[WARNING: This post contains SPOILERS for Doomsday Clock issue #7, on sale now.]

After six issues' worth of grim foreboding, crossover service and sometimes fuzzy plotting, Doomsday Clock issue #7 snaps the miniseries back on track in a big way. It makes the stakes clear and then raises them. Mysteries are explained, payoffs start arriving, and the issue offers a glimpse at a marquee showdown.

As always, though, we're here to dig into the details. Therefore, grab your copy of issue #7 and beware of SPOILERS. Part 1 covered Doctor Manhattan's tweaks to the the timeline, Saturn Girl's background and mission and the Easter eggs in the Joker's lair. This Part 2 will be more wide-ranging.

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Doomsday Clock issue #7 was written by Geoff Johns, drawn by Gary Frank, colored by Brad Anderson and lettered by Rob Leigh. Amie Brockaway-Metcalf designed the text pages, Brian Cunningham was the Editor, and Amedeo Turturro was the Associate Editor.

Lantern Lore (Page 1)

Alan Scott's origin from Secret Origins #18
Green Lantern Alan Scott's origin, from Secret Origins #18 by Roy Thomas and George Freeman

Artist Martin Nodell (with writer Bill Finger and editor Sheldon Mayer) created the Green Lantern, and related his origin in his debut, July 1940's All-American Comics issue #16. Thus, the date "July 16, 1940" combines that cover date and issue number. For what it's worth, the Grand Comics Database says the issue went on sale May 17, 1940. Roy Thomas and George Freeman retold Alan Scott's origin in September 1987's Secret Origins issue #18, this time incorporating modern details like Alan's connection to the Green Lantern Corps and Guardians of the Universe. (We covered these in issue #5's annotations.)

The Song Dynasty (960-1279) represented an era of great cultural, technological, scientific and social advancement in China. We're not exactly sure how that relates to the story of the Green Lantern, since it's not mentioned in either account of Alan's origin. However, certainly the Song period would have provided ample opportunities for a "hopeful mystic" to make a lamp out of a meteor.

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Indeed, according to December 1991's Green Lantern issue #19, Green Lantern of Sector 2814 Yalan Gur – also mentioned in issue #5's annotations – was deliberately sowing chaos and discord in ancient China so that he could better shape Earth's destiny. Yalan Gur ended up being destroyed by the people he sought to rule, but his life-force merged with his power battery. The battery itself then crashed to Earth as the green meteor which, ultimately, once again became a green lantern. Anyway, the absence of Yalan Gur may have led to the benefits of the Song Dynasty.

In Secret Origins issue #18, Thomas and Freeman stated specifically that "Gotham mental patient Edward Billings" was housed in Arkham Asylum (of course). However, where D-Clock states that he found the lantern in April 1940 and was cured by May, Secret Origins has a few years pass between his leaving Arkham and Alan's train accident.

Winter 1940's All Star Comics issue #3, featuring the Justice Society of America's first appearance, went on sale November 22, 1940. Of course, November 22 was already an important date on the Watchmen and Doomsday Clock calendar. That said, All Star issue #3 (written by Gardner Fox, edited by Sheldon Mayer and pencilled by a whole lot of artists) didn't represent the JSA's first case. Instead, Paul Levitz, Joe Staton and Bob Layton told the JSA's origin in August-September 1977's DC Special Series issue #29. It involved the combined efforts of America's super-people to stop Hitler from conquering the world with the mystical Spear of Destiny.

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Appropriately enough, a couple of years later Levitz and Staton told the story of the JSA's retirement, in November-December 1979's Adventure Comics issue #466. The short version is that in 1951, a Congressional committee subpoenaed the JSA in order to question them about a foreign agent who tried to kill them. In order to satisfy themselves that the JSA was themselves credible, the committee demanded that the heroes unmask. They refused, and disappeared in a flash of light. In real-world terms, the Justice Society's final published adventure (apparently) was in February-March 1951's All Star Comics issue 57. The JSA returned in June 1963's The Flash issue #137, the second team-up of the Golden and Silver Age Flashes following the landmark "Flash of Two Worlds" (September 1961's issue #123).

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Quiet, The News Is On (Pages 3, 5)

Fire trolls for the first issue
Aquaman and Aqualad fight fire trolls in Aquaman #1

Born on June 15, 1953, Xi Jinping (Page 3) has been President of the People's Republic of China since November 15, 2012. As of the spring of 2018, he is no longer term-limited in that role.

