Watchmen doesn't need a follow-up. It doesn't need to be connected to the main DC universe, nor to have its metaphors explained to the reader, nor to have forced jokes and continuous (and very distracting) references to the original comic-book.

They shouldn't have tried to replicate the structure of the original, because it just doesn't work. Don't get me wrong, Geoff Johns is a very good writer, but he's used to work with much more dynamic page structures. Alan Moore knows how to work with 3x3 panel grids, and so do Tom King and Jeff Lemire, but Geoff Johns doesn't. And that's perfectly fine, just don't make the guy write a comic book that bases its entire structure on the 3x3 panel grid. Jeez, they even tried to imitate Dave Gibbons' art to a certain extent, and it's pretty distracting.

The thing that annoys me the most, though, is the fact that they actually explained one of the themes of the original book. Ozymandias is just like "My superhero name is Ozymandias and now my empire is tumbling down, just like in that poem! Weird, isn't it?". To be fair, his whole character feels weird. He was supposed to be a morally gray character, and I'm afraid they will
turn him into a full-out villain. Only time will tell.

The only thing I can say I'm glad is that they didn't revive Rorschach nor they tried to make him look cool and edgy like Zack Snyder did in the film adaptation. The opening monologue, however, is the comic-book equivalent of when a kid in school asks to copy your homework and you tell them to change it a little so the teacher won't notice.

Doomsday Clock is trying to imitate Watchmen's structure, but it falls flat because the structure means nothing without context, and this comic skips the context, making the composition feel empty, bland and boring. It has nothing to say, nothing to convey. And like I said, Geoff Johns is a very talented writer. Just don't restrict him to copy the structure of the original comic, because it's not working. more