There is a concern as to how well issue #12 is going to be able to chronicle that Superman/Manhattan encounter while also tying up these various loose ends. All the various threads in this issue build to a tense, urgent crescendo on the final page. Johns' deft writing avoids plunging the story into dull, expository villain mode, instead keeping the narrative momentum going as the final confrontation between Superman and Manhattan looms. Even as Ozymandias reveals his grand plan and connects a number of dots (including one welcome reveal about the history of the Watchmen universe), Luthor explains to Lois how he's been tracking Doctor Manhattan for years. The latter half of the issue does narrow its focus more, hinging mainly on Ozymandias and Lex Luthor as parallel narrators. Thankfully, the story finds its footing more and more as it progresses. It's great that Geoff Johns and Gary Frank are so deft about recreating the language and imagery of Watchmen, but in this case a little moderation would have gone a long way. As often as panels juxtapose images of one scene with narration or dialogue from another, the story starts to feel like a case of several people struggling to talk over one another. These pages also have a tendency to overdue it in terms of visual irony. No doubt these pages are intended to create a sense of disorientation and unease, but it would be nice to see the book linger more in some of these scenes. Those early pages play out as a montage of different scenes of global chaos, from rioters looting to Russian super-soldiers amassing, all while Ozymandias watches from afar. Issue #11 hammers that point home despite a fairly chaotic and jumbled first half. Even in the DCU, the fear is now that good doesn't triumph over evil and the tipping point is fast approaching. In the process, this issue winds up summing up the current political climate all too well. It all parallels the climax of Watchmen very directly and very purposefully. Superman is a public pariah, most of the Justice League are stranded on Mars and Batman and Wonder Woman alone are preventing the world from tipping into nuclear armageddon. Thanks to Ozymandias' orchestrations, the US and Russia are on the verge of all-out metahuman war. The state of the DCU has grown very dire as Doomsday Clock reaches its penultimate chapter.
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