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Benghazi (Page 5) is Libya's second-largest city and shares capital-city status with Tripoli.

Issue #5 already mentioned "Prince Markov," but Page 3 shows him in costume as Geo-Force. Since he started out in an earth-toned costume similar to his sister Terra's, this is Geo-Force's second costume. When Terra died in 1984's Tales of the Teen Titans Annual issue #3, as part of the healing process he donned this green-and-gold number. Designed by Jim Aparo, it was seen first in October 1984's Batman and the Outsiders issue #14.

Also appearing and/or referenced on Page 3 are Pozhar, Lady Flash, Naiad, Celsius, Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man, Dybbuk, Firestorm and Typhoon, all of whom we covered in the annotations for issue #5. Big Monster Action was referenced in issue #6 as the successor to Japan's Big Science Action.

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Since Pages 3 and 27 refer respectively to "Anderson" and "Jake," it makes us think that D-Clock's TVs are tuned mostly to CNN, where one will find Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper. It may not surprise you to learn that CNN and DC Comics are both part of WarnerMedia, which is owned by AT&T.

DC's fire trolls (Page 3) appeared first in February 1962's Aquaman issue #1, written by Jack Miller and drawn by Nick Cardy. There, Aquaman and Aqualad got help from their magical imp friend Quisp. As it happens (and not to get off on too much of a tangent), Quisp was later deemed to be a 5th-dimensional being like the Thunderbolt. This happened in JLA issues #30-31 (June-July 1999), part of the "Crisis Times Five" arc which was written by Grant Morrison, pencilled by Howard Porter and inked by John Dell.

Ironically for such a Silver Age-y concept, the Fire Trolls then took the next few decades off. Apart from Lava Lord (King of the Fire Trolls) debuting in February-March 1999's Aquaman issues #52-53, the New 52 and Rebirth eras have given them the most exposure. Black Boris, another Fire Troll ruler, appeared in October-December 2012's Justice League Dark issues #12-13; the trolls were in March-May 2015's Aquaman issues #38-40; and showed up in April 2017's Justice League of America issue #1. Maybe they're a favorite of Doomsday Clock editor Brian Cunningham, since he edited those most recent issues.

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Things Fall Apart (Pages 5, 12, 19-21, 24-26)

Vivarium
Ozymandias' Antarctic Vivarium, from Watchmen #11 by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

Doomsday Clock has been full of surprises, but we really weren't expecting Rorschach to be giving pep talks like he does on Page 5.

On Page 12 Ozymandias calls Batman "a cornerstone of [DC-Earth's] ever-growing problem." This is probably one of the least complimentary ways to put Batman at the heart of DC-Earth's superhero community.

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Page 19 reveals that Ozymandias does not, in fact, have cancer. In hindsight it's not that surprising that Adrian Veidt, the man who devoted his life's work to an elaborate sympathy-generating scheme, would recruit someone using a semi-elaborate plan to generate sympathy.

When Ozymandias tells Rorschach in Page 20 that "I needed someone like you," we're not entirely clear why. Is he implying that Reggie was physically capable, emotionally malleable and a bit open to suggestion? Before the events of Watchmen that would have been Dan Dreiberg, but clearly Dan and Laurie know Veidt too well.

Page 21, Panel 4's butterfly reminds us of the one in Veidt's "Vivarium" greenhouse at his Antarctic home of Karnak. Ozymandias described the greenhouse as one of "two alien universes, separated by a membrane of fragile glass." Of course, that butterfly died (and was preceded in death by three Karnak employees) when Ozymandias opened the greenhouse to the cold in Watchmen issue #11.

Page 21's glimpses of Dr. Malcolm Long correspond to panels from Watchmen issue #6. Specifically, panel 5 is a reverse angle on Watchmen issue #6, page 26, panel 7; while panel 6 reproduces Watchmen issue #6, page 28, panel 4.

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A twelve-panel grid shows up for the first time on Page 21 (although Page 7 wasn't entirely a nine-panel grid) and recurs on Pages 22, 25, and 26. Page 27 also has a twelve-panel grid, except that the panels are thicker and less tall. Watchmen never deviated from its signature nine-panel grid, so this is a big departure, signifying the situation's rapid deterioration.

We're nervous about Mime & Marionette absconding with the lantern on Page 24, because even though Doctor Manhattan's no longer connected to it, it's probably still plenty powerful.

