Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics, Justice League, Solicits, Superman | Tagged: Absolute Crisis, flash, green lantern, harley quinn, justice league unlimited, KO, Watchmen
Who Watches Who Watches The Watchmen In DC Comics Today? (Spoilers)
Who Watches Who Watches The Watchmen? Superman #42, Justice League Unlimited #23, Flash #37, Green Lantern #39 and Harley Quinn #66 Spoilers
Article Summary
- Who Watches The Watchmen? DC Comics frames Flash, Justice League and Green Lantern around heroes policing heroes.
- Wally West’s future-sight, Mister Terrific’s power surge and Kyle Rayner’s healing push DC icons toward godhood.
- Superman, Aquaman and Poison Ivy show how Absolute Crisis and K.O. are blurring morality across the DC Universe.
- From Watchmen to today’s DC continuity, the big question remains: who keeps the super-powered guardians in check?
Today sees the publication of Superman#42, Justice League Unlimited #23, The Flash #37, Green Lantern #39, Harley Quinn #66, and there’s… some commonalities. There are two big events in Kingdom Of Zod in the Superbooks and Bad Seeds in the Batbooks going on, as well as all the stuff still spinning out of K.O. and ahead of Absolute Crisis, but there are some common themes that we might be able to deduce from the comic continuity brownian motion… first Wally West, the Flash, whose DC K.O. Omega power burst lets him see into the future fare enough and in detail to change it…
As potential future terrorists pissed off by “the system” plan to Strangers On A Train their own grievances with bombs in The Flash #37 by Ryan North and Gavin Guidry. As well as showing us that there is a chain of hardware/garden centres called Guy Gardner in the DCU.
While Guy Gardner, current cosmic Pope of the Green Lanterns after the DC K.O. Omega burst, is himself the subject of a vision of the future of Oa in Green Lantern #39 by Jeremy Adams, Adriana Melo, Szymon Kudranski and Jack Herbert… more on that later.
While the “reformed” villains, after DC’s K.O., are also given visions of the future by the Omega Energy,and discuss their own future actions in Justice League Unlimited #23 by Mark Waid and Dan Mora.
So, as Wally West imprisons people a week before they had the idea of blowing up bridges in each other’s cities…
Mister Terrific, inheriting every Justice Leaguer’s powers, including those of Aquaman, who is already being criticised for being a god in his own Emperor Aquaman series…
So Mister Terrific is a god, Aquaman is a god, Guy Gardner is a Pope, Flash is being criticised for being a god, now Kyle Rayner goes all White Lantern, healing everyone in the world from infection…
…. just as Superman did last week…
And Mister Terrific does the godly healing thing as well, with a snap of Zatanna’s magic…
Poison Ivy has been doing similar over in Gotham in the other direction…
… and has her own massive godly impact on Gotham, rather than just the infection, as well.
Aquaman can’t see it himself, but hey, he’s the Avatar Of The Blue, intergalactic god with his own visions who just took down Poseidon…
It’s down to Oliver Queen, the Green Arrow, to spell it out.
… and to ask the question.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? That’s Latin traditionally translated at DC Comics as “Who Watches The Watchmen“?
For The Flash, it’s The Justice League, it seems…
For The Legion Of Doom members of the Justice League…
… it’s also the Justice League.
For the Justice League themselves, it’s… another subset of the Justice League.
And for Poison Ivy, there’s Harley Quinn…
… and her magic powers of cunnilingus, it seems. That’s also Latin. But of course there is hypocrisy all round here…
Everyone is blurring those moral lines after DC’s K.O…
…and ahead of Absolute Crisis…
And as the deities descend, everyone is finding their own ways to watch them, keep an eye on them, deal with them…
And the Watchmen watching the Watchmen watching the Watchmen…
And Kyle Rayner is also having to take down villains, given the Justice League amnesty, who also want to save the world their way…
They are left having to watch each other…
Of course, the real answer to the question posed by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons in Watchmen forty years ago was clear. We do. The readers of the comic, we watch the Watchmen, and just turn the page…
We have the power of Doctor Manhattan to experience reality as a fixed universe, a block of time, to be read in any order, that cannot be changed, but how we interpret it can change every time we reread it. And maybe we might go off and create our own stories. Or, like Superboy-Prime, just wallow in them… Superman#42, Justice League Unlimited #23, The Flash #37, Green Lantern #39, and Harley Quinn #66 are all published by DC Comics today. And Watchmen will be published by DC forever… in all manner of forms.
- Superman #42by Joshua Williamson, Eddy Barrows, Eduardo Pansica
Superman, Supergirl, and Lois Lane gather all the members of the Super-Force for a Hail Mary play to restore order to the Kryptonite Kingdom. But Zod and Ursa stand in their way! But not the Zod you might expect… Sep 23rd, 2026 $4.99
- Justice League Unlimited #23by Mark Waid, Dan Mora
When the Justice League are forced to incarcerate their own, something has gone horribly wrong with the best of intentions. The villain-amnesty epic concludes with a bang, a whimper, and a surprise reveal of who will lead the team into the future. Sep 23rd, 2026 · $4.99
- The Flash #37by Ryan North, Gavin Guidry
Wally West is now the savior of three cities, depending on how you count: Central, Keystone, and Metropolis. And for once, it’s going great! In fact, it’s going better than great, because Wally’s Flashes of Insight are now letting him see even further into the future, so he can stop accidents (and crimes!) well before they happen—including a simultaneous attack on three bridges in three cities! But there are some forces that really don’t like what Wally is up to—and they intend to stop him whether Wally likes it or not. Sep 23rd, 2026 · $3.99
- Green Lantern #39 by Jeremy Adams, Adriana Melo, Szymon Kudranski, Jack Herbert
Between extraterrestrial plastic surgeons, trolls, and hideous murder-monster Big Belly Burger mascots, has Kyle Rayner finally found love with JSA/JLU hero Jade? And will he have to give it all up to save Hal somewhere beyond the outer sectors? Talk about a city of broken dream! Sep 23rd, 2026 · $3.99
- Harley Quinn #66by Elliott Kalan, Carlos Olivares
CHAOS IN THROATCUTTER HILL! Ahh, finally time for a nice relaxing—what the heck?! I just got my life back to normal, and now the whole city is gettin’ torn apart by prehistoric plants, poisonous pollen, and ahhh…dangit, I ran outta P words for alliteration, so uhhh…terrible treeoids? I got a bad feeling my one true love, Poison Ivy, is behind alla this. I guess I gotta get my butt down to City Hall stat! ep 23rd, 2026 · $3.99
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