“The Adjournment” - Carver Coleman as Nathaniel Dusk in Doomsday Clock (January 2020)

This is the first post I made after the release of the final issue of Doomsday Clock and the first essay that discusses an underrated or overlooked part of the story. 

I sort of discussed the Metahuman WW3 in my Young Justice theory post already, which is also overlooked. Despite having a conclusion more rushed than the others I believe it was excellent and important too.

Here I discuss the book's story-within -a-story, similar to The Black Freighter comic in Watchmen, the black and white detective noir film "The Adjournment" starring Carver Coleman and Nathaniel Dusk. Coleman's relevance in the main story and with Jon's character is pretty obvious, but Dusk himself and his story, not so much.

A minor warm up before my big continuity post coming up next.

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The Meaning behind “The Adjournment” and Nathaniel Dusk in Doomsday Clock

In Watchmen, The Black Freighter comic was used as a story in a story, which parallels parts of the book while later showing to also coincide with Ozymandias’ own story and plan.

In Doomsday Clock, there’s also a story within the story similar to Watchmen’s Black Freighter comic. Here it’s Nathaniel Dusk (based on an old detective character from two obscure mini series in 1984 and 1985) in the crime noir film “The Adjournment”. 

The Original Nathaniel Dusk Comic

Nathaniel Dusk in Doomsday Clock

Now, Nathaniel Dusk is played by actor Carver Coleman, who plays a role in the main story.  Due to the importance of Carver, the meaning and significance of Dusk and the film is less obvious or at the very least less payed attention to. That being said, Nathaniel Dusk’s story is more than just a superficial accessory to Carver and he ultimately does represent a clear parallel to the main story other than the times words and narration match scenes.

Carver Colman

Previously u/Ozymandias2019 theorized on this before the book ended and asked the question again after but was met by most people talking about Carver and not Dusk. His original theory, linked here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/DCDoomsdayClock/comments/d2nd5f/who_is_nathaniel_dusk_supposed_to_represent_in/

He correctly hypothesized that Dusk here once again represents Adrian Veidt with the mystery of the two murdered chess players representing the mystery behind Superman and Dr. Manhattan’s confrontation, and or course the investigation is a parallel to Adrian’s plan to . He even points out that in issue 10’s back matter, the film’s script has dialogue of Dusk using Adrian’s “35 minutes ago” line. 

35 Minutes ago

The line refers to how he solved the two murders and follows up with how he did it, pointing out that it was not the differences but the similarities between the two that gave him the answer. It wasn't one or the other, but both (the theme of a third choice is a big part of the book as talked about by Geoff).

So Dusk is Veidt and the two victims playing chess were Superman and Dr. Manhattan. That's it? What’s the big pay off? The meaning behind the Adjournment? Well here’s my take.

From the beginning we learn that Dusk is weary and tired from the years of being a detective. He’s went through a lot and seen the dirty side of the world. At the end of his story it turns out his lover (who he thought dead) was behind the killings (and it turns out both men were the targets) used him all along and he’s betrayed by the only one in the police he considers a friend. Instead of dishing out his own brand of justice however, to his friend’s surprise, he calls in the police and took them to jail, though not before being shot just like Adrian.

Like Adrian at the end of the book he was shot and for him the injury seems to have taken him out permanently but he’s satisfied because in the end he did it, and he did it fair and by the book.

"It's now who wins or loses, it's how you played the game"

Adrian is actually the opposite. He believed the ends justify the means and there’s no line to be crossed so as long as what's done leads to the best result, which we see in the original Watchmen and in Doomsday Clock again, but instead of dying a hero Reggie keeps him alive to make him face justice at last. He’s taken in a criminal for the world to see.

So ultimately it’s quite simple. Nathaniel Dusk represents Adrian, but if he instead kept away from his extreme methods despite the truth of the world and the cynical nihilism that he learned from the Comedian. 

The reason I made this post isn’t because I think this was necessarily too hard or “deep” to get but it’s easy to not notice with the delays, Carver and the plenty of other things going on in the book and no one seemed to have talked about.

Geoff brought up a lot of stuff in his interviews about the themes and symbols hidden in it (such as those noticed by u/Chance5e early on, great job on that dude), and I’m glad to see them on reread:

https://www.newsarama.com/48364-geoff-johns-on-doomsday-clock-themes-concepts-delays-and-pancakes.html

https://www.cbr.com/doomsday-clock-postgame-geoff-johns/

Apparently there's some people who believe Doomsday Clock lacks meaningful political commentary like Watchmen these two articles would disagree:

https://www.comicsbeat.com/dc-round-up-why-doomsday-clock-is-as-important-as-the-original-watchmen/

https://www.comicsbeat.com/doomsday-clock-12-review/

I'm not really an expert on it so if you do want to debate on if it's worthy as a Watchmen sequel based on politics, please take it up to the author of the articles.

Anyway hopefully I’ve inspired you to at least read DDC again or in a different way to appreciate it more.