We're not clear if Rorschach paints his own Joker-smile on his mask (Page 25) or if the Joker did it somehow. Either way, it's super-creepy.

Ozymandias' declaration on Page 26 that he "can save everything and everybody" is a reversion to his old utopian vision of being a modern-day Alexander the Great, as laid out in Watchmen issue #11.

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The Beginning Of The End? (Pages 27-28)

Martian memories
Dr. Manhattan reminisces on Mars, from Watchmen #4 by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

In addition to its twelve-panel grid, Page 27 features a couple of ominous events. Black Adam entering Jerusalem is treated as though it were tanks rolling across a border; and Reggie mailing his package to Lois Lane (not a euphemism) is a definite parallel to Rorschach mailing his journal to the New Frontiersman.

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The Daily Planet's address of 2525 Broadway, Metropolis, New York 10025 is a mashup of two former DC office addresses: 1325 Avenue of the Americas and 1700 Broadway. 2525 Broadway in our New York City is not exactly full of skyscrapers.

We don't really expect Batman to have much of a character arc in this series, but clearly he has some regrets about how he treated Rorschach. We're guessing that he'll find something meaningful to do with the Rorschach mask (which he retrieves on Page 27) before too long.

Beware The Creeper (Page 27) was the title of Steve Ditko's original Creeper series, which ran for 6 issues from May-June 1968 to March-April 1969.

On Page 28 Doctor Manhattan describes himself as "deafened by the thunder from the world falling apart." This plus the red-tinted vision of Angry-Eyes Superman reminds us of similar apocalyptic views in Kingdom Come, where the "thunder" came from Captain Marvel's magic lightning.

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The familiar photo of Jon Osterman and Janey Slater, next to the footprint in the dust, makes us think that on Pages 27-28 Doctor Manhattan has returned to Watchmen's Mars. For one thing, we doubt he's carried that photo with him all this time. (No pockets.) For another, the Mars next door to DC-Earth is a bit busier than this Mars looks. Odds are there's some expedition up there already, mere hours away from needing a superheroic rescue.

R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was an architect and inventor born in Milton, Massachusetts. He is most famous for popularizing the geodesic dome, a spherical structure made of polyhedrons. EPCOT Center's Spaceship Earth structure is a geodesic dome, as is the Montreal Biosphere (which Fuller designed). Watchmen's New York City also boasts a geodesic dome called the Astrodome, which is near both Eddie Blake's apartment and Dan Dreiberg's Owl Ship warehouse. The venue for Ozymandias' India Famine Relief performance of "last July" (either 1984 or 1985), it's seen first in issue #1 as Rorschach climbs through Blake's shattered window; and can be seen more clearly in issue #7 when the Owl Ship flies over the city.

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The Cat Came Back (Pages 6, 8, 13 and Text Pages)

Shame about the cat
Ozymandias sacrifices his cat to stop Doctor Manhattan, from Watchmen #12 by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons

The specific details of Bubastis II's history start appearing on Page 6, where Ozymandias explains that she's a clone of the original. He had already revealed in issue #2 that she was "the compass" who would lead them to Doctor Manhattan, so we wondered at the time if she was a clone of the original and could therefore sense Dr. M's intrinsic field. That might have been obvious to everyone else, but we're still excited about getting something right.

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Specifically, the text pages reveal that this Bubastis is cloned from a combination of the original's and Doctor Manhattan's DNA. Beginning in March 1992, Bubastis II started to form just as Doctor Manhattan did in 1959, one system at a time. Now we want to call her "Doctor Cat-hattan."

We note also that this is not DC's first prominent super-kitty – that would be Streaky the Supercat, created by Jerry Siegel and Jim Mooney for February 1960's Action Comics issue #261 – nor is it the first one co-created by Geoff Johns. He and artist Shane Davis created Dex-Starr the Red Lantern for October 2008's Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns issue #1, and the terrifying tabby has been a staple of the Red Lantern Corps ever since.

On Page 8, the Comedian notes that Dr. M wanted him to kill Bubastis. The text pages state that the cat is a "living blind spot" which futzes with Dr. M's omniscience. However, we're still not clear on what Page 13 means by Bubastis "feeding." Is she eating temporal energy?

Sadly, we don't think the Bubastis action figures scattered across the text pages are available for purchase. (Give DC Collectibles time, though....)

What else did you spot in Doomsday Clock issue #7? Let us know in the comments!