surprises of the issue, including what certainly looks like the reappearance of infamous Watchmen character The Comedian (who death not only occurs just before the events of Watchmen, but shows up here in the DC Universe) and the references to The Killing Joke, Nathaniel Dusk and hints of this story encompassing a whole lot more DC history.

CBR: Geoff, there are tons of questions to ask about issue #2, but let's step back just a bit and talk the reaction to last month's #1. Clearly, this is a story where people would have a lot of opinions about it no matter what. How much did you pay attention to the reception to the issue, and did it line up with any expectations you might have had?

Geoff Johns: I think Gary and I were really happy with the reception. Going into something like this, I think we made it pretty clear how seriously we take this project and this book, and how we really talked about and debated whether we would even do it. When I landed on the story, and Gary got really excited, it felt like a worthy story to tell with these characters. We knew that some people would be skeptical, and they have every right to be skeptical, or think, "Oh, they're just trying to do a cash grab with the Watchmen characters." This all came from myself and Gary. It was really a story we wanted to tell once we landed on it. We've put everything we have into it.

You've read issue #2. I'm going to assume that you've seen no matter what, [if] you want to debate about when you see these characters with the DC characters or whether that's something that you liked conceptually or not, we're putting as much craft into this series and this book as we can, and we're trying to push ourselves to new levels of storytelling that we've never really done before. We're really happy with the results, and we're really excited and grateful at the reception of the first issue. We're excited for people to see the second issue, because we really think the series only gets better and better as it goes.

Issue #2 is the first time readers have seen Watchmen characters and DC characters interact with each other, and that has to be a huge thing to think about how to approach that properly. In hearing you talk about the story over the past few months, it's obviously something you and Gary put a lot of care into, as something like that could come across as silly. It doesn't here. In bringing these two worlds together, what were some of the things you wanted to say about both of these worlds in having these characters interact, and what did you want to avoid in putting them together?

The whole series is character-driven. It's all about the characters. We're spending time with the characters, and we're doing moments and interactions that I hope are unexpected. I think the version that Gary Frank and I weren't interested in telling was a DC vs. Marvel-type crossover. We were not interested in anything like that. It's not like somebody said, "Hey, Geoff, Gary -- do Watchmen characters meet DC characters." That never came from anybody. When we came up with this story, when I pitched this story to everybody, we made it clear right then what we wanted to do, and everybody was psyched for it. I think the interactions between the characters -- they're on the page, so people can see what we've done and what we're doing and the tone of it. The thing we didn't want to do is have it just be about fight scenes and kind of a typical crossover.

Most crossovers and big event stories, they get big. They go outside. They get universe-spanning in such a macro way, it becomes impersonal, I think. What we want to tell is a very, very personal story, and every single facet of this series that we're doing is a personal story. It's not a crossover. It doesn't have one-shot books and miniseries spinning out of it. It's not about alternate versions of other characters. It's not about making the universes bigger and bigger and bigger. It's about people.

One of the major elements that we introduce in issue #2 that's going to be a factor is, this is DC Universe-affecting in a very major way for the characters, and thematically. Also, we wanted to go more internally for the characters, which is why we introduced this concept of the Supermen Theory, which is starting to play out in issue #2. One of the things we wanted to do is go inward -- go inside. Go in the characters in what superheroes and supervillains would mean in a world like this, into the characters individually, into the world, the DC Universe, and how it would react to metahumans.

It's a question we wanted to answer. It's kind of the DC Universe's version of growing tension, this concept of the Supermen Theory -- when you look at a world map, 97 percent of all metahumans are American. Why is that? What is the truth behind these supervillains and superheroes? That's going to play a big factor in the background going forward in our series, and it's going to affect the fabric of the DC Universe. But it's all about character. It's all internal. We're going inward, even though we have this epic backdrop of Rorschach and Batman and Ozymandias and Lex Luthor. It's still going to be extremely personal, as big as this story gets, and as epic as this story gets. We're trying to make it personal on every level.

