A new kind of hero emerges in ‘Doomsday Clock’ #12

Spoilers ahead. You’ve been warned. For more read our review.

Doomsday Clock has been an epic ride. For two long years, we’ve anticipated the showdown of the century as Superman and Dr. Manhattan go toe to toe in an epic battle. Well, at least that’s how we might assume it goes seeing as we’ve learned Dr. Manhattan helped kill Superman’s parents. Long story. This is an epic finish with plenty of answers, but it’s not until the final page that we get one heck of a “to be continued” plot thread.

Near the end of the book–I highly recommend you read the entire issue as this is only one fascinating plot thread–Dr. Manhattan tells Marionette and Mime they have a child on the way. He points out they have a daughter coming and that they’ll see their son again.

Later in a montage, we see Dr. Manhattan has taken their son which has set Marionette into a frenzy.

In a few short panels, we see Dr. Manhattan appears to be rearing the boy up. He’s holding him as a baby and later we see them both on Mars.

We then see Dr. Manhattan in his final moments give his power to the earth and the boy and reflect that we need to stop and smell the roses. It appears the boy will carry on Dr. Manhattan’s legacy with similar or exactly the same powers. Then in the final moments in the book, a family that may or may not be Nite Owl and Silk Spectre are making pancakes for lunch. They have a daughter who greets someone at the door. At the door is a young boy.

Who clearly has Dr. Manhattan’s unmistakable blue symbol in his forehead. As we learned in this issue Superman inspired Dr. Manhattan to do the right thing and save the world and it appears he has passed on his powers to a foster son. He even named him Clark. One might assume if this story carries forward this Clark will be a great hero for the world of Watchmen.

That’s only a fraction of the story though and I highly recommend you read the whole thing to understand its complexities!