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That Annihilated Place

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“ He meets some fragment huge, and stops to guess
What powerful but unrecorded race
Once dwelt in that annihilated place.		 ”
— "Ozymandias" (Horace Smith)


Doomsday Clock #01 - "That Annihilated Place" #01 - "That Annihilated Place" is the first issue of the series Doomsday Clock with a cover date of January, 2018. It was published on November 21, 2017.

Plot[]

Doomsday Clock-2

Alternate cover

November 22nd, 1992, seven years after the false flag "alien" attack on New York City. The world is in chaos as the full extent of Ozymandias' plan is revealed to the public after several years of investigation following the publication of Rorschach's journal in the New Frontiersman. A global manhunt is underway for Adrian Veidt, while relations between the United States of America and the Russian Federation are at their lowest point over the revelations, with each suspecting the other of conspiring with him. Protesters assemble outside the main building of Veidt Enterprises, and a riot breaks out. The police are unable to prevent the protesters from ransacking the building, where they find Ozymandias has fled.

Meanwhile, Russian special forces breach Karnak, and find the facility empty. All of Ozymandias' video monitors are tuned to different cable news channels, revealing that all independent news networks in the United States are going offline and a new National News Network will be coming online at 6:00. One journalist, Howard Beale of the Union Broadcasting Service, demands the people rise up before the network is shut down. During the period of silence which follows, the Russians discover a medical bay, with x-rays of Ozymandias' skull showing a large cancerous mass. The National News Network comes online, anchored by William F. Buckley Jr., who says that the Russians have invaded Poland. President Robert Redford has given them four hours to withdraw their troops or the United States will launch a full retaliatory strike. Mandatory evacuations orders are issued for all major U.S cities.

At Sing Sing Prison, the guards are evacuating and refusing to let the prisoners go. One prisoner is able to grab one of the guards and demand his release. The prisoner is horrified when the guard is knocked unconscious by Rorschach II, who grabs the guard's keychain and asks the prisoner if he still wants to be let out, which the prisoner fearfully declines. Rorschach keeps the keys and moves on, locating the cell is he looking for. He confronts the occupant of the cell, a criminal known as Marionette, who reacts with terror when she sees him. He says he's come to recruit her for a job, but she refuses to leave, claiming that the last time she met Rorschach he threatened to drop her down an elevator shaft if they ever met again. Rorschach claims he is not Walter Kovacs, and is forced to pull off his glove to prove it, revealing he is African-American. He incentives the still reluctant Marionette with a photograph of her missing son, promising a reunion if she complies. She is adamant, however, that they rescue her husband Mime before leaving, which Rorschach reluctantly agrees to.

They leave the prison and head for New York City, making a quick exit into the sewers, finding their way to Nite Owl II's old underground base. When they arrive, however, it is not Nite Owl waiting for them but Ozymandias. With two hours left before nuclear war begins, Ozymandias reveals the job is to find Doctor Manhattan and return him to Earth so that he can stop this.

In Metropolis, Superman has a nightmare of the night his parents died in a car crash when he was young. He wakes up screaming and unwittingly floats off the bed in a panic before being calmed by his wife, Lois. She says she can't remember the last time he had a nightmare, and he reveals that until now, he never has.

Appearances[]

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

  • Mime (First appearance)

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Byron Lewis (In a photograph only) (Cameo)
  • Clark Kent (Earth 0) (Also in dream sequence)
  • Doctor Manhattan (Flashback only) (Cameo)
  • Jonathan Kent (Earth 0) (In dream sequence only)
  • Martha Kent (Earth 0) (In dream sequence only)
  • Mime and Marionette's son (First appearance; unnamed) (In a photograph only) (Cameo)
  • Lana Lang (Earth 0) (In dream sequence only) (Cameo)
  • Lois Lane (Earth 0)
  • Pete Ross (Earth 0) (In dream sequence only) (Cameo)
  • Rorschach (In a photograph only) (Cameo)
  • Seymour David (Appears only as a corpse)
  • Alien Monster (In a photograph only) (Cameo)
  • William F. Buckley Jr. (Single appearance)
  • Comedian (Mentioned only)
  • Nite Owl II (Mentioned only)
  • Robert Redford (Mentioned only)
  • Silk Spectre II (Mentioned only)
  • Russian Army (Mentioned only)

Locations:

  • Earth 0 (Flashback and main story)
    • Metropolis
      • Daily Planet (Cameo)
    • Smallville (In dream sequence only)
      • Smallville High School (In dream sequence only) (Cameo)

Items:

Vehicles:

Behind the Scenes[]

  • Instead of being published on Wednesday November 22nd, this book was released 3 minutes early at 11:57 PM on Tuesday November 21st.

Trivia[]

  • The title of the story comes from the second version of the poem "Ozymandias", by Horace Smith.
  • According to Rorschach II, the date is either November 22nd or November 23rd, 1992. This provides a contrast to the first Rorschach, who always pinpointed the exact date of his journal entries.
  • The date of the story (November 22nd) is also the planned date of publication of the comic.
  • According to writer Geoff Johns, he created Mime and Marionette as the Watchmen universe version of Punch and Jewelee. This continues the recurring tradition of Watchmen characters being inspired by Charlton characters. In Mime and Marionette's case, Punch and Jewelee were Charlton villains.
  • The novel Walden Two by B. F. Skinner can be seen on Clark Kent's nightstand. Walden Two is a sci-fi novel about a man who built a utopia via behaviorism, the idea that human behavior can be controlled by manipulating the notion of reward and punishment. This mirrors how Adrian Veidt attempted to achieve a utopia via elaborate manipulations in the original series, but of course, that didn't work nearly as well as it did in Walden Two.
  • The supplemental information section is features a New York Gazette article written by Martha Gellhorn revealing Adrian Veidt's fake alien invasion and "Operation Commodus", an operation overseen by President Robert Redford himself. It also features an obituary regarding the death of Byron Lewis, and a news report regarding the death of Seymour David, the former editorial assistant at the New Frontiersman. It's revealed that Seymour did in fact discover Rorschach's journal at the end of the original series and was killed because of it. Worse yet, the reports indicate that despite wanting to stop Armageddon, Rorschach's efforts have only increased the odds of nuclear war.
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