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On that note -- the Supermen Theory is new to readers, and you've said before that the story ends up about a year forward in the DC timeline. Is that about where we see things in issue #2 when the Watchmen characters land in the DC Universe?

Yeah, it's roughly around there. The series takes place over a matter of time. Everything that's happening now -- there's a protest in Gotham on Batman, and you'll see that a year from now in the comics. The DC Universe line of comics will catch up with Doomsday Clock when the series concludes.

Let's talk about the pairings we see in this issue. There are two big meetings here -- Rorschach and Batman and Ozymandias and Lex Luthor. The Rorschach/Batman dynamic has a twist to it, as Rorschach is in the Batcave and based on what he finds, he sees Batman as a villain -- actually, he uses the word "monster." That's an interesting perspective to see play out -- where did that idea come from? And do you see any common ground between the two?

It's all about the perspective of the characters, and really we're telling this story mostly from the perspective of Rorschach and Ozymandias and Mime and Marionette. We do cut away to the DC characters as well. I think the observations coming into this world, both from Rorschach and Ozymandias, are interesting, because they're coming at it with fresh eyes and the perspective from their world. Although their world is in a much different place, and it's years behind in the timeline, as Ozymandias says, "This world is both ahead of ours in many ways and behind ours in many ways." Which is true. But the interesting observation is, he's amazed by the number of men and women with abilities, and the dangers that composed, and we're seeing a secret conspiracy unfold right now that is going to connect to the whole story.

Rorschach's perspective is just going to be a real, kind of more grounded-world prospective. In his mind, why would anyone keep trophies like this? That's what serial killers do. He's got a lot of observations about Batman, and in issue #3 we'll see Batman's observations about him, which is going to be a lot of fun. Lex Luthor and Ozymandias I think have a really interesting relationship as well, between both of them. It's brief in issue #3, but you do get a sense of how these two interact and what they think of each other.

This book is so much more about the characters than about the plot. The plot is pretty straightforward. But the characters complicate the plot. That's really what I wanted to do -- you've got so many of these giant event stories that are about other universes, and they get big and macro, and the plot really is driving it. We really wanted the characters to drive it, which is why I wanted a very simple plot -- that's complicated incredibly by these complex men and women.

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

Seeing the Comedian appear is a surprise on many levels. Of course, that's a story that remains to be revealed, but what should readers be asking themselves about his presence here?

I think they should probably be asking themselves the same things as Ozymandias is asking himself.

Nite Owl and Silk Spectre are acknowledged in the issue, as perhaps living somewhat happily ever after. Do they play into this story at any point?

We'll hear a little bit more about them. And there are other characters within that universe, both new and old, that will appear. But our main characters are Rorschach, Ozymandias, Mime and Marionette. And Manhattan, of course. But you will hear a bit more about them.

When the Owlship arrives in the DC Universe, it looks like it lands in the same abandoned amusement park as seen in The Killing Joke. Is that just a visual Easter egg, or is there more to it than that?

The Joker will play a part in the story. That's all I'll really say. That's basically saying that the Joker is going to have a presence.

There's a commercial for "Nathaniel Dusk" films, which is a somewhat obscure reference to two mid-'80s DC Comics miniseries. What can you say about that? Was it a nod to the same era of DC that Watchmen came from?

I'll only say you'll be seeing a lot more Nathaniel Dusk in this series.

Gary tweeted out an image of Sgt. Rock -- there's a lot of characters, forgotten characters and also major characters. As we kind of peel apart the DC Universe, we're going to be diving into the reality of the DC Universe. We're going to be looking at eras and characters and corners that are a little bit unexplored in my mind. Again, it's about looking inward rather than looking outward. Starting with even a glimpse of the Nathaniel Dusk films that we see here, and the mention of the Supermen Theory. There's stuff going on with Rex Mason and Kirk Langstrom. There's a lot of other things brewing in the world that will start to become more and more clear and more and more apparent in how it ties into the bigger story. But the backdrop of the DC Universe is as important as anything else.

