Poor, doomed Seymour; from Watchmen #12

The “Great Lie” article was written by Jack N. Anderson. Although that’s not an uncommon name, Jack N. Anderson (1922-2005) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist. He wrote about South American Nazis, the Iran-contra affair and the Mafia, among many other things. November 2, 1992 was the day before Election Day (Tuesday, November 3). The New York Massacre happened at 11:25 p.m. Eastern time on November 1, 1986; so the article came out around the 7-year anniversary of Ozymandias’ plan.

The Roman emperor Commodus ruled from AD 177 until his assassination in 192. For the first three years of his reign he was co-emperor with his father Marcus Aurelius. Accordingly, naming the government’s Veidt investigation “Operation Commodus” may be a reference to Veidt’s immense political power in the wake of the New York Massacre.

Martha Gellhorn (1980-1998) was a real-world novelist and journalist famed for her war reporting. She worked for the Federal Emergency Relief Administration during the Depression and reported from Europe in the years before and during World War II. Later, she covered the Vietnam War, Arab-Israeli conflicts and the wars in Central America. As for her D-Clock clipping, according to Wikipedia Israel may have had nuclear weapons since 1966, although it has never admitted or denied their existence.

Watchmen‘s Mikhail Gorbachev was the target of an attempted coup in 1989, two years earlier than his real-world counterpart. The failed coup, the breakup of the Soviet Union and the ascension of Russian president Boris Yeltsin all happened here in 1991.

Journalist Doug Roth is unique to the Watchmen world. He wrote (writes?) for Nova Express, a publication which shares a name with a 1964 William S. Burroughs novel and a 30th Century star-liner which was part of Superboy’s April 1958 initiation into the Legion of Super-Heroes (Adventure Comics #247).

Reading between the lines of “The Strange Case of Roger Jackson,” one certainly gets the impression that the new Rorschach killed the hapless gofer Seymour David and used Rorschach’s journal to become the vigilante’s successor. However, we don’t think it’s that simple.

Byron “Mothman” Lewis was a costumed crimefighter and one of the Minutemen, alongside Captain Metropolis, Hooded Justice, the Comedian, Dollar Bill and the original Nite Owl and Silk Spectre. The Before Watchmen: Minutemen miniseries revealed that his glider wings left him in constant pain, requiring him to self-medicate with alcohol. Eventually his mental health deteriorated as well, and he spent his last years in a mental institution.

The Schrodinger’s ad refers (as if you didn’t know) to the quantum-mechanics thought experiment involving a cat that is both alive and dead. We’re guessing the ad (and the reference) are more metatext about the intersection of the Watchmen and main-line DC worlds. In that respect it may also refer to Wally West’s broken watch from 2016’s DC Rebirth one-shot, the comic which started this whole crossover.

Finally, we think the Dad’s ad reveals where the discriminating masked vigilante buys his or her wire cutters.

What other details did you spot in Doomsday Clock #1? Let us know in the comments!