Superman as the Ultimate Champion of DC's Story - Doomsday Clock and Final Crisis (March 2020)
This post is about Superman's metafictional significance as the ultimate champion of the Multiverse,
featuring Final Crisis and Doomsday Clock.
Link to the original on Reddit
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So I recently made a huge post on Mister a huge post on Mister Miracle that includes theories on a possible Final Crisis 2 or something like that.
I mostly talked about Snyder's work with Metal and JL but I also mentioned a point about how Doomsday Clock built on a concept Final Crisis too, and it's an interesting parallel that I don't think many people have discussed.
It's more meta in nature then the similarities with say, Metal or Death Metal.
In the story it's where we first see Morrison's metafictional origin for his Monitors.
Now, it's a common belief among the monitors and fans that Dax Novu invented the Thought Robot but this is actually not the full truth. Dax Novu, not Mar Novu, was the original probe of Monitor-Mind and was sent to investigate the flaw. When doing so he was infected by its "story" and was also split into two.
The Sentinel of the Multiverse
The "remains of that ill-fated first contact" formed into a what we came to know as the Superman Thought Robot, the ultimate protector and champion of the "Flaw" or what we know as the DC Multiverse.
The Thought Robot
The Monitors themselves were haunted by its image, spending eons evaluating it before concluding that it was a weapon made by Dax Novu.
"the circle of monitors makes its evaluation"
The reason they believed this while being unaware of the truth is that Dax Novu himself was contaminated by story and corrupted into Mandrakk The Dark Monitor, the ultimate threat of the DC Multiverse.
Dax Novu corrupted into Mandrakk, The Dark Monitor
The Superman Thought Robot, the ultimate protector of the Multiverse. Representing the ultimate good. Powered by the very idea, the story of Superman, known to the Monitors as the greatest story of the Multiverse. With the ability to create hyperstory and adapt to anything.
Mandrakk The Dark Monitor, the ultimate threat to the Multiverse. Representing the ultimate evil. Feeding on the Bleed, the very essence of the DC Multiverse. Like the ultimate cosmic vampire of existence, he feeds on the story of Creation.
Notice something? The two halves of the probe became ultimate good and ultimate evil, destined to battle one another in a Crisis:
The Final Crisis
This isn't a coincidence of course. It's part of the metafictional theme Morrison was going for when portraying "The Flaw" that was the DC Multiverse.
This article discusses it well.
https://sciencefiction.com/2019/10/23/supermans-story-is-the-greatest-story-part-ii/
The DC Multiverse is a living thing. One that demands conflict between duality of good and evil to create story. It constantly creates good and evil for story which is what makes it separate from the Overvoid, which is a vast perfection where concepts like "good" "evil" or story don't exist.
We can see this said a bit more explicitly in this page from Multiversity that also confirms Dax as the probe and the COIE Monitors (Mar and Mobius) also existing before him as beings that split apart into good and evil too.
"the conflict generator and story machine"
(note, this page is later corrected in the Deluxe Edition to further clarify that Dax was a probe meant to investigate the initial split)
"is also split in two"
So, how does this apply to Doomsday Clock?
Doomsday Clock isn't as high concept in its use of metafictional concepts. But it's there and it's an important part of the story.
First, Dr. Manhattan arrives in the Metaverse also confused by the constantly shifting stories with in, just like Dax was.
"I don't understand this universe"
He dubs it the "Metaverse", a universe at the center of the Multiverse that is in a constant state of change and any event that occurs in it is reflected onto the Multiverse.
Jon's Theory and Experiment
A universe at the heart of the Multiverse, one that constantly seeks to make new stories basically.
The one constant he finds is Superman who he becomes fascinated with. To the point where he experiments with his life due to curiosity.
He changed Superman's story.
"The Metaverse is not passive"
He realizes this is a mistake however as the Metaverse is alive. As any living organism does, it makes a response to the stimulus.
With Superman as the ultimate anti-body
He realizes that he is on a collision course with the Metaverse's ultimate protector. But also, of what the Metaverse has made him in their eyes.
"I have become the villain"
He didn't turn into a cosmic vampire devouring creation, or even corrupted into something evil.
But he was turned into the opponent of the "hero" who represents good. Making him represent the opposing force of "evil" as the "villain" without him even noticing until he was too late.
"Hero" and "Villain". Another conlifct and story of the Metaverse.
But unlike in FC, this was a conflict not solved with an ultimate battle...
"maybe it takes everything you have to save your world"
But with a conversation.
Which leads to the opposing force being a force of good.
"I move the lantern back"
This time it was never just a conflict of "good" and "evil". Not one that could end with the "hero" simply defeating the "villain". Geoff's said a lot on this in an interview, but Doomsday Clock is about how conflicts can be more than just black and white, and how solving it may need a third outcome than either one simply "winning". That's something to applies to comics, politics and even everyday life.
In this case, Superman alone is not what saves the Metaverse either. He couldn't do it alone and certainly not with force. In the end, both the DC Universe and Watchmen Universe benefits.
Whether if the son regains his parents...
....or if the parents gain a son.
(yes that's an attempt at homaging the line from the Donner films, sorry if it's too much).
As you can tell, I really love both of these stories and I'm a big fan of both writers. There's plenty of those who do the same or do the opposite when it comes to them and that's perfectly fine.
But I do recommend checking them out again to see if this new context makes you appreciate them more. Especially as fans of Superman.
"The Rocket Arrives. A child is loved. Superman is made."
"The Story of a Child Rocketed to Earth from a Doomed Planet"
Thanks for reading.
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