WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for DC's Doomsday Clock #1, by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank, in stores now.


The comic book world did a collective spit take in 2016 when DC Comics revealed that the world of the Watchmen would clash with the DC Universe proper. Anticipation for the inevitable clash has been running high ever since, and now the first issue of Doomsday Clock has finally found its long way into our hands. As of today, we can finally begin to learn all about the return of Rorschach, what Doctor Manhattan has been up to, and just how Superman factors into all of this.

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But that's not all. While Geoff Johns and Gary Frank have embarked on the intimidating task of delivering a sequel worthy a comic considered by many to be a closed book with a perfect ending, they've mixed a bit of the familiar with a dash of the new. Doomsday Clock #1 takes place almost entirely in the universe of the Watchmen characters, transporting readers back into Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' dark and unforgiving world. It very much feels like a true successor to the original, but rather than simply focusing on familiar characters like Doctor Manhattan, the Comedian and Nite Owl, Johns and Frank have instead opted to use Rorschach (an all-new Rorschach, no less) as the window character to introduce us to two new players in the unfolding drama, a pair of incarcerated criminals known as The Marionette and The Mime.

Doomsday Clock 1 Marionette and Rorschach

It doesn't take long for these two characters to feel right at home in this world. I just a few short pages, Johns and Frank manage to make both the Marionette and the Mime standout additions in a reality that is already filled with iconic and unique characters. We first meet Marionette when Rorschach breaks into a prison cell to let her out for unknown reasons. Before long, we learn that the two have clashed before, which immediately helps meld the character into Watchmen history. Her husband, the Mime, a brutal and violent killer who likes to put on a show as he murders his victims, is also in this prison. Even as the pair realize that this is not the Rorschach they once feared, readers learn that the husband and wife are actually a violent criminal duo.

Doomsday Clock The Mime

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As longtime Watchmen know, the story's characters were inspired by old Charlton Comics characters, who were bought by DC in the early '80s. Nite Owl was based on Blue Beetle, Doctor Manhattan on Captain Atom, Silk Spectre on Nightshade, The Comedian on Peacemaker, Ozymandias on Thunderbolt and Rorschach on The Question. For Doomsday Clock, Geoff Johns is keeping this tradition of introducing analogue characters very much alive. The Marionette and the Mime are appropriately inspired by two characters who debuted in the Charlton Comics universe: Punch and Jewelee.

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Punch and Jewelee were created by Steve Ditko and first appeared in Captain Atom #85 in 1967. The duo was introduced as villains, facing off against the superhero team of Captain Atom and Nightshade, before being brought into the proper DC Universe after the multiversal shake-ups of Crisis On Infinite Earths in 1985. The two have essentially always been a couple, their love for each other only matched by their unpredictability. These criminals might appear silly and easy to discount from the outside, but they can actually be quite dangerous.

Captain Atom 85 Charlton

Before they were supervillains, they were puppeteers, making this a clear indication that Punch and Jewelee led to the inspiration for their Doomsday Clock counterpart's identities, the Marionette and the Mime. And the similarities don't end there. In their time in the DC Universe, both Punch and Jewelee have become associated with the Suicide Squad, Amanda Waller's task force of criminals who sign up to do a bit of good. The pair of lovers actually appeared very recently in the pages of Tom King's Batman opus, in the "I Am Suicide" storyline, where both characters were recruited by Batman as members of his very own personal Suicide Squad team to break into Santa Prisca and fight the venom-powered Bane. Now, there might not necessarily be a Suicide Squad team in the Watchmen world, but both Mime and Marionette are incarcerated criminals, who are broken out of prison by Rorschach, who needs their help to save the world. Criminals, who sign up to do a bit of good, even if it's done so reluctantly.

Criminal harlequins Punch & Jewelee in DC Comics

However, much like the rest of the Watchmen characters, there are some differences between the source, and the inspiration, particularly when it comes to their superpowers. Originally, Punch had boots which allowed him to levitate, and an alien gun that fired strings made of light, which he could in part use to control the actions of others, much like a puppeteer would with his marionette. Jewelee has special jewels in her arsenal that could create illusions and blasts. In Rebirth however, they were made to be much more like tricksters and pranksters, with many surprises in their bag of tricks. In Doomsday Clock, we learn that the Mime prefers to unleash carnage with his bare hands. His weapons are, quite perfectly, imaginary. As for the Marionette, we haven't actually seen her in action yet, but she appears to be as dangerous as her significant other, a theory supported by the fact that freeing her, not her husband, was the true goal of Rorschach's prison break.

Punch and Jewelee Batman Suicide Squad

Perhaps the biggest addition to this pair of criminals, however, lies in the stake they have in Rorschach's mission. He broke them out of prison, not through the goodness of his heart, but because he needed their help in saving the world. To enlist them however, he had a bit of leverage: Knowledge of the whereabouts of their infant son. Punch and Jewelee, whether in the Charlton or DC universe, never had a child, although in Tom King's "I Am Suicide," the two criminals talked, rather shortly, about the prospect of having a child in a bit of what appears to have been cross-dimensional foreshadowing. With Batman playing such a big role in the events of the Watchmen mystery-themed "The Button" and eventually Doomsday Clock, it's quite possible that the DCU's villainous couple's brief discussion didn't happen by mere accident.

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Before the issue is over, we come to learn that Ozymandias is the one who sent Rorschach to retrieve Marionette, and that Mime wasn't exactly needed -- most likely because he is too violent and unpredictable. Whatever the case may be, it seems that Ozymandias once again has quite the elaborate plan to save the world, and it seems like the new team of Mime and Marionette have an important role to play in the events to come.