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Given that, and the acknowledgment of touching on different DC eras -- we've seen teases over the past year and a half, since the Rebirth one-shot -- any chance the Legion of Super-Heroes play into this story?

I don't think it's a huge secret [that] we saw Saturn Girl briefly in DC Universe: Rebirth. Again, unexplored and dormant characters in the DC Universe are going to be awoken throughout this series.

Moving to something of a more philosophical note -- not only is this story unique based on the premise itself, reading it, it feels like a different story for you to write -- and you'd think it has to be. What has this creative experience been like for you?

This is the most fulfilling writing I've ever done in comics, for me, personally. I've never been as happy working on a project, and getting into a story, and brainstorming with Gary Frank. Everyone working on this -- my editors Brian Cunningham and Amadeo Turturro; [DC publicist] Kelley [Popham], us brainstorming about how to talk about the book and where to and the context of the book; our amazing colorist Brad Anderson and Rob Leigh, the letterer. This is not a normal workload for anybody, across the board. This is not a normal book. This is not normal for me, it's not normal for Gary, it's not normal for anyone connected to it. Amie [Brockway-Metcalf], she's a designer on all the backmatter, is doing unbelievable work. I write it and Gary draws it, but then she's really putting it together in a great context. The stuff in issue #3 in the back is some of my favorite stuff I've ever been a part of. It's bizarre. It's really, really interesting. Amie's done an unbelievable job.

The reason I think it's so rewarding is because everyone involved in the project knows how important it is to give it everything they've got, to make this the best book possible, because it deserves it. If we're going to attempt to do something like this, we've got to make it worthwhile. When you read it, I want you to feel like it's a different type of book. I want it to feel like it's a book that you're not reading on the stands, that doesn't exist. Even down to the paper quality that we chose. We had a lot of debate about it. Do we go with the classic glossy, or do we go with more of a matte finish? A matte finish can be a little darker, but it has a better texture to it, and I think it feels more in tone with the original books.

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We're really trying to do a story that is both honoring what Watchmen is, honoring what DC is, and doing something that's all our own at the same time. Something that you're going to read, and because there aren't a million crossovers and there's not a million other books tied to it, you're going to go, "I don't know what's going to happen next. I've got no idea. But I want to read." And hopefully when you've read issue #2 -- first off, hopefully it took you a while, and you're going to go back and read it again. Because there's so much stuff in there, and there are a lot of layers to the characters, a lot of layers to the story, a lot of things that people are going to miss, a lot of things that people are going to probably have to stop and look up, that are both from our world and the DC lore. And that's what we want. We're all working on a book that we're really proud of. The subject matter of the book is, again, people are going to be skeptical about it, but I can say that everyone involved is giving everything they've got to making this a great book, and that this book exists because Gary and I had a story to tell, not because DC or anybody said, "Hey, you should do a Watchmen/DC crossover."

Looking towards issue #3 -- Superman was in #1, Batman and Luthor are in #2. What DC characters might join the story in issue #3?

Some obscure ones. We'll start to get into the broader DC Universe -- as we go, we're going to get more and more into it. For me, it's all about, "How is this interaction between Batman and Rorschach going to go?" "Mime and Marionette, where did they go?" One of my favorite panels is just the empty handcuffs at the end. All right, where are they? They're out loose in the DC Universe now, that's just fun. When you see them in issue #3, I think you're going to enjoy where those characters go. It's a lot of fun.

The book's for a lot of different type of readers. We're trying to make a book that you can pick up issue #1 and not have read anything, and read issue #2 and not have read anything. You don't have to go, "Why are they protesting Batman?" You'll find out in the book. One of the big things that is going to have a major impact in the DC Universe is this concept of the Supermen Theory and where it goes. I can't overstate that enough.


Doomsday Clock #2 is available now. Doomsday Clock #3 is scheduled for release on Jan. 24.