[WARNING: This post contains SPOILERS for Doomsday Clock #8 by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, on sale now.]

As Doomsday Clock hits the two-thirds point, the endgame isn't much clearer but the sense of looming dread remains. Because Issue #8 focuses almost exclusively on DC-Earth superheroes, in some ways it is the least Watchmen-esque installment so far. Arguably, though, that gives the issue's events even more impact.

In putting together these annotations, we noticed a lot of characters and situations were set up back in issue #5, so this may be a good time to catch up on the miniseries so far, and that issue in particular. We don't think it's too spoilerrific to say that, although by this point we shouldn't have to warn you there will be plenty of spoilers from here on out.

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Doomsday Clock issue #8 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, with Amedeo Turturro as Associate Editor. As if you didn't know, it is based in no small part on Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen.

First, A Clarification

Last time, we noted that Watchmen "never deviated" from a nine-panel grid. What we should have said was that the nine-panel grid was the foundation of all of the series' layouts. Like Sean Connery, we should know to never say "never," because of course Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons used a variety of layouts. For example, sometimes one panel would take up the top two-thirds of a page (as seen in issue #1, when Rorschach climbs through the Comedian's window), but that panel would be the same basic size and shape as the first two rows of three panels in a regular grid.

Accordingly, what we were trying to say was that all of Watchmen's layouts were based around that basic three-by-three grid. We even looked through Dave Gibbons' Watching The Watchmen book, which has thumbnail layouts for every page, and didn't see any deviation there. Therefore, we regret our choice of words, and hope this clears things up.

Now, on with the show!

You Will Believe A Clock Can Doom (Pages 2-3)

Clark, Lois & Perry on the big screen
Clark Kent (Christopher Reeve), Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) and Perry White (Jackie Cooper) in 1978's Superman

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December 15, 2018 is the 40th anniversary of 1978's Superman movie, starring Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder and directed by Richard Donner. Since Geoff Johns was once Donner's assistant, it's not surprising that Superman has influenced Johns' Superman comics. The first sequence in the Daily Planet is no exception, with a couple of callbacks to the first two Reeve movies.

Page 2 features a news vendor corraling a shoplifter, not unlike Superman's blind news vendor stopping Otis (Ned Beatty) from stealing a pretzel. Lois' freshly-squeezed orange juice comes from her fad-diet flirtation in Superman II. Later, on Page 3, Perry's "Why am I buying you breakfast when I should be docking your pay?" reminds us of a similar line in Superman: "Olsen! Why am I paying you forty dollars a week when I should have you arrested for loitering?" Likewise, Page 3's "blue vs. navy" bit recalls Kidder's Lois referring to Clark's stereotypical "sweet gray-haired old mother," and Reeve's Clark correcting her: "Actually, she's silver-haired."

As it happens, the phrase "drink [the] Kool-Aid" (Page 2) just had its own macabre 40th anniversary. By the fall of 1978 Reverend Jim Jones (May 13, 1931-November 18, 1978) had moved his Peoples Temple from San Francisco to Guyana. When a Congressional delegation visited Jones' commune on November 18 to investigate allegations of human rights violations, five of them were murdered by Jones' armed guards. Jones then killed over 900 of his followers by ordering them to drink cyanide-laced Flavor Aid; and then shot himself in the head.

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On a happier note, James Bartholomew "Jimmy" Olsen makes his D-Clock debut on Page 3. Jimmy was created for the Adventures of Superman radio serial, and appeared first on the April 15, 1940 episode. Although an anonymous copyboy in November 1938's Action Comics issue #6 is now considered to be Jimmy, he made his first comics appearance in November-December 1941's Superman issue #13.

Page 3 also shows us a couple of familiar Planet staffers. Marv Wolfman and Jerry Ordway created Catherine Jane "Cat" Grant for January 1987's Adventures of Superman issue #424, while Ordway and Tom Grummett created Ronald "Ron" Troupe for July 1991's Adventures of Superman issue #480.

Page 3 isn't Perry White's first Doomsday Clock appearance. He showed up in issue #5, and honestly we're not sure how we missed mentioning him then. Like Jimmy Olsen, Perry first appeared on the Adventures of Superman radio serial, specifically on February 14, 1940. His first comics appearance was November 1940's Superman issue #7.

On Page 3, Perry encourages Clark to "ditch the [aforementioned] blue suit." While this may well be Perry's unintentional reference to the Superman costume, we note that for much of the Silver and Bronze Ages, Superman kept his civilian clothes in a hidden pocket of his cape. They were treated with a chemical which allowed them to be folded into tiny squares. However, the chemical only worked on red, white and blue fabrics; so Clark's wardrobe didn't have much range.

When Perry notes that "[c]lose only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades," he's quoting the great Baltimore Oriole Frank Robinson (born August 31, 1935). In the July 31, 1973 issue of Time magazine, Robinson said that "[c]lose doesn't count in baseball. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades." As for "horseshoes," it's a game wherein players take turns tossing horseshoes at a spike in the ground. We apologize if that sounds condescending, and we really don't want to have some sort of "you kids with your apps don't remember the old agrarian sports" attitude, but we're just trying to be complete.

