Fans of the original Watchmen comic have been waiting longer than expected for Doomsday Clock to reach its epic conclusion, promising a bout between Superman and Dr. Manhattan that would determine the fate of the DC Universe. But now that the final issue has arrived, it's painfully clear that no amount of time would have prepared fans for the final chapter.
The final issue of Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, and Brad Anderson's series packs plenty of twists into its final pages, even if it doesn't actually include a fight between Dr. Manhattan and Superman. But Doomsday Clock has been about setting an example all along, and showing how generations of heroes follow those that came before, inspiring younger heroes to exceed their accomplishments. And in Doomsday Clock #12, the biggest twist is delivered when even Dr. Manhattan himself is inspired by Superman to clean up his mistakes. Including the biggest twist no Watchmen fan would ever see coming.
The many different ways Dr. Manhattan interfered with the DC Universe only established one undeniable fact. When Dr. Manhattan kept Green Lantern from being born, the dominoes started to fall. No Green Lantern, no Justice Society. No Justice Society, no example for Superman to follow, which eventually inspired the Legion of Super Heroes to form in his image. And without the Legion, the future is lost. Yet Superman is always born, and always fights to save the future. Manhattan clearly has a soft spot for Superman, since the finale sees him quickly change his mind, when Superman suggests Manhattan can't see the future... because he gives up his own life to save the world he left behind.
Dr. Manhattan agrees as if he was waiting for the chance to stop being a cold, calculating monster, and remakes the DC Universe as it 'should' be. Ma and Pa Kent are both alive and well, Green Lantern, the Justice Society, and the Legion are all born. And heroes all gather around Superman, their favorite as much as Manhattan's. But after returning to the original Watchmen reality and curing(?) the fallout of nuclear war, erasing nukes, and helping create a gay rights crusader... there's still the question of Manhattan existing, but no Superman.
To complete his plan, Dr. Manhattan reconsiders his earlier vision of the future awaiting the child of Mime and Marionette. In case readers forgot, previous issues revealed that when Manhattan was prepared to obliterate Mime, he paused when sensing her pregnancy. Not just that she was with child, but that the child would one day grow up to bring love and happiness to a woman Manhattan cared for. That statement offered a glimpse of explanation, showing Nite Owl and Silk Spectre as a happy family, having adopted the baby as their own. But that wasn't exactly the case.
In an admittedly uncommon bit of confusion for Manhattan, who typically sees the future clearly or doesn't, he misunderstood his own vision. As it turns out, the baby of Mime and Marionette is actually stolen from its maternity ward by Manhattan himself, taking the baby boy to raise it himself. For at least a few years, anyway, trying to pass on lessons to the child like Superman's did for him. You see, Manhattan is so inspired by Superman, and so convinced that Superman is the kind of hero Manhattan arguably ought to have been, he realizes what he must do. When the boy is old enough, Dr. Manhattan escorts him to the home of Dan and Laurie, the former Nite Owl and Silk Spectre, and passes his powers onto the boy, fading into nothingness himself. Oh, and he named the boy 'Clark' to make the parallel perfectly clear.
'Parallel' might even be too soft a term, since it's clear Manhattan wants to explicitly pass his powers onto a child who would grow up loving and being loved by a family, thus becoming a closer approximation of Superman. The similarities to the finale of HBO's Watchmen are odd, and obvious to anyone who has seen both conclusions. However, there are sure to be many Watchmen fans who will take exception to the idea that Manhattan just needed to witness a superhero like Superman to realize his powers were wasted, and better used in the name of love. Of course, Johns, Frank, and Anderson didn't conclude Doomsday Clock in this fashion to NOT make a statement.
Whether that statement proves divisive remains to be seen, since comic fans can now debate Doomsday Clock's place as a spiritual sequel to Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' original comic. But to do that, you first need to pick up a copy of Doomsday Clock #12 at your local comic book shop.