Doomsday Clock #4 Review and *SPOILERS*

Old Wounds

Written By: Geoff Johns

Art By: Gary Frank, Brad Anderson

Cover Price: $4.99

Release Date: March 28, 2018

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

After a delay, we're finally back in Doomsday Clock territory, where we'll hopefully get a big old glob of story since we had to wait so long.......... and according to DC, are going to have to keep waiting for each installment to this story.  Anyway, we've got a bunch of stuff going on in the hunt for Dr. Manhattan, which includes Ozymandias and the new Rorschach coming to the DC Universe for their search and bringing along two villains from their world as well, the Mime and Marionette.  We've found out The Comedian is alive somehow and most recently, Batman has locked the new Rorschach up in Arkham Asylum, after he had broken into Wayne Manor and discovered the Batcave.  Let's jump into this issue and see if there's any ramifications to Batman's actions or if Adrian Veidt continues his search for the illusive god............ hint, hint...... he doesn't.  Let's check it out.



Explain It!:

Our issue begins with us seeing that the new Rorschach, who we find out in this issue is the son of Dr. Malcolm Long from the Watchmen Universe, is having himself a bit of a rough time on his first day in Arkham Asylum, but once we start going into his memories and seeing what made Reggie Long into Rorschach........ Well, maybe Arkham isn't that tough after all............ speaking of, this plays off more like Arkham is a prison and feels weird the entire time and I can totally see why nobody ever gets better there. 

So, we walk through Reggie's life, where we find out he was an only child, who wasn't a fighter or even an arguer, but somebody who just kept a low profile his entire life, that is until the alien invasion happened, where he went completely mad at seeing these monsters kill everyone around him while he was trapped in his car.  This led Reggie to be locked up in an asylum on his world, where he would eventually befriend the institutionalized Mothman, from the superhero team, The Minutemen.  After a while in the hospital, Reggie got with the program and learned to "fake it" in order to be treated seriously and it didn't hurt either that Mothman kept breaking out of the hospital with hand-made wings so that he could smuggle contraband back in, including some of Reggie's father's things from their home.

In the end, Reggie decided that he had had enough of the hospital and had planned on breaking both him and Mothman out, which came a bit easier for Reggie now that Mothman had taught him how to fight and be like the superheroes of old and his motivation for finally leaving was learning about Adrian Veidt's involvement with the invasion.  Too bad that Mothman wasn't ready for the outside world and decided to walk back into the hospital that Reggie had set a'blaze, but Reggie's quest was his own and only being given a Rorschach mask that Mothman had made him, Reggie made his way to Karnak to kill Ozymandias.  Too bad that once he finally reached his destination he had lost his nerve when he found out that Adrian was dying of a brain tumor.  After this little trek into the past, we move back to Arkham Asylum and find out that everything we just saw was because Saturn Girl, who has been imprisoned in Arkham ever since Rebirth began, was looking into Reggie's mind.  After she introduces herself to Reggie, we find out that the two are going to become partners in escaping their confinement so that both can go on continuing their quest. 

That's it for this issue of Doomsday Clock and while this issue isn't filled with action and adventure, besides for the occasional beatings of orderlies and patients from two different worlds, it was nice to have a full issue dedicated to who the new Rorschach is and hopefully now that we got that mystery solved, we can begin moving on to answering other questions that we've had since the first issue to this event......... Also, I'm excited as hell that Saturn Girl finally has something to do since she's been in the background of Arkham Asylum for the past two years.  As for the art, it continues to be incredible and did a great job in portraying the many faces of Reggie Long's decent into madness.  I was really feeling disconnected from this event once all the delays were announced, but now that we've gotten this issue, I have to say that I feel more connected to this story than I have previously and can't wait to see what we get next.

Bits and Pieces:

While we don't do much to move the story forward from what we got last issue, what we get instead is a question answered about who our new Rorschach is and how he became who he is today.  The art is incredible and while this is mostly an "origin" issue, the final pages get me really excited for where we're going with this event.

7.8/10