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(Im)perfect (Fire)storm (Pages 7, 15-16, 27)

Registry edit
Martin Stein and Jason Rusch tweak Firestorm's powers, from 2006's Firestorm #22

We talked quite a lot about Firestorm back in Issue #5's annotations, but we didn't get to Jason Rusch. The casual DC reader may be wondering what happened to Jason, since D-Clock presents Stormy once again as the union of Ronald Raymond and Martin Stein. Originally the star of the 2004-07 Firestorm series, Jason ended up sharing Firestorm with Ronnie in 2010-11's Brightest Day miniseries. However, in June 2016's Legends of Tomorrow issue #2, Jason's part of the Firestorm matrix was considered too unstable, and Ronnie and Martin began combining as Firestorm once more. As of October 2016's LOT issue #6, Jason stated that he was "out of the Firestorm matrix for good."

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Furthermore, in the traditional Firestorm setup he's either "on" or "off," with no in-between. That is, his constituents are either combined fully into the singular Firestorm entity (with a disembodied "passenger"), or they're regular humans. Put another way, we don't really see a partially-powered Firestorm of the sort shown on Page 6. In hindsight that's probably a clue that, as Batman confirms on Page 27, this isn't the real Firestorm.

In that regard it's no accident that this issue's depiction of Firestorm was a little hinky, most notably when he turned all those people into glass on Page 7. One of Stormy's main powers is his ability to transform objects from one form to another, but for years he was unable to affect organic matter without receiving painful "feedback." Much like the Green Lantern power rings' weakness to yellow, after a while this became unworkable, and it became less of a restriction and more of a choice. For purposes of this issue, that's a distinction that doesn't make much of a difference, since Not-Firestorm is an unreliable narrator. Anyway, at first we thought this issue's freakout would be explained by having the air around the people turned to some sort of clear material (ice, glass, plastic, crystal, etc.). Eventually, though, on Page 15 he acknowledges the weakness even as he realizes that the people themselves were transformed. Superman then theorizes that it could have been an accident, stress or Stormy's powers "evolving."

On Page 16 Firestorm warns Supes that he could "detonate." We don't think he's ever done that before (and, naturally, it sounds pretty dire); but fellow nuclear-powered superhero Captain Atom did, in the alternate future of 1996's Kingdom Come. As depicted by writer Mark Waid and artist Alex Ross, the explosion pretty much destroyed Kansas, brought Superman out of retirement and kicked off an intergenerational super-powered civil war. It also featured a second nuclear explosion, this time with Superman as one of the few survivors.

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So if it's not the real Firestorm, who is it? The most obvious answer is Doctor Manhattan, whose transmutation powers are virtually unlimited. Problem is, Not-Firestorm appears to be controlled and/or manipulated by Ozymandias, and the last time we saw him with Doctor M they weren't exactly getting along. Accordingly, Not-Firestorm would have to be someone who could shapeshift and probably transmute objects. Because one of our pet theories in the runup to Doomsday Clock was that Ozymandias had managed to give himself Doctor Manhattan-style powers, we're still holding out a little hope that Ozy might have done something similar here. After all, he did something similar with his cat. (Eat your heart out, Barbra Streisand!) Not-Firestorm isn't a Manhattan-style Ozymandias, but that just means Ozy found some hapless stooge upon which to experiment.

Or it could be a pre-existing DC character. We've got two months to think about it.

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The Russia House (Pages 5, 8, 17-19, 23)

The situation's a little more nuanced
Superman renounces his American citizenship, from Action Comics #900

During John Ostrander's tenure as writer, not only did Firestorm visit Russia, but part of him was a Russian citizen, who now appears in D-Clock as Pozhar. Additionally, we remind you that Hawk & Dove were detained in St. Petersburg in Issue #5.

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We discussed Black Eagle, Vostok-X, Lady Flash and Negative Woman in issue #5, but Page 5 gives us the People's Heroes in action. To us, Negative Woman's negative form looks a little nastier than usual. We see the full team starting on Page 18, and we learn on Page 23 that she had spent some time in a Russian prison.

Page 8 mentions Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (born September 14, 1965), who has been Russia's Prime Minister since May 8, 2012. Prior to that he was Russia's President (May 7, 2008-May 7, 2012), both succeeding and preceding Vladimir Putin. He has held various positions in the Russian government since 1999, when he left the Ilim Pulp Enterprise lumber company. As for that other Russian leader, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (Page 18) was born on October 7, 1952 and has been President of Russia since May 7, 2012. As discussed above, his previous stint as President was from December 31, 1999 to May 7, 2008. Until May 7, 2000, he was finishing out the term of his predecessor Boris Yeltsin.

In Russian, "privet" (Page 17) means "hello."

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On Page 19, President Putin notes that "Superman speaks for the world." In the Silver and Bronze Ages, Superman was considered to be an honorary citizen of every country on Earth. While this may still be true, the 1986 reboot established that he was born on Earth, and specifically in the United States, making him specifically an American citizen. This lasted until June 2011's Action Comics issue #900, when (in a story written by David S. Goyer and drawn by Miguel Sepulveda) his attendance at a peaceful Arab Spring protest sparked an international incident. That, in turn, compelled him to renounce his American citizenship so that his actions wouldn't reflect negatively upon the United States. Ironically, here his actions may harm the U.S.'s superhuman community regardless of what he intended.

Come back tomorrow for Part 2, but in the meantime feel free to leave a comment!