Who watches the Doomsday clock?

This year will see the start of a 12 issue comic book series called The Doomsday Clock that will bring iconic DC Comics characters like Superman and Batman face to face with characters from the seminal 1986/87 series Watchmen. Written by Alan Moore with art by Dave Gibbons, Watchmen was considered the point when the printed superhero genre grew up.  It started as a story proposal by Moore involving characters from the then recently defunct Charlton Comics line that DC had just brought. Despite not being giving the go ahead to use the Charlton characters Moore instead used original characters based on the Charlton ones for his story. So for example The Comedian whose murder kicks off Watchmen is based on Charlton character The Peacemaker. With it's blend of political commentary, deconstruction of the superhero genre and superlative art Watchmen soon gained an audience beyond that one would expect from such a venture. One example of Watchmen having an impact beyond the comic community was when it was announced by Time magazine as being one of the greatest pieces of literature of the 20th century by Time magazine. Over the years there had been attempts to turn Watchmen with various directors including Terry Gilliam until 2009 when it screens in a film directed by Zack Synder. The film was criticised for either being too slavish to the original or departing from it too much. Despite Watchmen's success breaking out from the narrow comic market Moore and DC Comics had a very fraught relationship over various matters. Though this has not stopped DC from mining Watchmen, in 2012 they published an number of prequels focused on characters from the series, while in an ironic twist writer Grant Morrison got put the Charlton characters in a Watchmen pastiche called Pax Americana and now we are getting The Doomsday Clock.  Already it has sparked some fury by over writing the ambiguous ending of Watchmen and that the writer is Geoff Johns. Johns made his name by writing the adventures of the likes of Superman, The Flash, Green Lantern and Aquaman to name just 4. One review summarised Johns work as baddie unleashes evil scheme, hero(es)  find themselves on the back foot but rally to thwart the evil scheme. Many people will seeing if Johns can make any where near the same impact in the 1980's